All Forum Posts by: Jennifer T.

You are not required to do a walk through with her.  I assume by "move out" papers, she means a move-out checklist.  You can probably find a basic form on here or Google it.

I typically don't do a walk through, unless a tenant requests it.  And, even then, I clearly state that sometimes problems are found later and I will outline those (if applicable) in the security deposit statement that accompanies the SD check (if applicable).

As a warning, she might also be angling to get her SD check after the walk through.  It is absolutely baffling to me how many of my previous tenants have expected that (eye roll).  Never do that.

Though, I do agree with her about not wanting to leave the key in the mailbox.  If I were a renter, I'd be extremely uncomfortable with that also and would want to give it to a person or leave it at a secured location.  Because she could leave the place in perfect condition but then, who knows what could happen?  Some bored kids on summer break go looking for hidden keys in the neighborhood.  Jackpot!  And they vandalize the place for s**ts and giggles.  Sure, it's probably not likely, but it also happens.  Make no mistake that a common tactic of local thieves is to keep their eye out for "moving out or in" activities.

This is a really key consideration also that I think many people aren't aware of.  Landlords or potential tenants!

Each individual tenant can have ONE ESA or service animal.  So a tenant can't bring in a herd of dogs and say they are all ESAs.  With that said, I'm pretty sure that's true for each person living in a unit.  So Mommy can have one ESA.  Daddy can have one ESA and twins Betsy and Mitzy can each have one ESA also.

I am a huge proponent of anyone who legitimately needs either a service animal or ESA.  But, like the rest of you, I'm also tired of the majority of people who claim they need an ESA are bold-faced liars and scammers.  And I wish stricter standards were put into place by these government agencies to protect us/hotel/motel industry/airlines from this problem that has become rampant.

With that said, I've actually never had a potential/current tenant claim they have an ESA or service animal.  Possibly because I do allow dogs/cats in most of my units, though with a pet deposit and pet rent.  But I don't ban animals entirely.   

I've had solar panels on my personal home for 6 years.  Just a warning that there seems to be an assumption going on that electricity bills are zero or a small amount, once a property has solar panels.  I suppose that could depend on how many someone puts on.  But we absolutely have an electricity bill and it still isn't anything to sneeze at.  The panels only save us about half our electric cost.  I'm sure battery backups would help with that at night.  But they were crazy expensive and nowhere near worth it, when we looked at the cost.  Albeit, that was 6 years ago.

And we don't have power when the electricity is down.  Of course, we're still tied to the grid.  And, for worker safety (at least that's what I was told), they can't allow electricity to stay running, even for people who are producing it themselves with panels.

Just thinking out loud and not sure if this would be an actual problem. But the vast majority of banks don't allow HELOCs for a non-owner occupied property. While I realize you would own the property when you took out the HELOC, I'm not sure what a bank might do if you quickly turn around and no longer live in the house. Although banks don't usually call loans, they might in a situation like that.

Bit of a different situation, but my mom had a HELOC on her house. It was a 10-year duration (most HELOC's are). At some point in that 10 years, though not right away, she moved out and started renting it. The bank didn't call the loan. But, when she wanted to re-up at the end of the 10 years, she was told "no". She would either have to pay it off or take out a different type of loan to pay it off. Because it was no longer an owner-occupied house and they didn't offer HELOCs, otherwise.

You also talked about your DTI. Here's the other gotcha on that and with HELOC's I recently discovered. A bank lender is going to consider what your HELOC monthly payment would be, if the line were maxed out. No matter what your actual balance is. Ask me how I know that, lol.

If I have not opted into receiving texts from someone or a business, they are close to being as obnoxious as telemarketers.  They immediately get deleted and blocked.

There is one local wholesaler who sends a blast text when he has a new property and when he has open houses.  I know I signed up to receive his e-mails.  Maybe I did for texting also, though I don't remember. 

And, while I don't mind that he texts me, I would MUCH prefer an e-mail and would also open those more.  Sometimes he sends the same info in an e-mail, but not usually.  Like @Susan Maneck, I don't like clicking slow links in the text message and then having to zoom out each pic.  If I'm really interested and have time, I'll type the URL address into a real computer.  But I usually just delete the texts because I don't want to bother doing that, unless the deal looks especially enticing from the scant words in the text.

I'm probably showing my age (Gen X).  But, unless they're for very quick messages, I don't like texting at all and I'm baffled that so many people seem to, lol.  I'd recommend doing both (text and e-mail), but ONLY when people opt-in.  And maybe put a line at the top of the e-mail that says something like, (Same information sent via text).

One of my units is one half of a shotgun double.  For those of you not familiar with this type of layout, one room runs into another and runs into another.  With no hallways and often no doors.  Mine has no doors, except for the bathroom door (there is a small hallway in front of that).  Each room is the width of the unit.  Back in the days before a/c, you could basically turn the house into a wind tunnel.  And the joke was you could open the front and back door, shoot a shotgun shell, and it would sail through the house and into the backyard without hitting anything.  Hence the design and name.

At any rate, this unit is a 2 bd/1ba and I advertise it as such (everybody does), even though the bedrooms don't have doors and have to be walked through to get to the kitchen, etc.

My typical tenants are couples who enjoy the extra space and use the second bedroom as a dining room or office.  But I've also had small families rent out that unit also.  I don't usually have any trouble renting it out, nor do I need to subtract anything from market rent for a 2bd.

I can't speak to CA laws, but why wouldn't you give them as much notice as possible?  I was a renter at many places before I bought my own home and NEVER assumed that, just because my lease was ending, it meant I had to move out if no one had said anything to me either way.

In my own leases, it's in writing that it automatically converts to a month-to-month when the lease term has ended.

They all agreed to the SD amount in the estoppel letter.  That's exactly what those letters are for and that's what I would hold them to.

Especially if tenants are regularly changed out via the organization, I would never pay out any portion of the SD until that deal ends and there are no longer any of their people living in the unit.  Old tenant moving out collects the SD from new tenant moving in.  Think of what a time-consuming hassle it would be for you to do an inspection, divvy out part of the SD to old tenant, just to collect part of the SD from new tenant.  Minus repairs, if applicable.  Ensue fight about which roommate is responsible for said repairs.  No way.

FWIW, I did something like this in college with an apartment complex.  I signed and got added to the lease for 2bd/2ba and took the place of the previous roomie.  And that was who I paid the SD to.  The complex wasn't involved at all.

Lots of great points being made here.  I know it can seem like so much of what you're learning isn't important and won't apply to "real life".  But that really isn't true.  A large part of school is not so much the facts you are learning, but the skills you acquire in the process:

• Thinking about what you've learned and applying it to find answers and to open your mind to new perspectives.
• Working and communicating with others.  Handling social challenges.  Navigating in a world where you'll sometimes have to work with people you don't like.
• Training yourself to have follow through and perseverance.  You need to have at least some self motivation to get school work done.  You need OODLES of self motivation to invest in real estate!  Because whether you're doing it p/t (with a W-2 job) or f/t, nobody is holding your hand or cracking the whip on you to run your business.

And then there are the practical reasons mentioned. Learning about real estate is great and key! But that's all you'll be able to do in this industry until you turn 18 anyway. You have to be 18 to legally sign a contract and there is very little in REI that doesn't involve contracts.

It's really, really tough to get started without having a W-2 type job first.  And the better paying it is, the faster you can start building up the cash you need for reserves and down payments.  But job types are extremely limited for someone without a HS diploma and are usually minimum wage/low paying.

For example, I used to manage a large convenience store/gas station.  The basic position we called "associate" was ringing up customers, stocking shelves, cleaning, etc.  It paid $9/hour.  It didn't require someone to have any experience, but even that job required a HS diploma or GED.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot like that and drop out of HS.  But, if you do, at the very least get a GED.

Just to add my two cents.  That is something I've found really frustrating about tenants.  I am very responsive when issues come up and fix them as fast as I can get someone over there.  But I don't have magic fairy dust to sprinkle over a problem on a Sunday or at 10PM at night.  And neither do they, if they owned that property.

I had a tenant's a/c unit go out on a late Sat. afternoon a few years ago.  It was late Sept. so, yes, it was hot...highs of high 70s/low 80s.  But not crazy hot.  I immediately called her back to let her know I'd left a message with my usual company to call me ASAP, but they probably wouldn't be back in the office until Mon. She started ranting about how hot it was and, while I was explaining I didn't know any and doubted any HVAC companies work on Sun. she hung up on me.  Yep, pretty typical behavior for her.  My guy did me a FAVOR by seeing her at the end of the day on Monday, even though they were already booked.  And she was still furious at me because he came at the end of the day instead of in the morning.  And all kinds of threats to call her S8 caseworker on me.  I politely pointed out that her problem was fixed on the next business day and no one could have done any better than that.

In my own mind, I was thinking, "GOOD!!!  Please DO tell Section 8 that you called me for a repair.  That I replied back within one hour.  And the problem was fixed on Mon."