Tenant Screening: Avoiding Discrimination Lawsuits Last week I discussed the importance of screening tenants. I noted that tenant screening was perhaps the key to being a successful landlord. This week I want to follow up on that article by discussing methods to screen your prospective tenants to avoid a discrimination lawsuit.What is discrimination? A quick Google search defines discrimination as “Recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another.” It … [Read more...]
What Liability Do You Assume When You Allow Pets In Your Rental Property?
October 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What Liability Do You Assume When You Allow Pets In Your Rental Property? There has been so much discussion on BiggerPockets about whether or not you should allow pets in your rental property. This is also a topic that comes up frequently at our REIA group.Some folks feel very strongly (like I once did) that they always end up damaging the property, so they just don’t allow them. Other landlords welcome pets and feel they get better tenants. What I found in my business, was that if the … [Read more...]
3 Key Tips For Screening Tenants
September 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
3 Key Tips For Screening Tenants Everyone has their own method and criteria for screening tenants. Many folks use a formula that is a percentage of gross income to determine if they make enough money to qualify for the property. There will also be other factors such as length of employment and previous landlord recommendations. But the sad fact is that after all that due diligence, you may very well still end up with a tenant that doesn’t pay the rent and doesn’t take care of your … [Read more...]
Effectively Communicating With Your Tenants
August 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Effectively Communicating With Your Tenants I have to say that I am amazed at how quickly real estate investors, especially landlords, have adopted electronic media as a primary means of communicating with tenants. Heck… I got caught up in a text exchange just today with one of my tenants.Lets face it, technology, emails, texting and voice messages have made it extremely easy to communicate with our tenants and deal with routine issues quickly and effortlessly. And, while that is … [Read more...]
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget
August 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget Every once in a while I come across a blog post or an article or even a video that I think misses the mark so badly that I want to reach through the computer at the person who put it out and ask them “what are you thinking”? Not your usual disagreement or not understanding someone’s point of view, but actually wanting to ask why in the world they give the advice they are giving. I never do mind you. I think … [Read more...]
12 Tips for Being a Good Landlord and Having Happy Tenants
August 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
12 Tips for Being a Good Landlord and Having Happy Tenants Every landlord would like to lower the turnover in their properties. It’s costly to attract and retain good tenants, not to mention the costs you incur when they move out and you have to turn a vacant rental. It just makes good business sense to strive to have happy, long term tenants in your properties. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have good systems in place and treat this like a business. Here are some … [Read more...]
A Must Use Form for Every Landlord: Release to the Rights of Possession
August 6, 2012 By 1 Comment
A Must Use Form for Every Landlord: Release to the Rights of Possession The “Release to the Rights of Possession” form is one of the most important forms that a landlord can use. It is a must use for every landlord. It helps protect you from future claims from former tenants. Let me explain.When you sign a lease with a tenant, you legally give them what is termed “possession” of that rental unit. The tenant then occupies and possesses the rental unit for the term of the … [Read more...]
Dealing With Tenant Drama: Are You Ready?
July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Dealing With Tenant Drama: Are You Ready?Tenants are the reason we survive as landlords. By paying their rent, tenants put gas in our cars, food on the table and hopefully a little money in the bank. Tenants, however, are human, and being human means they bring drama. Are you ready for it?Sometimes the drama is petty.“My roommate and I don’t like each other anymore, she needs to leave.”Sometimes it is more serious.“I lost my job.”You as the landlord need to be ready to deal with … [Read more...]
Real Estate in Japan – “The Tenant is King”
July 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate in Japan – “The Tenant is King”We’ve covered the basics – Japan’s got beautiful cash-flow, zilch to negative capital gain (may change, may not), and the icing on the cake – the best and safest business and residential environment one could possibly hope for as a foreign investor or business person.So, the question begs to be asked –why isn’t everybody and their dog shopping there???Well, the big boys, (GS, DBG, Fortress, TPG, etc) already are, as mentioned. As for … [Read more...]
Commonly Overlooked Lease Issues: Third Party Rights
June 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Commonly Overlooked Lease Issues: Third Party RightsThis series is devoted to highlighting those often neglected lease provisions and prevailing on our landlord readers to give them a second look when crafting their contracts. Last month, we looked at the benefits of affirmatively addressing the, dare I say, not uncommon occurrence of a landlord default on their lease obligations and potential tenant remedies in such circumstances. Today we look at third party rights.Third Party Rights: The … [Read more...]
The Preventative Maintenance Plan Needed For Your Rentals
June 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Preventative Maintenance Plan Needed For Your RentalsI think we may have a problem, There seems to be a patch of mushrooms growing in one of your units.”When my property manager first called me with this information, I actually thought the service request was a joke. That was until I saw this photo! The first question I asked myself was, why hadn’t I heard about this sooner? According to the tenant, this mushroom appeared within a few hours, which is impossible. I immediate sent my … [Read more...]
Four Landlording Mistakes You Should Avoid…
May 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Four Landlording Mistakes You Should Avoid…They say the definition of insanity is doing the same function repeatedly hoping for different results. If this is the case, you can call almost every landlord insane!As a landlord, I too tend to commit the same mistakes over and over, despite fully knowing the error I am making. I compiled this list as a lesson to myself, and if it can help others along the way avoid these – then my mistakes have not been in vain! Without further ado:Five … [Read more...]
Be Careful When Inheriting a Tenant
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Be Careful When Inheriting a TenantWith the extraordinary number of short sales and foreclosures over the last few years, many distressed properties are actually being purchased with the previous tenant still residing in the property. For many investors, the thought of avoiding up front rehab costs as well as the time and expense associated with finding a tenant adds to the appeal of this scenario. Admittedly, I too have been drawn to certain properties because of the prospect of inheriting a … [Read more...]
Tenant Screening Failure: How to Avoid a Similar Fate
April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tenant Screening Failure: How to Avoid a Similar FateAs landlords we know that one of the most critical jobs we have is screening and selecting tenants. We know that if we get this part correct that our relationship with our selected tenants will be a profitable one.So, imagine that you have done your tenant screening job well. You collected references (landlords and employers) and checked them out. You inspected their current residence. You performed background checks. Everything … [Read more...]
Secrets of Single Family Rentals
April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Secrets of Single Family RentalsWant to know where the best markets are to find tenants for your single family rentals? Could you use some clues to help you market your rental to potential tenants? Do you know how much rent to charge compared to apartments with whom you compete?There’s a reason hard information on single family rentals is hard to find (See SFR: Birth of a Category). Virtually all the numbers you see for average rents or vacancy rates come from multifamily sources such as … [Read more...]
Reduce Your Mobile Home Vacancy Rate
April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Reduce Your Mobile Home Vacancy RateHaving a vacancy in your investment mobile home is an inevitable part of the mobile home investing business if you will be renting or selling (via payments) a mobile home inside a park or attached to private land. Although this vacancy process can be thought of as an unpleasant experience, with just a few attitude and business adjustments you can continue business as usual the next time you have a mobile home vacancy.In the start of my career I experienced an … [Read more...]
My Lawsuit From an Unhappy Tenant
April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
My Lawsuit From an Unhappy TenantI wrote about how I was getting sued by one of my tenants for the first time ever. To give you a quick recap, I had a tenant sign a lease and then the day she was supposed to move into the property she claimed that it was “uninhabitable” and wanted her money back.Obviously, I was not going to return her security deposit or first month’s rent because the tenant had walked through the property previously, and had signed a lease, in which she acknowledged … [Read more...]
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Buy Where People Want to Live
Buy Where People Want to Live I was at a business networking meeting a couple of weeks ago and met a real estate investor. As usually happens, we started talking about the state of the market in the area. He couldn’t contain his excitement about a deal he had just closed to purchase a rental property. This wasn’t his first but he was fairly new to the business. The price per square foot certainly seemed like a good deal; the house was in good shape and he was starting to advertise for a … [Read more...]