All Forum Posts by: Bob H.

@Will Gaston, interesting idea, but do you charge a deposit of more than the "standard" amount equal to a month's rent? If not, does dedicating half of the deposit to yard maintenance (and maybe other continuing costs) leave you too little to cover cleaning and damages when the tenants move out?

I have been receiving payments from some tenants through clearXchange, which is owned by a group of big banks. Now clearXchange is changing its name to Zelle and forcing changes onto customers.

I don't have a full understanding of the changes, but clearXchange will delete many accounts by October 17. Apparently people who send and receive money are being forced to download a phone app and register a new account with Zelle through the app. That requirement, if true, is one of the most disruptive, customer-hostile conversions I've seen from an old system to a new one.

In two calls with customer service reps today, I have been unable to determine why I would ever need to use the app after registering. You'd think the tenants would send the rent and it would show up in my bank account, making the app unnecessary unless I changed my account information. One rep said that, if I removed the app from the phone, my account would be deleted and I no longer could receive payments. Then I asked what the app really would be doing -- pushing ads at me or spying on my in some way -- but no one in customer seemed able or willing to answer that question.

I'd like to hear from other investors who have experience with Zelle. What's the point of the forcing this app onto customers?

@Dan Shelhamer, stick with your plan.

@Tiffany S., I think that if you have an expansion tank it probably is required (and the one you have might be fine), but I don't think I'd assume the opposite. The code might have changed, or someone may have cut corners in the past.

A side note for the future: You can prolong the life of the tank if you change the anode rod every few years. It's pretty simple to do that, but you might need a long pipe to get enough leverage on your socket wrench to remove the old, presumably used-up anode rod.

I have installed two water heaters by myself. They are quite heavy. The plumbing is not so hard if you have some experience and observe carefully the way the old heater is installed before removing it. A few details:

Find out if your jurisdiction requires an expansion tank on the input side of the water supply. If so, you need to plan for that.

Your gas plumbing should have a sediment trap. At a place near the heater where the gas flow makes a 90-degree turn, you need a tee rather than an elbow. One side of the tee should point downward and have only a short pipe that is capped. As the gas flows, theoretically tiny particles will drop out of the flow and fall into the trap rather than clog fittings in the heater.

My top tip: If the water heater goes on a raised platform in a closet in the garage, back your pickup right up to the closet. Then you can slide the old heater onto the truck and slide the new one into the closet without having to lift them.

@Mike S., thanks. That's what I was looking for. I see that Experian has a similar service, although I don't see any information about how much the prospective tenant has to pay. (The full report from Transunion is $5 more than what I have been charging tenants to cover my cost with the current service.)

Look on eBay if you can't find the part elsewhere. @Brad Carrier is right.

It's beyond any reasonable explanation to think that the crack "just formed," but you can ask appliance repair people. This is why you have a security deposit. It's a medium-priced repair; just charge the tenants be done with it unless there are other problems with the range.

@Account Closed

@Patrick M. and  @Kristina Heimstaedt, how do you know the applicant has not altered the information before providing it to you?

@Account Closed I don't get a credit score from the service; credit is one of the components of the tenant-screening score that I do get. If what you say about hard and soft inquiries is true, can you provide the name of a tenant-screening service that does not make a hard inquiry?

For the second time in a row, I have had a potential tenant ask me whether my screening process involves a hard credit inquiry rather than a soft one. Last time, I checked with my screening service, which gives me a score of 1 to 100 for the applicant, taking into account credit as well as criminal and eviction records. The screening service rep said it's a hard inquiry and has to be that under government regulations for a situation in which the person is applying for something. I didn't get a precise understanding of those regulations.

In that case, I thought the prospect's concern was legitimate, because he was buying a house and planned to apply for a home loan. Rather than have the screening service pull credit, I let the potential tenant show me his scores online, and things worked out fine.

In this new case, I can't easily have the potential tenant show me something online, because I am out of town. I'd have to get him to show me his scores online via Skype or something.

Do you have any suggestions for getting a tenant's credit score without a hard inquiry? I could ask the tenant to send me a report from annualcreditreport.com or something, but of course it seems questionable to accept something with which the applicant could have tampered.

First ask the seller if the tenants have a lease that extends past your expected closing date. If so, and if the lease does not contain a clause allowing the seller to terminate it, then the tenants have a right to remain through the lease term. 

In that case you could let them stay for a while if the seller can show you that they have a good record of paying rent on time and taking care of the property.