All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

@Hjiorst Fjioords I recommend having a tax accountant do your tax returns. 

I don't use Turbotax but I do use Quicken. I suspect Quicken is a lot more flexible than Turbotax. I'm able to put all of my rental income and expenses into Schedule E such that it matches all the various 1099 forms I receive. I turn everything over to my accountant and I am confident my returns are accurate.

@Jack J. Nowotarski Our situation is a bit different, given our tenants sign short term leases lasting no more than 9 months so it is easier to tolerate challenging personalities. 

But I wanted to share one of most challenging personality stories because it ended well. The tenant was very high maintenance, in that she had extreme demands and little tolerance for any inconvenience. But we took very deep breaths with the mantra "The customer is always right" and met her needs in a professional manner without cow-towing. We even decided one of her demands wasn't all that unreasonable and made changes to our business practices going forward. 

This very challenging tenant left us an outstanding review on the advertising platform and I know that review has helped make our listings stand out from all the other listings. 

@J. Erickson "I just don't know how to express my irritation without making things worse.."

Exactly. So best not to engage her. Make sure your renters know you are available for any reason during their stay. We, too, rent part of the year on the short term market. Our guests know we will respond almost instantly if something comes up during their stay. If it something we can fix, we fix it immediately. If it is something outside our control we will offer a partial reimbursement for the inconvenience our guests have endured. 

We stay focused on our guests and not on the externals we can't control. Your neighbor is outside your control. 

@Christian Nachtrieb I know you've gotten the message to get a lawyer to handle the entire process but just want to reiterate the message. Massachusetts is a very tenant friendly state which we discovered the hard way when we tried to get a housemate to vacate our home! One would have thought that homeowners would have greater power over who lived in their homes but housemates are treated as tenants and homeowners are treated as landlords in such situations. And, in Massachusetts, tenants are given the benefit of the doubt when there are conflicts between the two. 

When we became landlords in the more traditional sense, we got advice from a tenant lawyer who gave us a rundown on all the mistakes rookie landlords make and how to avoid those mistakes. Her advice has been invaluable.  

@Curt Smith Other extended stay target audiences are academics or visiting nurses. If you live near a college or university, you should check out SabbaticalHomes. I'm not as familiar with the visiting nurse rental sites but I know they exist.

We are able to keep 2 units fully rented targeting academics. We advertise summers on the STR platforms for the apartment that is on our first floor. This is currently legal but there are still rumblings from some quarters that owner-adjacent STRs should be banned. I'm not counting on being able to rent on the STR market indefinitely.

I think municipalities all over the world are regulating STRs more and more. What is legal today might not be legal tomorrow. The housing crisis that most urban areas are experiencing today will drive more cities to regulate more restrictively as time passes. 

Personally, I think it is a mistake for investors to make financial decisions based on STR profits over the long run. Even if it is legal to rent an apartment or room today on the STR market, it might not be legal tomorrow.

Cozy.co does not work for tenants who do not have US bank accounts. I'm dealing with a lot of visiting scholars from both inside and outside of the US. For the visiting scholars who do not have a US bank account, I use Transferwise. It is not as convenient as Cozy.co because it is not designed for rent collection. Also, I am not able to send a payment request. I have to train my tenants on how to send me a rent payment via Transferwise which is a painful process. And, of course, I have to remind these tenants each month when their rent is due. On the plus side,  Transferwise has great exchange rates. It is by far, the cheapest way to transfer money from one currency to another.

@Account Closed Another reason cozy.co is great is that they send reminders to the tenants. I don't have to be involved at all. Most of my tenants schedule their payments so reminders are not even necessary. Most young adults prefer electronic payments. In fact, anyone who has started using Apple Pay, Venmo, etc prefers these methods over having to carry cash or checkbooks around. 

@Alexander Krasne I agree with just about all of the above, especially the advice about knowing your local laws and checking out your competition manually. Each of our markets is unique in many ways. I am experiencing a drop off not only due to seasonal changes but also due to my market being flooded with new listings in the last year. I would love to not rely on the Airbnb and VRBO platforms but my state has just passed a STR law that requires that whoever collects the rental fees must now collect and remit state and local taxes. It has now become worth staying with Airbnb and VRBO just so I don't have to worry about the collection and remission of taxes.

@Thomas S.I would be a lot more picky if I was in the long term rental market. Being in the extended stay market means my #1 goal is to keep the units occupied all the time. That means the first tenant who is verified as being who they claim to be and who is willing to sign a short term lease and pay the last month's rent and, for one unit, a security deposit, gets the unit. I don't take the unit off the market until the tenant initiates the payment(s) but I also don't wait around for the perfect tenant. In fact, as I thought about my tenants who are "less than perfect" in my mind, I realized that the less than perfect attributes that popped into my mind were what I consider prejudices. This year I have signed leases with 2 different tenants who have a small child. I have to admit I wasn't sure the in-law apartment would survive the rambunctious 5-year-old and our cat definitely wanted to know what in the world I was thinking. But the apartment survived, the cat survived and I totally loved the family. I am sure we will survive the 3-year-old who will be here in a few weeks.