Archive for the ‘Tenants’ Category

Determining What to Charge for Rent

July 27th, 2009

If you?re a landlord and want to set a price for a rental unit or to adjust the current price you can?t simply pick a number out of the air. Well, you can but it?s doubtful that you?ll get renters at that price or that you?ll make ends meet. It?s a little more complicated than that and requires a little work.

The first thing you should do is determine your expenses. Is there a mortgage? Are there additional fees related to maintenance or other items that you pay regularly. Figure out any depreciation and appreciation. Remember to add in your regular upkeep fees. This gives you an idea of what you need to survive and what would give you a nice profit. But this is not necessarily what you?ll be able to get from the market.

The next step is to review your local rental market and see what people are paying for similar properties. This is really the best indicator of what you can charge for your rental units. By pricing yourself too high for your local market you may risk having too many open units. By pricing your units too low you may not break even and you risk getting undesirable tenants.

If you find that you need much more than your local market accepts then you?re probably not going to be financially successful and it may be time to consider a different line of business or make some drastic changes to your business model.

If Tenants Won?t Leave

June 5th, 2009

Unfortunately some landlord/tenant situations don’t go as well as everyone would hope, in fact there are people who routinely take advantage of landlords by refusing to leave the premises after they’ve broken the rules, failed to make payments, and been asked to leave by the landlord. If you find your self in this situation you will have to take legal measures to remove a tenant from your property.

Your first step is serving the process is serving the tenant with an unconditional quit notice, this lets them know they have to vacate the premises in a specified amount of time and they have no chance of rectifying the situation. Check with your state or local laws to see how long the tenant has after notification to vacate.

If the tenant still won’t leave then you need to move ahead with eviction proceedings. Again, you’ll have to check with your state and local laws or look for a landlord organization and they should have packages of information that will help you with the process and provide you with the appropriate paperwork. Make sure you follow every step to the letter because not doing so may delay the process.

Each court is different but yours will assign a trial date at which time you’re expected to show up with all of your evidence. If you win the case your tenant will be given some time to gather their belongings and leave, this can be several days or several weeks.

If the tenant has still not left the property at the prescribed time then you’ll have to call your local police and tell them that you need a tenant forcibly evicted, at which point they will come over and escort the tenants off the premises.

If this is new to you, you may want to hire a lawyer who is well versed in tenant law and has handled this sort of case before.

Job Transfer and Ending your Lease

June 3rd, 2009

If you’ve got a new job offer and have to leave the city in which you live you may find yourself in the difficult situation of having a lease that you’re unable to complete or that you don’t want to complete.

Now some larger rental agencies may have a clause in your lease that lets you break a lease in the case of a job transfer or a move for any reason as long as you give a specified amount of notice.? This is the ideal situation as you simply have to follow the outlined procedure.

If your lease doesn’t have a clause that lets you terminate because of a move you’ll have to see if your landlord is willing to let you out of your lease. A lot of landlords understand that moves happen and if you’re up front and give them as much notice as possible they may be very willing to let you end your lease.

Some landlords aren’t nearly as flexible and they aren’t about to let go of a paying tenant while they have one. If this is your situation you can ask if the landlord will let you sublease the apartment, at least this way you can find a tenant yourself and recoup part of the expenses.

If you’ve got a great new employer and you can’t break the lease, see if the employer is willing to pay any of your moving expenses, this money can be used to pay part of your lease.

5 Musts of Every Lease or Rental Agreement

May 25th, 2009

Learn the 5 things that every lease must contain. Without these items your lease or rental agreement will be missing important elements which could cause your problems in the future including possible lawsuits.

Names?

Including the names of your tenants seems obvious but many landlords only include the name of one tenant. Rather than single out one tenant, make sure every tenant signs the lease or has their own lease which they’re required to sign.

Occupancy Expectations?

Spell out occupancy expectations in writing. If you only allow two tenants per unit then let the tenants know that they cannot invite others to move in. Also if you do not allow pets then this must also be stated in the lease.

Financial Expectations?

Not only should you state how much rent will be but you should include any security deposits and other deposits, you need to state if the tenant is responsible for their own utilities and additional expenses.

Term of Tenancy

Is your lease a rental agreement or a fixed term lease? Rental agreements are a month to month agreement and tend to self renew. Fixed term leases typically last a year and then are renewed or terminated. This needs to be clear to all parties.

Access to Property

Most states or local areas have laws about when a landlord can enter a tenant’s apartment and how much notice must be given. This should be stated in the lease, but you should also include information on emergency entrance or notice necessary to make repairs or perform routine maintenance.?

By including these five points in your lease you’re protecting yourself from some problems in the future or legal actions against you. These are by no means the only information that is necessary in your rental contract but it’s a great starting point.

Constructive Eviction

May 13th, 2009

Constructive Eviction can actually be a good thing for a tenant unlike a traditional eviction which can be quite traumatic and leave you stranded without anywhere to go. Constructive Eviction is when the landlord has rented someone a place that is so substandard or unlivable that you are legally considered evicted and the lease no longer applies, leaving you free to move without further obligation.

Some common Constructive Evictions include a landlord that turns off the heat or water or if there’s an environmental health hazard that is not property attended to. In these situations tenants are able to move without fear of legal repercussions, but each instance should be documented as well as your attempts to inform the landlord of the problem and his or her attempts to remedy it, if any were made.

Quite often you’ll hear small claims cases on court television where one tenant changes the locks on another tenant, this too is a form of Constructive Eviction which will leave the remaining tenant entirely responsible for any rent bills and typically will get sued for this action.

If you’re a landlord its important to take care of any complaints your tenants bring to your attention, especially health hazards. And if you have a troublesome tenant it may be tempting to have the heat and water shut off but as soon as you do that you lose your legal upper hand. If you’re a tenant, know that you have the right to leave if your landlord performs a Constructive Eviction and you are no longer tied to the lease.

How to Communicate with Tenants

May 12th, 2009

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As a landlord, there is no way around communicating with tenants. This is part of your job, and something that you will have to “settle into” sooner rather than later. If you are not confident in your ability to communicate with tenants you don’t want to get involved with this area of the real estate industry. (more…)

Avoid Tenant Lawsuits

May 1st, 2009

One of the most common lawsuits that landlords find placed against them by tenants is fair housing disputes. There are some steps you can take as a landlord to try to avoid a fair housing lawsuit from your tenants and the first ones start before you even have a tenant.

Screening

Every person who responds to your vacancy needs to be treated in exactly the same manner. This means that you need to have the same application and screening process for everyone, no matter what their age, race, gender, etc. If you discover a good business reason not to rent to someone during the screening process it’s a good idea to note these on the application.

Know the Law

You should become familiar with all laws relating to fair housing whether they’re federal or local laws. If you happen to have a staff or property management company its important that they also understand all of the rules related to fair housing for your region.

Stay the Course

It seems obvious that all tenants should be treated equally but you may be tempted to give someone a break based on their situation but by doing this you’re simply setting yourself up for future discrimination suits from other tenants. So stay the course and treat all tenants the same.

Even if you do everything right it’s not a guarantee that you won’t be sued so keep accurate records to prove your case in court.

Tenants Decorating

March 24th, 2009

shutterstock_21301504It’s a topic of contention for landlords and tenants, as tenants want to decorate their apartments in a way that reflects their individual sense of style and personal tastes, but you want to retain the integrity of your property and avoid having to spend time returning your property to a neutral palette.

If you’re a landlord struggling with a tenant who wants to decorate you have to realize that anything you let this tenant do you may have to let other tenants do. So one tenant that seems to be very responsible and tasteful may be a safe bet for some interior decorating but the flighty and garish neighbor may expect the same considerations. It’s very important that you treat your tenants in the same manner, you could face discrimination suits if you don’t.

The one thing that tenants most often want to change is the paint color of a rental unit. You can hold fast to your neutral paint colors or you can establish some compromises that might work for both your tenants and you, consider a policy that requires them to repaint the apartment in the neutral color of your choice before they leave so they can add their own fun colors while they live there. If you still are a bit hesitant, how about requiring that they hire professional painters to restore the property to its previous color.

In regard to other decorating issues, consider writing up a document to include with the lease that will let your tenants know what is acceptable and what isn’t. You may even want to do a little research and give them some interior decorating guidelines that fit within your limitations.

Renting to College Students

March 23rd, 2009

Many people are hesitant to rent their property to college students and in some cases that caution is a good idea, but not all college students are irresponsible and inconsiderate. If you’re going to rent to college students you have to be meticulous about your screening process and make sure that you or your rental agent meet with each of them individually to get a feel for each prospective tenant.

Part of that initial screening process should include a credit check and a phone call to the student’s current employer, if there is one. If you don’t think the student makes enough to afford the rent then you may want to consider requiring a parent as the co-signer.

You may want to ban the college party entirely from your property but this is probably not reasonable in most cases. Instead you should add a clause that clearly states that if the police are called they will immediately be evicted.

Make sure you check with local tenancy laws as many cities have a limit on how many unrelated people can reside in one apartment, you don’t want to set up a situation where you’re immediately breaking the law.

Also make sure you ask for a large security deposit. Whereas most tenants may not do enough damage to warrant keeping even a portion of the security deposit, college aged students may do so much damage that it requires more than one month’s rent to repair.

The most important part of renting to college students is doing the research and making sure they’re a good credit risk and come highly recommended by former landlords or employers. Look for students that are responsible and have proven this in the past.

How To Deal With Angry Tenants

March 18th, 2009

shutterstock_21529882On the list of things most aggravating to a property manager, an angry tenant comes second, if not in a dead heat for first with lazy staff members. Tenants can sound angry about many things. The more quickly you can find out what they’re truly angry about, the faster you’ll be able to find a solution. Most tenants get angry for the following reasons:

  • Physical problems: Physical issues can be anything from leaky pipes to icy sidewalks or smelly garbage. Ask the angry individual to give you their story and as you are listening, think in terms of a doctor running down a checklist of symptoms. This is important because many people make a point to avoid complaning and the one person who makes a fuss is possibly presenting you with a way to serve all of your tenants in a better fashion.
  • Community problems: One of the rotten, or beautiful (depending on how you look at it) facts of life is that we will always encounter people we find distasteful. When you get a group of people living together, issues are bound to come up. How you respond to those complaints and concerns will make a huge difference in how well a problem is resolved. Make a point to listen to community complaints while making it obvious that you are not taking sides. As you build trust with your tenants, you’ll find that they solve more problems on their own and that when they do come to you, issues are resolved quickly.
  • Communication problems: At the basis of most anger is the overwhelming conviction on the part of the angry person that he or she is not being heard by others. If you want to develop your conflict resolution skills, it’s important to make an effort to truly hear what others are saying. If you are easily insulted or listen poorly, you’ll probably just cause more frustration and lose a tenant, or possibly your job. But if you take the time to discover the root cause of a complaint, pay attention to your community, and listen effectively, you’ll be well on your way to managing even the sourest tenant with a flourish.