All Forum Posts by: Kimberly H.

@Mandy Liu I know unicorporated Mchenry County has less rules than down here. Be careful about the pets; I rented one in McHenry county recently and like every other person had a pitbull. One person tried to sneak them in calling them "Staffordshire Terriors" and had a fit when I rejected his application.

@Jay P. I've never had any luck finding a collection agency willing to do it for a 3k claim, they only wanted to work with landlords who had way more properties, like 50 or 100 properties or something like that.

@Marc Belisle I don't think that I would hire a PM who told me that. I've known of to many people who never went in their rentals, and then by the time they did so much damage was done. The only time I had a tenant get upset with an inspection turns out had unpermitted animals in the house, and was smoking in the house. 

@Mushtaq G.   just make sure they sign something that acknowledges that if they change their mind, you keep the holding deposit. Either have two copies that you and they sign,  or a copy you and they sign and they take with after you take a readible picture of it on your phone.

Hi @Mandy Liu ,  I manage properties in the Chicago Suburbs.

Since you asking some basic questions, there is a post in this Landlord Forum about how to screen tenants you should check out. 

I can tell you from being in the same Chicago suburban area, there are a lot of people who I don't think will qualify anywhere that seem to be on the constant search for a landlord that will take them. Also, it takes like 20 emails from Trulia, Zillow, etc., before one of those people will even set up a showing.  So, I wouldn't stop advertising, showing or taking applications until you have a signed lease and at least a holding deposit equal to the security deposit. You should have your criteria in writing. You may also want to start prescreening before you show them the property, just ask them a few questions like how many total occupants will live in the home, is your credit score above or below whatever your threshold is, what is your total household verifiable income, and what pets do you have. That right there should weed out some of them. 

Don't assume any of these people will actually read the criteria in your ad. They don't.

There is no law in Illinois about having to do FIFO. Where is the house you are renting located? If it's in AH, I don't think that city has any special rules about that either. I wouldn't implement any deadlines ask you were asking above.  We usually give our association rules to tenants at lease signing. Unless they have any unusual rules, like pet restrictions or something, they probably don't need them in advance.

@William S. for future reference, we explain that as seasons change they should adjust the registers on each floor, open more upstairs and close some downstairs in the summer, and the reverse in the winter.  Doesn't totally fix the problem but it does help.  There are some people who have only lived in apartments before and really have no idea about these things.

@Dana Holland I just found an applicant lying on their application and rejected them today. We ask, has a landlord ever filed papers in court against you?, Have you ever been served with a 5 or 10 day notice? Have you been evicted? Answered all no's. Eviction report came back clean. 

Looked in the county docket and found an eviction filed just a week ago!

To verify the defendant in the eviction lawsuit was the same person as my applicant, through searching online I found a list of properties associated with the plaintiff  (real unique name). Matched one of the plaintiffs listed addresses to an address on my applicants credit report. Verified through county records that plaintiff does in fact still own the property. Of course this is not the address or landlord name the applicant claims to have been living at since he moved here from out of state 1.5 yrs ago.  Rejected!

If you want out of a contract I suggest you to speak to an attorney, and ASAP before you burn through any contingency timelines. Only a lawyer can give advice on a contract. Agents and managing broker are only allowed to fill in the blanks on the contract, they cannot give legal advice.

I am not a lawyer not legal advice but I am a managing broker, I have never seen a managing broker sign a contract. It's not required that the  agent it managing broker sign. Just buyer and  seller.

@Charles Campbell Yes, you'll need to work with an agent or perhaps a service that can get you on there for a nominal fee in your state. But it will probably cost you about 1 months rent.  For us, it's just a much easier way to get occupied properties shown.