All Forum Posts by: Karen F.

If you don't want certain tenants, see if you can get the seller to get rid of them before you take possession.  He can pay them to leave.  But if you close, and the tenants are still in place, YOU will have to pay them to leave, or evict them... and evictions take time and effort.

I strongly suspect that the tenant has mental health issues, because he is on SSI, but has no apparent physical disability.  I think that his backing out may have to do with anxiety.  In any event, we have found that our Sec 8 office locally will always favor the "client" over the LL, so I know that Sec 8 is not going to force him to stay for a year.  And really, I don't want to start off a lease this way.  It's just that we turned down OTHER Sec 8 applicants as we held the unit open in November, waiting for inspection from his housing agency, that really burns me.  I'm SO glad that we already had the signed lease and two month security deposit, so at least we're covered for December and January while we search.  It's the absolute worst time of year for a unit to come open - who wants to move at Christmas time?

We had an applicant with Sec 8 in November for a unit, and we submitted a packet with him for the unit early in November.  We then, throughout November, turned away any other Sec 8 applicants, since we already had submitted a packet for him, to begin Dec 1.   You cannot submit multiple Sec 8 packets at the same time for the same unit. Unit passed inspection for lease to begin Dec 1, he gave us his two month security deposit, we signed our lease together (but were still waiting for the housing authority's lease, although we had a verbal okay from them), and then we gave him the keys early on Dec 1.  On Dec 5, he notified us that he had changed his mind, and wanted to break the lease, not through any fault of ours or any defect in the unit.  We immediately put the unit back on the market, but it's a bad time of year to find a tenant, in December.  The housing authority will pay us, but we're going to hold that money aside, knowing that we're eventually going to have to pay it back to them, as it works its way through their unwieldy bureaucracy.

My feeling is that even if we were to find a tenant for Jan 1, he still should lose both months of his security, because we turned away all other Sec 8 applicants during most of the month of November, holding the unit off the market for him, in anticipation of Dec 1 move in.  My husband feels that we should give him back a month if we rent it by Jan 1, and only keep both months if we don't rent it until Feb 1.

Even heat is no guarantee, depending upon the building, the occupants, the prep, and the experience of the company doing it.

This is really tough to deal with, because the only way to know that they're really gone is to have someone sleeping in there, with traps under the bed legs, and no bedbugs getting into the traps.  You can get a wealth of information on a website called bedbugger.com

First of all, is your unit a freestanding one, or is it in a multi?  If it's in a multi, they're likely in other units - so treating yours will have little effect, since they will just spread into your unit from the neighboring ones again.  If it's in a multi, you have to speak with the condo association and they must inspect every unit, and come up with a comprehensive eradication plan.

To get rid of them, you have to get rid of clutter (which I'm sure isn't an issue in an air bnb unit).  You need to encase the boxspring and mattress and pillows in bedbug-proof covers.  You need to move the bed away from all walls, and have sheets and blankets not touching the floors, so that the only way into the bed is by climbing up the legs.  You put climbups under all the legs (on top of plywood squares if you have carpet, so they won't crack), and monitor the climbups for bedbugs coming and going.  You put all the bedlinens through the dryer frequently - heat kills them.  You can steam treat the mattress with a steamer before putting on the covers.  You can run the pillows through the dryer.  Steam treat any furniture that's near the bed, too, and the baseboards near the bed.  Move the bed away from everything else.  They want to set up right near the bed, since they want to be as close to the food source as possible.  You can get a sniffer dog in to identify where they are, and have an exterminator experienced in bed bug treatments come and treat several times.  You can prove to yourself that they're gone by having the sniffer dog come back to check the unit, and by someone being in there sleeping in the bed, and the climbups don't have any further evidence of bedbug activity.

As you can see, there is absolutely NO way to accomplish this while it's an airbnb.  You cannot rent this thing out as an airbnb until you know absolutely for sure that it's cleared of bedbugs and their eggs - and if it's in a multi, that the entire building is cleared.  Having the exterminator come in once, twice, thrice, whatever does NOT guarantee that they're gone.  Only having live bait (a human being) sleeping in the bed nightly, and no evidence of bugs in the climbups, and a clear sniffer dog test, can assure you that they're gone - and that's only if it's a freestanding unit.  Otherwise, you'd have to meet the same criteria simultaneously for every unit in the building.

This is a horrible nightmare, but honestly, if I found out that I'd picked up bedbugs and brought them home from an airbnb with a past history of bedbugs, that had been concealed, I'd sue airbnb and the owner.  You just cannot put this back on the airbnb market until you that sniffer dog says the entire building is clear of them.

If a tenant backs out, and I've taken the unit off the market for them, I re-advertise the unit immediately, and refund to them whatever portion I can AFTER it's rented.  We do a two month security deposit, and I'll usually be able to get it rented within a month, so they usually lose only one month.  Sometimes, if I can get it rented immediately, they lose nothing.  But in some circumstances, they'll lose two, if I can't get it rented right away.  The deposit is there to cover your losses if they back out - so use it for that purpose, if they back out.

Tenants who don't know that dishwashers require a special soap, and put in hand dishwashing soap, then call for a repair for an "overflowing" dishwasher.  Another appliance that you have to maintain.

On the other hand, less water usage.

Not beginning the eviction process the minute rent was late beyond the state-mandated grace period, every time, no matter what the excuse.  I'm still arguing with my husband about this - there's plenty of time built into the process for the tenant to come up with the rent and the penalties, before we get into court, and this way the remedy was set into motion before the tenant got months behind in rent.

Assuming he can afford it on his income alone, inspect the property to make sure there are no damages, write a new lease with just him on it, hand the deposit back to them both, and have him hand you a new deposit, sign new lease.  New, year-long lease (for your trouble in writing a new lease), unless you want him on month to month.  You can have her sign something saying she is voluntarily relinquishing all claim to the unit, and has received an accounting of the deposit.  Nice to hand her a letter saying she was a good tenant, to help her in renting her next place.

The whole reason why we've been able to do well in buying up multis is that my husband can fix anything.  Carpentry, some HVAC, some plumbing, some electrical.  But when we need new electrical service, it costs us a couple of thousand dollars.  As we got further into it, he started paying really good workmen to help.  But starting out, it was priceless that he could fix most stuff.  I earned the money to bankroll it all in my high-paying profession.