All Forum Posts by: Nicole A.

Yeah, I only agreed to due date of the 5th because he said he doesn't get paid until the 3rd, so I was okay with that. Paid or not, I'll be going up to check on all the units this weekend. It's weird because the tenants upstairs say they're pretty sure he's in there, but he won't answer his door when anyone knocks.

Since I can't reach him, I'll start by showing up and just knocking on his door (but not entering). If he's unreachable for much longer, I'll send a letter informing that I will be checking out the apartment.

This is more of a vent than anything.

So the first month with a new tenant has come around and I still have no rent payment. We set it so it was due on the 5th and late by the 10th; The renter wanted to pay rent by either electronic deposit or going to my bank to deposit.

Anyway, it's the 9th and I still have nothing. His phone is conveniently disconnected as well. Failure to Pay Rent papers will be filed tomorrow if I have nothing by 3pm. It's just so frustrating! The renters I found for the upstairs unit have been great so far...sending rent early even! Apparently I didn't do as well with this guy... Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but so far it doesn't feel good.

Between 2 of 4 of my renters being behind on rent, this has really stopped me from seriously looking at purchasing my third rental. Some of my tenants were "grandfathered" in from the previous owner. My cash flow is affected; I can't get another mortgage until I get rid of these bad renters!

I would think it should all match. If this is a rental property owned by a business, then your business should insure it and pay utilities. If not, then it looks like you're comingling funds between LLC and personal funds.

Have you shopped around for insurance quotes? We have Statefarm.

My LLC owns two duplexes and the insurance is in the LLC name. So are utilities during vacancies (and water).

I'm not sure if my contractor comes out to B'more for new customers, but give him a call and tell him that I sent you. I've worked with him for a few years now on my rentals as well as my personal home. We have great communication; I clearly state and write down what I want done and when I inspect upon completion, it always looks great.

They can do pretty much everything: paint, flooring, concrete repair, roofs, windows, plumbing, etc. His crew does great work and he has the best prices around too.

George Mathios
Plomari General Construction
1-240-672-5065

You use the website, www.gosection8.com.

I think it may vary a little state to state, but at least in MD, they do the inspection only once a tenant has applied to lease from you.

If you Google Section 8 in your county/state, you should be able to find some contact info for more details. But the above site is used for searching Section 8-accepting properties.

I'd put something in place that protects you from letting her "take everything" if you break up. Even if you're a strong pair together, please prepare based on business logic, not emotions. If you or she can't agree to that, you probably shouldn't partner.

Just Google'd "Broward FL REIA" and found this one, which looks promising:

http://www.breia.com/

I'd like to hear which of these I've mentioned that you've been to.... you have so many choices....

@Jordan L. I just did a Google search for "Palm Beach FL REIA" and also for "Dade FL REIA"...got tons of results. You have plenty of options. You're bound to like at least one of them. Some of them may overlap, even.

http://dreia.org/

http://www.meetup.com/DADEREIA/ (this may be the same group, but posting via the MeetUp.com site)

http://www.meetup.com/PALM-BEACH-REAL-ESTATE-INVESTORS-ASSOCIATION/

http://flreia.com/ (I dunno about this because on the calendar, I only see something about "prayers" for the event...dunno what's up with that)

But you get the picture....try all the various options around you.

Many of them have several meetings per month. Yes, many times they have speakers who in the end try to sell stuff, but they usually give great information during their presentation.

The main thing is you're networking with others who do these things right in your area. Going to my local REIA is how I met a landlord who was selling many of his properties and I bought two duplexes from him.

Not sure if you've already found your 2nd roommate, but once you get your lease prepared for the new guy, I would suggest you also go ahead and have your friend sign one too. Make it just month-to-month. Tell your friend that you're only asking him to sign the lease so that no one is being treated differently.

Friends or not, you should have things written down anyway...the whole separating business and friendship thing. This will protect you and no one can say "well, he doesn't have a lease, so why must I sign one"?!

Bringing this thread back to life because we have rented out 1 or 2 bedrooms at a time in our personal home since we bought it in 2009.

For us, it's been overall fantastic. We rent a bedroom for $700/month. Utilities are split between however many of us are in the house at the time. At first I thought there was no way we'd get $700 for a bedroom that doesn't even have a private bathroom, but we've never had a problem! $700 security deposit too. No pets as we already have a cat and dog. We do not give rental "discounts" for doing things around the house because we would never ask them to do things around the house such as yard work or repairs...but that's just us. Many times they have helped care for the pets, but that was just out of kindness and the relationship/friendship we built while living together. We've done favors for them too say when they have a minor car issues since we're gear heads and have all the tools.

I think our area really helps. We're near Ft. Meade/NSA, so we have plenty of military and intel people coming through.

We have great photos of the house and the bedroom and those photos get lots of attention and inquiries. We have had success using Craigslist, roommates.com, and the ad-posting site at work.

We tend to have roommates in our general age range. We don't choose someone with children (or pregnant, which we've had an expecting girl inquire before), or couples sharing a room. In our other rentals, obviously not a problem, but this is our personal home, and well, we don't have our own kids for a reason, and a couple in a bedroom is just asking for trouble, I think.

We had one military guy interested in the past that we just couldn't accept. He wanted us to add "quiet hours" to the lease as well as hours that he could use the laundry and even shower. Although we are not a rowdy bunch, our house is open concept, and well, you can hear conversation/TV in the family room. Regarding laundry/shower....you're a grown man! Those kinds of expected rules makes me feel like I wouldn't be comfortable in my own home.

Anyway, the extra $1400/month (2 rooms rented) is amazing...not to mention help on the utilities...and the friendships that have grown out of many of our roommates. Otherwise, those would just be empty spaces making no money! When our lifestyle changes, we'll stop the bedroom renting business, but for now we love it.

Oh! And we have gone from 1year leases down to month-to-month right off the bat. That way we're not stuck with someone in our house that doesn't mesh well with us. We decided this after having one roommate who was nice, but extremely dirty. When he moved out, he did one pass of the vacuum in his room and completely filled the canister with debris! I vacuumed again, and there was still tons of stuff getting picked up! I could share other gross habits of his, but maybe tell it at another time. ;-) We've never had a person before him with such poor cleaning habits.

:-P Long post, but some good stuff in there. If you have extra space in your home, consider letting that space make some money for you....even if just for a short while!