All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Ruelens

Ann Pepperman at McCormick Law Firm in Williamsport PA.  Strong recommend. 

I don't understand why leasing through your LLC would limit your liability. You will spend more in insurance to protect the various entities, all of which would be sued in the event of an incident. But if you wanted to do it you could lease the property to the LLC with permission to sublet, and then the LLC would be the landlord to the tenant. Again though, that doesn't shield you, the property owner.

I am a PA Broker and Nathan is right, you need a license, which you have and your broker needs to approve of it and supervise your activities.  In PA, only Brokers can be property managers.  Licensed agents can assist them, but the Broker must sign the leases. To learn about PM, the best way is through NARPM and I am on the board of the NARPM PA Chapter, check us out on Facebook and make use of the resources! Good luck!

I always recommend consulting with an attorney when it matters, and boy does it matter right now!  I always list the people I leased the property to and any other known occupants on the Landlord Tenant Complaint.  Otherwise, any order the judge makes will only apply to the people listed.  Remember, the judge can only issue a verdict on what you include in the filing.  Surprising them with new facts a the hearing doesn't go well unless you truly learned them since filing. Good luck! 

Ideally you would do all of these tasks as soon as possible after closing.  

I buy animal control services in north central PA and I would be very happy with those rates.  Trust your PM, make sure that the work will make sure no more get in.  I know with squirrels you can't use just any material to keep them out once they got in.  You need steel plates, woods and wire mesh won't cut it they will go through it once they smell that other squirrel have gotten in there.  If you have a constant problem you might consider using some predator urine treatments to prevent it.  Predatorpee.com  I am not joking, I use urine all the time to keep the animals out of attics and stuff.  

Hi Brian!  We are in those two markets and run a portfolio of 600+ properties.  Happy to connect!

Yes, my entire portfolio of 625 units is in Lock Haven and Williamsport.  We routinely renovate property.  There is a demand for well-renovated property in our market with a modern eye to design.  Our market has very old housing stock and due to the (relatively) low prices of real estate here it attracts new and lower quality investors.  I am always working with our clients to spend smartly and on quality renovations (which are way more involved than people expect on this old property).  

What you are doing is terminating the lease agreement.  A notice to quit is a communication that the tenant has violated the lease and must stop the violation or leave the property.  This is their "notice" that the process has begun and if they don't remedy the violation (whether that be payment, animals, damage, behavior, holdover, etc.) you will proceed with filing a landlord tenant complaint.  In your case you need to terminate the lease (the amount of notice required is based on the way your lease is constructed and worded- I refer you to an attorney for that).  If your tenant did not return the property to you at the end of the lease period they would be in HOLDOVER and at that point would have committed a violation and you post the NTQ then. 

In PA it is prohibited to compensate an unlicensed person to effect a real estate transaction.  So you cannot pay a referral fee to a tenant (or gift them something or otherwise compensate them) for referring tenants.  Same is true in real estate sales and management.  When you do compensate a licensed person that income is paid directly to their broker, never to them; the broker pays the licensee based on their agreement.  Other ideas: Offer a unit improvement for the referral (ceiling fan, tiled floors, carpet cleaning, light fixtures, accent wall), Offer a donation in their name to a non profit they support, just simply ask- most people want to help.