All Forum Posts by: Denise B.

Thanks for the replies. I have the appropriate letter for the first family stating they were rejected based on info from the credit report and telling them they can get a copy to review.

I am planning to talk to the other family to see how they react. I was just surprised that both had such credit problems. I guess nothing should surprise me in this business!

Hi,
I'm relatively new to the landlording business. Bought my 1st two units about 18 months ago and inherited tenants that are actually pretty good.

This is my first time screening tenants to fill a vacancy (3 br/1.5 bath $1250 rent) and I thought I had 2 promising applications. They both have income that exceeds the 3x rent requirement but their credit is horrible. The 1st family has multiple judgments from landlords so I crossed them off.

The 2nd family has no landlord judgments and current car payments but lots of accounts in collection (mostly student loans) even though they have a combined income of over $120K. Is this the kind of credit I can expect from most of the applicant pool?

What kind of accounts do you ignore from the credit reports?

Thanks for your responses and the additional links. You all are always so helpful!

I'm relatively new to landlording having just bought my first 2 rental units in July, 2010. I've been pretty fortunate in not to having a lot of maintenance issues but feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment. A landlord friend buys home warranty plans on her units and swears by them. It would be nice to have a single service to call to check things out when there is an issue. I haven't really built my maintenance team yet. My husband is pretty handy and has addressed all the issues so far but he's having some surgery and won't be available as my handyman for a while.

Have any of you used a home warranty plan to mitigate repair costs/hassles and would you recommend this approach?
Thanks,
Denise

I'm a new landlord...just settled on my duplex on 7/21. In one unit, I have 3 tenants in a roommate situation. All 3 names are on the lease which clearly states no subletting and the lease runs until 1/2011. One of the tenants needs to move out and has found a replacement. I'll run the credit check and standard application process for the potential replacement. How do I handle the lease? Should I ask the 2 remaining tenants and the new one to sign a new lease together, terminating the old one? Or do I just swap names on the original lease and have everyone initial it? Other ideas?
Thanks in advance - you all are a great source of info!

When you talk about buying properties at 50% value, do you find them through your own marketing or on the MLS? I have my eye on a bank owned property that is listed on the MLS at 80% of market value but my offer calculated based on the 50% rule would have to be right around 50% of market value. I haven't made the offer since it seems so ridiculous compared to their list price. Maybe I just need to make the offer and work on my poker face :)