All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

Tile is durable but unforgiving of flooring imperfections, cold in the winter, and can become dated. I like it but just saying. Best use -bathrooms.

Wood is good. For common areas I choose it over carpet any day. Full thickness you can refinish and it lasts forever. You can always use are rugs.

Laminate.. would not make my list. Vinyl is more durable. all in all it depends on the market.

If the landlord has not provider detectors don't stay in the house without them. CO is a silent killer. You can go to sleep and you don't wake up. I had a co-worker die when she and her husband went to their shore home- ironically for doing the furnace replacement. He woke up sick but she didn't. I think of her and the two kids she left behind every time I put a detector up or hear a story like this. I would minimally hold the landlord accountable for the hospitalization costs. Also if they can't stay in the house those costs picked up as well. I am a little disappointed in our health care system in that they did not pick it up on the first hospital visit.

In my opinion even if things were perfectly done in the house a CO detector would be worth the money, you never know what can happen.

Sorry this is happening to you. This tenant has picked up on how tight you are and stressed out. Do call her bluff and come on strong in terms of delivering the message pay up or quit. The first part of the battle is not about whether you can do it. It is whether she thinks you can/will and how she responds to that. I would say look do you see those other non-payers living here no. The electric is fine , the lights are yours, you pay or you go. If you can manage even to take the first step to file on her maybe that is what she needs. Do not let her see it get to you.

Show the true picture here but convey to this tenant you are in a strong position not that you have money but rather you will do what it takes. Hey , you cleared two deadbeats! I am not sure who you have to go to for financial support. You seem to be calling in all the reserves you have but you might need to think creatively, family , close relationship, social organizations to get you through the holiday. Selling the lot may be a long term solution but short term you might need to ask someone you might not normally go to. I do wish you luck and take some time to enjoy those girls.

One caveat -- From a showing standpoint you don't need to jump and bend your schedule so much when you have a lot of candidates. You can be a little busy sometimes. Most people with real interest will make time to see it.

I do usually process applications as I get them though.

I strongly advise to wait until you have a deposit and signed lease. Actually the point at which you are not returning the deposit if they back out. I take applications but no fee until I am going to run the credit check. I have had two deposits on a current place and both backed out because their own life situation changed. I returned the deposits but the first time I had stopped showing. The second time I did not. I tell the people who apply that I have other applications and I will take their application and call them back and collect the credit fee if their paper work looks good and the prior candidate doesn't work out. I do that if I have one application or several. ( I don't know what kind of volume you are talking though)

With students/ co-signers/groups everyone needs to sign the lease before I stop showing.

I am curious about this from the visiting kids perspective. I had one prospective tenant who had his girlfriends children full time and his own children every weekend. This would have put us over maximum occupancy on the weekends but they he maintained the second set of kids would not be living there. He did not wind up applying but I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on that topic. I appreciated the guy being upfront but I am not sure it would have worked out.

@John Woodriff@John Woodriff

Depends on what is made of. I painted paneling after using a deglosser. I think every 4' is often that old wallboard. We have walls like that with a 1/4 inch think by 2 inch strip at the seams. When the strips are removed you see the seam. The previous owner removed some strips and used joint compound in some seams-mostly you can see these joints. I have considered using wallpaper to cover the joint and hear it works but I have not tried it. Where we have these strips in the house we paint them the same color --unless you want to accent the difference I would not make them features.

I don't think the inspection is too pricey. We did a 6 unit and paid pretty similar because you need general inspection and some specialty work. One thing extra we did was find a guy who for about $200.00 did a ground search for buried tanks. For us it gave us some piece of mind as this was an old farm property .

I would disagree about the explosion. It is unfortunate but unless it is a lasting claim on the property (not sure how it could be) then I don't see that it will impact the ability to rent the units. People forget too. I don't want to dismiss it but I have seen similar incidents drift out of peoples memory after hardly any time at all.

I am really interested in how you make out on this one.

I have a 4 bedroom up for rent. Lots of showings but the tenant quality is spotty. Lots of people in transition short of rental history. I did just get the lead cert so I will be renewing my efforts. Good to hear some people are getting traffic.

Our last permit issue was with the roof guy who per contract was supposed to pull a permit. It is a big roof, he was there 2 weeks and we have electrical work being done at the same time. I go down and see a stop work order posted. We call the town about the electrical inspection and the engineering department says the roof guy didn't pull a permit. What was the roofing contractor thinking! Electrical guys and coming and going... Now I know it is just an extra tax but sometimes you just have to do it.. So when the lead inspector comes I tell the roofer to get lost just in case the lead guy wants to get into it about lead certs and separate permits for painting the fascia and soffits. The permit process is just too strange sometimes.