All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

I think you are setting yourself up for a lot of heartache, unless you want to run a boarding house and not consider it "your home". The only way I would ever consider such a setup would be if there were separate, segregated entrances for the boarders part of the home and my own part of the home - otherwise, you are going to have a houseful of houseguests, some of whom may be unpleasant, and NY is not an easy state for evictions. How comfortable are you going to be with a houseful of strangers around your kids? 

 I suspect this has at least as much to do with the landlord as it does the tenant. While I get that the point of LL is to make money, I sometimes wonder about the approach that (seems) to be used by many here in that the tenant is nothing but an income producer. Our tenants are people.

 Just happened to me as well. I stored it for now in the basement but may just end up selling it. As for the fridge the OP bought, the old refrigerator was some part of the selling of the unit. To get the smallest cheapest you could get feels like a downgrade to the tenants. That is one reason *not to have the best appliances in a rental.

I think you made a tactical error in telling her things would/could be different than it was; it sounds way too ambivalent. A recent showing, the potential tenants didn't care for the paint color/sheen and asked about it. I told them the walls would be painted with the exact paint colors they saw. I paint for the masses, and if someone wants to customize, they should buy their own house. So I believe you may have planted the seeds of this by not being clear. Based on what transpired, I would just cancel the deal. BTW, how did other people come to look as potential tenants after you already had this woman under contract?

Thanks for the update, I think you have handled it wisely. 

I would try creating some shade for the unit. Direct sun on the unit is going to affect the temperature drop. Shade can drop surface temperatures by 10 degrees or more, which will have an impact on how efficient your unit can be. 

Having 2 medium sized dogs is not like having 2 humans, not even close. I have owned dogs all of my life - big dogs, 100 pounds or so - and I have never had a problem cooling a space. Filters do get clogged faster, so that is something they need to consider. 

This was a great question. One thing I think (maybe I missed it) that wasn't mentioned is that a lot of "us" got into REI because it is hands-on and gives us a chance to convert skills into dollars. I just finished a rental with a complete kitchen & bath reno (down to the subfloors), bedroom flooring, etc, and easily saved myself 5 figures from having to pay someone to do that type of work because I have the experience and skills to do it. My biggest objection to a PM company would be in charged fees for minor repairs, things that I would have done myself for a couple of dollars and knew they were done right.

What would make me use a PM company would be: if (when) I became too old to physically perform some of the repairs; if I had a difficult property that had a lot of turnover that I didn't want to deal with; or if I had too many properties to reasonably manage. 

If they paid a deposit, that is not a form of income; it is to cover damages due to the animal. If there are no damages, and there are no animals, there isn't any reason to keep the deposit at all. If it was a non-refundable pet fee, there's nothing to return. The language in the original lease should be clear regarding how these funds were allocated. 

If they have no intention of getting another animal, I would return the money if there's no damage. If there is damage, document and price before returning any of the deposit. 

I am a USAA member and I can see how this would be problematic for non-members. There are plenty of banks that have free checking, certainly including in her town. This is just my opinion, but I think that if you are going to require a deposit into a bank account, rather than mailing you a check, you should try to make it reasonably convenient for the tenant. I use a bank that has 4 branches scattered throughout the city I have my rentals, so there is no reason a tenant cannot easily get to a bank (especially since they are near the rentals). If they do not want to go to the physical location, I use erentpayment, and they pay the $3 fee. That covers it both ways. 

Again, my opinion, but it seems unreasonable to select a bank that doesn't allow deposits into accounts by non-members. You wrote it into the lease that way, you should have verified that USAA would accept the deposits. I think you eat the 16 bucks considering you are renting a unit for almost 2 grand a month, or you find another bank to use. And then do something different at next lease. 

No reason to be afraid if you do your homework. Most people, including renters, are reasonably decent and won't purposely trash a house. If you have run a credit & background check, that goes a long way. It also goes a long way to own the type of place you'd like to rent. You mentioned that your place has small rooms, no central air, no dishwasher, no off-street parking. You have a lot of strikes against you (probably - what does the rest of the market look like where you are? Do you need AC in Canada?), which usually means you have to make up the shortcomings on things like lower rent, riskier tenants, shorter leases, etc. So you might not be able to remedy off-street parking, but dishwashers are usually not too much trouble to retrofit. 

To overcome these shortfalls, you might want to price right and screen heavily. There are plenty of good people looking for low-rent units for whatever reason - empty nest, saving for future retirement, cheap by nature, etc. The trick is to separate the wheat from the chafe here.