All Forum Posts by: Wesley W.

I use Leon Levy with Berkshire Hathaway.   He's very investor friendly. He knows the deal.  PM me if your Google search doesn't yield his contact info. 

Does anyone here have a tenant whose rent gets paid through DSS? I want to verify something I was told today.  

I have a tenant that gets part of their rent paid through Albany County DSS.  The frustrating part is the vouchers are not sent out until the last wednesday of the month.  Which means, I'll expect to get the voucher at the end of the week or early next.  THEN, I have to sign it and send it back.  If I catch the letters in my PO Box on the same day they are delivered (I do not check it every day), I am still looking at a minimum of two weeks late for the rent payment.

What I would like to verify is what the Albany County DSS accounting department told me today.  That is, "the state" controls when the vouchers are sent out, and the counties have no local control over it.  If that is the case, then every landlord across NYS should be getting their rent paid weeks late through DSS.  

Please share your county of business and whether or not this is in fact the case in your locale.  Thanks in advance!

This program is set up to obviously disincentivize landlords from participating.  They don't do direct deposit (my lease requires payments be made to the bank, not mailed to me), and they send out the vouchers at the end of the month, so your rent payment will always be weeks late.  This is unacceptable to me for my business, so I am just doing a bit of research before I (a) call BS on their claim at the county level, or (b) terminate this tenancy.

Thanks in advance!

I charge a $100 fee.  In addition, I have a very detailed move-out charge sheet (issued upon lease signing/move in) that also charges for lack of "broom swept" condition.  In the lease I also have an itemized list of cleaning tasks to be completed upon move out; this corroborates with the move-out charge sheet.

Since I issue only MTM leases, the non-refundable fee also allows me to absorb costs of turnovers based on the tenant's length of residency.  If they move out in 3 months, it helps me defray those unexpected turnover costs;  if they stay for years, that $100 is amortized over the length of their tenancy.

I instituted this fee because, as some have mentioned, tenants' idea of clean is different from mine.  I was finding that I was still needing to clean quite a bit after a tenant move-out.  That being said, on very rare occasions if the tenant cleans to a "move-in" standard, I waive the fee.

This is why I never, ever begin calling references before I have a non-refundable holding fee from the prospective tenant.  (The hold agreement includes my right of rescission prior to lease signing.)

Ethically, I'm not sure I agree with the process of soliciting someone else's prospective tenant, for whom they have called me for a reference.

 Michele recently sent me her point system.  It's a great template to use for people looking to have documentation to rank prospective applicants.  Thanks for sharing, Michele!

Garbage is $235/yr. for 2-4 family properties.  $200 per bedroom is a rough guideline as to what you'll pay for Water/sewer annually.  YMMV.

I'm curious as to how you market your apartments at the higher rate, given the "discount" for paying on time I'm assuming is actually closer to market.

@Kelsey Breedlove  Wish I were in OK (anyplace else besides NY, CA or MA for that matter)...

The problem with that @Kelsey Breedlove and @John Weidner is that if your tenant of record vacates, you could be stuck with a personvliving there whom you don't even know their legal name (much less anything else), whom you don't have a legal contract with, but HAS FULL TENANT RIGHTS.  (At least here in NY they do.)

Have fun trying to properly serve someone living in your building whom you don't have any information on. 

I believe the date is correct.  It's usually the third Monday of each month.

The venue is as stated.