All Forum Posts by: Nathan Miller

If the late fee is in your agreement, they are violating the agreement and you should be able to terminate the lease (if you wish) based on that.  If they are refusing to pay them or refusing to honor any other part of the agreement, I'd be preparing an eviction notice.  I also do really like @Jennifer L.'s idea about waiving them if they signup for automatic ACH though.  Then neither of you have to worry about late payments and everything is automated.

Hi @Kirsten Cooke, was there a specific "bounce" reason?  Generally the only way a bank can chargeback a check like that is if the tenant files a fraud complaint with the bank.  If that happens you should be able to challenge the event and you should have also gotten some additional notice rather than just a deduction out of your account.  Contact your banker to find out for sure, they should be able to dig up more information.

Agree with @Account Closed - definitely change banks.  BofA is pretty much the worst.

A simple amendment would do I imagine that adds them to the lease and makes the additional party equally and jointly responsible for the rent.  Be sure to run a full compliment of background checks before they move in to make sure you aren't moving in anyone with real problems.  It's easy for landlords to obtain credit, criminal, and eviction reports and I recommend running them all and having the tenant pay for it.  That's very normal practice.

Hi @Christine Mwai - my experience with rental increases is to do small increases frequently rather than large increases every now and then.  Not only do you net more income in the long run with smaller more frequent increases, but it's also easier on the tenant.  If they get a 3% increase every year for example vs one huge 10% increase.  

Here's an excellent article @Kaycee Miller wrote about rent increases last year that is still a million percent relevant and covers everything from tenant rights, proper notice, and even backlash if they don't handle it well:

https://www.rentecdirect.com/blog/2015/08/how-to-raise-the-rent-on-your-tenants/

Just re-affirming what @Account Closed said, you can't really do background checks on international tenants.  Your best bet is to get prior landlord references and vet them very well.  If the person has spent any time at all in the US, it would still be a good idea though to run a check here just to be sure.  

Hi Sharon,

This rental is a business, so don't let personal feelings about the tenant interfere with treating it as a business.  If the tenant is reporting inaccurate and frivolous complaints that are costing you money, either bill them for them, or if your lease allows, raise the rent or provide notice and put somebody better in there.

That said, if any of the complaints are legit and the landlord's responsibility, do address them ASAP. 

Regarding the rodents at the HOA. If the rodents are coming from the common area, under the structure, or attic and are not being attracted by food or cleanliness issues of your tenant, it is likely that they are responsible. Getting them to address it may be another thing.

Great advice up above.  Just remember that just because a tenant puts a previous "landlord" down on their application doesn't mean it's really a landlord.  It might just be their uncle or best friend who is already primed to give them a solid reference.  Best practice is to compare their prior landlords with a public records report that shows prior addresses.  If things don't match up, you know there's something fishy going on.

Also, if they are living somewhere currently and use that landlord as a reference, take their reference with a grain of salt.  If that landlord wants them out of their house, they might just provide a good reference even if it's a terrible tenant so they can get rid of the tenant.

Be diligent and always screen new tenants!

I too use google voice too for rental purposes.  It's nice because you can shut it off when you can't receive calls.  And it works for text messages too in conjunction with google hangouts.  I really recommend google voice!

Hi @Josh C. - electing an LLC to be an S-Corp is indeed a very easy thing to do and for tax purposes it's treated as a S corp, which can help you mitigate some self-employment tax, usually not all though.  You still have to give yourself a reasonable salary if you are working for the company.

Keep in mind though, while it's easy to elect to be an s-corp, it's not easy to switch back to an LLC. You also have additional tax forms to file each year for the S-Corp. I would say, make sure electing to be an S-Corp saves you $5k+/year or more to make it worth-while and be sure the company is growing and will continue to grow for the next 5 years.

@Colleen F., I can say that most private investors have only one or two checking accounts, but it really depends on the number of properties or entities. For example, if they manage their properties in more than one LLC (or other corp), they'll have at least one per entity. If it's an investor that just owns a handful of properties personally, then usually one checking account.

I've seen some investors start with a separate account for each property, but in the long run that turns out to be too much of a hassle and most convert it all to just one account.

I think the real answer is to just use an accounting package that reports the way you need it to and that you understand.  Quickbooks is VERY heavy, but there are many investor friendly software applications out there that are much easier to use than QB.