All Forum Posts by: Torsten Holmgren

I think it depends on the type of rentals you specialize in. If you are renting to college students then you would most likely want to provide microwaves. We specialize in mid-range homes that typically have built in microwaves but we certainly would not provide one if it didn't. I have rented a lot of homes and microwaves have never been a hot button.

Real estate contracts are assignable but it has been a long time since I have seen a real estate contract that doesn't have a clause or addendum prohibiting assignment.

We manage properties in both Oregon and Washington. Oregon law only allows you to run one applicant at a time. We have adopted this policy in Washington as well. The first person to get us the application fee is the one we run. We call them if we accept them or deny them. If we deny them, we send them a letter explaining why they were denied. We have found that running one at a time allows us to eliminate people from looking after you approve them and wanting time to "think about it". We explain to them that we have other people wanting to apply and we don't stop until we have a signed lease. If you run multiple applications not only do you make some potential tenants mad but you loose leverage with the person you approve because they know you denied the rest and chose them.

Peter, I have been the listing agent on quite a few short sales and I have never heard of a bank requiring that, however, that being said banks are constantly changing the way they are handling short sales. At some point the bank will require you and your real estate agent to sign an arms length addendum. It could be that they are starting to require a social and date of birth now to verify it is actually arms length. I would clarify it with your real estate agent and tell him or her that it made you uncomfortable. I am confident it is legitimate. I don't know of any real estate agent that would risk their license over one transaction.

In Vancouver, WA gas is 3.29 per gallon if you go to Costco. I used to have a diesel pickup and it was killing me a couple years ago when fuel was 5.00 per gallon. I was paying 1200.00 per month for fuel. Ouch!!!

Scott,
That is a tough question to answer without knowing what kind of condition your home is in. I have rented out hundreds of homes and I have only had that happen once. when we showed the home, he noted several minor things that he wanted taken care of. We added those items into the contract.

As soon as he moved in he wanted several more things done. We did some of them and then I had a "come to jesus" meeting with him. I told him that everything he wanted was a preference and not a maintenance issue and we would gladly take care of any more maintenance issues but we will not be handling any preferencial requests. I also told him that if he was wanting to do any of those items on his own, I would be more than happy to ask the home owner if he would be ok with him making some preferencial changes. He stopped making requests and became a great tenant.

I do believe that how you handle showings and how you screen does make a difference. Other than that, I think there are people out there who's day would not be complete if they didn't complain just a little. lol... I wish you the best of luck.

I agree that something needed to be done to make healthcare affordable. I am just not convinced that Obamacare is the right answer. Capping lawsuits and lowering the cost of pharmeseuticals would do more to make healthcare affordable than just mandating that everyone has it. One lowers hard costs for insurance companies while the other just increases customer base and liabilities proportionately. You have to have a certain amount of goverment to allow capitalism to thrive, but too much government and regulation will slow an economy down. I am worried that this will not only bog our economy down further with bureaucratic red tape but the cost will go up and not down because this plan does not reduce insurance companies hard costs.

Do you know what caused the mold in the first place? If you can show that the issue that caused the mold has been professionally resolved (repaired) and the mold was professionally removed by a company that specializes in mold, you should not have any problem selling it.

I am not really convinced it will lower healthcare costs. Other countries that have this type of healthcare system have caps on the maximum someone can sue healthcare providers for. If I remember right, Canadas cap is 50,000. They also have forced pharmeceutical companies to offer drugs at a low price. I think high pharmeceutical prices and uncapped lawsuits have a much higher impact on insurance prices than nationalized healthcare. Obamacare does not address these issues. Because of that I think healthcare costs will rise not fall.

kev, I own a property management company. property management companies have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize owners profits. That being said, a property management companies principal broker will most likely not tell the owners about some new product unless he or she really believes that it will save the property owners money. The only way that believe will exist is if you give them referrals that they can call and personally talk to owners of corporations about how it works and to find out if they are really having any savings over the cost. Bottom line, they are not going to bring up costs to an owner unless they are very certain it is in the owners best interest.