All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

It's tricky and I'm surprised I'm not hearing more threads about this.  My tenant has been great for 6 years but works in the restaurant and massage therapist businesses.  Laid off from both.  She said she has about 2 months to live on if she paid rent but that paying me back is a priority.  I believe her.  So forgive rent completely until whenever or take 1/3 or 1/2?  I've never been that good at negotiating and now this.

I've been thinking of doing AirBnB or VRBO with my condo in Baltimore and buying another in the Phoenix area.  Asked my insurance company if they would insure a 'vacation rental' thru either of the above companies and they gave a flat 'no'.  It would be too much risk and they would cancel my policy.  I'm surprised nobody, at least noone that I have read, has encountered this show stopper.  Maybe I need to shop around?  

Haven't thought about it but open to the leads

I have managed 2 houses in Albuquerque, NM for 8 years now.  Have never used a property manager and wouldn't change a thing.  You save a lot more money w/o a manager.  Mostly I use friends to find new tenants, as I have a few of them in ABQ, and just have the tenants call me in Baltimore when they have issues.  It's worked very well.  Now, I'm thinking of doing the same while living overseas.  I can see not many people on here seem to have tried that.  

Good thread. I made a lot of money in the 90s and early 2000s by traveling the world and doing equipment installations as an electrical engineer. Little did I know that would pretty much ruin my career since all I did was trouble-shoot things. Didn't learn s/w or ever design anything. All I do now is trouble-shoot in a lab. So damn boring. I'm hoping REI lets me retire at the end of 2016. I will never miss engineering.

At this time its very important to me to understand the tax implications of buying, selling or paying off a property.  I'm 56 and am really looking at retirement from my W-2.   I guess I need a good accountant/financial planner.  

@Karen Barber@Ravi P.

I don't understand why addendums are needed,  Isn't the deposit for covering  anything that the tenant destroys?  Maybe the addendum would make them pay for damage at the time it's damaged?  

@Dawn Anastasi  I plan on leaving it off as long as the condo association doesn't ding me for it.  Yes, unfortunately it has one of them.

@Perry Ivy  Thanks Perry!  I might try to fix it with a cheap contractor or fix it myself - after asking them to do the same.  If they balk I might not renew their rent in June.  Wouldn't I be able to have it paid for out of their deposit?

So, I how should I go about having them be responsible for the cost of repair?  Should I fix it myself wit a contractor and bill them?  If I did this I know it would get done but I don't know if they'd pay me back for it.  Or, I could set them up with a contractor who would bill them after he did the work.  They seem to be procrastinators so my fear would be that they wouldn't do it at all.  

Another thing is they broke a bedroom door in the house over a year ago.  I want them to fix that now also.  

Any ideas?

Thanks, Scott