All Forum Posts by: Kylynne Kennedy

@scottmac thank you for your suggestions! we do not want to install a cat door. We do not want indoor outdoor pets in our properties. The only reason they are allowed to currently have the cats outdoors is because they were already doing this when we took over the property and we knew there would be no way we could force them to stop allowing their cats to go outside. We do not appreciate how cats that are outdoors wander around other people’s property and do not want anything to do with our tenants animals being in someone else’s yard other than the tenants, thus, this is not allowed in any of our other units. We have dealt with flea infestations before and they can get out of hand very quickly. We have tried all methods, and nothing has worked to completely eliminate them without having to months and months of continuous treatment. Our dog is treated, we do not want them spreading to our side, or our neighbors animals since the tenants cats go outside and wander everywhere. Continuous treatment is also not an option because when they move out, we want to be able to re-rent the place as soon as possible.

@amybeth thank you for your input! Our dog is treated, we are just concerned that the fleas will spread to our brand new carpet and then begin to spread to her. We have had dogs before that were treated, but still had fleas. We are also worried about the problem worsening and becoming a problem for future tenants. To mitigate this becoming a huge issue, I think we are just not going to renew their lease and then have our pest guy spray for the fleas. We may even replace the carpet, just to be sure that future tenants do not have any issues with fleas upon moving in. 

@Jill F. thank you for your input! We do plan to take the cost of getting rid of the fleas out of their security deposit. We have treated our dog, our side and will be treating the yard in the next couple of days.

@Jonathan W. thank you for your input! We were only going to renew because we were hoping to be able to finish renovating our side before we had a vacancy and renewing with them would buy us more time. We were planning to go month to month though, in order to be able to have them vacate when we were ready. In light of the new scenario, we think we are ready to have them move out now. We do not want to take the chance at the fleas getting worse on their side and having an even harder time eradicating them, or worse, for them to spread to our side. Flea infestations can be impossible to get rid of, having dealt with them before. Their lease states that they are held responsible for any damage above normal wear and tear, which fleas would fall into that category, so getting rid of them will come out of their deposit. After dealing with them and the issues mentioned, we have since edited our lease to put in place more rules preventing this type of behavior. We had no idea they were like this until shortly after we had them sign a lease back in February after we bought the place. 

We are big fans of the forums and we love to absorb as much as we can but we are in a situation that we feel needs a post.

We own a duplex and live in one side with our dog. The tenants on the other side are inherited from when we bought the property. We have had issues with them since we took over. They have been difficult when it comes to scheduling repairs. They act like they are the ones in charge and running the show and are very disrespectful of our requests for maintenance and cleanliness of the property. They have indoor/outdoor cats, which we do not allow in our rentals, but since they were inherited and this was previously allowed, we didn’t want to ask them to stop allowing their cats to go outside. They aren’t destructive to the property, they just wander all over our side of the property and all around other neighbors properties, which we do not like. They leave their garage door cracked open at night and for days at a time when they are away. We have asked them to keep it closed at night, due to rodents and other pests being seen around the property (we are surrounded by wooded areas), and due to the recommendation of our pest control guy. They gave us a run around answer about how they would not keep the garage door closed if their cats were out because they needed a place to go, and that they “would let us know if they do begin to see any pests, but in the 2+ years they’ve lived here, they never have”. Now, we just found out that they have fleas on their side of the duplex. Their lease is up for renewal at the end of the month. We were going to renew it, and we have their intent to renew form, just to allow us more time to complete the renovations on our side before having them move out and renovating their side. We do not have a new lease signed yet, and our current lease states that it ends and does NOT go month to month automatically on July 31. Also, the state of Washington does not require us to give notice to not renew. However, now that we know they have fleas, we do not want to renew their lease. We want to have them move out at the end of the month and be able to rip out all of the carpet and renovate their side, and rent it to new and more respectful tenants. We also would like to ask them to make the cats stay inside for the remainder of their lease, so they do not carry the fleas over to our side of the property and to our dog. Are we bad landlords or bad people for making them keep their cats inside and for not wanting to renew their lease due to this issue?! What would you do in this situation?

Sorry for the long and choppy post.

@Tyler Barranger We own a house currently and plan to rent it out in the coming years. We are looking to do buy and hold long term. We are going to wait a couple of years before getting started in Washington. We will first be getting started on the east coast in our home town, where we have family there that will be assisting us in getting started and running everything for us so we can manage from a distance. When we begin investing in Washington, we plan to acquire more properties including a possible 2-4 unit multi-family home to buy and hold and manage ourselves starting out.

Hi. My husband and I are new to investing and are looking to get started later this year. We are in the Puyallup, Washington area. We are new to the forum and we’ve been listening to the podcasts for a couple of months now. We are hooked! We are looking for some information as we get started in this journey. We are looking for a good financial advisor in our area, we have some retirement/401k questions. We want to get started in our local area in November by participating in the tax sale. If anyone has any helpful information on researching properties, participating in the Pierce County (or any other local county) tax sales, and options for what can be done with the properties if we get one (maybe some options we haven’t thought of yet), that would be very helpful. We are also looking into getting our real estate licenses. We want to rent out our current in the next few years. We have read that you cannot self manage, or manage properties in general, without a real estate license in the state of Washington. If anyone has any information on this topic as well, that would be appreciated. Thank you!