The Successful Landlord Blog

Interestingly, Amazon.com recently started offering blog subscriptions on their Kindle reader device. This is potentially a great thing for both blog owners and Kindle users but there is one drawback as I see it. Amazon will be charging for access to blog content which is otherwise free on the internet. I’m not sure how successful this effort will be especially if some other company (Sony maybe?) comes out with their own reader that does this for free.

For now, if you have a Kindle and are so inclined, you will be able to read Landlord-Success.com on it. Here’s a link showing the Landlord-Success.com for Kindle product page on Amazon.com.

Just recently I received three emails, in quick succession, from smaller landlords, like myself, asking various questions about dealing with tenants in general.

One question was from a landlord who asked what they should do with a HEAP of stuff being removed from one of their units after their pack-rat tenant moved out.

Another question was from a landlord who asked what they should do about a tenant who was demanding that the landlord return their security deposit the day they moved out of the unit they were renting.

My response to all the landlords’ questions was that they should consult the appropriate state law where the property is located. Tenants can scream and threaten all they want about what the landlord should or should not do but when it comes down to it, the state law spells out pretty much everything to do with the landlord/tenant relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently finished reading a great book called Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle, famously known for founding the mutual-fund investment company named Vanguard.

Bogle mostly laments the fact that many of the old values in American, and presumably world, business are all but defunct. It seems that simple ideas like long-term service to clients, fair employee compensation and the level of expected business returns have all but gone out the window in favor of a single goal. Profit. And more of it.

He also points out, in great detail, the systemic problems now becoming plainly visible in the financial systems of the world’s developed countries today. That part in itself was a very interesting and educational read.

Bogle comes from the “old school” in that, he way he was raised (”to save rather than to spend”) which is all but looked down upon these days especially in America, in my opinion. Read the rest of this entry »

So I recently became aware of a new product by Dutch Boy Paints called Refresh. Although I have not used this product myself yet, I certainly would like to try it the next time it becomes necessary to perform a “trash out” in a previous tenant’s unit.

It never ceases to amaze me that tenants will check the box “No” on the rental application that asks (in plain English) “Do you smoke?” And then proceed to smoke indoors, presumably with the doors and windows closed judging from the lovely brown nicotine patina adorning the walls after a year. Not to mention the accompanying odor. Read the rest of this entry »