All Forum Posts by: Douglass Benson

When you do have a tenant that has gone bad, keep it professional, file all your legal documents in a timely fashion and feel real good when you get your unit back.  Why?  Because you have gained a competitive advantage over all the other landlords that won't or don't or can't do this.   Those are the people whose property you will soon be owning.  Why?  Because they want out of the business.  They cannot STAND what being a landlord means and they have proof  - all their terrible tenants!

Be the guy that selects good tenants.  Be the guy that over delivers to your tenants.  Be the guy that does everything above board and tries their best to do everything right.  You will soon be grateful for your tenants.  You will enjoy watching them enjoying your buildings and you will also enjoy getting referrals from your tenants for more and more tenants.  It is a beautiful circle, one that you can easily be a part of.

But don't take my word for it.  I think there are dozens of people before me making the same case.  Don't be afraid to take action.  Your good tenants will love you for it and brag up to their friends about how you took care of business.  

Ypsi makes a lot of sense to me.  My daughter lives very close to the Ypsi border on the Ann Arbor side.  Ann Arbor presents some pricing issues that Ypsi doesn't.  There might also be a concession to culture as compared to AA, but that isn't on everyone's criteria list for a place to stay or a place to visit.  

We went to a bar/restaurant near downtown.  That place was rockin'.  Great food, good atmosphere and completely safe feeling as well.  I invest close to where I live, so Ypsi is out for me, but it makes a lot of sense for investors that aren't limiting themselves like I do!

My point exactly.  I don't want the possession of a credit card to be a filter in my tenant screening.  

Section 8 is a lifestyle.

Annual lease.  We can roll it over to month to month after a year if the tenant wants to, but most of our tenants sign up for another year.  We also state in our lease that the tenant has an obligation to pay 12 months of rent and we will collect it one month at a time.  If they leave early, that allows us to continue to accrue rent due until we replace them with a paying tenant.  This comes in handy while you are waiting for your court date to arrive.  Since all our tenants are W2 tenants, we take the judgment and garnish any dollars that are due.    

Do you believe there are any good tenants that do not have a credit card?

The night that we closed on our last building (17 unit - 12 twos and 5 ones), my wife and I walked to every door, knocked on it and introduced ourselves.  We talked to each tenant and left them with a packet.  In that packet was a new lease and an introduction letter.  14 of the 17 units were month to month so we left that alone, but we raised everyone that was month to month $50 a month.  We also included a letter explaining the current market rents and comparing that to what they are currently paying.  There were a couple of units paying $450 a month when the market is asking $670 a month.  In the letter we warned everyone that higher rents were coming, but that higher service was already here as a result of our purchase.  We lost three tenants, all three due to our non-smoking policies more so than our rent increases.  We have back filled all three units at $670 per month.  You aren't being a bad guy when you raise rents.  These folks have been living well for all the days before you arrived.    Their rent expenses aren't real and they will realize that if they start looking around.  Just make sure that you are supporting your increase with good service and you should be good. 

We do not currently rent to section 8.

It will be hard for you to defend your criteria as it is discriminatory.  Some states do treat weight as a protected class and society is not yet on board with limiting the options of obese people.  Being politically correct is one thing, but being a lightening rod for litigation is another.  

I won't provide an analogy as one isn't necessary, but I would never believe that there is a positive business angle here that is compelling enough to add the risk and the grief to your day and your life.  

 We have been using SSL to secure the data in our electronic application.  We believe that the emails coming to us from our site are secure.  Popssibly you are  speaking of non-SSL installations?  

My thoughts on faxing - these days faxing is nothing more sophisticated that a digital signal of content being sent from one IP address to another.  Thinking that you are always transmitting across a dedicated land line from one device to another isn't an accurate description of faxing in 2016.  It is as hackable as any other internet packet.