All Forum Posts by: Mark N.A

Thanks, everyone, for cheering me up!

I am soooooo glad I have nothing to top your stories!

The problem with late fees is the tenant doesn't think his rent is due until right before the late fee kicks in, which here in NC is the 5th.

So if I don't get the rent by the first, as specified by the lease, by the second I deliver the 10-day Pay or Quit notice. Now the clock is ticking for eviction.

If at any time before the ten days is up the tenant wants to settle up in full, including the late fee, fine. If not, I have not wasted any time in starting the eviction.

I won't chase rent and I won't chase late fees. Tenants who are chronically late (or otherwise try my patience) get the heave ho, no reason needed because they are on MTM leases.

invstr --

If you can leverage your money into a two or more bedroom rental (at the right price), then live in it and rent out the other rooms, you will be ahead of the game.

But it is imperative that you know your market and your area. Not all is rosy eveywhere in rental-land.

Here where I am I've got an upstairs/downstairs apartment in a low-income area that's been available for five weeks and I've only showed it once. I've also got a college/blue collar 4/2 that's been available for two weeks with nary a showing.

If the phone was ringing and I was turning away applicants because of failed screenings it would be one thing, but this deafening silence is just... plain... unsettling.......

So on Monday my fiance and I were reconditioning a new rental in a mixed college rental area --

-- and she gets chased inside twice by a loose pit bull! In this mixed middle class/college area! I half expect this with my low-income rentals, but not here!

Of course the police were summoned, who spoke to the college-aged limp-wit who owns the dog. No tickets issued, just a verbal warning.

So you better believe I'm pursuing my concealed carry permit. And in the meantime purchasing some industrial-strength spray.

If I wasn't so fat, old and decrepit I'd take a martial arts class, too, but I'm just not spry anymore.

A couple towns over from here the city council is seriously considering banning pit bulls from within the city limits. Good on them and I hope something like that happens here in my town. Would that we could ban the limp-wits, too.

You keep reading this thread and going, "Yep... yep... yep...."

Harley-Davidson makes pretty cool toys. Since buying my first I've met a whole new world of very interesting people from all walks of life. You can schedule an adventure that lasts an hour, or take a few weeks off to explore any place in the world with roads.

And hey, 50 miles to the gallon ain't too shabby, either.

This just in from Investing HQ:

Buy sheep, sell deer!

Interesting thread. Interesting posts.

My income to rent ratio is 3:1 and can be alimony, welfare, food stamps, disability, job, etc. Of course this can change if they get fired or the shack-up moves out, so it's just a move-in qualifier.

I allow no evictions unless it's over 5 years old and I can talk to some landlords since then, the most recent of which will probably lie to me just to get rid of a problem tenant. But of course, what do you do when the tenants say they've been staying with Sis since the old eviction?

I try not to lower my standards just to rent out a place, but you better believe I'm tempted. I have one multi-family like that and I'm going to sell it, hopefully at break-even or better.

I guess I do use a point system to rate my applicants, but it's sort of instinctual and cumulative. Tattoos, gross piercings, skulky demeanors, unruly kids, smelling of beer at ten in the morning, living with Sis for the last five years, the list goes on. The most recent was a lady who drove an expensive SUV but couldn't afford the low rent; well, gee, there's some money-management problems there.

Look, I know the consensus is that in low-income land 'screening right' eliminates most tenant problems, but it still seems to me kind of a crapshoot, too, where sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not. My last two evictions were tenants that passed all the screening and had glowing recommendations from previous landlords. So what made them 'go bad'? Who knows. Maybe my next roll of the dice will turn up a winner.

Security.

No one yet has mentioned the problems with ensuring one's own personal security on an island.

As Tim said, build your reserves.

Ask yourself how long you could continue if all of your properties were vacant. What you most want to avoid are 1) foreclosure, 2) selling your properties at distressed prices, and 3) having to rent to anyone with a pulse just to get cash flow.

In personal finance, it is a general rule that one should bank at least six months worth of expenses in case one lost one's job. Of course, that is a personal call.

Personally, I like to sleep at night. It never seems to amaze me (or aggravate me) that my properties always seem to stay vacant longer than I anticipate, or that those properties always seem to cost more to recondition once a tenant leaves.

Good luck.