All Forum Posts by: Tim Porsche

Thanks for the replies everyone! Appreciate all of your input and suggestions. I've decided to not do beadboard or plank but instead put some more work into scraping the popcorn off, and then touching up any areas that need it, and painting with a good flat paint to help hide any imperfections. 

It seems like I'll need to do at least two scraping sessions to remove it...one to take off most of the paint so the water can actually penetrate and soak in, and then a second scraping to get the rest of the texture off. I did the first scraping in the dining room a couple of days ago so we're making progress :)

Hey All, would love to get your collective opinions on something. I have about 600 sq. feet worth of popcorn ceilings in a newly purchased property that I'm trying to figure out how to deal with. My options seem to be...

1. Leave it alone

2. Remove the popcorn drywall and replace with new drywall

3. Scrape the popcorn off, patch and dings, and repaint

4. Install something like beadboard or white plank paneling directly over the popcorn

Option 1 I definitely don't want to do, option 2 is doable but significantly more expensive than option 3 or 4. Option 3 is extremely hard to do because this popcorn ceiling has been painted, making it very difficult to scrape off even after wetting it down thoroughly. That leaves me with option 4 which would be very cost effective and relatively simple to do...cut the planks to the correct size, find the joists with a stud finder, and nail them up after applying an adhesive to them as well. 

My question is, would beadboard or plank panels for a ceiling look okay in a class B or C+ rental? Will it add any value to the home? Surely it would better than the popcorn right? What are your thoughts and what would you do? 

@Roy Lam Here are a few things I would try first in that situation.

1. Is this person on a month to month or year lease? If on a year lease, I would let them know within 60 days of the lease ending that you are going to go month to month and why (in a friendly way). This gives you more leverage, as you can choose to just end the tenancy within 30 days at any time, so if they want to stay they'll know they have to do a better job of paying on time and following the policies as outlined in your lease. 

2. If you don't have a late fee built into your lease you really should. If rent isn't paid by the 3rd or 5th of the month they should be paying a decent size late fee.

3. Another incentive is to give them a little discount if they pay rent in full BEFORE the due date. It doesn't have to be much, $15 - $20 maybe. Carrot and stick method. 

4. I'm sure you already know this, but to reduce the possibility of situations like this as much as possible, screen screen screen before accepting an applicant. Check their credit, do a background check, get references from previous landlords, verify income, etc. If you screen well it will help you eliminate or greatly reduce the number of issues like this.

Best of luck to you. 

@Ethan Atkinson I did actually have one pretty much banging down the door. Before I even had it listed for rent, they ran through the yard asking about it and when they could see it lol. I showed it to them, they submitted and application but it didn't work out as the main tenant had 6 collections against her...

@Chuy Gonzalez I didn't get a FICO score since I use SmartMove for credit checks, which provides a detailed credit report and recommendation but not an actual score. Everything on the report looked great though...only small credit card balances and a long history of paying on time every month. She does have a student loan but the monthly payment is only about $250 or so. 

@Thomas S. Do you have all your renters on M2M then? I do prefer M2M for the same reasons you laid out...if a tenant wants to leave they're going to leave usually whether they're on a year lease or month to month, so not much advantage to the landlord. It just makes removing problem tenants harder with a year lease. I still do offer year leases to people that want them though for the added comfort\security, if they've proven themselves to be quality tenants over the course of 6 months. 

@Linda S. Thanks for the feedback, those are great suggestions, and actually I'm already doing #1 with all my units. There's a discount if rent is paid in full before the 1st, and a late fee if paid after the 3rd. Seems to be working great so far, everyone has been paying early to get that discount. 

@Patrick S. Solid points, I've thought about that as well. One thing that makes me feel better though is that she has absolutely no late or missed payments on her credit report, so it definitely seems like she is responsible with handling money. Also the rent here is $40 cheaper than what she paid at her old apartment which is a good thing. 

 That's cool, small world! Most people don't even know there's a Denver in PA and not just CO heh.

Thanks for the responses everyone! I've decided to accept her application, pending completion of the credit and background checks.  Will just be doing month to month for the first six months, and then will offer a year lease if they're interested. Appreciate your input, just needed a sanity check to make sure I wasn't doing anything dumb heh