All Forum Posts by: Wendy H.

Thank you @Owen Rosen and @Tony Wilcox for the feedback! 

Hey All! I'm reviewing my rental property insurance after having gone through issues with the first ever claim on my current policy, which we're finding out has poor claims service and lacks ordinance or law coverage. For experienced landlords, what factors should be prioritized when choosing landlord insurance? Coverage options, claims process, cost, or something else? Any recommendations or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Quote from @David M.:

@Wendy H..

I'm kinda minimal.  I walk through make sure that there is no obvious signs of damage, anything beyond wear and tear.  For my units, the main issue is whether I need to re-paint and/or replace the carpet.  I also check the furnace air filter.  For better or worse, either exiting tenant has the place cleaned or the incoming will do it (I never ask the incoming tenant, it just works it way into the conversation).  So, I've only had to get my cleaner in a few times.

My tenants tend to either be too nice or too scared to bother me with small repairs.  So, they are generally caught by the new tenant.  They understand that since i never lived there i never knew about them.  These are usually small things, like a slow leaky toilet, some loose handles in the kitchen, maybe the shower diverter isn't working well (we have very hard water here so its common).

While this is rather/sort of embarrassing, I THINK bBy getting them fixed quickly it actually shows that I a landlord that intends to maintain my properties and provide at least a decent place for my tenants to live.

To save a bit of money, I change out the locksets on the door myself.  I keep a spare set handy to just swap it out.  To provide a bit of extra safety, I then later get the lockset rekeyed.

Hope that helps.  Happy to chat.  Good luck.

 Thank you so much David for the thorough response. Interesting note about the cleaners, good to know some incoming do that. Will be keeping all of these in mind. I hadn't thought of how the new tenant will likely be catching small repairs that the previous didn't mention, but yes agreed that getting things fixed quickly shows you're a good landlord. Would love to chat more when the turn comes.  

Hi all, for the experienced self managing landlords out there, I was wondering if folks can share what you do when a tenant moves out. I'm very familiar with self managing in terms of the tenant screening process, getting the tenant moved in, and maintenance etc issues during tenancy, but this will be the first time I'm trying to prepare for a tenant move out. Do you have someone specific (handyman, contractor, inspector etc) do the move out inspection for you? Any learnings/tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

It probably differs depending on location, but for us it was Zillow that brought the most interest and most serious applicants. 

@Ola Dantis lol! I guess my follow up question is, aside from these minimum requirements, how would I decline an applicant based on looking out for "uh ohs"? I'm in California, and was under the impression that we could only disqualify someone based on them not meeting the minimum requirements, hence the high score. But if I find an "uh oh" or something like their car isn't well kept, but they do meet the lower credit score requirements, what reason would I state to disqualify them? 

@Michael Temple That's a really good point, something I hadn't connected the dots on! 

@Michael Temple I'll keep that in mind! So far it doesn't seem like the 700 credit score is a problem as we're still able to get applicants for this property, but I'll see once I actually go through the entire process and if we need to lower. Will also keep that in mind as we go out of state. 

@Nathan Gesner sounds good and that makes sense too, I'll plan to do the same when those situations come up. Thanks again! 

@Joseph Firmin @Nathan Gesner thank you both very much, yes that's helpful and makes sense. I will let them know if their older parent contributes to the income requirement then they will need to meet the credit score requirement, but if not, they just need to go through the other background checks.