All Forum Posts by: Zach Scheer

They shouldn't be able to use true security deposit as rent. Check your lease, rent and the security deposit are separate. I know someone will give a more detailed explanation.

Congrats on the first rental!! 1) Duplex is near college and I believe alot of interest to rent unit will come from college. There is alot of international students as well. I know base rule of thumb rent is 3x times income. What if students don't make that much? Can I ask for parent to cosign? Is there any additional paperwork regarding that? You can certainly ask for a co-signer, there is a podcast episode where Brandon and Josh were surprised that the investor didn't have co-signers for his student rentals. Make them fill out an application as well and put their name on the lease. 2) Since we are going to live on another side of the property, should I tell them I'm the "manager" or their landlord?  I would just tell them I'm the landlord. They will figure out that you live next door pretty quick. 3) How to prevent parties? You can implement quiet hours, 10pm to 8am. If they throw a party send them a letter telling them they are breaking their lease and that after 3 warnings they will be served a kappa notice(letter telling them to stop from your attorney). 4) Where would be best areas to advertise besides campus and craigslist? I use Zillow, Zillow will post to zillow(obviously), Trulia and hot pads. I get most of my leads thru these sites. If you download the Zillow rental manager app then you can have all your leads in one place. 5) I would like to run Criminal and other backgrounds on potential tenants. Best place/site to do that? I use mysmartmove.com, It gets mixed reviews on BP but I think it works well. You can also look them up by last name and dob on your states judicial website. 6) Should I have lawyer to draw rent agreement or just use one from file section? You can take one from the file section, read some of the threads about leases and you will most likely add to the stock lease. Example - buyout agreement- if the resident has to break lease you can ask for 60 days notice and 2 months rent. You can only charge them if it's in your lease. 7) What else do I need to have drawn by lawyer? We only had our lawyer draw up our commercial lease. You can have your lawyer read over your lease and make changes. Ask them what they would charge, for a couple hundred it may be worth it for them to make up the lease. 8) Any other advises that I didn't mentioned here, but should to know. Your best bet is to read lots of forums and look up the podcast episodes that pertain to student rentals. There is a ton of information in those areas. You are going to make mistakes but we all do and that's okay. You made the biggest step and that's actually buying your first rental. Keep up the good work.

My only mistake is that I assumed we would have the commercial rented faster. Instead of the expected 2 months it took almost 6 to get someone in.

I currently have a mixed use building with 5 residential units and 4 commercial. I think they work well together and even the tenants get along. The commercial is on the first floor with residential on the two floors above it. I can't comment on the commercial loan since we used private money for this building. Insurance is about $4500 for the year and I'm looking into new quotes. I honestly like them as the residential is easier to fill but the commercial tenants never ask for much.

We use them and I like them to a degree. Sometimes the previous landlord will actually give accurate answers either good or bad. Sometimes the previous landlord pulls a move like they did with you. You have to have some give and take with it. Also don't fully depend on it because people and their circumstances change.

I agree with everyone's post so far, only thing I can add is to call the town building department and see what work was permitted at the site. They make actually have a permit pulled to re-wire or re-plumb. Five minute phone call can save you down the road.

Brian Pulaski how is the colony street neighborhood? Are they actually going along with their plan to renovate and restore the area around the train station?

I agree with Michael Noto , we have 5 residential units all on electric heat and I have no problem renting them out. I wouldn't worry about it. There are a lot of renters out there, you will certainly find someone.

Check your numbers when you are looking at a property. Always expect the worst, if you think a unit will be vacant for 2 months - double it and budget for 4. If you can still make everything work than your good to go.

Mat O'Grady I definitely agree with you, I think sometimes we let our human side make a decision and not the business side. We have certainly made our mistakes on letting people in who we were skeptical about and it bit us in the butt. Having a set of guidelines, following them for every single prospect seems to help. I know I still have to take a step back and check myself at times. For the eviction process it can take some time. Usually the resident takes their time setting up court dates and all that. Once you are in summary the resident can pay the full amount up front or set up a payment plan with the court. ( this is if you choose to work with them). Other than that you probably won't see your money anytime soon