All Forum Posts by: Adam Martin

 This.  I’m not paying my inspector to keep inspecting.  When we agree on repairs I stipulate it must be done by a licensed repair company and I get a receipt.  This way I know it was done and I double check the day of closing.  The only time I had an inspector come back is because he found raccoons in the attic and said he would t go up there until they were gone but would come back for free when they were.  Fair enough I’m not going up either.  

Does anyone want to bet against me when I wager this tenant is going to do a couple minutes of googling and this dog is going to magically transform into a medical device and be deemed an ESA.  I hope I'm wrong but it is going to be a lot cheaper than your fees and you won't get anything.  If you do keep them and either get more rent or an ESA I'd non renew them when the time comes.  I would however reconsider your strict no pet policy, a large % of tenants have dogs and most of mine have.  I charge 35/month plus an additional 600 deposit and it is a nice additional revenue stream and I have yet to have any issues.  If I do I have the deposit which is pretty steep so I feel covered.  

I think so and have done it with them in the past but prefer to buy with one already there.  It isn’t just the 35/ month it is also the increased tenant pool and lowered vacancy. The 2nd rental I had didn’t have a fence and I showed several weeks and received a lot of comments that they loved the house but wanted a fence for their dog.  I got a hint and added one and rented it pretty easily.  In all fairness when I bought my current house a fencing contractor was out there the day after closing so if it is important to me it probably is to renters as well.  

I allow and encourage dogs but no cats.  I’m extremely allergic so that makes me more cautious but cats stink up the house far more than dogs.  I go as far as to ensure every house practical has a fence to encourage them and charge 35/per dog plus a 600 additional security deposit.  Although most of my tenants had dogs I don’t have any stories outside of I feel I may have to stain the deck more often but that is cheap and I’m well ahead what I have collected vs paid out in wear and tear.  If I had the choice of 2 tenants relatively equal I’d pick the one with the dog for more revenue and additional deposit.  These are single family and I may feel different with dogs in multi due to the noise.  

I think you may be a bit too sensitive about the request, especially since they seem fairly cheap and things you said yourself you don't mind doing.  You say though that you can't non renew but you want the tenant to leave so call them on their bluff and say you are not fixing those items and ask them to send you a termination notice.  I almost guarantee they won't call your bluff and it will be a non issue but either way you are getting what you want.  Either they leave like you want or you don't have to do the repairs.  I wouldn't however go back and up the rent after you said you won't as it does feel like retaliation which could get you in trouble.  

My thought is that this confirmation code is not sent by them but by either a bank or facebook as 2 factor authentication is getting pretty common and they are trying to break into your friend's account somewhere.  Unless I am the one making a call to a known number I never read back a code and I have got to the point where if I get a message on facebook and you have no information or you are listed in a foreign country I just don't respond.  I've gotten way too much spam from it and it has never worked out.  

I have used ALE solutions in the past and they were great.  I had a ltr and they paid to furnish it and rented it for 750 over market for 6 months.  I was hoping I found a nice niche with them and listed again when I had the next vacancy but they didn't need anything at the time.  Now I just focus on LTR because I don't want to deal with the vacancy but if they reached out again and it was a slow time of year I may be tempted.  I doubt I would do it in the summer though when rates are up but off season is a possibility especially around the holidays.  I really thought I found a gold mine here and was hoping to just turn them all into MTR for them but there is just not enough consistent demand and I'm not willing to let it sit vacant hoping they reach out.  

I don't know anything about Cleveland however if anyone in the group has an eviction it is an automatic pass.  I also ask before they even apply and if they say they have been evicted or had one filed I won't even show.  If they lie they wasted their application fee.  I'm also concerned with how much money they make but how low their scores are.  What is bringing them down and how recent are the negatives.  How much you make is only part of the equation but the credit score tells how responsible they are with it.  

I bought a house that I found out half way through the process that they were being foreclosed on and there were several liens.  I also got nervous that they would not be able to find housing since I had already agreed to a 2 week leaseback in the beginning since they needed the money to move so I knew I wasn't getting it empty.  They were less than truthful about several facts so I told my real estate agent that I needed $10k held in escrow that would be returned only if I got the home back on the agreed date and empty and clean like we agreed.  My agent was certain I killed the deal and theirs absolutely hated me but they agreed to it.  It all worked out but after talking with neighbors there was a high likelihood they were going to leave but they were going to leave all their junk.  To be clear if they were a day late or there was any junk left behind, I got the full 10k and they knew I was serious but they were divorcing and needed to sell so they agreed.  You have to have a financial incentive to ensure everything lives up to the agreement and I would do this anytime in the future to ensure the seller was still financially motivated after the deal was done.  

Type in Rental Arbitrage in the search bar, this is what they are trying to do. Most people on this forum are going to be against it from an owners perspective but you will find people doing it successfully. The main argument against it is that you lose control and if it is that easy to convert to a STR find a PM who specializes in it and reap the benefits yourself. I have turned down the offer several times and will continue to do so. While there are several companies that provide these services and do it the right way it is often promoted as a way to get rich quick with little money on someone else's dime. The only way I may be persuaded is if it were a large company with a great reputation and I didn't have the money to furnish it myself which I don't ever see being the case.