All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

Both might have some effect - it really depends on how "close to the edge" you are. If you just barely qualify, you would not want to do this unless you are certain that the remodel will increase the value greater than the debt load. 

If it were me, I wouldn't do a thing until I finished with the loan. If you qualified based on what you have, why add another variable into the mix? 

 On 8 months remaining, I think that is reasonable depending on your market and what it takes to get it ready to re-let. If the guy is easy to work with, pays without trouble, and leaves the place nice, I'd refund anything that wasn't applicable if you got it rented. 

I assume the house is dirty if they want a washing. I would do it, but I would make it appear to be my idea, i.e. it was already on the list as part of routine maintenance and cleaning of the house. Which of course it should be if the house is dirty.

Cash is king. Provide a written receipt. I would take a check if there is enough lead time, because I have only placed people with good credit scores, stable jobs, and clean backgrounds anyway.

If the law or the lease doesn't address it, I would make him an offer to try to re-rent immediately, with him paying his normal rent until it was rented, or a decent penalty that he should be able to get his job to pay. Why should the property owner have to suffer because he chose to rent? If he owned, he would have to sell the place or carry the mortgage. Any reputable company covers those costs for non-voluntary transfers; if he just wants to transfer for a better job, he should bear those costs.

^^ This is what I would do as well. If you are willing to drop everything to do a showing at the tenant's convenience you appear desperate, which is a bad position from which to start. Someone takes a look, I tell them it will be going up on the rental sites in X days, but if they are interested provide their e-mail address and I will forward them an application, which I do through SmartMove. If they don't complete that application, they're not serious. 

I would schedule showings on my schedule. If that means some people don't see the unit, so be it. Think of it like a business - if you owned a hardware store, and some guy called you at home at 2 in the morning with a request for you to come open the door so he could look around the shelves to see if he wanted to buy something from you, or from Lowes, you would say no, come back during normal business hours. I consider showings the same way - not the least because I have (2) other jobs! :)

I think it's a good way to set yourself up for disgruntled tenants. Either list for the higher price or take the lower price and get a better crop of tenant choices. Ultimately, I'm not sure what "too many responses" entails unless they all come in a day or two. I route everyone to the application process, and if they pass the SmartMove, I send them the in-house app, and if that looks good I rent to them. So it's more or less first come, first serve, with the caveat being they have to pass the application process. 

Acceptable methods of payment should be included in your lease. As for knocking on the door, I wouldn't worry about that unless it becomes an issue - in my experience, most tenants want to see as little of their landlord as possible. If it becomes an issue there are ways to address it in the future, which should also be contained within your lease. 

Most of those issues are foolish for sure, but not all of them. I would try to address the legitimate ones - water pressure could be a misadjusted/malfunctioning pressure reducing valve, for example - and ignore everything else. You can provide a phone number with instructions to describe the nature of the issue in order to receive a return call - or, you can go electronic altogether and require complaints to be filed through a website or e-mail. 

The "accent" and "this is America" comments are obnoxious and low-class. I would just chalk those up to an angry, bitter person, and send him down the road at the expiration of the lease. 

Assuming it is not glued to the floor, pull it off the tack strips, cut it into strips and haul it out. Utility knife and a small pry-bar to pull up the tack strips. Carpeting usually leaves some space to tuck under baseboards, so depending on what you put back you might need some quarter round molding to cover the edge gap. I would also go with the vinyl planks, they are surprisingly real-looking.