All Forum Posts by: Mike F.

Have to agree, anybody who thinks a gift is going to fix their bad screening process and turn the bad tenant they shouldn't have rented to into a good one, or make a good tenant think twice from going bad has much bigger problems.  This is a business and the relationship is tenant owes landlord for the privilege of being allowed to rent their property. This is not about equality, it's a relationship of inferior to superior with the tenant on the inferior end of it. Level that playing field or make this a friendship and watch your tenants attitude change and entitlement creep in.

Yes, it's called the key to the unit.  This is a business transaction not dating.

You seem young so I'd recommend you get a lot more aggressive. 6% returns are in my opinion a really low goal to be shooting for. You can do way better than that in the stock market but it will take a lot more risk, understanding cyclicals and cycles can be much more profitable with a manageable risk, for instance there is a repeated cycle right now involving oil that in the next year or two will yield tremendously larger than 6% returns.

If you're not comfortable with more risk in stocks I suggest you go full in on real estate, again you should get better than 6% returns with real estate. 

I personally think at your age and with what you are working with financially you are two diversified, which while safer, yields too low of returns at your age and stage, Get aggressive this is the time in your life to rack up some home runs instead of already being too conservative and looking at bunts and walks.

Typically the least you have to do is cap the fireplace chimney to make it weather proof/animal proof, then it's the structure/cosmetics of the room it's in, how much do you need to demo in order to drywall over it to make it disappear.

I don't know about automating garage doors and locks, but internet thermostats have been around for years and years, you said you have been researching it what are you finding?

To everybody citing fair housing law you're assuming that someone is forcing someone to do something they don't want to do.

You can ask a tenant to pay you in $1 bills hand delivered only on a Tuesday, meeting you in McDonalds every month, each folded in half and numbered with yellow post it notes with their name on each one if you want. If the tenant says yes  laws aren't involved between you and a tenant who agrees and couldn't careless.

Run your business like a business, treat your tenants like customers and ask the right way and you can have your customers operate in ways that make your life easier.

There is a big difference from :

"Hey, Moron, tomorrow you start paying me with ACH GOT IT D-bag?"

and

"Hey, just wanted to check in with you, it's been awhile since we've talked is everything going well with the unit? Anything needing any attention? No, Great, hey by the way we are going to implement a new payment system that is going to make things so much easier for everyone, especially you guys, it's paying by ACH, have you heard of it? let me tell you about it..."

You contact your tenants first and explain to them that as of X date you are switching over rent collections to a new ACH system.  Additionally you explain that tomorrow you will be sent an email from the system and tell them to respond to it and get signed up.

That's not an invitation. That's directions from you and a follow up email from cozy they will be expecting. 

Any prospective tenant that even attempted to provide a new clause for a my lease would never end up being a tenant.

Outside of real estate in my business we use a contract over and over again, hundreds and hundreds of times a year. In the last 10 years I've had 5-6 potential customers (all lawyers) want to modify the contract. They have two choices, accept it as is or we walk away. Our contracts are to protect our interests not the customers.

If you're new and you think there might be something funky in your lease hire an attorney to review your lease, DO NOT let a tenant do it no matter what. Your lease has to be legally fair to your tenant but it doesn't have to be worded to your tenants advantage.

Luckily we have no laws saying tenants don't have to pay when the rent is due. 

Grace period on every lease we do is 'there is no grace period" 

Why tell a tenant that the rent is due on the 1st, but if you really want to, just pay it on the 5th if you want, I've never really understood the logic behind offering somebody the ability to pay anytime they want over a 5 day period.

Did the one that showed up have a "Kill my Landlord" tee shirt with Eddie Murphy on it? Until you get one like that show up you haven't lived yet.