All Forum Posts by: Karl Hadley

@Tom Soule I tried the application once & had to revert back to paper, at least for candidates in my area it wasn’t user friendly enough & they give 0 tools to the landlords to help troubleshoot & help point out what tenants are missing to complete the application. I had about 15 people who attempted the process & only got 1 application all the way through vs my previous method which would have yielded 15 applications. I love the concept but for me, it’s not fit for purpose yet.

Personally I think it depends on your market, when I have vacancies I’ve been using Craigslist, Zillow Group (Hotpads, Zillow & Trulia) and recently Facebook.. I’ve found renters from each of the channels (which is why I use all of them), in my experience, Craigslist has decent volume but the folks are most likely to flake & not show up for viewings, Zillow has pretty solid flow & gives some good stats on views vs comps which is helpful if your testing pricing & in my area Facebook had the best volume (also a lot of property managers don’t seem to be using it yet) - I received over 50 contacts for my last rental & the integration with FB messenger made it pretty easy to address questions & schedule appointments.

@Stephanie D.  Personally I love the concept that Zillow came up with for the common application however for me, it's not fit for purpose yet.  I'd gladly accept an app if someone sent it through  & will look at this again in the future however for me, there is not enough information on application status to help folks when they encounter issues...  In my test using the app I ended up with multiple applicants fustrated thinking they had submitted apps & noting was sent to me.  Support took a couple of days to respond which was frustrated & created a lot of back and forth.

Payments, what issues did you have with e-rent?  I personally use Quickbooks Payments to allow tenants to submit ACH payments

Like most have said, it depends on your market & how often they're really needed... I have window units installed in 3 or my 4 properties in the Cleveland area, I've had one or two folks walk away when renting because there wasn't central AC but in the end, I've not had any issues renting out the units to qualified tenants.

Originally posted by @Vivian Huang:

@Karl B. Thanks Karl! Yeah, I'll probably head in that direction. To have them cosign, do I just have one or both parent fill out a rental application, and I just check their references and credit just as I would any normal tenant?

 I'm not familiar with California law (Assuming that is where you're located), but you may also want to include them on the lease, I had a similar situation with a tenant in Ohio where the parents prepaid rent, my attorney recommended including the parents on the lease vs just as cosigners.

Originally posted by @Quinton Childs:

@BJHenderson I hear you, it stung a little after his response but I pushed through the conversation. I will for sure keep making offers, I have 2 more appointments this week. Thanks again.

 As mentioned previously, logic doesn't always prevail over emotion, if the numbers don't add up, then keep pushing on.  I once had a NYC landlord in 2008 hang up & curse me out daily for a week when I asked for a rent reduction on renewal (1 bedrooms were renting cheaper than my studio & owner's were paying the brokers fees at that time).  In the end, the rent was reduced (not as low as I asked for), I didn't have to move & they kept a solid tenant for another year.

If you were to do a gut on the rental, how much more in rent to you expect to collect? I typically do only minor updates (fresh paint, new fixtures/carpet if needed, & outlets (to freshen the place up)) however on my last one I did a much more extensive update (flooring, doors, bathroom & kitchen) while expensive, I think I’ll make it back over the next 5 years because I was able to increase rent on the unit by over 50%.... I’m sure there are folks with more experience than me, but just wanted to share how I approached the decision.

I'd suggest 2 things, 1. Deliver an updated invoice with the late fees showing that it is past due, but in parallel also 2. begin the eviction process, I wouldn't worry about leaving a note or going into the property unless you have cause (water leaks etc).  Keep in mind it can take a while depending on your municipality to actually get control back of the unit, the longer you wait, the more money you're going to loose in unpaid rent & have to recover (if you so choose).

No, I don’t allow pets - I inherited the policy from my parents who mostly felt with buildings but after evicting the last set of tenants I inherited I will continue it... in the end the hardwood floors were so badley stained I couldn’t recover them and had to install laminate, the interior doors were destroyed from scratching and the access hatch to the crawl space required replacement as well... bottom line, they were not good tenants, even so the security deposit barley covers the damage... At the end of the day, what is the likely hood that damage will occur and that you can recover the damage?

@Brian Garlington and @Austin Tam - would love to hear where & what you guys have done in Cleveland, I have 4 duplexes there now & keep looking for more...