All Forum Posts by: Wesley W.

Here's the letter I sent out the last time I had inherited tenants:

Dear (tenant name):

We are excited to announce that our company is in the final stages of purchasing the building within which you reside, and I’ll begin managing the property on August 12, 2015. Being a local company, providing quality housing and great service is very important to us. As I mentioned in my previous letter, I look forward to continuing to maintain your address with the same pride and quality that (previous owner) has taken in it over the past 19 years.

We are hereby cancelling your existing month-to-month tenancy effective September 31, 2015. Enclosed in this envelope is a new month-to-month lease agreement for you to sign, effective for October 1, 2015. In the meantime, please completely fill out both the Rental Application (included with this letter) and the Lease Agreement. I will make arrangements to come by and go over the lease with you sometime next week.

This new lease will provide you with important information regarding our company’s policies. This lease does not change the length of your lease term (month-to-month); it simply updates relevant matters now that I will be assisting you with your housing needs.

Beginning with rent for the month of September, please pay your rent by depositing the entire amount into the following bank account at (your bank): account #123456; routing # 123456. We do not accept rent checks at our P.O. Box; rent can only be paid by deposit.

For your convenience, the nearest location to your home is 123 Main Street, (city) or you can execute a bank-to-bank transfer using the routing number provided.

If you have any questions, concerns or maintenance issues, you may call or text my cell phone at (phone number), or you may email me at the address listed at the top of this notice.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about this transition or any other pertinent issue.

Sincerely,

(you)

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Slab City.....this guy is a pro. You ever been to Slab City? On the east side of the Salton Sea....full of people just like your guy. You'd have to be a pro to know about it in WY.....

I'm a world traveler and have seen it all. Here's his latest. I suspect he's hitting the sauce this afternoon:

It's alright, you can evict me, rob me, beat me, kill me, but I'm still going to Heaven in the end... Nothing else matters anywhere at any time

And before I could finish sharing, he sent another!

Sorry, not sorry, Been to jail, been beat by others, lost $27,000, been homeless, been tired, been everywhere like Johnny Cash... I am just tired looking for some rest, and stability, which can be done, and obviously I am not gonna pay for 2 apartments, I don't see why I can't just switch the lease but I get it okay, thanks

Wow, he's exhausting.  Really filling out the "virtual signaling" checklist here.  It's unfortunate that he will never be willing to understand why this latest "injustice" (and likely many of the others throughout his life) were by is own hand.

In the cemetary of life, personal responsibility now lies right next to common sense.

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

The saga continues!

I somehow knew this guy would not disappoint.  This is the beginning of a long, meandering series of email sob stories that Nathan's staff must diplomatically endure.  This society has churned out a lot of adult children recently.  And he told YOU to grow up!  Heh.  The irony.  And I love the part where he tells you to "just know (he) is not going to be evicted."  Did this guy just move from NY?  Someone should tell him he is in the U.S. now, where signed contracts (usually) matter.

Quote from @Polina Orlova:

 How do you guys avoid getting banned from Facebook Marketplace? Are there specific rules to follow?
I have posted but my "Marketplace Account" getting locked out saying it violates " Community Standards"
A couple of rules I have picked up from other posts: no mention of phone numbers, no mention of qualification criteria.  Anything else?

That is because either a jilted applicant or a competitor has "reported" you to the Republic of Facebook for being a filthy capitalist, and you were unilaterally shut down.  No due process for joo!

I'm only half-kidding.  I used Marketplace for a minute before I was banned for some similarly-inexplicable reason.  When FB was ebbing in eyeball-counts, I created a profile (as I was not a FB user), and wait out their seasoning process until I could (a) see the Marketplace icon and later (b) post to Marketplace.  This took literally months.  Then I was canceled in about a week or two of advertising.  As this feebleminded old man I know is fond of saying, "Not a joke." 

As the OP, I had a ton of inquiries but all were universally sub-par in prospect quality.  Huge waste of time.  I use Zillow and, believe or not, Craigslist still yields some quality folks in our market.  I would stick to marketing in "America."  Good luck!  

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Sadly, I knew there would be no dramatics because a professional housing provider just puts the smack-down on any meandering sob stories, and I knew you would not stand for that, Nathan  - but a part of me was hoping there would be additional outlandish emails from them to share.

I really miss that "tenants/applicants say the dumbest things" thread.

I use Google Voice, which allows me to transfer my business number to any phone I wish. You could route your Google Voice number (if you don't have one, get one - it's free) to a family member that is local for the time you are away. And frankly, 8 days is not that long of a time to be away to merit hiring a PM.

My preference would be the "email communication only" route, that way you can directly make decisions about whether or not to deploy the trades for a repair, and not burden your family member with relaying messages back and forth, or having to call for repair themselves.

You could always just tell your tenants that you're phone has been glitchy lately, and you won't be able to get the issue resolved for at least another week, so to please contact you via email until further notice.  I would never tell my tenants I was leaving town, regardless of the reason.

Here's another pitch for Google Voice:  it will take all of your voicemails and transcribe them into an email and send them to you instantly.  This is what I use, as I do not typically answer calls from tenants, unless the hour implies a true emergency.  I prefer to have them leave a message, and then I call them right back if the situation merits.  This is the exception, however - as I do not want them to think I am immediately accessible at their whim via phone.

Honestly, it seems like you need to set expectations with your tenants about when they should be calling you and for what.  That way you are improving the "signal to noise" ratio of these contacts.

I'm optimistic one of the options above would work for your situation.  Good luck!

Here's the thing that jumped out at me, all:

Why does the contractor need to coordinate with the tenant to do the work?

Step 1 - PM books contractor for date to have work done at job site

Step 2 - PM contacts tenant to NOTIFY them of when the work is scheduled to be performed

Step 3 - Contractor does work, PM handles the bookkeeping and bills back to owner

This "chokepoint" with the contractor and the tenant seems like a red herring.  This is even more perplexing because it sounds like the contractor does not have to even enter the unit to perform the job.

What am I missing?

@Nathan Gesner  okay, so now that you've piqued our collective interest, please DO SHARE your response and the subsequent dialogue!

*grabs popcorn*

I've always found that the term leases (anything over 30 days) always obligate the landlord, but never the tenant - especially here in NYS. I only offer month-to-month (MTM) leases in my small multi-family C+/B- class properties.  Here's why:

Let's say I sign a tenant to a one-year lease, and 3 months in, their personal/professional situation changes, and they break their lease and move out after a 30-day notice (or maybe less).

I am required, by law in most areas, to "mitigate my loss" by remarketing the unit, making it rent-ready, and starting up my lead generation machine to get applicants, funnel them into my screening system, identifying good candidates and ultimately leasing them up. This takes a LOT of my time.

If I went to get a judgement against this tenant for the balance of the lease (if I could even find them to serve court papers), the judge would tell me to go pound sand, absorb it as a business expense, go re-rent the apartment, move on with my life and quit bothering him with this "nonsense."

Another situation. Joe "pain in the a$$" Tenant just signed a year lease. He is noisy and obnoxious and leaves trash in the common areas. I get numerous complaints from my "good" tenants, complaining about Joe. Joe's lease has provisions against this, so I properly serve him a "10 day notice to cure" using a process server ($$). He gets better for a bit, then goes back to his old ways. So, I serve him again ($$). This goes on.

I finally get so fed up that I serve him ($$) with an eviction notice for breach of lease. I spend time and money getting the petition and go to court. Joe tells the judge he "promises" not to do it again and shows receipts from all his on-time rent payment, so the judge gives him "one more chance. " Invariably, I'm back in court AGAIN. I may or may not get a warrant for eviction this time, but meanwhile two of my good tenants have moved out, exasperated by their neighbor, Joe.

Sure, my lease states that Joe is financially responsible for my expenses associated with the enforcement of the lease provisions, but good luck with that.

In each of these cases, the lease favors the tenants, and limits my rights as the landlord.

My month-to-month leases give me the right to terminate the lease for no reason or any reason, including being an "a$$." If they don't leave, I get a holdover eviction warrant on them. I find this is a MUCH easier judgement to get than for breach of lease or even non-payment, since the tenant can "cure" his non-payment by showing up to court with the unpaid balance. Meanwhile, next month he starts neglecting rent payments all over again.

I always found that GOOD tenants love the flexibility that the MTM lease affords them if their personal or work situations changes. I tell them I don't want anyone living in my properties that doesn't want to be there, and that is precisely what would happen if they signed a year lease and their situation changed.

I explain to them I am not in the business of whimsically kicking people out, because that costs me money (see the lead generation paragraph earlier in my post), and my goal is to find really good people to call my properties home and then take good care of them so they want to stay a long time. In contrast, bad tenants don't like the MTM leases (another form of self-screening) because they know they'll be out on their ear in 30 days. So, if a tenant pushes back on the MTM, to me that's a red flag, because there really is no down side for them unless they are up to no good. If they are good tenants, they don't worry about it for a single second because they expect to follow the rules, and they rest easy at night knowing their neighbors will have to do the same.

Anecdotally - but I have had one MTM tenant stay for 26 years, and I can think of 10 or so that stayed for over a decade.  The shortest stay I've had has been 10 months, but the average is about 3-5 years.  My sample size is about 100.

I'd be wary of any study regarding this.  As @Nathan Gesner mentioned, there are so many variables and dynamics that effect which lease model would yield the longest tenure (tenant class, property class, market conditions, landlord/tenant laws, business strategy), I am afraid the data in such a broad study would not be useful to you, unless your situation replicated the mean of each of the metrics.  It's just like when the talking heads on mainstream media begin their pontification with "the U.S. real estate market is  < insert broad, ignorant generalization here >."  All real estate is local, and this effects your decision regarding the lease you offer there, too.

Some takeaways here:

1) Only offer MTM leases.  It allows you to maintain better control of your property.  If someone is being a pain in ***, you can terminate their lease, rather than wait until expiration.  Only poor tenants will balk at MTM leases, because they know term leases give them the control.  Good tenants love the flexibility.  I have written about this topic in much more detail on the forums here.

2)  Tighten up your lease on those issues you mentioned.  Here are excerpts from mine that you can use for inspiration and to run by your attorney:

PETS: No pets or animals may enter or be kept on the Premises without our written consent. This includes any Animal that is not always restricted to its cage, terrarium or similar enclosure. Any Animal that is considered a venomous or poisonous species is prohibited. You agree to pay both an additional $200.00 lease violation fee as well as $50.00 monthly fee for each unauthorized Animal, due as Additional Rent. Payment of this fee by you does not represent a waiver by us for this breach of the Lease.[Shout out to @Nathan Gesner for the "lease violation fee."  And for context, I charge a $200 one time fee and $20/mo. per pet, and all approved pets are placed with an animal addendum w/pic.]

SMOKING: Smoking is prohibited inside your unit or in any interior common areas. This includes marijuana as well as electronic cigarettes (i.e. “vaping”). Smoking leaves soot and deposits, so an additional cleaning/remediation fee of at least $250.00 per room/area will be charged if we determine that smoking/vaping has occurred. Any cigarette butts from smoking outside by you or your guests must be picked up and properly disposed of.  [Thanks to Andrew Schultz at Rent Prep for the remediation fee language.]

RIGHT TO ENTER: We will have the right to enter the Rental Unit as allowed by law. You consent to our entering your Rental Unit during reasonable hours for any inspections (by us or prospective buyers or renters), maintenance and repairs, pest control, for delivering notices, and for other purposes as provided by law. We may conduct additional inspections if we observe or suspect lease violations associated with your Rental Unit. Any maintenance request made by you will represent your consent for us (or a professional hired by us) to enter. You will be charged for any fees we incur by hired contractors if you deny them entry. When advance notification of 24 hours or greater is given, all dogs in the Rental Unit must be crated/kenneled. Routine safety/maintenance inspections will occur periodically. No notice shall be needed to enter interior porches/hallways.  [I do semi-annual inspections on every unit, announced at least 24 hours before.]

I'm not sure if your rental is a SFR or not. If it's a multi-family dwelling, here's what we have in our lease for pest remediation:

PEST CONTROL: Your Rental Unit has been inspected and deemed to be pest-free. If you have a specific problem with pests, notify us. You are asked to assist our pest control by maintaining a high standard of good housekeeping. If the sanitary conditions in your Rental Unit are such that it attracts pests of any kind, and it becomes necessary for us to undergo remediation in your Rental Unit and/or on the Premises, you will be held financially responsible for reasonable costs thereof, paid as Additional Rent.@Andrew Schulz