All Forum Posts by: Tony M

Got a call today from a girl interested in renting an apartment. She said she wanted to come see the place. Also said she wanted to be upfront about her situation. Said she has begun the process of bankruptcy. Her attorney advised her to stop making payments to her creditors (except landlord & utilities).

She has 2 jobs with verifiable income.

Would you rent to this person? What things should I check out?

Keep in mind this is a Class C+ apartment community.

Thanks in advance,
Tony

I have no affiliation with anyone.

I have been using Buildium for the last 9 months to manage my 42 apartments. I couldn't be happier. It is simple to use and very effective. My tenants can pay online or setup automatic payments. It keeps good records. I can access the information from any computer anywhere (which is important to me). They are also very responsive to requests for product enhancements. Some of my requests have worked their way into recent updates.

Feel free to ask me some specific questions.

Tony

Here in Illinois (according to my attorney), you can include late fees if your lease is worded correctly. For example, your lease should say something like:

Fifty Dollars ($50.00), as additional rent, shall be immediately due and payable if the rent is not paid in full by the Tenth (10th) Day of each month.

Without it being worded this way, your 5-day could be thrown out and you would have to start all over again, giving your freeloaded a few more weeks to mess with you!

Originally posted by Jason Becher:

Does anyone use any rent recovery service like the one advertised on the site?

Any opinions on if they are a good idea?

I have been using www.RentRecoveryService.com . You are not required to go to court and get a judgement to report them. It costs around $16 for them to send a letter to the tenant stating their file may be turned over to a collections agency. Also, they put a mark on their credit report that they are in Collections for moneys owed to you.

If the Tenant does not respond to your request for payment, you can turn it over to them to further try and make a collection. If you do that, they will then take 1/2 of the collection made and pay you the other half.

Honestly, I have never received any money back. However, for $16, I think it is money well spent to mark their credit report.

Tony

Here are my experiences:

1. No Application Fee
It costs me about $40 per person to run my checks (credit/criminal/eviction). So there is cost associated. Also, many people who weren't really interested applied because it was free and they had nothing to lose. Unfortunately, many weren't even close to qualifying. And others weren't really all that interested. The people who were more likely to be qualified and really were interested usually are willing to pay the $50 app fee I charge. I now tell them, "If you qualify and move-in, I'll give you your $50 back." This way, they still have 'nothing to lose'.

2. Referral Fees
Work well and I do them. Offer $500 Cash to the person who brings me a tenant who moves in. We don't wait to give it. I figure it's my responsibility to do the required checks. Plus, people want their money now.

3. Include 42" HDTV
Did this for a while. Surprisingly though, many people already had their own TV and didn't need one. I included it in the apartment for them to use while they lived there. When/if they moved out, the TV stayed. My cost was about $900...less than 1 month rent and I get to keep the TV for the next tenant.

4. Back to School Special
This is what I'm trying now...a Free Dell Laptop. Current Price at Best Buy $399....a lot less than a Free month of rent.

Keep the ideas coming...Thanks,

Tony

As of late my vacancy has increased a bit at my apartment complex. I'd like to hear some incentives others have offered to attract renters. How did they work for you?

I'm not a fan of offering 1 month free...everyone seems to do that.

Thanks,
Tony

I have used this for years:

http://grasshopper.com

It used to be called GotVmail.com . Great phone system...can do local or toll free. Can forward calls to numerous locations.

Check them out...I'm a huge fan!

Ok, well I got no response, but I thought I'd chime in....

After comparing the 2 sites, I chose BUILDIUM and I couldn't be happier.

Currently, Real Estate is not my full time job. I own a bunch of rental property and I have a resident manager to deal with the day to day items. My full time job has me out of town quite a bit. In the past, when I needed information and was out of town, I was often stuck until I returned to my office. Now, I can log on from any computer, in any city, and see my information. What a blessing this has become.

My manager can enter in work orders and I can review them. I can pay bills from anywhere. Soon, my tenants will be able to report problems online and pay their rent.

Buildium, unlike Propertyware, has the accounting program built in. I am not required to use any other software like Quick Books.

Cost was a big factor. Buildium costs me $330 for a year. Propertyware was going to run in excess of $1200! Buildium is a much simpler program to operate as well.

It isn't doing everything I would like, however, I've been told that they are very open to feedback and usually update the features based on your requests. I've made a few requests so far, and we'll see how they do. It is doing 95% of what I need it to do very well. There is a work-around for the rest, but I'd like to see them fix those as well.

I am recommending this company to everyone I know!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

-Tony

How well does berber clean as opposed to other types of carpet?

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions about putting vending machines in the building. I have some 6-unit building and wondering if there might be an opportunity for additional income. In addition to the usual stuff you could put in vending machines....pop, candy, microwave popcorn, etc.... I was thinking we could include things that tenants might need. Laundry Machine soap, Dryer sheets, Bar of Soap, Shampoo, toothpaste, etc. These are all things we sometimes run out of sometimes and need. Could serve a need and make some money in the process.

Thanks,
Tony