Landlording for maximum profitability and Financial Independence
In an earlier post, we talked about using the good cop/bad cop method to resolve tenant disputes. But if you own and manage the property by yourself, that doesn’t really work. If you fully commit to the split personality, you might be sent to a mental institution. So if you’re flying solo, you have to take a different approach.
This post is compliments of Amy aka “YETInvesting”.
Continue reading “How to Handle Tenant Disputes: Part II”
This post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus”.
If you have thought about being a landlord, you have thought about the possibility of getting rid of a bad tenant. The first two rules of being a landlord are (1) collect all of your rents, ON TIME, and (2) keep your rentals full. But that’s not the end of the story: it is equally important to get (and keep) good tenants in your rentals. If you have multiple rental units near each other, such as a duplex, fourplex, or even an apartment building, a bad tenant can spoil the whole bunch.
Tenant screening is critical. It’s important to run income and credit checks on your prospective tenants, and to meet all of the people who will be living in your rental, and maybe even their pets (photos can be deceiving in terms of size and personality). But what if someone makes it through your screening process, and turns out to be a bad apple anyway?
Continue reading “Getting Rid of a Bad Tenant”
If you have been following along, you know that my rent collections are outstanding; this month I had trouble. My renter bounced a check. I have not had a truly late payment in several years, other than the one tenants that I inherited when I purchased the building.
I have had a few payments after the first, but always received before the late fee kicked in after the 5th, and have not collected late fees, or even waived them, for rent paid on or after the 6th in a long time.
However, I recently had a check returned to me from a payment that was not honored by the bank. My renter bounced a check. Yikes! my mortgage is due and I am short rent.
Continue reading “My Renter Bounced a Check”
This post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus” who has been an owner and manager of rental property in California since 2003. She’s an attorney by day and a landlord on nights and weekends. Her goal is to acquire more property and develop a strong passive income stream so she can retire early (and enjoy it!).
One of the most important weapons in a landlord’s armory—and one of the most neglected—is the rental agreement. It sounds simple enough. All you need is a basic piece of paper that identifies your tenant, identifies the address, and sets forth the monthly amount of rent, the due date, and the amount of the security deposit, right? Well, that’s a start.
Continue reading “HOA Rules—Are they Incorporated Into Your Rental Agreement?”
It’s been a few days (weeks?) since the last post. All things are going well, September rent is starting to come in already. I was out of the area in International Falls, MN for a few days, and did not have much of a cell signal.
I was able to keep in contact with my tenants, although no major issues were encountered. As I begin the mental (and financial) transition to living on rental income alone, I have started to document the process and thoughts as I go.
While this blog is important to me, it has a lower priority than my real job, or my rental responsibilities. It’s even lower than my daily 3-mile walks with my dog and girlfriend. The dog certainly thinks so. I do try to keep life in perspective, especially over the past year, as my true few ‘free’ hours are often commandeered by another higher priority task with very little notice. I am slowly getting into the retirement mindset.
Here is how my recent vacation as a landlord went.
Continue reading “How can I Vacation as a Landlord?”
When you have places for rent, inevitably you will find tenants to avoid. You need to understand how to avoid bad tenants. As a matter of fact, if you screen tenants with any sort of consistent basis at all, about 95% of the inquiries will be from poor quality tenants. There is even a scientific basis to these numbers.
With about 30% of tenants being ones to avoid, it is better to exclude a few good ones, rather than take a chance. One bad tenant can kill years of rental profits. Here is a case of a tenant I recently avoided.
Continue reading “How to Avoid Bad Tenants”
Holy crap has it been busy. And I thought last month was busy. It was also expensive, and might have even been a bit negative on the cash flow side of things… There were a few repairs, and continuation of my remodel on a unit that was vacant. As always, rents came in on-time, but I added a couple of upcoming vacancies that will be coming due.
When life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. Rentals are not always fun, but I can assure you they are profitable, if you can manage them right.
Continue reading “July – August 2015 Rental Cash Flow”
Getting your rental cash flow on time is the name of the game. Mine is almost like a broken record. Rent is due, rent gets collected. If you are a landlord, collecting rents on time is what you want. For a landlord with only one or two properties, getting rents on time should be routine. Keeping track of 24 properties is a bit more of a challenge. I have done this for quite some time, and it all has to do with getting great tenants.
Continue reading “May – June 2015 Rental Cash Flow”
With any issue, if you can do some simple appliance repairs as a landlord, you can save a ton of money. In my rentals, I find that some appliances are worth fixing, some are not. Here are a couple of recent simple appliance repairs that I have completed.
I typically buy fairly cheap appliances. I always buy new, and make sure that they are 100% clean for all new tenants. Of course, I also expect the tenants that are moving out to keep them clean.
Continue reading “Simple Appliance Repairs for Landlords (or Homeowners)”
As a landlord, especially if you cater to a low-income tenant base, you will no doubt have to get rid of many stuffed chairs, love seats, hide-a-beds, futons, mattresses, box springs and couches. And more. If you know how to get rid of a couch for free, it will save you a lot of money.
This posting is somewhat of a companion article to one of my previous articles about how to get rid of a mattress for free. This couch was left over from when I asked my Section 8 tenant to leave.
Continue reading “How to Get Rid Of a Couch For Free”
