All Forum Posts by: Nancy P.

We do self manage but two years ago moved to Germany for W-2 job.  Son manages with lots of input from me.  For tax reasons we want to be "active" investors.  

Screening matters,  as you have said before.  Verify employment and income.  See if they've been evicted before, that's a no-go for us.  I don't call old landlords because they will lie to get rid of a bad tenant.

Extra security deposit if they are iffy on credit or income.  Use a good service like Cozy.

Cash for keys is to get out a tenant who otherwise could be evicted,  to save you time and court costs and HOPEFULLY prevent intentional damage.  I have never offered more than 1/3 months rent plus all deposit back.  And they have never been given more than ten days to move out.    In one case dog had destroyed the carpet but it was Fannie Mae rehab crap anyway,  we just ate the cost of a new carpet.  (Fannie Mae didn't even put PADDING underneath the cheap carpet.  It was awful.)  In other cases I ate $100-$300 in damages.  The reward for normal tenants not trashing the place is they get their deposit back.

ALL tenants, no matter how they paid me, get the deposit back as a check. They MUST give me the forwarding address, and I call and make sure they still work at the same place. (Lease also says they must inform me of employment changes.). That way, if I DO need to pursue to sue them, I have an address and workplace to start from. But have never done it in nine years of REI.

If you are talking about REI, of course people make money in poor school districts. If you are talking about for your own home, yes it matters. The people who can afford a parent to stay home and absorb the costs of homeschooling are the same people who care a lot about resale value and the perception of school quality is paramount. I say this as the wife of a man who quit his job in Houston and moved us back to Chicago suburbs because the quality of Texas schools was subpar compared to Naperville. My two kids went from being bored in Texas gifted and talented programs, to struggling to be average in Naperville. But they felt far less stifled creatively and were both happier.

Not any more.  There was a fine for not having it,  but they removed it.  Of course the law might change again but there would have to be a grace period to allow people to get it again.

Not any more.  The penalty is currently $0 as part of the efforts to scrap Obamacare.  True only in 2019 and beyond.

EXCEPT  that the landlord can not "unreasonably refuse" a replacement tenant that the old tenant finds.  I asked three landlords that I'm on a group text with (one in Florida) if they have EVER gotten the full financial obligations paid to them from a lease.  Only one did once,  there was 4 months left,  tenant's  new employer paid it.   (So no legal action,  just new employer offer accepted.)  One (Colorado)  has twice been awarded  two months rent and they weren't awarded court costs.  Florida woman has five or six times had renter find decent replacement tenant which she could not legally refuse and then still collect on the lease.   All agree not worth the effort to pursue,  put that energy into re-renting your unit.

I don't know of a single jurisdiction that would ever award you the full extent of the lease payments.  You are expected to seek a new tenant and not impose stricter qualifications than you did before. It's called "duty to mitigate" (damages).  It is highly unlikely to take 20 months to find a new tenant,  and even if it did,  it's going to be seen as unreasonable to most judges.  You would get three months at most,  lease or no lease.    I have never needed more than two weeks to find a new tenant in our A properties.  IF the tenant works with me to allow showings,  I can usually release them from their lease with no downtime except a day to clean,  which comes out of their deposit because THEY are the reason I need to clean.  (I don't charge cleaning between leases that ran their course.)  If they WON'T work with me to allow showings (it's in the lease but believe me,  showing a property with a tenant not willing to let you in is a huge waste of time for everyone involved), then they have to pay another month's rent to cover the time that they are out until I get a new tenant.  In those cases I usually don't charge for cleaning.   

Initial each page and sign at the end.  My Aurora IL properties have an ADDITIONAL 'Crime Free Addendum" required by the city.  I spend a few minutes talking about how paying after the1st is late and I will give a five day notice,  as far too many tenants read "fine charged after the 5th"  as "rent not due until the 5th".  Despite that, I have to serve a five day notice to about 1 in 3 tenants.  That almost always fixes that problem.  In addition,  for unmarried roommates,  I stress what "joint and several"  means--they are both responsible for 100% of the lease.  Then when one of them inevitably wants out,  they can't claim they didn't realize they couldn't just walk away whenever.

It's important to remember what my Business Law professor said on the very first day of class.  "Anyone can sue anyone over ANYTHING.  You can sue your neighbor for being ugly.  Whether or not you will win is an entirely different matter".  The ease with which one can indeed sue in this country is why it's so casually used by tenants.  I've had tenants threaten to sue me because  they claimed I denied because  they were black (I hadn't met them yet and they didn't meet income requirements.)  Another threatened to sue because I wouldn't allow her to apply for a 550 s.f. apartment when she had a husband and 3 kids. (My city has occupancy limits.)  And so on.  As many have said already,  they almost never come to anything.  Good luck.

Mine says no modifications without written approval, and no extra appliances without written approval.  I had a tenant move a large chest freezer into a 530 s.f. apt (roughly 2 car garage size).  Blew the panel.  And my lease did already have that clause, it cost the tenant $3K.