All Forum Posts by: Jim S.

It's time to give one of my tenants his walking papers. Would you word it "Please vacate the property by xxx". Or " You have until xxx to vacate the property". Would either sentence be any different to a judge?

Some I provide the mower.

I got quotes from a couple different lawn care people. They all said they mow every two weeks. Really?? Every two weeks. If they mow more that's extra. So I offer it to the tenants for less price and take it off the rent. Some places it's there responsibility to mow it. It gets mowed when it needs it not every two weeks.

Freshly painted looks nice. I hear people say this looks nice when I show it. There are a lot of dumpy slum lords around so renters like my places. I think multiple colors looks nicer but it's time consuming painting trim and you end up with more left over paint colors. Other LL mention freshly painted and any new updates as I do to.  Most people don't want to down grade when they move. You have to consider your competition.

I do white in the kitchen and bath. It really brightens up the room. Tan everywhere else. Everything is semi-gloss. I always have some left over so touch ups are a perfect match.

If you can fix it yourself it's usually cheaper to do so. Like he said a $10 part and a little of your time. If you have to have someone fix it for you then it CAN be cheaper/better to replace. If you buy appliances for $100 you are getting what you paid for, definitely NOT new. And how old is it?? What I see for $100 is 20 years old or older and isn't worth my time. We each do what is right for ourselves. Not knocking how anyone does things just adding my 2 cents. How old is old???

They might also leave more stuff for you to haul away when they leave.

A sign in the window only drew unwanted prospects. Facebook Marketplace never turned into any showings. Zillow & Craigslist work the best for me. Try all of them and see what works for you.

I have heard different people refer to different critters as gophers. Do you mean chipmunks? If so, you can use rat/mouse poison. Put some near by or down the hole. If you mean moles the only way I have had any luck is to use a trap. The traps need to be tended to daily. You can use stuff to sprinkle on the lawn that will kill the grubs that they eat and then the moles will leave. But when you stop with the sprinkles the grubs come back and then so do the moles.

@Steve I couldn't agree with you more. There is a lot of arm-chair landlords on here that won't spend one hour of their time a year or one dollar that they don't absolutely have to. They call it streamlining/automation.