All Forum Posts by: MarieChele Porter

@April Banda

I hadn't heard of them but just requested to join thank you!

Hi all,

I put my house on the market for rent 12/31 and have already received upwards of 50 inquiries.... This has lit a fire under me like no other.. I wish I had more houses to offer !! I have these thoughts of omg people are actually excited about moving in my home and paying my mortgage for me !! Yessss, I have been pre-screening tenants and hearing so many stories so it keeps me humble... 

Some questions that have came up though... 50 leads I only have one house !! I finally just stopped marketing it on most websites this evening as I feel like I'm already going to have to turn a lot of people away. Through pre-screening I've been able to ditch some of the people that are just playing around and also those that don't qualify for whatever reason.  My question is should I have kept marketing it? When do you stop marketing? Do you get to a certain number of people and stop or do you continue until the house is filled? I won't be able to show it until Wednesday so that's a part of the reason I pulled marketing. I have to thank the forums because the biggest amount of leads came from turbo tenant which is a site I learned about through here.

Another question is with how many leads I have I feel like I will have a ton of people I have to deny. I am not letting people apply until after the showings btw... How do you decide who to deny? I want to follow the rules to the T to make sure I am not breaking any laws but I just wonder if it comes down to 2 tenants that are both equally qualified do I just pick the one I like better? Or that I feel is the most responsible? What are some good tips? I'm in Fresno, California and if any one knows CA it is tenant friendly so I just want to make sure I'm crossing "T" and dotting "I's"

Last question, the central valley is heavy with immigrants. Is it possible to screen a tenant properly that doesn't have a SSN?

Thank you,

MarieChele

@Deepa Jan

Hello I'm soon to be in Fresno feel free to dm questions and connect...

Did you find out the answer? I'm searching for questions on using them as well.

I definitely like that idea and will see which of his ideas work best for me. I've definitely been in homes with numerous people that you here use the words "let the water run we don't pay for it anyway" so that wasn't an option for me...  

Ahh this is such good information I never thought of dividing it up by room numbers and didn't know about the equal billing either! I will make some phone calls to the utility companies and ask about this to see what's the best choice. Thank you for your input!

I did at first but then I ditched the extra expense as I could hardly keep up with 1 phone and got a google voice number. It works for me and it's no extra cost. You can also pick whichever area code you'd like so that if you are not you can appear local to your investment area.

Hey BP,

Happy New Year

I am in process of renting out my first house hack but I'm not sure of how to split the utilities. It is a single family home with attached in law suite but no separate gas or electric meters. I realize that even though this is a single family home I can't have them pay all the utilities on their own. The SFH is a 3b2b and the in law is 1b1b. Logically, the people in the SFH will use most of the utilities being that it will most likely be a family.

My thoughts were to keep all the utilities in my name and do some sort of bill back on the next months rent with the in law paying either a flat rate or a lower amount of the costs. So my questions are, should I keep the utilities in my name? How should I separate utility costs? What have you done in a situation like this? Or should I have both tenants pay a flat rate and I eat the overages? Just trying to be fair while keeping in mind my own costs.

Thank you,

MarieChele

@Sue K.

I spoke with the water company and tried to get a breakdown of costs... Fresno includes water, sewer, garbage, and another fee I can't remember the name... I asked about pricing for water and sewage and the lady didn't really give me an answer but she did look at previous bills and tell me what the previous owners were paying... Being that I have yet to own my house for even a week I I won't know what the full breakdown is on the bill until I receive the first one... The only thing I can do is take her estimate from the previous owners for now...

@Mark Pestorich

I literally just closed yesterday so I have to find a tenant and see what the real numbers are... Everything penciled out really well but I'll have to see in real life if I got all my numbers right... I'm not 100% sure of the neighborhood name honestly I'll get back to you on that one lol it is technically a sfh that has a 1b1b mother in law attached... That really helped the numbers and I'll be looking for tenants for the front house which is a 3b2b...