All Forum Posts by: Marcus Johnson

I'll respond to your question of properties, tenant matches and management.  First off this property is located in a trendy, millenial, good school district, clean neighborhood, low crime, close to public transit, good walking paths and to a popular tourist attraction.  So when I listed both units on Craigslist I had somewhere between 30 to 40 showings and through the tenant screening company I used to perform the background check, the employment history, the credit check and so on, I was able to hand pick based on the evidence before me who I'd choose to inhabit the units.   Therefore I am able to tenant match as your say very thouroughly.   As for management, that is me.  I  do everything.   In fact my service is so good to these tenants that they thank me and apoligize all the time for the help they need, such as locking themselves out or having a furnace problem.  their needs are taken care of faster then any PM could every do and better.  

 Dude your still not getting it.  My former tenants were grandfathered into a lease when I purchased the Duplex back in early 2013, so when their leases were up I screened them and was able to resign them without delays.   Then as I stated early one of them got a job in another state which a screening process won't pick up and the other's decided to buy a home which a screening process wont fix.   The reason I posted this topic is that one of my tenants who had been great for 2 years and signed an early termination letter and paid two months of the remaining lease,  suddenly lost his mind or something and trashed the place when he left, plus decided not to move out on the last day just to be a jerk.  Luckily I got him to pay the last  So I did my final inspection on the unit and deducted the damages and returned the remaining deposit.  Luckily I was planning on renovating this unit, plus I didn't lose rent for a vacany due to him paying the last two months of his lease.  But what would have happened if the new tenants were expecting to move in the next morning?  So no, I don't consider this frequent turnovers with such a small sample size for anyone to make assumptions.  

Luckily I have two new tenants in each unit that are signed for longer terms and I screened them using a profesional service, so I am confident that I made the right choice.  

I disagree.   Two years with the same tenant is better mathematically and finacially, because if your having to change out your tenants yearly, that's twice the amount of vacancies, if your using a PM then you'll have to pay them twice the amount of rent for the first month (Renter's Warehouse requires 1 month rent for example), if your managing the property yourself then that's twice the amount of showings at least and that's time which equals money, then there's twice the amount of maintenance to turn the property over for the next renter, etc......   

 Makes sense, I'll check my lease.  

ok so what your saying is you don't think a tenant could overstay his welcome no matter how good of a tenant they were during the lease term and then you have to evict them?   What do the new tenants do if this should happen and they are expecting a place to live.   I'll need to check my state laws I guess.   

As for my tenants leaving after 12 months, that has never happened.   My previous tenants of both units stayed for over 2 years.   

The other question that may not have been clear to you was, if the tenants lease ends on June 30th, and the new tenants are expecting to move in the next day, your assumption is that you'll have the unit 100% ready by morning?   

@Mike F.undefined

So are you saying with your tenants then that when the last day of your tenants end you have the the unit ready for the next day for a new tenant and never have a vacant month?

If you read my post I never said I have new tenants every year?   My first two tenants in my duplex stayed two years and one got a job in another state and the other wanted to buy a house, so no my screening process is just fine thank you very much.  

Does this mean then as investors we should all expect 1 month vacany a year if we are doing 1 year leases and need to properly clean and inspect and show the unit to the next prospectus tenant?  And also not fall into the possible trap of tenants not willing to move out ontime, meanwhile the next tenants have already been signed and now have no where to live.  

So I've heard on this forum once before that many Landlords will have a vacant rental for 1 month after the former tenants move out so that they can clean and show the place for the next prospective tenants.  My duplex rental is on it's 3rd lease of tenants and so far I haven't had that gap, but it has come to my attention that if you continue to practice your business this way eventually you'll create a problem where the current tenants overstay their lease or you don't have time to adequately clean and repair your unit between renters.   

So the next question is if you do indeed have a month's gap between tenants, then how are you dealing with year leases where every year you jump a month.  For example if your previous lease was a year and started in July, the next year the year lease would start in August and so on.  So eventually you'll be trying to find a tenant November or December when the number of potential renters is of lowest demand.  

So what is the proper way to transistion from one tenant to another in a years lease?