All Forum Posts by: Karl B.

I would document the noise VIA video or have the complaining tenant document the animal noise so you can see how disruptive it truly is. 

If you agree it's disruptive enough you can file a notice to quit on the tenant or whatever you deem is right that coincides with your local law. If the issue continues I would file to evict, but would be certain to have numerous videos to show the judge the noise is both regular and disruptive.

Hello. If there's a tenant with solid credit and not enough income or enough income but not high enough credit (but zero evictions - perhaps they're simply young and haven't built credit or are still in school) see if they can get a co-signer who meets your credit/income criteria. 

Every time I've had a co-signer (the co-signer is typically a parent, sibling or grandparent) I've had zero issues. All tenants were under the age of 25 and simply didn't have a lot of credit and/or income but all are/were great tenants; I simply needed the co-signer to meet both the credit and/or income requirement. 

File the eviction paperwork now. The sooner you get them out the sooner you can rent the place to a tenant who pays you. 

OK here's my list:

-Know the typical investor terminology: 2% rule, etc. An amazing amount of RE agents don't know what the 1%/2% rule is. 

-Bring deals to RE investors based on their investment parameters. I've bought properties from RE agents and asked them to send me more similar deals in the future. They'll either A) Disappear (which is silly as one would think they'd want a potential 'repeat customer') or B) The ones who do bring me deals send me deals send me ones that don't meet my parameters. 

-Send them a Christmas card once a year (most RE agents in general don't do this; the agent who sold me my house in L.A. did this and guess who sold my house when it was time for me to move? Her!). The agent also had a picnic every summer which was a cool idea. I was always out of town or busy but the fact she had a gathering with her buyers/sellers she had worked with over the years was a really neat idea. 

There are some other good ideas already mentioned like have a list of good tradespeople who do good work at a good price. That's gold to an investor. 

Me personally, I would have checked his criminal record and if it came back looking good I would have simply added him onto the lease and raised the rent a few hundred a month to cover the extra water usage/wear-and-tear/etc. so I'd feel better about the fact the tenant didn't obey the lease.

If you own multi-family properties, check the water meter regularly to spot potential leaks. 

If the seller promises to make repairs, always view the property prior to closing to make certain the repairs were made

I think it's a cool idea. Giving an employee below-market rent will increase the chances of them containing to work for you. 

It also gives the employer a way to hire talented non-local employees; if the employer gives them a place to live it's a sure-thing - unlike simply hoping the potential hire can find a place in a low inventory rental market. 

*watches the trailer*

Well that was terrifying. I reckon one advantage of having a solid lease is not letting the tenant(s) have randoms they don't know move in at a later date. 

Honestly, if you have a trusted friend/family member in the area they can likely do a better job at placing a good, solid tenant. I've seen brokers and PM companies place tenants who were obviously really bad on paper (prior evictions, low credit).

If you want to go the PM route as you would rather pay 10% than deal with hearing from a tenant from time to time, then be certain to read online reviews. Just be aware that it's super easy for PM companies to get fake Google reviews and I've seen PM companies write their own reviews (weird how all their reviews were by reviewers who have only ever written one review total on their Google account). Yelp reviews are harder to fake and in a large city like Chicago there should be a good amount of Chicago companies that have a few Yelp reviews each.

I would also definitely recommend contacting some Chicago-local BPers and asking if they have worked with any brokers/PMs who have performed well. 

The tenants I've placed the past few years have been much better than my inherited tenants. 

Another benefit of getting a vacant unit is you have a chance to fix EVERYTHING = the good tenant you placed continues being a good, happy tenant as he/she won't be calling you frustrated to fix all the things the prior owner didn't repair or replace.