All Forum Posts by: Christopher Price

Hello David,

The way I work my late fees are: due on the first and considered late if after the 3rd.

All of my tenants payments are paid online through Cozy.co or through a check in the mail.  I can see when they made a payment or when the letter was postmarked.

If they are late I send them a letter with a copy of the envelope postmark or documentation of their electronic payment.  The only exception I allow is for Sundays and Holidays.  (If Saturday is the 3rd I will assume they deposited it in the mailbox Saturday evening and give them until the next business day for postmark.)

Unfortunately you are in a bad situation now.  If you back down you are setting a terrible precedent for your tenant.  They will have control and loose respect for you and your company.  On this flip side if you push the issue you could end up with a disgruntled tenant.

I had a very similar issue with a tenant that tried to dispute a charge.  A simple phone call fixed everything.  Often times a tenant just wants to be heard.  All I did was ask if everything was ok?  I had planned on giving her options to pay including a payment plan.  It turned out she had a lot of things going on in her life and really just needed to vent.  At the end of the conversation she told me that she knew she had to pay, but just didn't have the money that month.  She promised to pay the next month and sure enough the check came through.

Alternatively you could give them a notice to pay or quit.  It can do wonders!

Sorry my post doubled.  I don't know how to delete this one.

If it was me, I would want receipts and documentation of their time.  I'm not a professional contractor, but all of that work would take me an hour, 2 at the most.  I would expect a contractor to take maybe 30 minutes.

My biggest concern would be what else are they being unethical about.  When I first bought my 4-plex I found out that the current property manager also owned a plumbing business.  The previous owners were hundreds of miles away, and had several repairs done by that plumbing business.  Unfortunately the repairs were shoddy at best and I had to hire a different plumber to go in and fix the damage.

Unless those batteries were made by Tesla and the shower handle/caulk were solid gold, consider a new PM.

You have to love Mr. Kiyosaki.  I remember the first time I went for a business loan.  I based my business model off of the cash flow triangle and got a huge grin from the loan officer.  (Things went very smoothly from then on).

Borrowing from the concepts laid out in "The richest man in Babylon" our expenditures will always grow to equal our income.  Unless we stop it.  Paying yourself a fixed amount first has a 2-fold effect.  You will stop frivolous spending and you will also reinforce that you get paid first.  You are the most important, the alpha.  You come before your creditors.  This aggressive mentality will fuel your ambition to take control of your life and do what needs to be done.  At the end of the day if you don't have enough money to pay your creditors then you will likely do something to get that money.  (Put in extra hours, make a few more cold calls, develop a new advertising strategy).  If the roles were reversed and you paid your creditors first and then didn't have enough money to pay yourself It is likely that one might shrug their shoulders and merely hope for the best next pay period.

This concept directly relates to your current decision.  What happens when you hit a wall or become frustrated/overwhelmed with your new project.  If you borrow the money and have an obligation to pay it back you will likely push harder then if you had already invested your own money.  

Case study: Imagine if you will 2 owners (Adam and Barry) of a singular apartment.  Adam has a monthly mortgage to a private investor while Barry owns the apartment outright.  Both apartments leases expire and are vacant.  Which owner is most likely to rent the apartment?  I have seen this, where unfortunately owners will become complacent because they don't need to rent it.  The property sits (sometimes for years) and turns into a liability.

Just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the input everyone!  I have a much better perspective on how I am going to handle this.

Steve- I'm going to guess very few at 3am!

Hey Jessica,

We may need more details to be able to help.

I'm going to have to make a few assumptions.  We have holdover clauses and 30 days notice written into our leases.  If a current tenant does not want to sign a new 1-year lease when the old one expires they will continue to occupy the residence at the holdover rate until either they, or the landlord gives 30 days notice to vacate (Our state mandates a minimum of 7, but we like to give our tenants (and us) a nice buffer).  In most states it is standard that when a lease terminates it reverts to a month-to-month lease with all provisions of the previous lease.  In addition their should be a state law that specifies the minimum amount of time you need to give for notice. (You will have to check your state laws).

I recently had a tenant that would not sign a new lease, nor would she give any indication as to her intentions.  Our rent prices had exploded in the area and her new lease would have been more then her holdover clause.  We sent her a copy of her lease and a deadline to sign.  We also told her that failure to sign and return by a certain date would result in an issuing of 30 days notice.  She didn't return the lease, and we issued the notice.

The most important thing in these cases is to communicate with the tenant.  We have resolved several issues with just a phone call.

Hope this helps!

Hello everyone,

I own a 4-plex and have run it for 3 years now with success.  Recently I ran into an issue with a tenant.  She had a leak under her sink and was unaware how to shut the water off.  I was able to get to the property before any major damage had occurred, however I began thinking that this could have been much worse.

I am considering a solution in the form of a water shut-off guide.  This guide will only be a few pages with instructions and pictures on how to locate a shut off valve and use it to stop the flow of water to a leak.

Has anyone tried this in their rentals?  I am mostly concerned with the legality of having a tenant perform an action and possible getting hurt (or claiming to get hurt/burned).  On the flip side, I wouldn't want a catastrophic leak to get out of control and do thousands in damage before a plumber can reach the property.  I am including a clause that states "Your safety is our number 1 priority, if you are uncomfortable performing any of these actions skip straight to step 4 "Call us section".

Any thoughts?

Christopher

Hey Chris,

My first question would be to confirm that the house is not paid off.  If she bought the home, say 1993, with a 15 year mortgage she could have paid it off and simply forgot.  Alternatively it seems that it might be possible your mom took out a reverse mortgage, this may explain why she owes more then what she bought it for, but still less then the value of the home.  I might start with the local assessor's office and do a title search.  If the bank does own it, they may be sitting on it until the housing market in your area picks up.  They may not realize she is living there.

Additionally , depending on the circumstances you may want to check your local laws on adverse possession.