All Forum Posts by: Julie Hartman

Did you phone screen her first? She doesn't even meet the income requirement of 3x rent so I would not proceed with her. I would set a minimum credit score and stick to it as much as possible. If you like everything else about an applicant but the credit is short, you can always ask for a larger deposit but with the eviction moratorium, I would not take a chance right now. Surely there is a better applicant out there for this property. 

I am not an investor but am here to fly the flag for the small PM companies. I work for a very small outfit and we pride ourselves on our personal level of service. If you pull out any of my property files and tell me the address, I can tell you the names of the tenants, their kids, and pets - without looking. Can a big PM company say that? I doubt it. When my phone buzzes at 1:00am, its on my night table and I respond to it. When one of our tenants has a baby, we send a gift. We can do those things because we are small and can give a level of attention that larger companies may not. Sometimes we get overlooked because we are not part of NARPM - its very costly for a small company like ours. We still do our continuing education and stay up to date on laws, etc. 

@Mike S. I totally understand. We are very small PM company (emphasis on small). We have also had challenges finding reputable and reasonable handymen. There aren't that many of them to go around and the ones that will do it, know they are in short supply so they can afford to be picky and pricey. Try calling CS Home Solutions in Denver and talk with them about what you have. You never know, they may be a good fit for you. 

The market rents in Denver have been increasing for several years so you don't have to justify to this prospect that you want or need to increase the rent. She should have to go through the same vetting process as any other tenant. The fact that the outgoing tenant knows her is nice but she still needs to qualify (income at 3x rent, minimum credit score, verifiable employment). I would talk to her and as you ask her questions about her qualifications let her know the market rent is increasing. If you really like her you could split the difference but don't take a loss just because she's a friend of a friend. Anyone looking for a place to live knows that other people have stuff so it's normal to view a property while it is occupied by someone else; that's part of the process. We usually turn over our properties within 24 hours because we require the outgoing tenant to clean and clean the carpet; this makes the process faster. If they don't, then we schedule it to be done quickly to avoid even one day vacancy. We have a handyman that does the repairs quickly. Not all repairs have to be done before a tenant moves in. It's typical for a new tenant to find things that need fixing, so we often wait until they are settled and have the handyman there to do it all on the same day; this also saves trip charges. This also assumes there is nothing major. If there is, then you can negotiate a delayed lease start with the incoming tenant if necessary. You may also need to work out any utility proration with the outgoing and incoming tenants. It will all work out fine, don't worry. Good luck!

This is absolutely NOT normal or acceptable. Any calls or emails from tenants or owners about possible damage should be handled same day or the next day at the latest. If one of our owners calls or emails and I have not responded within an hour or two, I consider it a failure on my part. Find a new property manager asap!

Most likely you will need to revert back to your original lease for the terms on giving notice and/or breaking your lease. If you vacate prior to November 2021 then you are most likely breaking your lease agreement and I would bet that incurs a penalty. Are you dealing with a property manager or a landlord (owner)? They can't just keep your deposit for no reason, most states have laws about how the deposit is handled. 

You will need to check the laws of your state but you should be able to evict for lease violations other than non-payment of rent. 

We use the actual month we're in at the time of the proration. 

You will need to check the laws of your state with regard to abandoned property because every state is different. With that said, I would send them a notice that since they appear to be moved out and you have not heard from them, their items will be treated as abandoned property and dealt with per the lease. You will most likely need to do as @Greg Scott said and put items in storage until abandonment period is passed if you want to turn the unit over quickly. Make sure you take a lot of photos of their items so they can't claim the house was filled with gold bars. Good luck!

Ring is by far better than Arlo. I have both at my own home and the Arlo runs out of battery too quickly plus the batteries are really expensive. I believe the Ring fee is not required unless you want to have it save the videos but you can use it in "real time" without the fee. They are easy to install and have many user control settings for flexibility. You can also do add-ons easily within the ecosystem.