All Forum Posts by: Krystallin Baker

@Bryan Templin Glad you like it! Feel free to message me anytime if you have any questions. 

First, I'd make sure the professional you are hiring meets the EPA guidelines and recommendations for bed bug professional treatment. You can find all that good information here: 

https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/hiring-pest-management...

The EPA has a ton of good info on bed bugs that you can find along the sidebar of that webpage. Since I'm guessing you want nothing to do with this furniture, taking it apart or demoing it is an effective way to make it easier to remove from the property AND will deter anyone from dumpster diving and taking it later. 

Good luck!

That definitely will help your credit score, so long as you manage the card well. The total number of accounts or "tradelines" you have open affects your score. The more lines of credit you have, generally the higher credit score you will attain (again, this is contingent upon how well you manage those lines of credit, missing payments will turn these into negatives).

Be sure you shop around and find the absolute best fit before you apply for a credit card, though, as applications for credit cards will hit your credit with a "hard inquiry" which has a small negative effect upon your credit. One hard hit will be fine, but it isn't a great idea to apply for a bunch of credit cards at once. NerdWallet is a good resource online to check out side-by-side comparisons of credit cards. You can even choose what you want the most, i.e. low-interest rates, cash back, travel rewards, etc. 

Good luck! :) 

@Tony Castronovo I'm sure as the owner of the property you definitely do want tenants to take pride in it! :) I always try to imagine how I would feel if I did own the rental I live in and treat it with the same kind of care I would if I owned it. 

Have you thought about doing your application online? That is what my landlord does, and it saves us both time and the hassle of mailing things. Also, from a tenant perspective, I far prefer if my landlord uses something secure and online, as I feel wary of giving out personal identification information to someone I don't really know via paper. Online applications offer way better security for everyone involved. 

As a tenant, this is my goal. :) To have a landlord who visits me and leaves feeling happy! Congrats on the good tenant.

I think it's fantastic you are being that considerate. 7-7:30 seems like a completely reasonable hour to me, and as a tenant that would be far preferable to me over an early morning mow time! 

So here in Fort Collins, we actually have a strict occupancy limit, 3 unrelated adults, which makes it easy to enforce as it's an addendum that's required on all leases. Tenants see it and it's talked about during the lease signing that there can not be more than 3 unrelated adults at any one time living on the property.

It's also a good idea to have the "long-term guest" clause in your lease so your tenants can't claim they have a "guest" staying for 6 months.

Just because your city doesn't have an actual occupancy limit, you could create your own and put it in your lease that only X amount of people are allowed to permanently live on the property, and if they are found to be breaking that part of the contract the lease can be terminated or you can write in a per diem penalty. Our city fines owners $1000/day if found to be breaking this regulation, so you could make it stiff and just put that on the tenants should they break your terms.

You're in a good place to glean information. Nerves are natural. Just do your research, get to know your local landlord laws, and use tools available to make the process easier on you and less time-consuming. If you want any specific info on screening, applications, or leases, feel free to reach out to me via direct messages! I work with a slew of landlords, collectively our team has pretty much "seen it all" so to speak! :) Good luck! 

I live in a location where rentals are barely on the market before they are gone. Due to that, every time I have moved into a rental property here, it has been within a day or two of the previous tenants vacating (one time it was literally within hours of the previous tenant moving out). My landlords have always just asked to do repairs and maintenance after I moved in. Because I understand how fast rentals flip here, I have never had an issue with letting them in for repairs during the move-in process. If the projects aren't going to require a major inconvenience to your new tenants you might be able to get away with that! Good luck!