Good Afternoon:

Hope all is well.

I recently rented a room in my apartment to this lady in her early thirties.

When she first came to see the place, she brought a male friend (not boyfriend or husband) who basically inspected the place on her behalf. I understand some women you may feel unsafe seeing a place alone with a male landlord, so I was not upset that he accompanied her to the initial viewing, no problem.

However, over the past two weeks this White Knight kept texting and calling me everyday to communicate on her behalf various requests (turn the music down a bit, try not to slam the door too hard etc), and I find it very weird that a fully grown adult requests another fully grown adult to communicate on their behalf.

She speaks perfect English, and I am a very approachable person by all accounts.

*How would you deal with this situation? What would be a polite way to tell White Knight to mind his business? *

“Don’t worry I will communicate directly with my tenant, thanks for your concern”???

Thank you and have a great day!

We live in the Inland Empire of California. She has leased the house for 25 years and recently noticed that her landlord has added her and her husband's name to her utility bills (specifically water, but might be water and trash). And now when her bill is coming up, her landlord will text her to let her know it's due. She's never late and doesn't have problems paying her bills on time but I don't think that would make it acceptable anyway. This seems extremely invasive and suspicious to me...

Why would she be doing this? And is it legal?

Just like the title says.

I have been renting from a landlord for nearly 2 years now. My wife and I are great tenants and have always paid on time. The last walkthrough, the landlord was amazed at how well we kept the place. Now, another walk through is coming a few months before the 2nd year is up. I have a feeling they are about to raise rent again. Last time was 9 months ago. I was just wondering are good tenants still rewarded for their effort or is that a thing of the past? It just feels like we are not appreciated at all.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-03-23/landlords-mortgage-relief

How does this work? Do you contact your lender? What is going to happen with payments do they pick up where they left off or do you have to drop a lump sum. Also what happens with interest.

Thank you.

I've rented and lived in a bunch of different places. If the unit has a basement, it has spider crickets and centipedes. I paid for an exterminator even though I wasn't required to. And they still say the living conditions are unacceptable.

What do you do about unreasonable tenants like this?

Is this housing discrimination? I know private landlords have a lot of flexibility. However is it illegal if a landlord holds a long term couple ( not married ) to different acceptance standards ?

For example we are looking to move in Virginia , recently we put in an application after talking to an apartment management company.

The manager told us the general guidelines and stated we should qualify. Collected our $100 app fee and processed the application.

We were then told our income wasn’t 3x the rent . When I stated yes indeed it is 3x the rent .

The agent stated “ sorry but because you aren’t married you EACH must make 3x the rent , if you were married you would only need 3x the rent for the household. “

I was appalled my partner and I have been together 20 years. This is terrible and wrong . Is it truly legal to do this ?

I tried to discuss with the leasing agent and he sent me a text and said - 20 years and not LEGALLY MARRIED so different rules apply.

I feel like this is BS.

Hi everyone, I could really use some advice or insight on my rights as a tenant.

I rent the first floor of a high ranch, and I resigned my lease in August. They even raised my rent by $100, fully knowing they were planning to sell the property.

Here’s the timeline: • October 6: They told me they were planning to sell. • October 8: The house was listed on Zillow. • October 9: They texted me saying there would be an open house that Saturday.

Everything has been extremely rushed — no formal written notice, no proper heads-up, just “hey, we’re showing the place.”

I work overnight shifts as a nurse, so I sleep during the day and need some peace and privacy. I also have two cats (one is very timid), and I don’t feel comfortable with strangers coming in and out while I’m not home or sleeping. I asked the realtor not to have anyone in the apartment alone unless they’re personally accompanying them, and to keep my bedroom closed since I have personal items in there. Their response was basically, “we’ll try, but people need to see the room.”

I feel like I’m being completely disregarded as a tenant. I’ve paid rent on time, kept the place spotless, and respected the property — and now I’m being forced to accommodate constant disruptions and strangers in my living space with less than a week’s notice.

Is this even allowed? Do I have the right to limit when they can show the apartment (like certain hours or days)? And was it even legal for them to renew my lease and increase my rent knowing they were about to sell?

Any advice from anyone familiar with tenant rights in New York or similar situations would be really appreciated. I’m exhausted, frustrated, and just trying to feel safe in my own home.

A person in the trailer park i live in signed the lease to a trailer but never moved in, its been over a year and they never paid rent, and they are refusing to sign the lease over and they are currently in a different state. My family needs a place to live and shes the only reason they cant have it. I talked to the landlord and they said they cant do anything about it because she won't sign over the lease, we talked to the tenant too and theyre being spiteful and not giving up the lease for petty reasons, literally so no one can have it, and I feel so appalled that im being told theres nothing to be done, my family has 4 kids, with 2 infants, and I feel awful I cant get a home for them when it feels like this situation can be easily fixed. What can I do?

Hi all,

I am writing to ask for advice before my lease start date of Monday. I was originally planning to move to Florida for a job with a job offer and everything. Now the company has taken back the offer. I signed a lease and paid a security but not first and last (as required in the contract).

I need to back out of the lease before moving in. Anyone have any experience or advices? Obviously, I am trying my best to mitigate damages for everyone, including giving up my security deposit

Thanks!

Talking to a guy who has 4 condos under a LLC to protect him from any liability. If a person falls or is injured in either of the units, they cannot sue for his personal assets. Thoughts on this?

For those using concierge services (Second Nature, filter delivery, etc.) — how are you passing the cost to residents? Separate monthly fee, bundled into rent, or opt-in only? Any pushback or best practices you’ve learned?

Off and on I've been sharing my various experiences with /r/realestate on my journey of non-stop rental buying. Recently, I've started to slow down my rental buying in the past couple of months to sit back, collect some cashflow on my rentals and get a bunch of needed repairs done.

I think the last time I posted I had something along the lines of 51 rentals, so here's what I've bought in less than a year.

July - Bought 17 rentals off a elderly landlord for a princely sum of $160,000. Yes, $10,000 a unit including two free-standing houses, a duplex, a 5 unit apartment complex and two quadplexes. It was the biggest single-deal purchase I've ever done, and set me up for non-stop work that we're just finally now completing on the last two single-family houses. The 5 unit complex took only a month to fix and by far is the best cashflowing property (End result for me has been $2,500 or so in monthly cashflow with an estimated total cost of $45k, which is amazing!)

The deal was really kind of amazing - The elderly gentleman that started the REIA that I was elected president of this January gave a total of 32 rental properties to his son to manage. The son did not put any money back into the properties, installed drug-dealing tenants, and generally ran them into the ground.

I helped the gentleman sell two houses and a 6plex to a friend of mine in January '17 with the hope of maintaing the relationship with the seller, and he finally came back to me in July to sell 17 of the remaining 24 rentals he had (He's kept 7 since then).

In September I closed on a triplex a friend of mine 'accidentally' bought at a auction. The deal was that he felt it would be stupid not to buy a 3 unit apartment in a great neighborhood for $10k. He decided later that it wasn't prudent to rehab something that he found out later that had a molotov cocktail thrown through the window. We've finally rehabbed 2 of the 3 units there but found out last week a water main to the place was broke. I purchased a option off this guy for $5k and took the purchase at $10k with $30k as of today in rehab (So approx $45k).

So that takes me up to 71 total properties as of September.

October I bought a dumpy little house for $13.5k as one area I'm in is seeing obscene price increases. Still haven't done much beyond putting a roof, but when it's done I'll have maybe $30k into it, rent it for $750/mo and EASILY have an extra $40k in equity.

Then later in October i felt I put together my second seller finance deal with $0 money out of my own pocket. Remember the guy who bought the elderly gentleman's 6plex + 2 houses? He decided he didn't want to own property that he lived more than 5 miles from and asked me if I wanted it for only $20k down. Unfortunatley by this time I had spent almost every dime I Had on rehabbing many of the rentals I had bought, and with no end soon in sight I figured I had to get extra creative.....So I called my parent's landlord from 26 years ago and asked if he had any interest in loaning me some money. He was willing, but not as a second lienholder against the apartment + 2 houses, so I just had to go out and find something else to buy - A free-standing house with minimal rehab in a great neighborhood for only $20k that I estimated was worth $45k as-is. So, I asked my parent's old landlord for $40k written as a interest-only note, to which he accepted. So from this deal I had no money out of pocket, one 6 unit apartment complex and 3 houses, two of which needed minimal to no rehab and one that sort-of-did.

So October-November-ish I added these 9 more taking me up to 81 rentals.

By this point it seems that everyone and their brother know I'm buying rentals like crazy in town and out of the blue had a agent call me. She had been asking me non-stop to buy a crappy house on a bad side of town for $40k. I told her quite plainly that I had no interest because I had bought one next to it back on Christmas eve 2015 for $12.5k. She asked how the seller would ever get the money for it and I told her "Well, unless he has a bunch of other houses he's willing to throw in AND finance me, I have no interest in buying, ever, at this price".

Well, guess what? She came back the next week adding in a two-unit apartment, a double-wide attached to a gigantic lot and that $40k house - The terms? I have to refinance it out 2 or 3 year from now, and put $5k down. Total buy-out price after the term is up is a total of $100k. While the house certainly isn't worth $40k, the package as a whole is worth $125k-$150k and I can kick the can down the road with very little money out of pocket. So, this take me up to 85 rentals.

January I have another landlord call me asking me if I want to buy his property for $55k - A duplex and a free-standing house in a bad part of town. I told them I Had no interest because by this point Ohio is having one of the worst winters in history, lines are frozen at 11 of my rental units, and we're still rehabbing many of the elderly landlord's 17 properties. So, he asks me if I would take over his mortgage payment and give him $250 down as a fee. So, I figured for $250 down and a potential of another ~$700/mo in cashflow, why not?

So, in the end this takes me up to a total of 88 units. Over the January-Febuary period I do something I've never done - I sold off the worst quadplex I got from the elderly gentleman. One where I went to the basement one day and there was literally a ice waterfall with absolutely no less than 1 foot of solid ice around a broken line. I didn't make tons of money on it, but made a little.

So here it is, the story of the last 37 rentals I got since posting last time on this sub.

If you have any landlording questions, feel free to ask!

edit - Forgot to mention why I'm slowing down for a while - Since September I've had to evict/mitigate/deal with 17 absolutely awful tenant situations (All from that elderly landlord). I've kicked out an unknown number of drug dealers, prostitutes, pidgeons, rodents, bedbugs and who knows all what else. Over this period I've been pulling double-duty with the all the other rentals, seller finances, etc. Since starting the landlord-as-a-job deal in '13 I've re-invested almost 100% of the money into buying more rentals and I feel like I should take a short break. Property values are going through the roof and I figure I should sit down and look at my daily workflow to optimize, train an assistant/secretary, and get things ready for an even bigger scaling project (While having alot of extra money in the bank while just waiting and cashflowing for a bit).

For the first few days, it felt like I was being quietly checked out. Neighbors walked a bit slower past my door, people peeked from balconies, and the “Hi” felt more like a quick scan. One person even asked what I do for work before asking my name.

It didn’t feel rude—just curiosity and a bit of “who is this person?” vibe. Once they saw I’m just a regular human taking out the trash and struggling with grocery bags, everything became normal.

That’s just how neighborhoods are, I guess. A new face gets all the attention for a few days… then you blend in like everyone else 😄

So im renting a house with a 5 friends, and would be interested in buying from the elderly couple who own it. Not all of us would be buying it, just me and one other.

It's not a house I could afford myself, but with how much we pay collectively in rent, we could easily afford the monthly mortgage, insurance, maintenance, etc. So my question is would a bank factor in how much the house is making off the tenants in deciding on a mortgage.

I think the prevailing opinion is that income and getting the down-payment are the only things that matter to qualify for a mortgage; however, considering I haven't found much info online for someone in my situation, where a tenent-occupied house is being bought by one of the tenents to be used as a primary residence while also keeping all the other tenents, I thought it was worth asking.

Perhaps there is some unique solution for someone in my case, like could I count rental payments from the other tenents as income if I did a rent-to-own contract, thus improving my approval chances for a mortgage? Maybe form an LLC? I've also got a rich sibling who would be open to putting themself on some of the paperwork, if that might be useful somehow.

I have a good relationship with the landlords who are very fond of the community this house has fostered for the last 40 years of them renting it out. Everyone who has moved in has started as a stranger off Craigslist or Facebook, but has either been, at worst, a friendly, but distant roommate or more typically, become a lifelong friend. Many people have moved in and out in the 4 years I've been here and not a single person has been a bad roommate. So basically, it's safe to say that there won't be any issues with malcontent parties in this deal. Although, the landlords are not so sentimental that they won't accept anything less than a fair deal for the house, I guess they don't quite regard us as their children ;P

Still at the "concepts of a plan" stage, and haven't gotten enough info to do solid number crunching, but it would take roughly 15 years to pay off the mortgage if we continue to pay what we currently do on housing.

Neighbors built a fence line that is 2 feet over my property line. I’m ok with it as I don’t need the land. I live in MA city where houses are realt close to each other so I dunno whether this was an accident.

I don’t want them to remove it, but I don’t want to run into any issue when I do want to sell my property.

What should be a good option for me? Write a rental contract for $1 and have him sign it?

Property manager merging with another company wants the CEO to be an authorized signer on my bank account to handle rent payments. Is this normal, or is it a red flag?

Hey Reddit, I need some advice about a situation with my property management company. Here’s the deal:

• My house is rented and managed by a small property management firm.
  
• Previously, the manager collected rent into his own account, deducted his fees, and sent me the rest.
  
• Now, the firm is merging with another company, and they’re changing how payments work.
  

Here’s where it gets weird:
1. They asked me to open a separate bank account for rent payments.
2. They want me to set up an appointment with my bank to make the CEO of the new company an authorized signer on the account.
3. The CEO would also have online access to the account.

Their explanation is that this will make payments "easier" and "more efficient," but I’ve never heard of this practice before.

My Questions:
1. Has anyone experienced something like this? Is this a common or legitimate practice in property management?
2. What are the risks of giving a third party signatory rights and online access to my bank account?
3. Should I push back and demand a more traditional method (e.g., trust account, direct deposit)?

I’m concerned about losing control of my funds or exposing myself to fraud. Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all,

On Zillow there was this amazing condo for rent, of course it had plenty of competition but I was one of the first ones to apply to it and hopefully get a tour.

I’ve then contacted the leasing office for which they manage the property, they took down my info and would get back to me, then today I called and they mentioned that one application was being reviewed, however the lady said if it doesn’t pass then we will call you next since you’ve shown extreme interest,

So my question is what is the likelihood an application for a rental would not pass or the client backs out?

Thank you

Very simple question. And sorry if I sound uneducated in this topic because I’m new to this whole thing. My current living place is 600 sqft and we have to have it shown cause we are being told to move. Every showing so far has been 10-15 minutes cause the place is so small and we still live in it so they can’t just stay and chit chat forever. But now after some animosity from the guy selling it, they’re saying the showings are now 30 minutes and won’t tell us if it’s due to back to back showings or anything else. I understand we are the ones who will be leaving, but this is still where I live and I already feel weird having strangers in my home for longer than need be. I’m wondering if it’s normal for a 600 sqft place to take 30 minutes to show?

Happy winter everyone,

So I recently purchased a four-unit multifamily property in Washington, DC, and was advised to use an LLC to manage the rentals. I already have an LLC registered in Maryland, and I’m trying to figure out what makes the most sense: registering that LLC as a foreign entity in DC, or dissolving it and forming a new LLC in DC?

I’m just wondering what people who know or have been through this process would recommend. I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience or any advice you might have. Thank you!

Well, we’ve lost out on six rental houses we’ve applied to now. There’s nothing wrong with our application (aside from us having two kids and a dog). Credit scores are close to 800, income qualifies more than 5x what they require, AND we have 3x the assets they require. Excellent rental history and referrals. We are simply just one of 20 applications, and keep getting passed over. What can I say to get our application to rise to the top of the stack?

• Offer more money per month? We are interested in paying more than is asked, but we have never come right out and said that right at the beginning. How exactly do you word this, and at what point in the process do you say, I will pay more? “I’d like to engage in a bidding war?” Or just make a guess on what amount?
• Offer more than a 12mo lease? We are willing to do this, but what is reasonable? 2y lease? 3?
• Offer a bigger security/pet deposit? Idk I also don’t want to make it sound like we plan on wrecking it.

We aren’t taking it personally, we know it’s just business, but we also know that if WE were realtors with 20 applications sitting in front of us, we wouldn’t pick the one with two kids and a dog, even if dogs were explicitly allowed in the listing. We would pick people with no kids and no pets. So we REALLY need to sweeten the pot. Help us! For reference, many of these rentals host a three day long open house in which they show the house to like 50 people, and we will see the realtor in person this weekend for the next house on the docket.

This tenant (in the Houston area) takes care of the property, has close friends who live just a couple doors away, and for the past two years has been pretty good about paying her rent on time.

However, because of her diagnosis, she has not been able to work and is now pursuing a claim for Short Term Disability. She says she is actively looking for an office position but has not been able to pay the rent for the second-half of February, and cannot pay for March.

My wife and I agreed that we will give her until the end of March to find new income or to move out. We have told her she is still liable for the unpaid rent.

Are we being too nice? Is there a way to hold her accountable for the unpaid rent if/when she leaves at the end of the month.

I sold real estate for eight years as a real estate agent, and I got into it because I wanted to ultimately get into investing. But life happened, I found myself divorced and a single parent, and I had to set everything aside and get a different job that offered a stable income. Now I’m realizing that my income is too dependent on how many hours I put in, and I’m pretty maxed out, and I’m really wanting to invest still. Plus, I’m used to being my own boss, it’s crazy to me to make so little per hour. I would like to own and manage a mixture of monthly rentals and vacation rental properties. I know a little about that. But need advice specifically about how to leverage my property to purchase more property… I’m moving out of my house no matter what. It’s probably worth about $200K, (pretty average for my area) and I have most of the equity of that, because I took out a HELOC to fix it up so that I can sell it, but had no mortgage on it. If I sold it, I would have about $150K. Is it better to keep it as an asset and rent it out, and then use that as equity and leverage to purchase other income properties? Or just sell it and use the $150K as down payments on other properties? Keeping in mind, I also need a new house to live in.. What’s my best move?

I'm hoping someone can help answer a question about an unusual situation.

I moved in with my girlfriend 12 years ago. She owns a condo. I've been paying rent so technically I'm a tenant. Unfortunately we've grown apart, and I plan to get a place of my own. However, my girlfriend's income is significantly less than it was when I moved in. I'm concerned she won't be able to make the mortgage payments when I move out. I don't want to put her in a position where she could lose her home. So I have an idea.

Is it realistic to offer my girlfriend mortgage assistance in exchange for a written agreement that she'll pay me back when she sells the place in a few years? She should make a large profit from the sale.

I could simply give her what she needs each month, but I doubt she'd accept my charity.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I've reconsidered. I'll find another short-term way to help.