Archive
You have to go inside the house My sister and her three kids are moving cross country — and I mean literally from one coast to the other. On the fifth day of their long car trip, they finally made it to Georgia and stopped in to spend the night at our house for some family time and a much-needed reprieve from hotel rooms and restaurant food. We had a good get-together. My mom and...
Tenant at will Well, I recently found myself in court with an inherited tenant. When I say inherited, I mean the tenant was in place when we bought the property. Our problem was not because of nonpayment but instead because of an unruly dog. Now, I like dogs. And our company is pet friendly. But when I did the inspection on the house, I could see this animal did not have a good...
A lose-lose situation We try as real estate investors to create win-win situations when constructing our deals. This endeavor takes a lot of practice and a lot of training to accomplish. We spend countless hours reading books about negotiating and creative deal structuring, and we regularly attend seminars on the subject. We do this so we can be prepared to help as many people as possible...
Letter of demand Most landlords in our area have their residential leases set up so rent is due on the first and late after the fifth of each month. That scenario means that on the sixth of the month, a letter of demand should be issued to any tenant who has not paid. This letter is often referred to as a “pay or quit” letter, and it should read something like this: “Dear Mr. and...
Explaining the four jobs of a tenant I’ve written to you many times about how we “hire” people to do the four jobs of a tenant. And I’ve said those fours jobs are the standard by which we choose our tenants and also how we decide to “fire” them when they’re not performing. And just to remind you, the four jobs are: 1. Take care of the house. 2. Pay on time. 3. Be comfortable to...