All Forum Posts by: Eric Littlepage

I took over managing my property from the property manager who had placed a tenant who is in there currently.  The language in the lease for the lease term simply says: "Lease term:  The initial term of the lease contract begins on 2/22/18 and ends at midnight on 2/28/19.  At the end of this lease period, this lease will automatically renew for another 12 months unless the tenant gives a 30 day written notice of intent to move."

So I have two questions--it sounds like it is up to the tenant only whether the lease will automatically renew, right?  But I would have thought both parties would be able to decide whether they want to renew the lease...

Second, it just says it will automatically renew for another 12 months.  Does this mean it will just renew one time and that after two years a whole new lease would need to be signed?  Or should this mean that it will keep renewing every year in perpetuity?

Sorry if this was a stupid question, I assume this is standard lease language, with standard understanding of what it means...

Thanks for the responses.  Since this is the first time I'm actually managing my property I'm being very cautious with the screening, but I don't want to let the perfect be the enemy of the pretty darn good.  It's probably not a full C area, it's kinda on the border.  But I've been trying to upgrade this old place and make it more of a B class while I can't afford to gut rehab the entire thing.  Anyway, I agree that there's other things to consider if someone has a low FICO score, but i was wondering if the reverse is also true, and it might be easy to have a high FICO score by paying bills on time but that it doesn't necessarily show that they're able to weather life's inevitable roadblocks.

@Brandon Wells Can you tell me more?  As long as I'm not rejecting based on protected classes and I keep the same standard for everyone, how could I be discriminating?  I do see other landlords saying that part of their screening involves judging character, the tenants' cleanliness of their current house/car, or just going with a "gut feeling", and all that seems rather subjective but that is what you have to do, right?  I will say that almost everyone who contacts me through FB marketplace has a public FB profile, which is often VERY eye opening.  So since I've been contacted by TONS of people, I don't respond to every single one, but I figure that as long as I keep my objective standards high (FICO, income etc) then I am not illegally discriminating against anyone.

I've taken over managing my C-class duplex for the first time after the last tenant trashed the place, was evicted, and my property management company seemed to be trying to do the least work for as much as I'd keep paying them.  So I've fixed it up, put a bunch more money into it, and am finally screening tenants.  I have requirements of 650+ credit score, income =3.5X rent, no smokers, and while I've gotten tons of interest, I haven't found the perfect tenant yet.  But I'm kind of on the fence about one--she's young, and just barely missed the 3.5X rent requirement, but would meet it with her brother's income, who would be moving in with her.  Her FICO score is 718, which is great, but she has no prior rental history.  So I'm trying to figure out what the FICO score really takes into account.  Would it be a lot easier to get a good score if you just have a couple of utilities in your name and aren't really living on your own yet? 

I've just reduced the rent I'm asking hoping maybe it will draw the better quality tenants, but so far I don't see any difference. 

When seeing if applicants are qualified to rent in my unit, can I combine all the incomes from all the adults who will be living there?  Or is it just based on the person who will be signing the lease?

How often do people actually bring this up?  I wouldn't even want to negotiate with someone who is using Zillow as a negotiating strategy.  Any serious buyer should know better.

Biochemist here, so I had to chime in.  Glyphosate is completely safe, and I use it all the time.  Not worried at all.  It's just sad that so many have succumbed to the hysteria, when there is absolutely no evidence it is harmful to animals at all.  People think because it kills something that's alive, it must be bad for all life, but glyphosate specifically targets an enzyme that only plants have.  You'd think that something that actually kills animals, like insecticides, would be more worrying to people, but Roundup has been a target for certain groups because it's used a lot more, and because they want to bring down Monsanto, mainly regarding GMO issues (which again is unfounded).

Great, thanks!

Hi,

I've had a duplex that I've had a property manager manage for me, and it's owned in my name. I also just bought another property in the name of my LLC. I'm going to start managing both of these myself, but I need to keep the banking separate because of the LLC. I'd like to use one of the online rent collection services, but I was wondering if anyone knows of one that would deposit rent from one tenant into one bank account, and would deposit rent from a different tenant into another one. Not sure how well they allow individual customization, or if the software would want you to do it the same way for all of your tenants....

Eric

Okay.  So after the first 12 months, it was automatically renewed for another 12 months.  But does it keep going like that perpetually?  Or is it open ended after two years?  It does not explicitly say that.  If my contract was signed on June 7, it looks like I would have to give notice by or before May 7, but it would not take effect until June 30.  Correct?  

Elsewhere it does say that if I "sell or for any other reason terminate this contract within the first year, or at any time without giving proper written notice, Owner shall pay realtor an amount equal to 1 months' rent per unit."

I guess next time I'd be wiser to try to amend the contract to convert to month-to-month after the first 12 months.

I'm an owner, and I'd like some clarification on what you think my property management contract says, as far as length of term.  It says:  "This contract shall begin on _______ and end 12 months from date of beginning.  At the end of the agreed term, the agreement will automatically renew for another twelve (12) months unless the owner gives realtor a written thirty (30) days notice of termination, which may be given at any time during the month, provided that any cancellation shall be effective as of the end of the calendar month following. (Ex: notice given 5/15 will be effective 6/31)."

It has been 5 years now since I've signed this, so apparently it's been renewing, even if I haven't resigned anything.  What I'm wondering is, does this mean I can only cancel my property manager on the one-year anniversary?  That seems a little extreme to expect that, but then again the leases with tenants are also one year contracts too....