All Forum Posts by: Jessica F.

Welcome to BP! You will find a lot of great resources on here. :) 

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! This is a great resource to answer any RE-related questions you may have.

Be careful with Fern Rock. If you are investing there to rent it out, I would say go for it esp. if it's for section 8 and you know what you are doing. Other than that, if you are expecting the area to appreciate, don't hold your breath. I grew up near Fern Rock and I now live in a neighboring area but Fern Rock has actually depreciated a bit if anything. It's not like South Philly and Fishtown (appreciating quickly). That may change in the future but not in the immediate term. Best of luck to you!

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!

Thank you guys so much for all of your great suggestions!

@Matthew Paul While that is a great (and hilarious) suggestion, I certainly do not have time (at 2am) to play such a loud recording and further disturb my sleep.

@Steve Olafson That is an idea...however, it's not a conversation or suggestion I want to have with my brand new tenant. That would be such an awkward moment...lol

@Account Closed  I will keep that approach in mind next time in case I need to use it. Besides, I don't think he's her boyfriend per se as much as a casual visitor who visits every so often LOL. I wouldn't even begin to know how to phrase that kind of statement. 

I thought about getting headphones but if they cancel out sound, they may prevent me from hearing a sound that I need to hear in the middle of the night or in an emergency like my bell, a smoke alarm or my cell phone etc. I don't want to drown out all sound--just hers. She has only occupied the property for just under two weeks so I can't gauge her as a great tenant or not yet. Trust me, it's not a conversation that I want to have with her or anyone else so I am only bringing it up as an issue because the noise level has become that much of an issue...

I will have to double check the city ordinance and see if there is a clause in there. Also, we are a semi-detached property (corner property) with the bedrooms facing the street side so I don't know if we will hear about neighbor complaints (they are too nice to ever complain around here) but I will keep an ear out to see if anyone hears it besides me.

Thanks for the advice guys. Much appreciated. @Melissa Melia @LeeArdis Brockington

I own a duplex and I occupy the 2nd floor. I have a tenant (single female) on the 1st floor who has only been there a few weeks and has sex quite loudly around 2am when I am trying to sleep after putting in a 12-16hr workday. The noise is quite loud and it is always wakes me up from my rest or does not allow me to fall asleep at all. The entire home has hardwood floors and yes, the walls are quite thin but I can deal with everything else except for the loud noises at night. It seems like I can hear everything and it's worse when the headboard and the bed starts moving as well.

Someone suggested putting carpet in the BR to muffle sound but the tenant is already moved in so that's not really an option for me at this point. I don't know if my walls are thinner than a typical home but I don't recall getting such an earful with the previous tenant who lived there. 

Please respond if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to deal with this situation or what I can say to express to the tenant in a kind way (if at all possible) to be courteous of your neighbors especially in the middle of the night and that I can hear everything so it would be great if she could keep it down.

I am looking for solutions, not sarcasm.

Thanks for your time.

It depends on the tenant. 

 Issue a notice to quit (this is required if you are evicting in PA because the judge will ask you to provide proof of a copy that you issued the letter to them) which typically is about 3 days to vacate. You can go to the court house and file an eviction notice the same day that you issue the notice to quit and you do not have to wait for the three days to be up. Most tenants (not all) do not want to be evicted and have it on their history so they will leave beforehand. However, some tenants are good at abusing the system and make the judge feel sorry for them and they can extend a tenants stay by several months if you are a dealing with a "professional squatter." 

From the day that you file for eviction downtown, they give you a court date which is typically around 30-60 days out (45 days is average in my experience). On the day of your court date, you have to attend your session and plead your case and bring necessary paperwork etc to support your case. I took a tenant to court last month and had the case thrown out because they never showed up to the court date.

To sum up, on a typical eviction case, I would say about 90 days from the date you file for eviction to get a tenant out of the house but in some cases, I have known it go a lot longer if the tenant has children or knows how to work the court system and have them push it out for several months or in some bizarre cases, a year.

Good luck.

Hi @Brian Yost Welcome to BP!

Welcome to BP! @Garrett M.