All Forum Posts by: Anna Sagatelova

Do the tenants have a lease? Is it M2M?

Chris, while you're right that with another tenant you won't really know for sure what you're getting until they're in, I would argue that the same is true in option 2, with your MIL staying and renting alongside 2 new strangers. I think that option 2 is much harder to manage; you will be chasing 3 separate payments per month instead of 1, and also there is high potential for friction among the roommates. Plus, it sounds like your house is the most expensive option for your MIL once she starts paying rent.

I would recommend you go with option 3!

Shuo, in my experience as a property manager, you won't be able to accurately analyze and assess the relative risk to appropriately rank each investment opportunity without knowing a given market and its neighborhoods.

I don't have direct experience working with Cozy, but I think it would be best if you take the following actions:

1) Wait for all payments to clear. It's possible they retracted one and re-sent, but the retraction hasn't hit yet.

2) Give your tenants a call and explain you had 2 payments clear - ask them if this was a mistake - at this point you don't have that information yet.

3) If they confirm it's a mistake, ask them if they would prefer it to be applied as a credit on their ledger, and next month the balance will zero out without them making an additional payment, or if they would like the advance payment returned.

4) Record all those points of the conversation in writing, and email it to them or have them sign it in person. If via email, you can say something like, please respond if anything I've outlined is incorrect. 

5) If they want the overpayment returned, you should contact Cozy regarding how to reverse a payment.

6) Once you return the payment, again, keep a clear paper trail. I would assume Cozy automatically reflects this in the ledger.

Our screening criteria has not changed, while our leasing/showing procedures have.

I would be wary of any broad advice on the matter, as Section 8 programs cons can really vary by the PHA you'll be dealing with.

You can record it as a credit on their ledger. Are you using any kind of software?

 I think that the public perception is not just that the landlord is "rich", but that there is an inherent power imbalance, tipped in favor of the landlord. This is a historical fact, before tenants had "tenant protection laws", they could indeed be evicted with no cause and be subject to uninhabitable conditions. These days, we have lots of tenant protection laws, but still, when landlords show no compassion, that power imbalance perception is reinforced. These are extreme examples of bad landlords that give us all a bad name.

As to the "rich" piece, I know that of course most landlords are not "rich", but they are better off financially than their tenants 99% of the time (let's except STRs here). After all, most investors had the credit, capital, etc. to purchase not only their primary residence, but at least one income property, whereas most tenants can't buy a home if they wanted to.

I think that the most effective lobbying we can do is for more avenues to address "professional tenants" who are actually a small percentage of the tenant population, but cause 95% of our problems. These are the people who game the Section 8 system, take advantage of hardship laws when they personally have not faced a hardship, make up bogus maintenance claims and nitpick every corner of the unit, then refuse inspection/maintenance visits, etc. Just like there are bad landlords who give us all a bad name, same is true of bad tenants. We need to be more vocal about this, and more specific. Otherwise, we as a group are seen as going after ALL tenants, and the public will never accept that. 

We always leave this up to our owners, while apprising them of the risks. Sometimes if it's a long term tenant who will continue to renew, it's worthwhile. Sometimes renters especially want to change the kids' bedrooms. We do make it very clear that property needs to be returned to us painted back or they will be charged for the cost of re-painting/damage/cleanup.

Is there already a lease in place?

Multifamily units often don't have separate meters for water.

Some municipalities in Ohio may not allow for w/s accounts to be transferred to a tenant name

Also, even if you do transfer the account, in many places in Ohio the water bill will stay with the property, i.e. if it's in the tenant's name and the tenant doesn't pay, it will get assessed on your taxes.

Lots of variables here, PM me if you'd like to discuss in detail :)