All Forum Posts by: Ron Rohrssen

I'd agree that there is a softening. In the past year, I've experienced longer time to fill vacancies and I lowered rents a bit in my Marion and Cedar Rapids properties. For acquisitions, I feel that it's still a seller's market and it's been harder to find properties with enough margin to make a decent rental or flip opportunity.

It's like Iowa weather, except on a slower timeline, give it a year or so and it will be different!

Welcome aboard @Nicholas Wallraff. I'm really glad to see other members from this area. BP is a great resource.

Can you check the address. It doesn't appear to be correct, and that makes it hard to comp.

@Account Closed you're correct. I misspoke by saying that I only look at credit scores. I really meant the entire background check. For me that includes: criminal history, eviction history, credit score including payment history, types of debt, amount of debt, etc.

I mention the free credit report as an option they can pursue before applying if they are uncomfortable with, or don't know their credit score. For someone with a credit score < 550, it allows them to avoid paying the $40/background check to find out they don't qualify.

I've had this situation many times. It sounds like you're doing well in looking at their cumulative picture.

I have used a co-signer, typically a parent, in the application process. I give the co-signer an application and process a background check on them. They pay for the application/background process.

I always start with a showing of the rental unit. That gives me time to get a feeling for the prospective applicants. I casually ask open ended questions and they usually offer up a lot of information. If I suspect that they want to pursue an application, i begin to explain that process and my rental policy. That includes credit score, 3x income to rent, etc. That also gives me an opportunity to mention the option for a co-signer.

If they want to pursue an application, then i explain all of that again with written copies of the rental policy, etc. This is another opportunity to talk about credit. I encourage then to seek a free credit report if they don't know their score.

Fortunately, i haven't had to pressure

Thankfully, I don't have properties that are flooded this year. I've helped in several flood cleanup areas in the past, and I found this to be accurate and helpful information in my experience.

Thanks for reposting this.

OMGosh! You have NOTHING? No lease that has been at least reviewed by a lawyer?

Ok. Don't panic. But, DO move quickly. 

1. Find another investor from the area using BP, a local REIA, etc. Perhaps they'd be willing to let you borrow their contract. But, keep in mind there are areas of the contract that are required by law, areas that are highly recommended, and then areas where you as landlord are protecting yourself and your tenants.

So, you want to review whatever you get and consider, if you have time, what needs to change.

2. Find an attorney in the area specializing in real estate rentals. See if they have a standard rental contract for the specific area and type of property you are covering. If you're under a time crunch this might get you where you need to be, and then consider how you'd modify this going forward with the next tenant(s) as you learn from this.

3. Consider something like RocketLawyer. It will generate a location specific contract for your rental needs. However, I'd still recommend a review by a local attorney.

Congratulations!

@Robert Polyack you may find this interesting as well.

SFGate How Long Should I Keep...

Agree with @Rick S.! I've been to a couple of presentations for Landlords in my area recently where this was brought up. You need to store them securely! But, you do need to keep them in order to demonstrate a history of consistent application of your rental policy for applicants.

My data is scanned and stored on encrypted systems. Paper is bulky, but paper in a water/fire-proof safe may be sufficient.

This is the progression of what I've used in the past, up to what I'm using now.

Google calendar -> search at the end of the year for keywords -> enter into Excel sheet -> to CPA

Quicken (desktop) -> Mileage Tracker (Ok. but no advantage over Excel)

TrackURMiles (Android)->Export to Excel occasionally)->to CPA

I'm currently using TrackURMiles to try it out. I had some glitches initially with licensing the app. The developer was very quick to respond and fixed the problems within a couple of days. Since then I haven't had any problems.

With TrackURMiles I can specify business, charity, personal (why track this), or anything. The categories are configurable. The hardest part is training myself to start the tracker before I leave on a business related trip. If I forget, I can manually create an entry using the odometer readings or simply enter a starting odometer reading of 0, and and ending reading equal to the total miles to record.

The GPS tracker feature (see screen shot) is simply to use. I occasionally forget to stop tracking when I get back home. So, I just manually adjust the ending odometer reading.

Whenever, I want I can export the data to a CSV file to open in Excel. It's simple and it works. The downside (potentially) is not having the data on your phone stored in the cloud. So, I can't access it from my computer or insure that it's backed up if the phone is lost or destroyed.

I've been using it for a few months now. Part of this system, and I think it's true for all systems, is training yourself to make an entry in the system as near as possible to when the driving event occurs.

I tried MileIQ for a while. One of the nice features is that you can define locations like addresses where you have properties, the usual stores or services centers that you frequent, etc. It will automatically record those locations as you travel, and you can classify it later. That's a nice feature. It seemed to work well. I just didn't want to pay the fees.

Good luck!