All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

We had a $250,000.00 policy for $250 a year

Nancy Neville

In Michigan you can be bonded via your Auto Insurance Policy for Security Deposits. You can choose how much of a policy you wish to purchase. 

Once you are bonded you may use the Tenant's Security Deposit any way you wish.

Nancy Neville

I don't think you can force anyone to purchase anything.  However, you can suggest that they purchase "Renters Insurance", and state this in the lease that if they choose to not purchase "Renter's Insurance" then you are not responsible for any loss or damages to their property". 

In Michigan you can purchase Renters Insurance pretty cheap via your auto insurance policy.

Nancy Neville

If you use QuickBooks you can assign income and expenses to each individual property, to each individual unit inside an apartment building.  All you do is choose the property you want to assign your transaction too.  It just doesn't get any better than that!

Nancy Neville

Brian, thank you for sharing your story.  My husband was the type to "make them an offer they couldn't refuse",  (Like your CEO of the Collection Dept.) so thank goodness he had me to gently explain the situation to our tenants. 

But once again, it was all explained when they signed the lease. 

But, we basically had great tenants.  Very rarely did we need to put the "muscle on them". 

We chose tenant who were COLLECTIBLE and who paid their bills on time. 

But people do have a tendency to 'TEST LANDLORDS".  And that's when we have to help them remember.  :)   Right? 

But there were moments when I wasn't so gentle and have many story to tell regarding some of the drama I went through. 

Nancy

Karen, it's refreshing to read someone who has the clear understanding of Landlord hood.

Absolutely correct when you say if you go to court and the tenant tells the Judge that you allowed them to do this or that.  Well you just rewrote your lease agreement from now until eternity for this tenant.

When I first began in this business we had an attorney.  But he loved making deals.  Not only did we lose money from the tenants because of his deals, but we spent big bucks to pay this attorney to make deals with the tenants which make us lose money.

I then began to study the law, fired  our attorney, and from my second year on I handled all my cases myself  for over 13 years and never lost a case ever and never made a deal.

Our tenants stayed with us for over 20 years (Husband was in the business when I met him) and hardly anyone stayed less than 6 years. 

I learned how to keep tenants long term, how to cover my behind by documenting everything under the sun, and became a good listener. 

One doesn't have to be a mean old coot to implement the contract.  You can do it in a nice way, like you, Karen, told your tenants. 

Anger comes from misunderstandings.  I was always up front with my tenants.  I told them that their rent was our income.  And you know what, they didn't realize that, they said.  They didn't see their rent as being our income.

Sometimes, things as simple as that, where you would think anyone would know rent checks are our income, do see it until we present it to them in clearer light.  But once explained, then the other person can see the other side of the coin, and it did make a difference.

Thanks for your support Karen.

Nancy Neville

One other thing.  Do you know that if you make a deal and help one tenant that it is discrimination if you don't help all your tenants the same way?

Do you know that when you make a deal outside the walls of the Contract, you have changed the contract.

Now you may say that how would your other tenants know, and the answer is they may not know, but word does spread.  And...there are testers.  

We are not a bank.  We are not a Contractor  needing start up money.  We are landlords that deal with people who live in our homes.  Who live in our investments.

Banks have backups and a bail out by the Government. Landlords have nobody.  We are on our own.  Our start up money is the rents we collect from our tenants. That's what we live on.  That's what we use to pay for the repairs that are expected of us.

You cannot possibly compare our Industry with any other industry, because we are like no other.

We have code violations, law suits, vacancies, and we have the responsibility of taking care of other people's lives as I've stated in my posts. 

We don't have that privilege of making deals like the people you suggest in your post. 

We should be so lucky!

Nancy Neville

I just posted my rant on a new post called "Don't ever say never".  Sometimes when I get going on something, I just have to get it out of my system. 

I just answered a post called "How to prevent an eviction".  And the poster was correct in what he said, but some landlords replied, "don't ever say never".  My answer prompted me to get on a roll regarding this matter, so much so I thought I'd write up a new post called, "Don't ever say never".

So here it goes.

I am a caring person. I am also a business woman.  My husband and I had 40 rental properties that ranged from apartments to duplexes to single family homes.  Being a landlord is a business of "People Management".  

A lot of responsibility is placed on our shoulders.  We are responsible for the lives of the people who live there.  If we don't take care of our properties, and a tenant hurts themselves, we will be sued and will lose everything we have, not to mention the guilt we would have to live with if a tenant died due to our negligence. 

We are made to comply by the courts, looked down upon by the media,  frowned upon by tenants,  family and friends, and we have no one sticking up for us!

Our lease agreements are legal contracts.  We all must abide by  legal contracts that we sign.  

Somehow though, some landlords believe that we, as landlords, should be sympathetic with the tenants when they fall on hard times.  Therefore, altering the contract, just this once....right?

Well for one thing, when you alter a contract and allow a tenant to pay when they want, you have created a new contract.  You have created a new due date.  And when you change things in the CONTRACT, then you lose credibility and the tenants have no stability. 

I taught my tenants to know that what  I say  I mean, and I mean what I say.  But I was good to them when it came to repairs.  I took care of their needs immediately.  They knew they could trust me.  They knew they had to pay their rent on time.  They knew they could call office and tell me why they couldn't pay their rent, but they also knew I would make them pay it anyway.  

I was kind to them, gentle to them, understanding when I told them that I understood why they couldn't pay their rent, but this is a business.  "Couldn't you borrow money from your mom, dad, friend bank? And believe it or not, they found a way to get the money".  And we still ended up having a good landlord/tenant relationship.

Do you think that when I told a tenant they still had to pay their rent that after I hung up the phone I sat at my desk and laughed?  Big grin on my face? 

You should have seen my face the many times I had to tell a tenant they had to do this or do that.  There were times I even cried.  Yea, me.... strong Nancy.  But I had 40 people I had to take care of.  And each one of them had  a problem.  I can't help the world.  I couldn't help all 40 when they had problems all at the same time. 

I didn't get a kick out of always saying no.  Sticking to my "guns"! 

This is a tough business.  If I caved in for one, I'd lose my business, and then I couldn't take care of the other 39 tenants I had.  And then I couldn't take of US, me, and husband and the rescued animals that we took care of after a tenant left them behind to die!

We need to live too! We are human beings too! I'm always writing stories about landlords so the media and others can see we are HUMAN BEINGS with a heart, but we can't take care of the world. 

So I get frustrated to read other landlords say there is always an exception to the rule.  Yes there is always an exception to the rules, but be careful, that exception causes Chaos and destruction if you choose to use it.  That's why no other business will give us the same treatment as some landlords want us to provide to our tenants.  To do so would be their demise. 

Okay, I'm off my rant.  

Nancy Neville