All Forum Posts by: Christen G.

I mean...sure - I hear you and am with you - but that's not my business, I'm not their mom, I'm their landlord - my business is rent. I'm not going to ask those questions anymore than I'm going to teach someone how to budget their life to avoid paying late fees, you know?

I've mentioned it here before, but it seems to me that a fund should be set up that the TENANT can apply to - so they're not evicted when these moratoriums lift (and they owe a bunch of money.) Something where they provide documentation as to lay-offs, their rent amount, their landlord's name + contact info, etc... and then the landlord is paid directly - money doesn't pass through the tenant's hands. And maybe the fund comes to us landlords is all, 'look we'll cover PITI now for X mo and then this tenant is on their own" I don't know, I'm not in government work, but as a small landlord who's not rolling in dough, it seems to me the onus should be on the tenant - not us - to find out how to pay.

@Natalie Cloutier - thank you for posting this, I am certainly going to lift some of the language in my letter to our tenants. My question is on @Brandon Turner's ERDP - that he explained in his video - it seems that he's going to add the addendum to the lease (makes sense) but then amortize it over the next year - starting in a month. What happens if my tenant's lease is up in June? Is the deficit due at move-out?  Or is it amortized over the rest of the lease? My rentals are in Tacoma, Wa - we now have a stay on evictions for 1 mo (which most likely will be extended) due to non-payment only. Most if not all of my tenants are gig workers who I know will be affected. None of them have reached out, yet.

@Marc Winter - I'm here at ground zero (Seattle) and I'll tell you - we're getting locked down, thousands have lost jobs and the city passed a stay on rent-non-payment evictions. Details here. This isn't over-blown media stuff...in the next 7-10 days we'll most likely see an explosion of cases. My rentals are in Tacoma and we already have tenants out of work asking questions. It's not good. Thank goodness for savings and vacancy preparedness, but that only works for so long. If the rest of the country doesn't stop going to disney world and bars -- now - this will be very ugly for a long time.

Stock market predictions aside....I'm in Seattle - which is basically ground zero right now. And we've got restaurants closing, venues, etc... and I'm seeing a lot of friends and folks getting laid off. So what about renters who can't pay rent - b/c they're not working - and the city is not allowing evictions. 

Seems to me there should be a fund that tenants need to apply for where the money goes straight to the home-owner and not pass through the tenant. Maybe it’s just mortgage only - not their actual rent. But the onus should be on the tenant side?

 Yes, do you have to love it - all people regardless of income need affordable places to live. Folks working minimum wage jobs can't often pull together $3k-4k to move - in to a new place b/c their last landlord raised the rent 40%. As a Seattleite who owns rentals in Tacoma - it would be a shame to have what happened up here happen down there - from a cultural and capitalist point of view.

In addition to what Mindy has above, I'd also suggest a letter taped to their front door as soon as your close. Introduce yourself, provide your contact information, mission statement and how to get rent to you. You should also get in each unit ASAP to take photos + compare that with their move-in inspection if you have one. If you don't have those, create them immediately. Congrats on growing the empire and best of luck!

Investor here!

It's never too soon to get your Policy Binder together. Being able to hand that over to a Property Manager feels so good and it says, Here are the expectations and criteria that we use and that you will be expected to uphold. Some of the policies that we have spelled out in ours include:

- Expectations of how quickly you want a unit turned - around after a move-out

- Our mission statement 

- Strategies and Goals

- Minimum Standard for Tenant Approval

- Tenant Screening Process

- Rent collection process

- Late rent policies and collection process

- Eviction and posting notice process

- Pet policy

- Smoking policy

- Vacating tenant policies

The above two have it covered and I concur. I usually post a "welcome letter" with my contact info and my intent to schedule a walk-through, get a state of the unit/do the "move-in inspection." This letter also allows you to set a tone and set some early boundaries and ground rules (I do not allow tenants to text me for example - and state that in my welcome letter "Office Hours are M-F 9-5, Ph: XXX-XXX-XXXX Do not text"). Their response to this letter will also give you an indication of them as tenants and you can proceed thusly.