The Successful Landlord Blog

Recently I had the distinct displeasure to deal with Lender Business Process Services Inc.(LBPS), a subsidiary of IBM.

One of the mortgages on a rental property we own is serviced by these jokers and it seems that I’m not the only one who feels like this. I’ve asked around about other people’s experience with this company and the sentiments all seem to be the same. LBPS is making a (bad) name for themselves by being incompetent, difficult to work with and annoying in general.

I’ll start with their insurance department: I have heard from no less than 3 property insurance agents who have expressed such frustration in dealing with LBPS that the mere mention of the name elicits groans all around. Apparently, if the insurance agent needs documents or escrow information from LBPS it takes an inordinate amount of time for them to produce these documents. When asked if the documents can be emailed to speed things up, the response from LBPS is that “they don’t do email.” Any documents will have to be sent via US Mail. Now remember, LBPS is a subsidiary of International Business Machines (IBM), one of the largest and oldest computer companies in the world….and their subsidiary “doesn’t do email?” Read the rest of this entry »

After the final notes of Pomp and Circumstance mark the end of another graduation season, summer time for students officially begins. While the more industrious and productive young adults will buckle down and find an internship or summer job to fill their time, their fun-loving counterparts will head to the beach for sun and sand. Students or surf-seeking adults venturing to the beach for a few weeks or months of the year is certainly nothing new, and property-owning landlords can smell prospective tenants coming from a mile away. Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of  a very few number of posts you will see here on Landlord-Success.com that is written from a tenant’s point-of-view. This post was inspired by a friend of mine (yes, landlords have friends too) who lives in Denver, Colorado.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This friend called me today to bemoan the fact that she’s, in her own words, “all jammed up” about a situation where she signed a lease and paid her deposit only to realize after the fact that her landlord and various associated employees are at the very least behaving in an unprofessional and demeaning manner while also not living up to their role as property managers.

Before she moved in, she was told that her unit would be painted, an appliance replaced and various plumbing issues would be repaired. Well, fast-forward two weeks to when the place full of boxes of her belongings, including all the headache that entails, and none of the above work was done. A call to the “property manager” was met by a person who behaved like the were doing my friend a favor by answering the phone. She was informed that she should be patient and that a maintenance person would be out to make the promised repairs. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, while studying the traffic statistics for Landlord-Success.com, I noticed that about 5% of the traffic comes from mobile devices such as iPhones, iPods and devices running Android. While 5% of the traffic is not a whole lot of people, I personally find it ultra-convenient to read news and blogs on my phone when some other nonsensical activity is wasting my time. Read the rest of this entry »

While I was out getting some exercise one afternoon apparently two tenants living in a single rental property of mine, decided to break-up. Oh joy. The back story is that these tenants had just moved into town from another state. They have two kids between them and one on the way.

I returned to find no less than 12 missed phone calls from the two of them and upon listening to their messages, I understood that they were splitting up and they would like their pre-paid rent back. After speaking with both of them, I explained that they can get out of the lease but that there would be penalties. They would have to forfeit the security deposit and two months’ rent.

The gentleman of the house asked me during the phone call if I could come to the property and change the locks. I let him know that I would come to the property the next day even though I had no intention of changing the locks. Read the rest of this entry »