All Forum Posts by: Walt Dockery

Tenant should not have changed the locks IMO. If he wanted to insure she didn’t have a key (reasonable) he should have asked you to have them changed and paid for it, but not til AFTER she was off the lease. 

I would ask her why she hasn’t signed documents you sent her after verbally confirming she wanted off.  Threats/domestic issues are none of your concern, she should be calling the police not her former LL. What is your concern is getting her off the lease. 

Do you have in writing that the LL agreed you didn’t have to pay June’s rent?

IMO your landlord is a moron for depending on your rent to pay his mortgage, I would always leave a large enough buffer in a rental checking account to pay the mortgage w/o receiving rent, and I imagine your landlord will too after paying for this lesson. 

Do you have any references for either and/or have you used either other before?

I would be tempted to give the general handyman a shot. IMO the lower quotes aren’t always for inferior work and in fact are sometimes very good, small owner operator types like that if they work quickly and efficiently can get things done for cheaper, and having a general handyman that is good is invaluable. 

You should have a set of keys. That the PM thinks not having a key is ok is suspect imo. 

I would probably rekey it. Yes, the tenants are the same but who knows how long it’s been since previous owner rekeyed and how many keys are floating around.  I always change locks after buying a property, I don’t want to wonder that the tenant from 5 years ago’s house cleaner’s 18 y/o meth addict son has a key. 

It’s free unless you choose the expedited payment option. I just use the free version, I don’t mind the delay in it hitting my bank account. 

I would probably just sell it. No way I would take out a 401k loan for it.  If you need a 401k loan for the $11k what are you going to do when it needs a major repair, new roof etc?

You have four distinct requirements and they meet zero of them and you are only “leaning” towards turning them down?  They don’t meet your criteria by a mile, you should move on. You set the criteria in the first place to eliminate emotion from the decision. 

If you think you would feel bad rejecting their application, think how bad you would feel having to evict them. In the future consider going over your criteria on the phone before scheduling a showing and accepting an application, so it doesn’t get to this point. 

I consider the totality of the application but I do want to see a good credit score. 700+ preferred, I might consider someone 650-700 range if the rest of their application is excellent, I don’t think I’d accept below 650. 

This seems like an inordinate amount of unnecessary work and paper shuffling. 

If someone’s qualifications on the app don’t meet your requirements (income not high enough, smoker, pets in a no pet rental, desired move in date doesn’t line up with when you want the unit filled etc) why would you waste time on a background check?  If someone seems undesirable for subjective reasons (car is filthy, person smells of smoke, pushy demeanor etc) why on earth would you then move forward to a credit/background check which may come back favorable and now you have to explain why you are rejecting them?  Running multiple background checks that couldn all come back positive, now how will you narrow it down?

Personally I don’t run credit/background check unless and until the rest of the application is favorable and meets my qualifications, the check is the last step and is pass/fail at that point.  I run one credit/background check on one applicant, if it comes back neg I would tell them the credit/background check didn’t meet my requirements and move on to the next applicant and so on. If it comes back positive the reason given to all remaining applicants is simply “thank you for your interest, I have already approved and accepted another applicant and the property is no longer available”. 

I don’t charge an application fee and when it comes to credit/background check I send them a mysmartmove link and check option to have applicant pay.