All Forum Posts by: Ricardo R.

@Ivan Correa

   What type of deals are you trying to analyze?

@Patrick Britton

I'm sorry I just caught your post but I have to chime in. Have you visited the quadplex?

@Donna Talley 

Sure..... this is the wording we include in my lease:

"5.     Report to Credit/Tenant Agencies. Tenant is hereby notified that a nonpayment, late payment or breach of any of the terms of this rental agreement may be submitted/reported to a credit and/or tenant reporting agency, and may create a negative credit record on Tenant’s credit report."

Additionally, as I mentioned above I also have a separate credit disclosure form that is included in the lease/contract packet. I've copied an pasted it below in short order but of course you would need to organize it and format it accordingly... I hope this helps, I'm open to any suggestions anyone else may have.

 Disclosure Notice:

Credit Reporting and Tenant Performance

Tenant: Name Here

Address: 

Social Security #:

Telephone #: Phone Number

Rental applied for:

Lessor / Agent/ Landlord(s): 

Credit and Tenant Reporting Statement

Landlords engaged in the rental of housing and collection of rent may report and share positive and negative payment information with credit bureaus, tenant reporting agencies, other landlords and financial institutions.

The prospective Tenant understands that the above named prospective Landlord may report various tenant and credit information to national tenant and credit reporting bureaus including but not limited to Experian, TransUnion, Equifax and The National Tenant Rating Bureau.

Positive or negative rental history will be determined by the following factors:

• Rent payment record
• Cleanliness and upkeep of rental unit
• Overall tenant performance and cooperation

Furthermore, I declare under the penalty of perjury that the information I have given on my application and verbally is true and correct.

------------------------------------

 Add signature and date blocks

@Clay O. Thanks Clay, I'll check them out. 

@Max T. Max, I understand your point and I agree with Tenant training. However, in my opinion to only depend on that for a business model is silly to me. You need to set up systems in place to minimize damage and exposure and having a systems that does not allow partial payments is one of them. For instance, you wouldn't not accept a security deposit and depend on your 'training' of the Tenant to keep them from doing damage to your property (I hope not) - no instead you do both in case to minimize your exposure. 

Same thing here, I understand about training and agree that it is important, but the question remains. What other systems other than Cozy are out there than give me the option to not accept partial payments? The reason for these systems are to lessen the burden on me, the Landlord, and to make it convenient for the Tenant.... Cozy falls short in the Landlord department. If I have to constantly tinker with a system that is supposed to be providing me a service in order for it be beneficial, I'd rather go with a competitor which takes our needs as Landlords/Property Managers into account while reducing our liability. 

Thank you for your input, but the question remains... What other online payment systems are out there that only allow for full payment and not partial payments? 

@Max T. thank you for your response. Yeah, I don't really want to be playing around with discontinuing their account whenever there is a partial payment pending, only to have to go back and set it back up and then continue to keep an eye on it for partial payments. I am looking for a system that lessens the burden on me the landlord.

Hi everyone. 

We have been using Cozy for our rental properties in regards to rent collection. Initially, their system was great and would not allow a Tenant to make partial payments; it would only allow a Tenant to pay all or none of the Rent, which was great and was one of the reasons we started using their service. However recently they have changed their system which now allows Tenants to make partial payments, which we do not like at all. There is no option on the receiving side in order to only allow only full payments, we find this to be a waiting nightmare if an eviction ever came up. We are especially unhappy with the service now, considering that was one of their highly touted features when they first started offering it.

Does anyone know of any other online payment service which only allows for full payments or at least allows the Landlord to chose between full and partial payments? 

Alex

Hi all, I have a question regarding home inspections:

1) After placing a property under contract with a signed accepted offer with an inspection contingency. Can the Seller back out the offer if the Buyer asks for an inspection credit? Essentially, can the Seller back out of the offer merely at the request of the Buyer asking for an inspection credit a walk away without countering; even though the Buyer may still buy the property as is? or......

Is more that that the Seller can only say no, and then it is up to the Buyer to accept or walk away?

Is just asking for an inspection credit reason enough for a Seller not to sell?

Alex

@Michaela G., @Kimberly H., @Diane G., @Mike Cumbie, @Sam Shueh, @Douglass Benson, @Christopher Brainard, @James Wise, @Michael Baes, @Connie Bhimireddy, @Steve Babiak, @Arlen Chou ---- All make good points to consider.

@Account Closed I understand your view point but, I do have to say that the right thing - which you are doing - is to give them their 'holding fee' back. 

I completely understand that it is a holding deposit and not a security deposit. If the applicants were in agreement with you and then changed their minds for one reason or another, that yes, absolutely keep their holding deposit - you have spend time and money and may have even possible turned other applicants away so yes, you should be compensated. However.... this scenario is not your scenario.... in your case the applicants said that 1) they would like to be withdrawn from consideration; 2) you informed them that they would be on the hook for the holding deposit and then; 3) they decided to keep their agreement with you as it stood before. In this case  you are the one turning them away.... I don't believe it's morally right for you to keep an applicant's holding deposit if YOU are the one that is making the judgment call on personality especially if they have passed all your other background verification processes.  You have every right to change your mind and decide not to rent to them purely because of personality - that is not a protected class - however if this is the sole reason for denying them when they were initially approved... you should return the holding deposit. 

Essentially..... If they are the ones to withdraw fully - which is not the case here - you keep the fee however; if.... you are the one denying them after they've been approved - then you should refund the fair (one exception would be if they lied to you on an application), doesn't get much more fair than that.  

Andrew by no means am I coming down on you, the fact that you are seeking opinions from other landlords here only goes to show that you do care... I'm merely pointing things out. One other thing to consider - do you refer to this holding money as a 'Holding Deposit' or a 'Holding Fee'? ---- I noticed that you refer to it as a deposit in your previous postings here... if that is the case...tread carefully a 'deposit' by definition is refundable, a 'fee is' not.... not only could a judge make you give the deposit back but they could also fine you for the same amount on top of it in some states/townships -- your lawyer should know this or should of at least pointed it out to you.

Andrew I commend you for seeking out advice and giving the deposit back. It's really important to run your business with an ironclad lease, rules and standards however... the human factor is also something you should take into consideration as well as compassion and just plain 'doing the right thing' regardless of what is written in the lease - in the end you want to make your money, the right way without causing others hardships if you can and be seen as a respectful landlord/investor which helps the community. 

I hope this helps, 

Alex