All Forum Posts by: Gerald K.

Yeah, we definitely keep digging if we don't find out that important part. We ask why are you moving and they usually provide their motivation with that question. It can also give us some important clues, like: My landlord is constantly harassing me. If I'm late with rent just a week he gets all bent out of shape. Or, my landlord doesn't like animals. He's so picky he wanted me to pay for extermination service for fleas in his carpet. That's when I told him to shove it, I'm moving, so you better be an animal lover! Or, he keeps bugging me about cutting the grass. It will die out once summer comes. What's the big deal..

I've heard of people doing that. Some visit their current place to see how it's being taken care of. The landlord before the current one can sometimes give some good indication of how they take care of things - the current one might, but might not if he just wants to get rid of them. Whatever you do, you should let them know what you expectations are and have visits to inspect the property at least once every 6 months. Have requirements in place of what you expect, what will be done if you find it is not being taken care of the way you want ~ and have a process in place for them to correct the problem. If it's all up front, there should hopefully be no surprises.

Before we set up a visit, and waste our prospective tenant's time and ours, we try to find out if they meet our requirements - rent rate, number of rooms, pets, etc. We also ask why you are moving and how long you plan to stay.

Yeah, definitely would be interesting. Seattle shot up around 1980. Right around the time the first IBM PC came out and when our friend in Redmond shipped the first version of MS-DOS.

Wow! That pretty cool. Some places that were growing now are not and vice versa. Not sure if you could use that to make a determination about future growth, but one thing is for sure, it's going to continue to fluctuate.

This just underscores the fact that there is no easy route. Wouldn't it be great if you could just find a turn key company that is so great that you could just give them money and let them do everything for you? I'm afraid that just doesn't exist. If you're out of state, out of mind, you'll most likely end up a low priority and easier to pawn off bad deals to. Not saying every turn key company does that, but before you make any investment "especially" turn key where you are not there to watch it all the time, you need to do extra due diligence to make sure you know what you're buying, and that you can trust those with your investment and still have backups just in case. Anything I missed?

If it's an old refrigerator, I would not spend that amount. Some people actually prefer a small ice tray since the ice maker takes up so much valuable space in the freezer - so something to ask the tenant about. You could also ask if they could get by with an ice tray for awhile as you'll be replacing the refrigerator in the future versus putting money into the old one.

@Joe Swagerty

Welcome to BP. I'm down in Kirkland. Nice to see another local jump in. Yes, lots of great info here. Check the "Learn" tab up top if you haven't done so and dig in. You can also set up keyword alerts for topics of interest. See you around the forums.

When is she supposed to move in? February 1st? Is it that easy to find another tenant in your area this time of year?

Maybe this was just a one-off based on the landlord's prior comments. It would be nice if there was some way you could work something out with the previous landlord. He will definitely know where she lives if he finds he needs to charge her for something that the security deposit would have covered but he now needs for last month's rent. I wonder if he's going to go ahead and post the 3-day notice to pay or quit. Since you have first, last, and security deposit, and indication that she is clean, seems like you're in a pretty good position. I would explain to her during lease signing all your rules and make sure she understands and agrees to them - especially regarding the deposits.

We allow small dogs but we also hear - can I bring my 'x' dog that is a puppy? We plan to move out before he gets to be 'x' pounds. Give me a break!

We also don't allow puppies for obvious reasons, but I can't believe the ridiculous statements prospective tenants make.