All Forum Posts by: Rob B.

Happy to help! Sounds like you have the right idea.

Always happy to help out, Nora! And best of luck to you! 

Hi Clark! Welcome to BiggerPockets. There are definitely a lot of helpful tools out there. There are a lot of things that come into play -- you will need to focus on: listing your property, establishing a thorough tenant screening process, signing a lease with your tenant (and make sure that your lease is in accordance with local laws/regulations), conduct a move-in walkthrough (and document any damages/condition of the property prior to move-in time), collecting rent from your tenant, and managing maintenance requests. A lot of landlords used to handle a lot of this the good old fashioned way of pen and paper, but that can quickly become a good way to lose track of really important things.  Best of luck with your new venture! @Clark Inskeep

I definitely understand the concern (especially heading into the winter months; believe me, here in Chicago, it gets pretty cold during those months). Keep in mind snow removal costs during the lease signing process, and always make sure you have a plan for things like pipes; what you don't want to happen is an instance where you're dealing with frozen pipes. Make sure the tenants know to let the faucet trickle (nothing too much, just enough to keep the water from freezing over).

Keep track of everything. At this point it sounds like this tenant, for whatever the reason may be, hasn't paid in full for 2 months, but when you accept those partial payments that may play out in their favor once it is taken to court. 

I'm inclined to agree with what others have noted above. In most cases I'm familiar with, the new owner has to honor the existing lease until end of lease term. Definitely seek out legal counsel because this sounds like they're planning an illegal eviction, but again, that is purely speculative. 

Hi Bassim! First things first, welcome to BiggerPockets. There are definitely a lot of helpful tools out there, including a platform that was built with new landlords like yourself in mind (a software solution built for DIY landlords with anywhere from 1 - 15 units, that helps you to automate your own rental process).

There are a lot of things that come into play -- you will need to focus on:

• List your property
• Establish a thorough tenant screening process
• Sign a lease with your tenant (and make sure that your lease is in accordance with local laws/regulations)
• Conduct a move-in walkthrough (and document any damages/condition of the property prior to move-in time)
• Collect rent from your tenant
• Manage maintenance requests

A lot of landlords used to handle a lot of this the good old fashioned way of pen and paper, but that can quickly become a good way to lose track of really important things. Luckily there are tools that can help you to actually build a single listing and syndicates it to 10+ major listing sites, allows you to schedule showings, provides you with super thorough tenant screening options, online digital leases which can be customized and help you by breaking out those fees, automated maintenance tracking, and fast rent collection which also offers your tenants the ability to report their positive on-time payments to the major credit bureaus; just another positive reinforcement/added incentive to get them to make those payments on time). Best of luck on your new venture, @Bassim Audi!

There are definitely a lot of helpful tools out there. It is a good idea to consider an option which allows you to collect rent much quicker than those others but still provides other rental management tools you might find valuable (again, not to knock Cozy or these other tools like Stessa because I know a lot of people love them), but since you have 24 units it may come down to the pricing (all depends upon what you want to accomplish). Others above have mentioned Buildium which can be good for that number of units but there's still some flexibility though because managing 24 units isn't the same as 50 or even 100+ (and some software solutions happen to be priced for those rental owners with more units). Still, there are other options out there though where you can easily collect rent and keep track of payments and even process payments faster. I will say, it could be worth considering a shot at an actual software solution built for DIY landlords (1 - 25 units) that helps you to automate your own rental process (ie. compared to other tools, one that helps you to actually build a single listing and syndicates it to 10+ major listing sites, allows you to schedule showings, provides you with super thorough tenant screening options, online digital leases which can be customized and help you by breaking out those fees, automated maintenance tracking, and fast rent collection which also offers your tenants the ability to report their positive on-time payments to the major credit bureaus; just another positive reinforcement/added incentive to get them to make those payments on time). I'm hoping all goes well with your decision! Exciting times @John H.

Hi Jeremy, sorry to hear you're dealing with a situation like this. The upside is at least you're down in Florida. Up here in Chicago moving is dreaded in the middle of the winter. Having said all of that, there are usually laws in place which make it so that the new owner has to honor that lease. Now, there's a chance a rent increase may happen at the end of this lease headed into a new one (if the new owner presents that option). Still, there are definitely some good options out there that can help you to keep your expenses low if you're in the process of applying to new places (rather than paying multiple application fees, you can pay one and share it with other landlords -- as long as you have an email address for that landlord). I hope everything works out!

Definitely another great option for rental management. Not to knock other tools like Zillow rental manager but because they are newer, they still have to iron out all of the kinks. I'm also not sure whether there are rent transfer limits or not.