All Forum Posts by: Thomas S.

Very rarely do I get calls. I do inspections quarterly making surprise repairs few and far between. Tenants let me know of issues when I do inspections. Most calls are not repair related, usually just letting me know of activities on or around the property or their plans of being away.

Best to hire a PM if you are away for the benifit of the tennats.

A personal home is a lifestyle choice not a investment. Build your dream home when your income is so high that you have no more use for the money. Preferably when the kids are gone and you are  retire. 

Dream homes are highly over rated, wasteful luxury, way more home than anyone needs and a waste of good money.

Keep investing, view this time as your working years. 

My advice and the advice you will hear from experienced investors is don't do it. Family and money should never mix. If you want to buy her a place to live in do it but don't rent it to her just give it to her, sign it over to her name and let her have at it. 

Aside from the usual background checks I would rely heavily on the credit check. Many self employed have sketchy credit scores making it easy to reject their application. I prefer to just reject all self employed applicants. Most are very unreliable due to inconsistent income. I don't like wasting my time working at screening difficult applicants.

If you rent to someone self employed make it crystal clear that late payment will not be tolerated. All tenants that are self employed should be on M2M lease so you can eject them quickly as soon as the pay late the first time.

I would never give notice when working on common areas. It would be a royal pain in the butt to have to plan that far ahead. Once your tenants get to know you and you catch up on your work load everything will quiet down. You have better things to do with your time than send out unnecessary notices, A notice is like asking permission. Tenants are not special people, I do not cater to them.

"ask for payment history for the last 2 years."

Past payment history for this applicant is like asking for past medical history for someone just diagnosed with cancer.

He is facing divorce and retirement at the same time. His past payment history in this situation is irrelevant. Every aspect of his life going forward is 100% unknown. Accepting this applicant is very high risk. Pass. 

The reality in this business is that the term of a lease has no positive impact on how long a tenant stays.  I prefer and only sign M2M leases since it gives me a slight advantage and usually results in the tenants staying longer than on a term lease. M2M does not negatively impact good tenants. The majority of my tenants have stayed longer than 10 years. I primarily target seniors that understand the term of a lease is irrelevant.

Aside from the disadvantages for the landlord of allowing a tenant to control their property for the term of a lease the coming of the end of a lease also prompts a tenant to consider moving. Tenants more often than not move at the end of a lease although a lease does not prevent a tenant from breaking a lease. M2M does not trigger the motivation to move for a tenant resulting in them staying much longer than they would on a term lease. If you want tenants to stay longer get them on M2M as quickly as possible.

The vast majority of ESA claims are a scam. For that reason I treat them all as a scam especially if it is claimed after they are my tenants. I reject all applicants with a ESA claim. The best approach if a existing tenant decides to make a ESA claim, in a no animal unit, is to simply ask for documentation. Do not make a issue over the animal and then when the lease is up simply non renew. As long as you have not made any issue of the animal it is very unlikely they have grounds to claim a fair housing violation. To further protect yourself claim that you are planning to do renovations. If they file a complaint do some renovations. It is work for you and possibly costly due to a vacancy but the advantages of maintaining a no animal unit far outweighs the cost.

I never allow tenants to determine how I operate my business. I do not want animals and I am creative in eliminating them as we have the same laws here as in the US. Anyone with a animal, regardless of the reason, should only be applying to rentals that allow animals...period. They should not have "special" rights to live wherever they choose against landlords wishes.  My opinion and my business practice.

Is he likely to be your only applicant, if not I would just reject the application while he is in the process of divorcing. A divorce very often results in financial issues during the process and as a result you will very likley have issues collecting rent. You want stable tenants not those in a volatile transition. Your applicant has no idea of what is in his immediate future and for that reason alone you reject the application.

The first option with questionable applicants is rejection not a search to find  ways to approve them. Risk is reduced by rejecting applicants not by finding ways to reduce risk after the fact. Applicants either pass or fail screening, end of story.

Never ever allow tenants to do work on your property. If you want him to do the floor hire him to do it. Treat it as any contractor doing work, never exchange rent for work. Guaranteed the work will never be completed or he will want more rent deducted as time goes by. There are far too many pitfalls in a arrangement of tenant doing work to bother even trying to cover your bases. If you have never rented to someone without a W2 don't start now and don't view him as a plus because he is attempting to bribe you. I hear these type of offers all the time and either straight up say no or reject their application.  Tenants doing work very rarely works out.

I would not have a issue with this applicant since I never rent to anyone that does not have a W2.