All Forum Posts by: John Lamb

Thanks everyone for the input. I had no idea I'd get all of these responses based on a cat, haha. I did reach out to the tenant and asked if she was thinking of getting another cat. I also told her that if she doesn't get a new cat, then I would be willing to reduce the rent. As for the deposit I told her that I would need to inspect the property first. She was appreciative of my willing to work with her. She is going to keep paying the original rent as she might get a cat later.

@Josue Vargas yes that is what I plan on doing. Inspecting the property now that she no longer has the cat to see if she can get the pet deposit back. I will be reducing the monthly rent as well once I know she doesn't plan on getting a new cat.

Stewart, that is a good suggestion for how I should write my contracts going forward about how much extra it will be per pet.

The lease right now just says $1120 per month. I advertised it for $1100 and charged $20 more for the cat. The lease is written to allow for 1 cat, but it doesn't specify that the extra $20 per month was due to the cat.

One of my tenants signed a year lease and she agreed to pay a little more in rent since she had a cat. A few months into the lease, she notified me that her cat died. Am I obligated to lower the rent since she no longer has the pet?

@Mitch Price I just finished going through this whole process with a new tenant who is on Section 8. Your first step will be to list the property to the Section 8 community. You can do this at https://www.socialserve.com/login/ or https://www.gosection8.com/. Use the Go Section 8 website to also check the rent estimator so you can see what rent is going for in your neighborhood. It's a pretty nice feature.

When I listed my property on these websites, I had prospective tenants calling me within minutes. So to answer your question, it's your job to screen the tenants (Housing Authority encourages you to do this). I sent all the prospective tenants a rental application and told them the application cost for background check (don't do a credit check, as they won't have good credit). I then told all of then what time I would be at the property, and of all the applicants that called, only one showed up at the property. Make sure the tenant has their voucher and the Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA) papers, which you complete as the landlord. You have to turn that packet in, along with an unsigned copy of the lease agreement to the housing authority. This process took about 1 week for approval, and after that is when the Housing Authority will reach out to you to schedule the inspection. It took a few days for the inspector to come out to the property, and he was in and out in 30 minutes. They are mainly looking for health and safety issues, and there should be a checklist on your cities housing authority website. I did have to fix a few items and text pictures to the inspector, but he passed me that same day. The tenant was then able to move in that same day and start collecting rent. I will say I'm still waiting to get my first rent payment from the actual Housing Authority, and they said that new applications can take up to 60 days to get processed. So you could be waiting a little while to get the pro-rated rent from the Housing Authority, but the tenant still has to pay you on time. 

From the time I first listed the property until the tenant moved in and paid rent and the security deposit was 2 weeks.

@Doug McVinua Thank you for the information. I did deliver the 5 day notice to the tenant since no rent has been received. While I was there, the tenant was starting to pack up and did tell me they will be out by the agreed upon date. So I'm hoping that this is a step in the right direction.

I purchased a property from a wholeseller that has a tenant in place. The contract said there is a 10 day post-possession to allow the tenant time to move. After talking with the tenant they are making every excuse for not being close to moving (junk in the house/yard, 7 cats, can't find a place). They only have a few more days to be out of the property, so I'm concerned that they won't be out on the agreed upon date. Because this is an inherited tenant, and I won't be renting to them, I don't have a lease agreement in place. The contract I signed was between the seller and myself, so how can I enforce the post-possession date for when the tenants have to be out? 

I'm looking at purchasing a property from a wholesale company but the current owner will have a 30 day post-possession closing in order for them to find a new place to live. When I called the wholesale company, they said the post-possession is built into the purchase price (not sure what that means). Only after the 30 days would the owner be charged $250 per day.

Because the seller is the wholesale company, I don't seem to be able to collect a security deposit or rent for the 30 days the owner will still be in the property after the closing. Other than trying to negotiate a lower sales price, I don't see that I as the buyer am protected much while the owners are still in the property. From the pictures I've seen of the property (trying to get access to go inside), the place looks pretty clean and taken care of.

Has anyone purchased a property from a wholesale company where the owners had a post-possession agreement like this? If so, how did you work that out with the wholesale company and/or the owner?

@Doug McVinua Thanks for the info. I will check them out.

I just purchased my first rental property and want to be prepared if and when the time comes to evict the tenant. I inherited this tenant, and she wants to stay in the home with her kids, so I signed a new lease with her. Anyway, just in case the time comes to evict, I want to have everything ready to go. Does anyone in AZ (Maricopa County) have an eviction attorney that they would recommend?