Rental income is important, but it's not the same as actual cash flow. Property taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancies, capital improvements, and mortgage payments can all affect the property's financial performance. For landlords managing multiple units, how do you monitor your property's fina...
One thing I’ve learned about evaluating rental properties is that the numbers can look great on paper, but unexpected repairs can quickly change the picture. A roof that needs replacing, an aging HVAC system, plumbing issues, or even a repair you didn’t discover during the initial inspection can ...
If you own a duplex or fourplex in St. Paul, the details of the new Right to Repair ordinance deserve your attention. My starting point is straightforward: maintain your property. A tenant shouldn’t have to repeatedly chase you over a necessary repair, and owners who ignore those requests should ...
A Simple Maintenance SOP Every Rental Property Owner Should Have One thing I've been thinking about lately is how easily a maintenance request can get lost between the moment a tenant reports a problem and the moment the repair is completed. A simple process could prevent a lot of unnecessary con...
I have several properties, been doing this a while- also work a full time job. i've never gotten a home warranty. i don't like to pull insurance claims except for catastrophic. I will eat out of pocket costs- water heaters etc. it turns out that one of my buildings has two furnaces that are older...
Hi, How to find crime in area. I checked spotcrime website but lot of advertisements there. Any other good free resources to check crime before buying remote rental properties without flying or driving there. Please advise
A consistent screening process protects you and every applicant. A few habits that help: Write the criteria down first. Income, rental history and credit standards in writing before the rental is advertised. Same checks for everyone. Same application, same checks, same order for every applicant. ...
All - if you have suggestions for a low cost, easy to use camera system for a small multi-family, kinldy let me know. This would be for a triplex featuring an up and down duplex and a 1 story ranch home, separated by a 6 foot walkway in between. Both have an expansive yard in front, but are right...
We manage 236 doors in Memphis, mostly single-family, and the screening step that saves us the most trouble is simple: does the story match the paperwork? When someone tells us about their income, job, and housing history, we check that same story three ways — the application, the pay stubs, and ...
If you own rentals in California or the southern U.S., now’s the time to get ready for winter. This El Niño is already the strongest on record, and it’s expected to peak between now and January. Southern California’s flood risk is much higher than usual from December through March. I’m a public a...
The biggest money leak in Baltimore landlording isn't the rehab cost — it's the dead time between rent stopping and the new tenant's first check. I map every eviction-to-lease cycle like this. **1. The court clock: ~6–7 weeks from filing to sheriff.** Baltimore City rent court moves fast: trials ...
Year-end is a good time to get the rental paperwork in order before tax season. What I try to have done by December: 1. Gather every receipt. Repairs, HOA dues, insurance, property tax, utilities you paid. One folder, sorted by month. 2. Match the ledger. Check the rent ledger against actual bank...
Curious what other landlords in Milwaukee think. Is Section 8 worth it for your rentals? If yes, why? If not, why not?
Renting out a condo or townhome in an HOA means two sets of rules apply: your lease and the association's. A few steps that help before you lease: 1. Read the CC&Rs. Look for minimum lease terms, rental rules and any limits on how the unit can be rented. California limits how far an HOA can restr...
On September 28, Mr. Henderson paid his October rent. This was three days early and therefore immediately suspicious. The property manager, who had spent seventeen years pursuing tenants who paid late, had never encountered a tenant who paid early. She consulted the lease. Rent was due on the fir...
I've noticed that I'm not getting the same rent amount as I have been getting the last couple of years as rents seem to be dropping in my area. I wonder if any landlords proactively lower the rent on existing tenants so they don't move out or do you continue to charge whatever it was at until the...
Hi Everybody, i own a studio condo in NJ. I had a tenant for 5 years. He has been a very quiet and clean tenant and always paid a week in advance and I had no issues for the past 5 years. Last year when I was renewing his lease, he asked if he can put his "wife" in the lease because she wants to ...
All - what is your typical policy and requirements for tenants who want to switch and move into an upcoming vacant unit that is 1) the same size/ bedroom count or 2) a different size/ bedroom count? Does your policy differ if their current lease is still in flight (e.g., has 6+ months remaining) ...
Most of the time owners lose isn't in the big jobs. It's in the handoffs. A tenant texts about a leak. Someone has to call the plumber, tell the tenant when they're coming, chase the photo, check the invoice, and follow up two days later to make sure it's holding. Each step takes two minutes. Tog...
When a neighbor complains about your rental (noise, parking, guests, trash), how you respond matters more than how fast. A few steps that keep it from turning into a bigger dispute: 1. Get the details. Thank the neighbor, then ask what happened, when, and how often. Write it down with the date. 2...
Every Baltimore turnover I touch gets the same 20-minute photo routine — before the trash-out starts, and again after the unit is rent-ready. Contractors get paid with progress photos, deposit disputes with condition photos. Here's the exact checklist. [b]1. Before anything moves: shoot the "as-l...
Leave a one-star review and watch what happens. Somebody calls you back by lunch. There's an apology. A plan. Maybe a manager on the phone. Now try it the other way. Write a company and say, "Your maintenance tech did a great job. Fixed it right the first time. Your residents love him." Crickets....
Vacancy costs more than almost anything else in this business, so we do not start showings until a unit is truly rent-ready. Across 236 doors in Memphis — mostly single-family, heavy Section 8 — this is the order we use: First, the unit is finished. No showing a house that still needs work. Turno...
We run 236 doors in Memphis — mostly single-family, heavy Section 8 — and a few years in, rent collection was a mess. Tenants were paying by Cash App, money orders, checks dropped at random mailboxes, partial payments through every channel. The office spent hours each month just figuring out who ...
Inspection day is not when we start getting ready. It is when we find out if our turnover system worked. We run 236 doors in Memphis, mostly single-family and heavy Section 8, across ZIPs like 38109, 38114, 38116 and 38118. Our rent-ready turnovers run on a 21-day schedule, and inspection prep si...