All Forum Posts by: William Osborne

We charge half a month's rent as an early termination fee, but more importantly the tenant is still responsible for the lease and utilities until the new tenant takes over. This works well for us for a couple of reasons: 1.) It eliminates the chance of vacancy as the original tenant pays pro-rated rent up until the new tenant takes over as well as utilities and 2.) It's in the tenant's best interest to be cooperative with showings and to have the apartment/house looking great as they want someone to replace them ASAP. We also have a clause in our early termination agreement that we can charge a little extra for advertising, cleaning, showings, etc...basically anything that required to find a new tenant. We don't often charge anything else as were getting the early termination fee and there is no downtime for the unit. This system has worked well for us.

Ray is right, the tenant will need to agree to make the change. Are you sure their are no clauses in your lease to back bill the tenant for damages to the property? It's going to depend on your relationship with the tenant and their attitude on the changes.

You might have to count this one as a learning opportunity and start preparing a new lease for when the current lease expires. It sounds like you don't want to keep this tenant around another year. I would spend some serious time working on your lease, pulling sections from other leases, and making it as bulletproof as possible.

Hey Clark,

A few things jump out to me:

1.) How are you coming up with your insurance cost? This seems like double what you should be able to get a quote for.

2.) What utilities are included in your figure? Are the units separately metered for power and/or gas? Are taking lawncare into consideration anywhere?

3.) I think your taxes seem a little high.

4.) Hopefully with proactive management and being in a desiable area you'll be able to keep vacancy close to 0%

5.) Without taking the time to back into your numbers, are you looking to put 20% down? There are lenders providing 85% - 90% LTV financing which could juice your COC at some expense to your cashflow and principle paydown rate.

If they have more time left on their lease than you can stand, I would review what possible "outs" you have in your lease. If they're not conforming to quite hours or some type of "respect" for other occupants you could try asking them to leave or possibly start an eviction process. I would consult with a lawyer before moving down this path to cover your bases. I've seen the spray-in foam insulation for walls, but I am not sure if it would work in a ceiling or if that's advisable. The best return on your dollar might be a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Sorry I can't be of more help, that's a sticky situation.

Best Deal Dumpsters is great and affordable. I don't think they are open on Saturdays or Sundays, so you might need to look elsewhere for tomorrow. http://bestdealdumpsters.com/

It's probably not worth reporting now, especially if they did not make it inside the structure. Could have just been a kid looking to get into trouble. I would recommend lights and cheap sensors. Check out Mr. Beams lights that are sold at several places. Weather resistant, motion activated (with photocell), bright and efficient LED lights, and super easy to install. No electric to run, these run on regular batteries. Light up the space and no one will hang around. You can also look at getting some cheap door and window sensors that just make noise once something is opened. Depending on what you keep in the garage it might be worth looking at a security system like SImplySafe or LiveWatch. 

We keep everything digital on our Google Drive account and inherently have a backup on file within our Gmail as well. We pretty much receive all our paperwork digitally so it makes it easy, What you could do is create an organized digital filing system for all your documents. Then just throw all your paperwork for the year in a filing box in storage, no organization. If you really need an original for something then digging through one year's material for it wouldn't be so bad. I think it would be rare where a digital copy wouldn't be found acceptable in court, especially if you have email correspondence with the file attached.  

We have all our buildings and units set up with Landlord Locks. Ordering is simple and keeping track of different cylinders is easy. I love only carrying around my master and being able to get into any of our units, common areas, or restricted spaces. Swapping out cylinders is a breeze if needed and it keeps you from taking apart all the hardware for a lock change out. 

We offer tenants several ways to pay us electronically. This includes Paypal, but we don't use the "business" transaction method that creates the transaction fee. Other platforms we use include Venmo, SquareCash, Dwolla, and ClearExchange. Depending of the tenant demographic that you cater to these can be helpful or not. We serve a lot of students and young professionals that already have these apps and they love the convenience. 

The City of Louisville's main explanation for creating this rule and collecting property owner's information is to streamline their ability and accuracy to contact actual landlords. The information is not suppose to ever be public, but we'll see what happens with that down the road. I think it will mainly be used to enforce zoning issues and crackdown on negligent property owners. I think you're also suppose to be able to get the city's help if you have any legal grievances against a rental owner as well. Overall, the rule doesn't seem like it will impact the owners and landlords who are being responsible. Slumlords be on notice.