All Forum Posts by: Julie Hartman

You cannot evict them for rent related matters- not in California. You will need to wait until the eviction moratorium ends to get them out. 

It depends what your lease states and the laws of your state as well as if you have any type of written policy about lag time between lease signing and paid move in funds. (I am not a lawyer). However, I would say you don't have to proceed with them. They have not paid any consideration for the property and therefore have not fulfilled the terms of the lease. In the future, I would recommend collecting the deposit at lease signing and then the rest at move-in in certified funds only. I would also have a written policy stating that an approved applicant has X amount of days to sign a lease and if they fail to do so then you keep the deposit. Of course this is all predicated on what your state laws are with regard to such things. 

I can't comment on your price because I am not familiar with your market but I wouldn't drop it yet if it puts you in a negative cash flow situation. When we get a stale listing, we sometimes try to sweeten the pot by advertising that we'll waive the app fee or we'll cover 2 months of cable/internet or something instead. Have you scouted the inventory in the area? Maybe there are many other properties available around you. We don't use FB marketplace but instead use Zillow + syndicates as well as Craigslist and we've always had good luck with those. We have a very active market in Denver though so we've not been in too many of these situations. Good luck! 

All of our tenants pay for water/sewer. And for the multi-family units where the HOA covers water/sewer/trash, we roll that cost into the rent. So if you are concerned about it, just include it in the rent. You should not be expected to pay for your tenants water use.

Did you write a good property description/ad? Are the photos good? Priced well? Sounds like you have the ad syndicating to all the most popular sites so that's probably not the issue. Whenever we don't get immediate traction on an ad, it's usually either priced too high or we have not allowed pets (everyone here seems to have a dog). Sometimes we chalk it up to the season since winter can be slow. However, two weeks without interest would be highly unusual. Send your ad link to a friend for constructive feedback. Maybe they will suggest improvements that may help.  

Read your lease regarding repair responsibility and then find the covenant of habitability laws of your state. Your landlord needs to provide hot water. 

I have been in PM for almost 11 years. There is never a dull moment and I learn something new everyday in this business. As you talk with different management companies, trust your instincts and I am sure you will find a PM that will do an excellent job for you. Good luck!

You may want to ask their screening criteria, how they handle emergencies during non-business hours, if they have a good network of reasonably priced service providers or on staff handyman, etc, how often they do inspections, do they do HVAC checks to make sure the furnace filter is getting changed (if applicable), what is their fee to obtain a tenant (in addition to monthly management fee), and what date do owner proceeds pay out each month.  

Congratulations on your first property! There isn't anything for you to do other than be available if they need anything from you. You need trust that the PM knows what they are doing. That's why you hired them in the first place. If the property is in a good area, is in satisfactory condition, and priced correctly, it will rent. 

Don't do it. Just like @Nathan Fisher said, red flags are red flags. You don't want to be stuck with her, especially right now.