All Forum Posts by: Bernard B.

You could always call in a flooring professional. They may be able to tighten up the loose/spacey floor boards without removing the entire floor. Just make sure that the floor is not a safety issue. 

Absolutely, I definitely provide a shower curtain ( albeit a cheap one). As mentioned in the above post, it is a nice, courteous , thing to do for a new tenant. You also have to realize that not all tenants will try to keep water damage off of your bathroom floor. If they have a shower curtain, at least you pointed them in the right direction to use it. 

How about a forum that would have money topics( to tie into your money podcast) and business goals?

@Daniel Mears, 

Please sir, what city/state are you purchasing these properties at these prices? I noticed that your screen name did not give a location. Where I am  at in Huntsville, Alabama, vacant .25 acre lots without houses on them are selling for $18k to $20k. It is definitely hard to purchase any property at the listing price or at a reasonable amount above listing price. Maybe the answer for the smaller mom and pops landlords will be to diversify their portfolios more ( into reits, notes, loans, etc.).

While I was doing tenant screening , in the past, I had several potential tenants pull out a wad of cash from their pockets and tell me that it was enough for the security deposit and first month's rent. These potential tenants said that they were ready to move in that day, and an application/screening was not needed. I refused them of course, but sometimes they are trying to hide bad credit ratings, no actual job, or bankruptcy, or they could be a front for the actual person who would try to live there(criminal).

@ Laura Casey,

As Shain said above in his comment, I would go to my local tax assessor's office. They should have a record of who has been paying the taxes on the properties for the last few years, and also who is listed on the property as a individual owner or company.You may try to call them or write to them from the information that is listed at that website.

This may sound odd, but the rookie real estate podcast link is only available under the menu, listen to education spot, if you are logged in. If you try to listen to it without logging in first, the other real estate podcasts are listed , but the rookie real estate podcast is missing from the menu. Please have it there, whether a member is logged in or not, so they can find it easier.

@ Hobart King,

Good evening. I have several rental properties in Huntsville, Al. Typically, a rental property valued at $40k, would cost around $600 per year. We use Farmer's( Foremost) insurance for our properties. If you check them out, be sure to tell them that you want to insure rental properties, and you could also possibly get a multiple property discount. It would not hurt also if you mentioned to them that you are a landlord/property manager. Good luck, hopefully, you will find some reduced annual rates. Also the property taxes should be reasonable in Alabama, if you feel that they are too high , you can always contest them with an appeal.

Thank you all for the additional ideas and advice. Hopefully, this will help me keep my sanity.(smile).

For the stolen light bulbs, I have replaced them with the Cree led light bulbs ( if they can somehow remain in the unit, they tend to look like a regular light bulb and  last awhile and they don't make a humming noise). Tenants remove hard wired smoke detectors and just throw them away, not put them in a closet to be found later. Now, I put in the smoke detectors that have the 10 year battery and it simply screws in without being hard wired into the house. Some of my tenants have removed the hydraulic door closers so that they can bring in there bed mattresses, large dresser units, or refrigerators? After replacing the same door closers 3 times on the same rental unit, I now simply leave it off, and the tenant can prop the door open as wide as they want. Shower curtain and rods, toilet paper holder spindles ( unfortunately, I still replace these items as they tend to make the units more rent-able). Window blinds would be typically damaged from tenants trying to peep out to see who is outside at every possible noise. Now , I don't replace the window blinds, I use a shower curtain to cover the windows, until the tenant moves in and then , if they chose, they can install their own window coverings or keep the shower curtain up. Believe it or not, tenants still break ceiling fan blades, pull chains, light bulb holders, ( or remove the entire unit from the ceiling?) Now , if I find ceiling fan damaged, I just remove the entire fan , and replace it with a standard light. One final note, a tenant also stole two water gutter spouts, why I don't know ( maybe for the metal), but I had to just replace those. Hopefully, you guys are having better luck with your short term/borderline criminal tenants.