All Forum Posts by: Heather DeGeorge

Any time, @Bill Flannagan.  

@Bill Flannagan—is your property in Aurora?  If so, make sure you’ve added the city’s required addenda. You would have learned about this in the required landlord training.  As for attorneys, you can try Jason Borg in Lisle or Gary Davidson with Castle Law. Will be interested to see if there are additional recommendations. 

I would never hire a property manager when I have never been a landlord or managed a property before—and especially not because you anticipate problems. The PM is your AGENT and they act on YOUR BEHALF.  That means you are still running the show and still carry responsibilities to ensure the right things are done.  You still sign a contract that lays out who does what and without the experience, you will miss something or not understand how something can bite you. We watched a friend go through this (we became friends after he was already involved). It was a nightmare and he wasn’t a dumb guy.  But he envisioned the PM taking care of the things he didn’t know for his lack of experience. 

Bad idea. 

If real estate were as easy as buying a unit, handing it over to someone else to deal with and collecting some income, more people would be doing it. 

@John Underwood—market rent for my current unit is $50/mo less than what I have been getting for 5 years already (which at this point is $100-$150/mo under market). It’s not always 110% of market but it’s not a pittance. 

@Ray Loveless... the way @Matthew L. is laying out just above appears to legally bind the younger brother and you could totally do that.  I'm not sure how much younger the younger brother is.  My experience is with college aged young adults and therefore I have ONE responsible party (possibly with a co-signer) on the lease and the others listed as "legally" (per our lease) allowed adult occupants (ALL occupants are listed on the lease and they are just another occupant although we have run credit & background on them).

You need to find out the repercussions of not having a rental license in Philly but you also need to read your contract with the property management company very carefully to see if this could have been their responsibility to obtain. 

It’s unwise to hire a property manager as a means of moving responsibilities off of your shoulders because you are unknowledgeable. Generally speaking, in real estate—not knowing the laws does not change your responsibility as the owner.  You still have to manage the property manager and be sure they are doing what they’re supposed to by law. Ultimately, they are your agent acting on your behalf. You are still responsible for what gets done or not done. 

Go read your contract with them and post a location-specific thread here or add Philadelphia or Philly to the title. My typing it in here will alert some of the people with local interest but not everyone that may have good info for you. 

Personally I find having identical decor in both baths confusing. Pictures sell. I would also make the biggest selling point of the unit the first picture (would that be the develipment pool?)

And nobody is going to read a listing that long. If they do, they have little reason to come see the unit. I out the major factors that make my unit different from the competition in major ways—schools, storage, garage access, utility responsibilities would all be things that might make YOUR unit different from the rest and worth mentioning.  You could easily delete everything after the first paragraph. 

We have done this with college students. The one that is not legally obligated for the costs is listed as an occupant and we still do credit and background checks (as we do with anyone age 18+ that will be living in the until more than 2 weeks). But they are listed as an occupant, not as the legally contracted tenant. Much like a young adult child (live at home college student aged child).

I will be interested to hear someone pipe up with the pros and cons of each way listed here. 

@David K.  My point is that if you are not going to enforce the late fee, then don’t have one. It’s a matter of what you are presenting to a tenant in terms of how much they can get away with. If you actually land with someone that accrues late fees, it’s unlikely to stop there.  And if you let the late fees go once, you’ll have a hard time enforcing it if it becomes a habit.

You are starting off operating from a place of fear and already mentally preparing to avoid that fear. It’s just not a good place to start. And it could affect how you choose a property manager as well. 

There is guidance here to help you, but it’s not going to change your mindset/outlook—which is going to be a big factor in your success. It takes us longer to fill a vacancy because we are very cautious screeners but in 17 years (across NJ, MD and IL) we have not had to process an eviction.  We pay more in vacancy than legal fees but I’ll take it. 

Note that section 8 being a protected class and your requirements as a landlord can vary within the state. They are not a protected class in all of IL but they are protected in Chicago—so a landlord there cannot decline them if they meet the overall criteria. Be sure to find out the law where you are. 

I get a lot of inquiries about my currently available property in a town that spans two counties. When I tell them we are not approved for section 8, I also point out to them that we are in a different county than their Zillow or Truliia profile indicated they wanted.

Also—we have more housing voucher programs than section 8 where I am. Sometimes ones I’ve never heard of. We always ask for the name of the program so we can look into it but honestly the unit is almost always rented before we can get that far.