All Forum Posts by: Rick Bassett

Our history with first time renters is that most do not know how to live in a rental house. They tend to break things more (faucets and the like) and let the maintenance slide more then experienced renters. So to cover those issues and those mentioned in previous posts we require first, last and 2 months sec deposit.  Screening is also important but they usually lack any landlord references.

Rick

I liken 'Cash for Keys' to:

- Giving the soon to be Ex lawn chairs or other heirlooms with sentimental value rather paying 2 attorneys thousands of $$'s to fight over them 

- Settling a lawsuit out of court for less than the cost of defense

It certainly never feels good to give  in to the opposing party but from a practical point of view sometimes you just have to cut/minimize your losses and move on to new opportunities.

Rick

I'd rather not run the risk of having this house vacant again during the holidays next year by offering a 12 month lease now. 

I'll probably write a 5/6 month lease now with a tenant that seems like they might want to renew at the end of this period to keep the house on the best rental schedule. That may preclude people with vouchers for the time being but it should be OK for anyone whenever the house comes back on the market in the June/July time frame in the future.

Rick

This is often an issue for us when problem tenants move out. All utils are in the tenants name but the Water Company is the only one that holds the LL responsible for payment.  We can't put the water in the name of the new tenant before the old tenant's final bill is cleared.

We just got whacked with a $450 water bill when one of our tenants broke their lease early. The security deposit wasn't sufficient to cover the water bill and the carnage that they left behind.

Generally we require departing tenants to prove that their final water bill has been paid or we pay it and deduct it from the security deposit. This works out 50% of the time but we get hit the other 50%. 

Rick

Chris,

Two things to consider:

1) It has been her home for the past 3 years, $175/mo may be too large of a jump for her to absorb at one time. If she hasn't been a problem tenant, I'd take the $750 offer for this year and tell her that the renewals will be $775 next year and $800 the following year.

2) What will your cost be between tenants? If the apartment sits empty for 1 month between then you lose $750 in 1 month rather than $600 over a year, not to mention any cleaning/repair/painting/marketing costs.

Rick

We allow PETS in our properties which don't have carpets. We used to allow them in the carpeted properties as well but the cost of replacing the carpeting every 4 - 10 years due to the animals going to the bathroom on them just isn't worth it. Don't believe anyone who tells you that their dog / cat is good and never goes in the house as accidents happen.

 We charge a non-refundable PET fee of $300 plus $20 per pet per month, only allow 2 max, they can't be on the insurance watch list and we must approve them.

Rick

I'd try to bring them around to your way of doing business first. Tell them that you run your business very differently than the previous owner and that you expect the utilities to be turned immediately on and maintained and that all of the scooter parts have to go within 2 weeks; otherwise you're going to have to terminate their tenancy. You're probably going to have to fix the window anyway.

They may come around, they may not but at least you've taken away their leverage in future arguments by being fair and reasonable.

Rick

We have all of our leases lined up so they end in June or July but we just had a tenant break her lease early and will be leaving at the end of January.

We want to keep this property on a June / July lease end schedule so we are looking to write a new lease of either 5 or 17 months. 

We have received an abundance calls from potential section 8 tenants on this one but I can't seem to get an answer (call back) from the housing authority if they are willing to write a 5 or 17 month initial lease.

From what I've seen on various websites the PHA's seem to want to do just 1 year lease initially.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Rick

Showed one of our nicer homes to a young couple the other day. They loved it and were interested in applying, I gave them the requirements of what we would need from them; application, copies of drivers licenses, pay stubs..etc.

Husband: "I don't have pay stubs but I make great money in my home based business as a dog breeder"

Me (playing along): "What kind of dogs do you breed, Bassett Hounds"? 

Husband: "Nope, American Staffordshire Terriers...about a dozen at a time per litter, I make out big money selling the pups and the sperm on the Internet"

Me: "Too bad, I really love Bassett Hounds but we don't accept Pit Bulls in our homes"

.....you all know the rest

Rick Bassett