All Forum Posts by: Christen G.

Hey congrats on diving in! I second @Kyle Bruns with taking a person with you to knock for the first time and bringing a camera and move in/out inspection form. You'll want to document everything from day 1. Perhaps also posting notice (+ mailing notice) that you are the new owner, your contact info and that you plan on stopping by on a specific day/time so that you can ..."meet and get on the same page going forward." That may help soften the blow/shock to them - at least they won't have to take that in front of a stranger - and could process this on their own for a day or so. Hopefully they're on a short lease, or a M2M and you can give them a reasonable time to move out and you can begin reno.  Best of luck to you!

Something you may consider - and I'm not sure of your local laws, BUT - increasing their M2M rent significantly until they either sign the lease or move on. Something like, "...because you're considered a Hold-Over Tenant (not on a lease, refusing to sign one) you're new M2M rent will be $XXX ($250+ more - or something significant) - this may entice them to make a move. But I also agree with @Nicole A. - start eviction proceedings, follow the law. Sorry this is happening - but hope it resolves itself swiftly!

Following this thread...I have rentals in Tacoma, too - but live in Seattle. I'm curious as to what the major differences are in your quality of renter. My understanding is that it's a very competitive rental market here with a ton of qualified applicants.

Hi Mark, congrats on getting started. I'd suggest picking up Brandon's book "The Complete Guide to Managing Rental Properties." It's a fast read and comes with a bunch of helpful forms, interview questions and I think now they offer state-specific paperwork as well.

As far as your specific questions: your realtor, in their due - diligence will get you a "rent roll" to see the payment history. You should also know the status of their lease (how many months left on it, is it month to month, etc..), how much the deposit was, etc... If your realtor is super thorough, they would do an Estoppel Agreement - you can look those up - but one also comes the aforementioned book. Best of luck to you!

Thanks, do you mind sharing some of your stream-lining tactics?

@Mike Dorneman - would you mind walking me through the Facebook listing? Do you attach it to your personal profile? For several reasons, I'd rather not do that - can I just create a company profile and do it that way? If so - is it the marketplace that you're posting in?

I've been doing the "Call me at [a future date and time] for a phone screening to weed out folks and I'm getting a TON of tire-kickers on Zillow (and their propagators) and craigslist. I need to try Facebook but am just unsure of how/where to start.  Thanks for any tips!

Hi Lawrence, congrats on setting some goals! Are you pre-approved and know your budget? Do you have a real estate agent? Are you experienced in repairs to do a flip yourself and/or do you have contractor connections? There's no better way to get started than viewing some properties and making some offers. I have a couple of agents I'd recommend - happy to share. Best of luck to you.

Welcome to Rainytown! I'm chiming in to Co-sign on Fremont being a great area. I bought downtown 4 years ago and love my spot, but if I were to upgrade, buy again, etc... I'd look in Fremont for sure. There Good restaurants and bars and a great Farmer's market. I'd stay out of Shorline bc the houses/neighborhoods aren't much to look at and the traffic to/fro is often a nightmare (we call it Canada). Ravenna has some great properties and is family oriented though, close to a lot of students from UW. Capitol Hill is for the younger 20-30s crowd, bar-hopping and restaurants, music venues, etc...Queen Anne has great properties in your pricepoint, too. Best of luck.

Your agent should get the leases as part of their due diligence. Hopefully they're on a month to month lease (this is common when folks are selling MFH) and you can just issue whatever your state's law is (30 or 60 day) for non-renewal of said lease and move-in once they're out. Be sure you follow the state's law on move-out procedures, returning what's left of their deposit, etc...

In an ideal world every tenant is paying by ACH/bank transfer or Venmo, right? But paying rent in cash is a fact of life in some communities. If our tenants want to pay cash I have them deposit it at the bank. We give them the last 4 digits of the account, our LLC name and the teller fills in the rest.