Another Great Idea Heard From A Student Instead of charging a larger deposit (that is tough for some people to pay) tell the renter the normal rent for two people is $2,000. Since you have a dog, we will charge no pet deposit, but the rent would be $2,050 per month. In most cases most […]
Security Deposits Are Misunderstood The maximum amount a Landlord can receive as a security deposit, however designated, cannot exceed two months’ rent for unfurnished units or three months’ rent for furnished units. If the money will be placed in your regular account instead of a trust fund this might be required to be mentioned. You […]
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, I was a court appointed receiver handling apartment houses during the foreclosure period. I would get my official court order, go take over the building, and run it as a professional property manager. Great job and then the foreclosures quit coming. One time late on a […]
Settle or Not Settle? When you complete an eviction, you get a judgement and then a writ of execution. The judgements are normally worthless. You could paper your garage with them and get more value. However, there were times when other actions might be feasible. The evictee might be a person who would have a […]
Maintenance There was a 132 unit building in Torrance that we had syndicated. Cliff Dietrich and I were the General Partners. I was the Property Manager. One Saturday evening we received an emergency call that our garbage pumps were not working. The sewage from the 132 family units was sent to a big underground tank. […]
Volatile Tenant Another property was one of my very first purchases in Milwaukee when I saved money from working in Europe, officiating basketball games and teaching at the Air Base for the University of Maryland. This was a three-unit in an older area of this older city. A tenant was rather strange. She would yell […]
Rude Tenants In a building in Studio City we had a very bad tenant. Noisy, rude, narcissistic, racist, and other points North. However, he did pay his rent (one time using a racist slur and throwing Pesos at my manager). The tenants wanted him out and the manager wanted him out and I wanted him […]
Acceptable Reasons This is not something for you to try without talking to a professional but, (these statements come from Chris Barta, JD. Mitchell Hamline Scholl of Law, writing for NOLO): You are starting active military duty.The rental unit is unsafe or violates health or safety codes.Your Landlord harasses you or violates your privacy rights.If […]
Efficient Negotiations This is a favorite form of mine. When I bought or sold apartment houses, I used it all the time. It saves a lot of time and time is money. Instead of writing up a complete binding offer, you would write up a simple form that explains the conditions under which a buyer […]
BENEFITS OF OWNING REAL ESTATE A 1964 article from the Van Nuys Green Sheet today known as the Los Angeles Daily News. Some of the numbers need to be changed to protect the public, but the thought is still current. The depreciating benefits of owning real estate are not completely understood by many prospective investors. […]
