The Successful Landlord Blog

So, recently I had the realization that the late fees I charge tenants are obviously not high enough. I have a few tenants who consistently, every single month, are late on their rent.

Of course, the reasons range from car trouble to an occasional dead grandmother but that’s irrelevant. The point is that these people are obviously living month-to-month and do not keep any money in reserve for “emergencies.”

The standard terms in my leases are, “…rent is due on the 1st of the month and late on the 4th…” Additionally, “…late fees are $25 on the 4th and $5 per day after that.” So, basically, if a tenant is 1 week late with the rent, it will cost them $55 extra for the month. I guess $55 is not a lot of money these days and the tenants see this as “no big deal.” Read the rest of this entry »

In the past, when a person stopped making payments on their home, it generally took 3 months before they were foreclosed upon by the bank and evicted from the property.

These days, as any real estate agent will tell you, it could take the better part of a year for the process to come to a close. In the past I have made posts detailing some of the completely unprofessional behavior exhibited by the banks during the “short sale” process.

For the uninitiated, a “short sale” is when the bank agrees to discount the loan amount due on a property usually due to some financial hardship on the part of the borrower. Whereas, a foreclosure is when the bank takes possession of a property and evicts the previous owner with the intention of selling it at market price to re-coup its losses. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I made a post directed at tenants about how NOT to inquire about a rental property. This post is sort of a follow-up to that one:

This SHOULD be a common-sense-type concept but from my recent experience fielding phone calls about one of our vacant rental houses, the point is obviously lost on many tenants seeking new accommodation.

People do not seem to understand that the rental application process starts at the first phone call. Along with looking good on paper (i.e. the actual rental application) you must be able to communicate effectively and somewhat professionally.

From a landlord’s perspective:

- If you cannot be reached by phone because you gave your friend’s number while inquiring about the property and your friend can’t be bothered to be courteous when I call…..you will not get approved. Read the rest of this entry »

Currently have one detached single-family house on the market for rent. When the last tenants moved out we had to hire a landscaping crew to come in and perform a complete makeover on the yard.

The tenants had “maintained” the yard by cutting the lawn about once every 2-3 months which in Florida, in the summer, is a big no-no. For those readers not familiar with Florida lawn care, you have to cut the grass every week in the summer to prevent the grass from growing as tall as your waist.

The lawn crew we hired consisted of three men and this job took them 7 hours of work so you can get an idea of how overgrown the yard was. Read the rest of this entry »