All Forum Posts by: Russ B.

In my experience, you can get the same benefits FHA gives you (ie, 3.5% down) from the banks directly.. and to the banks, the more houses you already own, the better 🙂

This is why some people charge tenants a fee for service calls... although it would have to be in the lease. 

I'd tell the PM to run them by you from now on, and / or get a new PM. From the charges, it looks like they are billing you 100 bucks every time they go out there. That would be ok maybe (still kinda high), but by now they know that these calls have almost all been frivolous, and keep going. 

If they want to increase the rent, they don't need to pull any trickery to do so. They'll just do it. 

There won't be anything in the lease that says they have to give the same rate if you renew, since that would be like voluntary rent control on their part (and even if there was, they could just decline to renew that lease / offer to write a new one). 

Personally, I'd just wait and see. If they want to raise the rent more than you are OK to pay, you can try to talk them down. Given the length of your stay, you do have a bit more bargaining power than most. 

At the end of the day though, either there is a rent that both sides will accept, or you'll stop renting there.

It isn't just galvanized. I have a house that had such low water pressure that the kitchen sink wouldn't even run when the washing machine was filling.

It turned out to be just the first run of copper pipe coming in, which was so full of mineral deposits that the open path through it was like a spaghetti noodle. 50 feet of that, and not much comes out the other end! 

I'm guessing the water that came from the old well must have been REALLY hard, and it settled in that length of pipe due to it sitting a little lower than the pipes. 

Anyway, replacing just that one run of pipe cured it completely.

This is a good example of why it's important to do everything by the book in this business. If you don't, then as soon as you have a problem tenant, they will try to use it against you. 

They will eat your thick pile stuff down to office carpet 😕

I'd argue that there are definitely some A class old houses, especially in places that are known for their classic architecture. 

One of the cleanest / most modern / most energy efficient (for its size) houses I've ever seen was built in 1837. If not for the foot-thick brick walls, you'd never know it wasn't new construction. 

Hope they have insurance... 

@Nate Smoyer - that might be the easiest solution in a lot of cases. I think this is what I'm going to do going forward. 

Plan on pets right out of the gate, and harden the property against them during the rehab phase. Then, boost the rent (include the old pet fees, but for everyone), and advertise "Pets Welcome! No extra fees!".

That would also help expand the tenant pool, so you can be pickier about things like income and credit. 

I'd still use a petscreening type service (since they get the renter on record about things like vaccinations and bite history) / have breed restrictions / limit people to one or two pets, but since these are the same restrictions you could place on an ESA, it makes everything else simpler. 

You'll still have dogs and cats in your units, but it'll be at least a little more on your terms. 

If the tenant wants to replace it with a nicer one that you will own when they move out, and they've been the kind of people you want to keep renting to, then I might consider doing something where they buy the dishwasher and you handle installation. If they're paying for an upgrade, then I'd think they probably want to stay a while. 

It does not take much labor to install a dishwasher, so having your guys do it would ensure that you control the quality of the installation. If the old one is still good, you now have a spare for a different unit. 

You'd obviously would want to do a quick lease addendum for it, so the terms of your agreement are captured.