All Forum Posts by: Kimberly H.

We find some people use realtors to find rentals, and they don't look at the oneline websites since they are using a realtor. So getting them into MLS may help.

I would not lower the security deposit.

Given they have credit scores that are that high, I wouldn't worry about them to much. Be sure to "train your tenants" on your expectations at lease signing, Seattle has some of the most tenant-sided laws of anywhere so what they are used to out there won't fly here.  And definitely get that letter of intent from the employer, and then verify it with the employer.

@Edward Briley that is crazy to me that a tenant could take appliances and get away with it scott free just because the appliances are fully depreciated.  I wonder if the judge had been presented with their resale value if he would have included that.

We had a tenant who moved out in the middle of the night leaving that months rent unpaid and damages due to smoking and unpermitted pet. It has just been rehabbed 10 months before.

We knew there was no point to take it to court (she worked for her dads company and I doubted he would garnish her wages) but we were able to get it on her credit report.  There are companies that will help you go after the money and will put it on their report, so long as you have enough identifying info on the tenant (I believe legal name, soc, and DOB). One company is icsystems dot com, the other is National Tenant Network. You don't even need a judgement to use the services, just some sort of proof where if the tenant disputes the charge. 

Many landlords require renters insurance, and that they either be added to the policy or be additional interest, for the purposes of being notified when it is canceled.  Although usually for less than $100,000 worth of stuff. And for liablity which I believe may start at 1M.

I would look at the county records and see if they are up to date on their property taxes and verify that the house is paid off (release of mortgage). If you see any indication that they lied do not move forward.

@Angela McCall I also use erentpayment and am aware of the entire erentpayment issue from early October. They are the only company I am aware of that meets our needs of having one account that can handle multiple LLC checking accounts, ability to auto add late fees, allow you to block payment if you are evicting, allow for every other week rental payments, and many other features.

I cannot say that I can recommend them because although the October situation was not caused by their action but by a situation with their payment processor, and they have switched from using ACH payment processors to a direct bank relationship, their communication about the problem was *horrible*, there are still many landlords trying to get their rent money, and the process to do so is time consuming and requires the tenant to file a form with their bank.  

In our area it can take several months to get an eviction, and getting a payment from a tenant will cause the whole entire process to need to be started all over again. You can't stop a  payment if you have given a tenant your bank info, or use a process that doesn't allow you to block a tenant payment, unless you close the account. May not be an issue for a landlord with one rental, but is when you have more than several rentals.

Get a seperate google voice number that forwards to you. You want them to be able to get a hold of you if there is an emergency like a plumbing leak causing a flood; in my experience tenants don't remember how to shut off the water even though I show them all how.

Ditto on online applications, makes it so much easier, no drama trying to meet to collect app fees.

Requiring renters insurance discrimitory? Another reason I am glad I don't have rentals in MA