All Forum Posts by: Tricia O'Brien

@Scott M.

Okay thanks for your  input Scott! 

What are your thoughts about how to screen out some high risk applicants you don't want??

Specifically households with more than 4 people total?

I have a 3 bedroom / 1 bath SFH rental in Indiana in a class D area (about 1290 sq feet) and I have a maximum occupancy of 4 people - full time and part time residents. I bought it in 2018, and the first tenants I leased to had a family size of 3. I didn't advertise a max occupancy limit in 2018 or currently in 2021, that's just who I ended up picking in 2018.

It's vacant now, and when I told a property manager a couple of weeks ago that I wanted a max occupancy of 4 (as one of my preferred criteria)  he said that might be seen as discriminating against large families and it might be a violation of some Fair Housing Law.  He said the fire marshall in most cities allows 2 people per bedroom so 6 would be normal max occupancy.

He recommended NOT putting in a Facebook or Zillow or Avail.co or  realtor.com  listing that the max occupancy is 4.  However,  if someone applied with 5 or 6 or 7 people in the household , I could reject them for another reason, like credit score too low.  I believe he was  recommending  NOT telling people to their face that we don't accept families with more that 4 people total.

What are your thoughts?? 

Should I tell people by phone we don't accept families with more than 4 people (either before or after they do an application)?...

Maybe  say something like "It has always been my policy since 2018 to have a max occupancy of 4 people because it's less than 1400 sq feet and only has 1 bathroom." 

I decided to self manage for now.  Someone emailed   a pre-screening form Sunday  who said her family size is 5-6 people and total gross income was only $3,100/month (above my preferred  income requirement) . So I just failed to respond to her email because I don't want her to apply.  I'm confident she cannot afford to live there and is  a high risk for non payment of rent.

After paying rent and utilities, she'd only have at best $2k/mo for all other expenses for 1 adult and 4 or 5 children if they lived there.

My house has: 

Rent: $760/mo with tenant responsible for paying all utiliites ( runs $200-$350/mo)

Rent plus utilities: runs  about $960/mo to $1110/mo (depending on household size and habits) 

My Preferred Criteria for Tenant Applicants:

1) Maximum occupancy 4 people - full and part time residents

2) Gross Income at least $3040 / month (4x rent amount but 3.1x expected  rent and utilities for 3-4 person household)

3) No evictions in  past 5 years of any household member

4) No felony convictions ever of any household member

Am I on the right track to take the PM's advice and NOT be up front about the max occupancy ??

  Less than 10% of people who have inquired so far have a family size more than 4, but I'm feeling awkward about how to handle it when it happens.

Any advice would be appreciated!  Thanks!

Hello BP Folks!  I would like to get as many opinions as possible regarding which service is better for tenant screening for evaluating debt to income ratio and the applicant's history of on time car payments, credit card payments, etc - the BP recommended screening tool (SmartMove) for $38 or the one from Rentscreener.com for $35? 

I am concerned that, for a low income property (like one that rents for $760/mo) the Rentscreener might not have enough detail about late payments.   The folks at Rentscreener.com lump all their data into a final "Rent Grade" of A, B, C, D etc but do not give you the actual data of the how many late car payments or late credit card payments someone had in 2020 or 2021.  They also don't give you the raw credit score of 550, 600, 650, etc. or the total amount of debt payments like $500/mo car payment , $300/mo VISA payment etc.

I'm new to tenant screening ...Thanks in advance!

It is easier to self manage a B class rental than a D class. However, in the D class areas, where you really need the help, it can be almost impossible to find a good quality property manager. So you have to do some of the work yourself at times with a D class rental  as in  "manage your  manager"  even though you are paying a property manager.  If you do not supervise your out of state property manager through emails, phone, drive by inspections by others  etc sometimes they'll neglect maintenance and jeopardize the safety of the tenants. 

I want to try posting a vacancy on apartments.com, but I'm having trouble figuring out if I can include a screening questionnaire that someone could click on or get directly from my ad. Has anyone done this? I want to have screening questions listed such as:  is anyone other than the applicant going to live there, do you have any pets, any evictions within the past 24 months, any felony convictions, etc.  There would be no charge to fill it out.

This would be something I could read before I offer them a chance to view the property to avoid wasting my time with people  who don't meet minimum standards.

I've heard Tenant Cloud has that feature, but apartments.com is more popular in my region for listings. Thanks !

@Colleen F.  Why do you ask in your pre-screening about how many animals they have and not how many pets? Something to do with service animals and pet deposits? thanks 

Is the $200/ month credit being provided by the government through a non-profit organization because she filed a COVID hardship declaration form?  Or did you voluntarily reduce the rent by $200 to keep the peace with her? 

If you are getting the $200/month credit from a non profit due to the tenant's declaration she has a COVID related hardship, then it might be a big hassle to evict her if you give her 30 or 60  days notice to vacate. She might  decide to stay put and wait to be evicted and fight the eviction. 

I read the CDC just issued some sort of extension to the eviction moratorium in the past 7 days,  but I don't know the details on that.  Best of luck to you!!

I recently paid a builder about $4,500 total for several projects at my rental home in Indiana. These were: building a new wood deck at back door, building new staircase in  basement, installing a new window, repairing a floor, building a bedroom closet, hauling out the junk the tenant left behind.  Although he has a business name "Absolute Carpentry" on his invoices , he requested checks for payment be made out to his own name , not the business name , which we did.

  Now I am wondering , do  I need to issue him a 1099 when I do my taxes at the end of 2021?  I don't have his social security # or tax id # . Will I be able to issue that without the tax id?  Will there be any negative consequences for me if I do not issue the 1099 ? Or if  I issue it  to his name "Dale  XXXXXXX"  and not his business name ? 

What is the dollar limit where you can skip issuing the 1099?

I doubt he'll call me back if I contact  him since he didn't want to do an additional project at my house (painting)  recently because he had taken on bigger more expensive projects.

I own the rental home in my own name, not an LLC.

Any replies would be appreciated !!

Hello,

I have a rental in  Indiana, and   some of the large property management companies there are requiring tenants to pay an extra $30 per month, in addition to the rent, for a "tenant benefits package." The property manager keeps the entire monthly fee.

 I was wondering if anyone has used a PM that does this, and were there any problems with it? 

Did it provide any benefits to the owner?  Any downside for the owner?

My main concern is this:  if I get a tenant with a 1 year lease and then I cancel the PM contract after 6 or 8 or 10 months and start to self manage or move to a different PM company, do the tenants get upset about losing the tenant benefits package which  is part of their lease?  

The PMs who use this claim the tenants really  like  the benefits  package because it offers things like $0 security deposit programs through rhino.com, and  reporting of rent payment history to credit bureaus to improve their credit score. It also offers  a rewards program where tenants  can win restaurant gift cards for paying on time, tenant portal to pay their utilities and rent, tenant portal to report maintenance requests etc.

Has anyone heard feedback from tenants either positive or negative about these mandatory programs ?

Any replies would be appreciated!

@Charissa Bruckman 

Okay thanks Charissa!