All Forum Posts by: Jason Allen
Jason Allen has started 3 posts and replied 100 times.
Post: Questions to ask of previous landlord and employer
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Yangyang Jin:
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I would like to get your recommendations of how to vetting potential tenants. They work at restaurants and their employers confirmed about their monthly income. I would like to learn some more about these tenants, but not sure what type of questions to ask with the employer and their current landlord.
A better way, if you can, is to find a reason to visit them at their current residence (signing paperwork is the best bet). Take note of how it looks inside (clean/dirty/bedbugs everywhere...) , since if you rent to them, that is how your house will look like after they move in. Make your decision accordingly.
Post: Would you take a tenant who misrepresented herself in application?
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Cindy B.:
Hi, I have been managing our own rental properties. Recently I have had an experience I am struggling with:
we have 3 unrelated parties who currently live together to apply, -- one of the applicants who only lived with the other 2 for 6 month together (she).
On the application current job she stated who she works for, how much she makes and what her job title is. By the time I requested pay stubs, she send in her unemployment pay history. I also found inconsistent and misrepresenting info on her debt ratio. Under normal circumstances, we would just denied her application and move on. But the other 2 applicants seems to have decent track records and credit score.
Shall I take them as equals on the Lease? Or give the other 2 the opportunity to apply and deny her only as applicant? Or shall I deny them all?
I know the final decision is ours, but I wanted to hear what other landlord have to say if they are in the situation.
Thank you in advance!
There was a time when I very briefly considered not rejecting low-level, one time felons, but anyone who lied about it was automatically disqualified... If you are desperate enough to consider renting to people who are already lying to you, you probably need to lower your asking price to attract more applicants.
Post: Applicant refuses to give out SSN before signing Lease
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Julie Hartman:
@Cindy B. If your rental is in Denver, I would strongly encourage you to stop using Zillow to screen your applicants. The laws have changed and if you get a section 8 prospect (which you must accept), landlords are not permitted to do a credit check on them. Zillow and other large screeners are not able to piece-meal the background screening information to keep landlords in compliance. With that said, I agree with the others that if they don't want their SSN collected, then I would send them down the road.
WTF kind of non-sense is that? It's illegal to run a credit check on someone that you're going to turn over an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to? Are you allowed to sue them when they destroy it (because you couldn't check if they had had done that before)? Is this actually true?
Post: Not enough money on bank to pay deposit n 1st month rent but
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Tina Lee:
Hi all,
I have an application pending. Good credit score. But bank ending balance for her and her boy friend is about $200 each.
The deposit and rent she has to pay will be about $2800, I ask how she is going to pay she say she has cash on the site. Because she has an student bank account she can’t have more than 1000 on the bank.
What do you guys take on that?
Red flag? They both have a job but pay is about 2.5 of the rent.
Thank you
Post: Value per door when acquiring a PM business?
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Full disclosure, I am not in the STR business except as an occasional customer... but, my 2 cents..
If this is essentially just buying their book of business (and no inventory/assets) do you think your all-in acquisition cost per customer would be 10k? If not, let's say you think it would cost you only 5k (including the value of your own time) per customer to build a similar book. Do you think they will lower the price to what you think it would cost you (+some value for goodwill/value as a going concern)? If your numbers are wildly different, one of you is pretty wrong. If you really believe in your numbers, then I would say try to start one and see if your numbers were correct..
Post: Sell Duplex with or without Tenants?
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Kristine Hodges:
I’d leave one unit open. Then it can be purchased by an owner-occupant for a house hack. Or an investor who would probably prefer to choose their own tenant. You can show the current lease as proof of market rent, so I wouldn’t worry about filling it for an investor buyer. But you’ll lose a large portion of your potential buyers if they can’t occupy the empty side.
Post: New 6 Unit - Tenants Paying Way Less than Market
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Bill Jones:
Hi everyone, I am a new landlord who just purchased their first six unit. It's a great building and I was able to get it off market from an owner who has owned for 40 years.
The only issue is four of the units are paying far less than market rate for rents. Some are paying 700-800 for 1 bedrooms with heat and utilities and comparable local rents are in the $1300-$1400 range and there is ZERO rentals available in this area due to pharma industry uptic.
Two of them are holdover tenants with leases that expired a couple months ago however they have been there 5+ years so I believe they are entitled to 90 days notice.
When I close should I send notifications of rent increases? I was planning on raising to $1,100 a month for the 1 bedrooms. (This can be $300+ more than they are currently paying) They will find nothing in this area near this for rents. I feel for the tenants but they have had it good for a long time and I have to treat this as a business. I'm willing to take the gamble on them leaving as I will be able to rent them for $400+ more per month with new tenants.
Is there a good template letter somewhere for raises?
I am excited and a little nervous to embark on this new journey.
If you want to keep these tenants, do it by $50 increments every 6 months until they are at market. If you don't care about keeping them, (for me, the best tenant I inherited was worse than the worst tenant I placed myself, with one possible exception), raise it right to market. Of course, keep abreast of and follow local and state laws regarding rent increases.
Also, even if the law allows increases with 30 days notice, I would make it 60 days just to give them time to try to find another place, so as to avoid having to do an eviction. They may be begging to stay once they see that the rental market is not the same as it was 10 years ago. Keep in mind it may make sense to go slowly, considering eviction and turnover costs in your market. Welcome to the club.
Post: Use and Occupancy - Risks for a Buyer in New Jersey
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
in NJ, an eviction costs thousands or even tens of thousands; make sure you hold back in escrow or a bond an amount to cover that. If his deal falls through, and then he has nowhere to go, and you have to evict, you need to be covered.
Post: Other and best ways to use built up equity In properties that are free and clear
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Sean Maloney:
I have several free and clear properties. Besides HELOC or lines of credit are there any ways people are using built up equity to secure their deals? I have heard of a way to tie a property with equity to others to satisfy the need for money down.
Has anyone done this? What lender did you use? How would this be explained to other lenders and what kind of terms?
I would like to use all my built up equity with out refinancing or taking on the additional payments that come with the obvious ways to typically pull money out.
- Sean Maloney
Erie
You can get HELOCs on investment properties, but there are not many players in that market, and consequently, it's much more time consuming compared to a primary, and the rates will not be good. I would either sell the underperformers (before the market gets weaker) or look into DSCR loans.
Post: Gentrification Prediction Heatmap - Trulia Crime map Alternative
- Posts 100
- Votes 70
Quote from @Liam Maher:
Hi everyone, I built a gentrification prediction heatmap for 54 US cities..it also shows cash-flowing properties in those neighborhoods. I'd love to get people's thoughts if anyone is interested in taking a look?
I would like to take a look