All Forum Posts by: LuAnn Vigen

Thank you for your input. I have spent most of the time trying to calm down my tenant. She was more upset than I was. Life Happens! She has contacted her car insurance, they are going to send out an adjuster. Wish I could be there, but I am currently spending my winters in the Sun and this rental is in Minnesota. I will be contacting my agent today. I have never had an insurance claim filed before. Do I have to watch the insurance company to make sure I get a fair settlement or are they honest.

Just go a call from a tenant in my SF home. She drove the car threw the garage.

What do I do now? Will her car insurance cover?

I love BP, all your responses are great.  It always helps to have a slap of reality when running my business. Being a woman, it is very easy to become soft when I should be hard.

The search will continue for a great tenant!!

I found a tenant for my rental property, she qualifies, but might have trouble coming up with the first months rent and her security deposit all at once. She says if she gets her security deposit back from her current apartment, she would be in good shape. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to handle this. What method do you guys use in this type of situation. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Just my two cents worth. I have rentals in small towns the largest town has 13000 residents. The smallest town has under 2000. Surprisingly, I get better cash for from the smallest towns. The towns are all about an hours drive from a large city of 115000 people.

I have thought about rentals in the bigger cities, but all I see is bigger problems. There are over 100 units available on craigslist at any given time. In the small towns, you have no competition. The turn over is small towns seems to be less, because there is no were to move to unless my tenants purchase a home. The trouble usually stays in the larger cities so that is also a plus.

If your looking for properties management, you might have problems finding them in small towns. I have to do my own management. If you don't have local plumbers,electricians or other service people, it might cost more for those services if they have to come from the larger areas.

It was not burber, it was a short pile. It was a stray they took in.  There was no pet deposit, they got the cat about a year ago, with out my knowledge.

Thanks for the reply, It makes sense. I try to be fair with my tenants, but sometimes I wonder if I'm to kind. I told her, I would see if we could use the carpet out of the closet, because I realize the carpet is about 5 years old. It was new when she moved in, looks 10 years old now. She didn't have the heart to declaw the cat, but it didn't affect her any to destroy my property. Renters, you can't live with them and you can't live without them!

I have a tenant moving out, the cat scratched the heck out of the carpet, under the door into the bedroom and hallway. The carpet is 5 years old, do I charge for replacing the carpet in the bedroom and hallway or just for repairing it? (I think I can take the carpet from the closet)

I would like to hear how other landlords handle this situation.

@Jason Bott thanks for the insurance info, I'm not a big user of insurance any way but it is nice to know the options.

@Brady Boyer I sure did use my Capex, the tenants deposit and a lot of sweat equity. The security deposit didn't even cover the dumpster fees, needless to say I took him to court. Due to the fact he has no money, it was just for the satisfaction. I flip the property to get my money back out. I didn't lose but I didn't gain much. It was my first tenant placement, I've gotten wiser and do home inspections at least twice a year now.