All Forum Posts by: Chris B.

Doesn't heurt to try.  Make sure you ask politely.  I had a tenant ask once and I offered a $50 a month discount.  What about this:  Would you move out if you didn't get a 10% discount into a new place for the cheaper rate? Is it worth the hassle? Can you find a place for 10% cheaper that is equally nice or better?  Are you a fantastic tenant who laways pays your rent on time and causes zero problems?  Are you easily replacable?  Your landlord will consider these questions also and make a decision with their opinion of this in mind. 

We have no info on the terms of your lease contract or your rate.  The terms of breaking the lease should be listed there.

I'm a small time landlord and manage and do most maintenance on the properties myself.  In the recent past I was also a renter for a few years.  From your post, I can't determine what the whole picture is, but I can relate it to a personal experiences I have had.  

My landlord experience: I had what I'll call an "undesirable family" move into my SFH for rent. Four people on the contract, eventually 12 moved in (extended family), they kept getting fired from their jobs and not paying rent, were neglegent and damaged the house significantly, and so on. I had bought this home new and at this point the home was about 6 years old. Apparently the builder put a kitchen cabinet screw through the wall and through the AC drain pipe. Well, the screw rusted out over time and the pipe got clogged. Probably related to the renters removing the AC air filters instead of replacing them or letting me replace them. The AC condensation water started dripping into the wall. The renters said nothing and ignored the wet wall for months. By the time they reported it, I took a look and the bottom 3' of the entire length of the wall was black. Miraculously, I was able to get the builder to warranty the work which they estimated as a $18,000 reair. The wall and carpets and half of the kitchen cabinets on the other side of the wall needed to be ripped out and replaced. The builder told me had the renters reported it as soon as it was first visible, we would only need a less than $1,000 repair. But these negligent renters waited many months instead.

This family offered me an expensive course on rental property management.  Among those learnings were screen better... Definitely consider credit scores, inspect the house frequently and change all air filters myself, and fix tenent damage imediately as it happens and charge them for it.  I also learned to put a ned line in my contract forcing tenants to report damage imediately and if they don't they will be liable for additional damages caused by delay in reporting.  Had they renewed the contract and there was mold left, of course a mold waiver would go into the contract as well.

Second landlord lesson:  I was house hacking and one tenant's background check came back with a violent event but he was a smooth talker and explained it away and I let him move in.  I was out of town 6 days a week so he had time to cause issues when I was gone.  Eventually he started arguing with me when I brought up his violations of the contract.  Sneaking in pets when I was gone; leaving dog poop and pee on the carpet.  Having kids come over and wreck the house when I was gone; taking my food and throwing it all over the kitchen and not cleaning it up... and more.  That only got worse over time and eventually I had to call the police on him as he got violent with me.

Given your situation, is sounds possible there there may have been some disagreements and thus the landlord wanting you to leave.  Paying on time is a requirement, but not the only requirement.  How do you get problem tenants to leave?  Either flat out tell them to move out (when contract is over or violated), or if they are only just super annoying, raise rent to the point where their frustration is compensated by the extra rent you are charging.

And if they can get "way more" rent, none of my comment above matters, they should charge way more rent because thats the market rate.  If you don't want to pay market rate here, look for a cheaper part of town to live in.  Right now, there are plenty of retal units available across the country.  I just rerented one two weeks ago myeslf.

I'd say keep looking.  I just completed a cash out refinance last week at an good rate through a loan broker, but this is my primary residence which I plan to be renting out at some point in the future.

If its your primary, look into a cash out refinance and see if the numbers are good.  You should be able to get a lower interest rate and if the costs aren't too much, you could pull out some equity and have a lower monthly paymnt all in one.  You could also do a regular refinance and get an even lower rate.

Looking at your numbers again, it doesn't look like you have a whole lot of equity and may not be able to refinance or get a HELOC. None the less, I'd keep it and gamble on the appreciation.

Great story!  Thanks for sharing.  I acquired a home once and put a year into making it habitable again also but didn't add the value percentage you achieved.  I learned so much on that project and it was a lot of hard work.

Sounds like great advice. I learned something here also.

If they were of clear mind when the contract was signed and you didn't do anything shady to coerce them into signing it, it sounds like you are in a good position to take legal action.  Do you have any witnesses to back you on this?  Is there enough profit in it to make this worth it to you?  I think that is the answer.  You may also possibly want to find out who the someone else is if you can and let them know you already have a contract.

My process seems to be different than a lot of others, but it works for me at the moment.   I give out application forms like candy for free to anyone interested.  At most 25% fill them out and return them to me, usually scanned in via email.  Of the ones I get back, maybe 25% have decent qualifications.  I then pick out the one I feel best about and ask them to initiate a SmartMove background check.  They fill out the info and pay $40.  Each adult needs to do this in the family.  I get online access to the results.  I used to use e-renter for years, but their credit check aspect has gone down hill and is fairly worthless so there are better options out there now.  I then review the returned background check to make sure everything is good.  If the applicant omitted anything significant in the original application and while talking with me, then they just disqualified them self.  At this point we have a chosen applicant.  Get a contract signed and what you deem acceptable deposit in hand as soon as possible.  Keep advertising and showing until you have the cash and signed contract as they can back out any time prior to signing.  So with my method, I essentially never touch any money until the contract is signed and deposit is concurrently collected.  I'm a small time landlord so I have the time to deal with it this way.  Its simple and easy for me and I don't feel bad taking money from applicants who have no chance.  I think I get a higher than normal percentage of unqualified applicants this way, but I also feel confident I didn't miss the good ones.

If they generally speaking have enough cash and income to live off of, but they don't want to run the business any more, I'm speculating they are getting in their later years and just aren't up for the business aspect any more.  They would like to see if they can cash that in.  Why not as opposed to just closing shop.  No capital gains tax there as far as I know, just other taxes.  Now for the property... if they are old, they may be looking to pass it on to their kids.   When they pass away, if the property isn't worth millions of dollars, the kids will get it completely tax free and they can sell it if they like with no capital gains tax..   Hard to come in and compete with that aspect.