All Forum Posts by: Walt Dockery

I use Ally financial for my rental checking and rental reserve account, about the best interest rates you'll find for FDIC insured bank accounts.

Money market accounts don't yield enough to be worth bothering with, IMO. I would not put reserves in anything risky/volatile. 

I think that's a little tacky of her to even ask to be reimbursed for the food. Stuff happens, power goes out etc she should get over it.  

I agree with the guy who said buy her a $50-$100 gift card to the grocery store and say this is for your inconvenience. 

Usually the failure point when a door is kicked is the strike and/or the jamb. I reinforce doors and hinges with a DJ Armor product. At a minimum get an extended strike plate and secure with long (i.e. 3") screws. 

even if legal where you are (it's not in my state) it's a terrible idea.

Zillow, Craigslist, worth sharing the Zillow link on Facebook. For the condo building is there something equivalent to a yard sign for a SFR (maybe a bulletin board downstairs?).

If you're worried about thieves who target unoccupied properties, get a cheap wireless alarm that can be moved later i.e. Simplisafe, frontpoint etc.  I get not posting the actual address on Craigslist but overall it's kind of hard to market something if you're trying to keep it a secret. 

What I have done is simply say "I am more than happy to show the property to your client, however I want you to understand up front I am marketing this property myself, have received a high degree of interest doing so, and don't pay realtors any type of referral fee". If they're working in the best interest of their client, they'll still show it to them IMO.  If not, plenty of other fish out there. 

The above assumes you're having a good level of interest in the property. If you're having difficulty finding a tenant you might want to consider a referral fee.  

Tanked water heaters eventually fail (read: leak), it is a matter of when not if hence why they have an est useful life. Water can do a lot of damage in not a lot of time.  Things like replacing the rods has nothing to do with the tank eventually leaking. I would completely ignore advice such as "don't worry about it, it won't be a problem unless it happens when tenants are out of town" - uh, first of all Murphy's law says even if that were the case then it WILL happen while they're out of town, secondly water can do damage more quickly than that (while they're at work, while they're asleep, if they're just not paying attention). 

If the water heaters are located in an area where a leak would cause expensive damage, I'd look into adding a drain if there isn't one already (not just a pan that overflows, but an actual drain line). If not possible I'd replace them.  The alarm is a good way to notify of a leak but doesn't address the underlying problem and is only useful if someone is around to hear it. 

Water can do a lot of $$$$ worth of damage. 

Most of the SFH for rent with decent looking yards around here the landlord pays for lawn maintenance (or lawn maintenance "included" with rent if that's how you want to look at it) for exactly this reason. Lawns can go to hell quickly, I wouldn't expect a tenant to maintain it and do a good job.

I would not go over there and "check it out" while it's going on, that's a recipe for disaster ... the only thing to be done while it's going on is call the police. 

Why on earth would you want this woman on the lease?  Get them both out, by the quickest way possible under your state laws and your lease whether that's to give notice or evict. 

I also wonder what is the point of having a PM if they are unable to handle this?