We are back with another episode of the RentPrep for Landlords Podcast with your host, Andrew Schultz. In this podcast, we’ll explore tenant insurance and what exactly a tenant needs to include in their policy in order to protect themselves and the property.
We’ll also go over your typical wear and tear damages and what that means for your rental property including what is considered “normal.”
Last, but not least, are appliance warranties a good idea? Find out all this and more in our latest podcast.
Show Notes
Andrew (00:00:00):
We are live. Welcome everyone to the October. October, yeah. The October rent prep. Ask me anything session. I’m Andrew Schultz, community manager here at Rent Prep. I’m also a licensed real estate broker with, I think it’s coming up on 15 years of experience. I’d have to go back and check in the property management and rental property industries. And I have Josh Ongaro with me. Josh is the marketing manager over at Rent Prep. Josh, how you doing today?
Josh (00:00:26):
I am good, Andrew? A little bit, a little bit tired. Went to that, uh, kind of a snooze fest of a, of a Buffalo Bills Sunday night. Um, yeah.
Andrew (00:00:35):
Sunday
Josh (00:00:36):
Night game against the Giants, but, uh, and it’s raining here in Buffalo, so it’s kind of like a, it’s one of those classic October, October cold Mondays wet, and, you know, just a little bit tired. But
Andrew (00:00:50):
No, I get it. Doing
Josh (00:00:50):
Well.
Andrew (00:00:51):
Yeah. I, I was also up, I well, you were at the game. I watched the game from home last night, and you’re right, it was a, it was a dragging, the whole game just dragged, it was so slow. The whole pace of the game. Um, yeah, obviously
Josh (00:01:03):
Between the injuries. Yeah,
Andrew (00:01:05):
I was
Josh (00:01:05):
Gonna say <crosstalk> between like injuries in the first half, and I mean, luckily, uh, it had rained all day prior to the game, so walking in there and not having it rain was, was for sure. Nice. But yeah, it was a slow moving game. They got the win, but, you know, we’ll, we’ll see where the season goes. I’m not, no, I’m not too convinced by the play so
Andrew (00:01:26):
Far. I’m, I’m not either, to be honest with you. I expected more. I mean, and obviously we’re a little sidetracked here, but I expected more for this point. I expected more for this point in the season. And I am hoping that, I’m hoping just to see improvement, like, and also we need to stop getting injured. I mean, that’s,
Josh (00:01:42):
Yes.
Andrew (00:01:43):
Especially like defensively, like Milano missing and anyway.
Josh (00:01:47):
Yeah. Yeah. We’ll get, we’ll, we’ll stop talking about this <laugh>.
Andrew (00:01:54):
So you did mention, uh, you did mention that it’s starting to get cold here, though. I guess that’s a good time, as good a time of as any, to mention to everyone that if you haven’t started working on your cold weather stuff, your cold weather checklists yet, making sure that outside host spigots are turned off and dryer vents are cleaned and service, uh, furnaces are serviced. Check your smoke and seal detectors, stuff like that. Yeah. And now’s a good time of the year to do that. We’ve not yet seen the first snowflake here in Buffalo, but I have a feeling it’s not too far, too far down the road here, so.
Josh (00:02:25):
I know, I know. Question. Um, before we get into it, it made me think of it, and I don’t think this was submitted as a question by anybody. I didn’t see it, but what about, why don’t we talk about allowing tenants to put out decorations? What are your exterior decorations, I guess would be my question. Do you ever have, and I know the holidays are coming up, but like, do you ever have, uh, any issues with tenants putting up, whether it’s inflatable decorations out, out front, um, you know, lights, that kind of stuff? Sure. Do you ever run into the, any issues with that?
Andrew (00:03:03):
You know, we haven’t run into any issues with it. Um, most of our stuff is multi-family. Um, and I think people may decorate their porch or may decorate their balcony or some windows or something like that. But I don’t think a lot of people go, uh, quite as, quite as hard in the pain as it were. Um, <laugh> when it comes to decorating in the apartments and things like that, we have a couple of single families I know that they like to do, like the big inflatables and stuff. I have no problem with it as long as they are doing it safely, which, I mean, as long as it’s plugged into a, a extension coordinate, G f I outlet, in theory, you’re probably fine. Yeah. We really haven’t run into any issues. Um, we don’t have any real restrictions. I, we do have a restriction on hagging, like political banners or putting political signs and stuff like that up. Yeah. I don’t know if our lease specifically says no holiday decorations. I probably wouldn’t enforce it, even if it did say that, to be honest with you. Unless it was turning into a situation where, you know, people were complaining about the number of decorations or it was becoming a fire hazard or, or something like that.
Josh (00:04:07):
Right, right. No, that makes sense. Just curious. I know, um, I know I just put up a six foot inflatable pumpkin in
Andrew (00:04:16):
My,
Josh (00:04:16):
In my front yard. It actually is. Um, it’s bigger than my girlfriend, so it’s funny to watch her stand next to it. <laugh>. But I mean, this thing, I mean, it’s bigger than me. I’m five to 10. Oh, yeah. But this thing is, this thing is a monster and just how wide they are. It’s crazy to see what some people, some people have been putting up, uh, for Halloween, but it’s,
Andrew (00:04:35):
I I’ve noticed there’s a lot of houses on our street that are decorated this year that have not traditionally been decorated in the past. So I’m kind of interested to see if that translates into the holiday season as well.
Josh (00:04:45):
Yeah, for sure. We
Andrew (00:04:47):
Got a couple of those. Crazy, not so much in, in my area, but like down in Orchard Park, um, that’s where one of those big holiday houses gets set up every year with a massive light display that always goes viral on YouTube and TikTok and all that. One of those is not far from, uh, not far from us. I’ve never physically driven down to see it, but I always watch it online. I just can’t imagine the, the, the setup time and the electric bills that go along with something like that.
Josh (00:05:13):
Oh, I know. And I, I mean, I’ve seen, uh, I’ve seen, I have a couple neighbors that just have, um, which is really cool. They have a million, or at least 10 or 12 inflatables all tied up and on a timer mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and they’re just all layered across the lawn and they, you know, they kick on. But I mean, they are on timers, which is, which is a, a smart move from that perspective because there has been a few times where I have left the six foot pumpkin on for <laugh> for a couple days in a row, and that thing’s blowing around out there, and it’s Sure. Two in the morning, three in the morning, but yeah.
Andrew (00:05:45):
Um,
Josh (00:05:46):
Yeah, that’s, uh, we’re in spooky season. That’s, that’s what you’re gonna get. But let’s, um, let’s, let’s jump into some of these questions. I know we got, we got a lot of, uh, form submission questions, which is, which is always good to have. Those are the ones that go out through email from Ashley and, and submit it directly to, for this, for this, uh, session, which is great. And then I know we, as usual, we have, um, I’ve handpicked some of the Facebook questions that have been asked recently. Uh, but we’ll roll through there. So why don’t we start with, let’s just start right at the top here. Let’s see this question from Jane. Jane asks, should a landlord ask tenant to carry tenant insurance? So renter’s insurance, if so, could I pay for it, purchase it through my homeowner’s insurance company and cancel when they move from my apartment?
Andrew (00:06:41):
Um, you should definitely ask tenants to carry renter’s insurance. Right. And you should also ask them to name you as an additional insured. And the nice thing is then you’ll be notified whenever the policy is enacted, whenever it’s renewed, whenever it’s canceled, um, you’ll get a, a notification in the mail telling you what’s going on with that property. Um, at least from an insurance perspective. So yeah, it’s definitely a good idea to ask for renter’s insurance, uh, from your tenants. Right. In some states you cannot mandate it. Um, I don’t have a list of states, but there are some states out there that you cannot mandate a tenant to have that renter’s insurance. So you may want to double check and make sure that you’re not in a state that prohibits you from requiring it.
Josh (00:07:21):
Yeah. We don’t have it in New York. Right.
Andrew (00:07:24):
I have never been able to find a clear answer to that question. Um, I don’t see anything that says No, you, you are not allowed to. So we, we don’t require it. We request it. Um, we may get to a stage where we start requiring it, or there are some products out there that you can take like a master insurance policy for like a property management company, um, whereby every tenant that we have under our management company would automatically be enrolled in like a renter’s insurance policy or something along those lines. For somebody in Jane’s position though, I don’t think that that would be an option necessarily because Right.
Josh (00:08:02):
She’s
Andrew (00:08:03):
Essentially trying to take out insurance on a third party party, uh, and pay for it herself, which I don’t think that she would technically be allowed to do. I’m not an insurance expert. You could certainly talk to your insurance agent and ask them that question, but from where I’m sitting, I don’t think that you can take a renter’s insurance policy out for someone else on their behalf unless it’s part of a larger master policy type of a situation, kinda like what I was just talking about. And that’s gonna be so cost prohibitive unless you have a ton of doors that it’s, uh, it doesn’t make sense for for her to jump into a situation like that.
Josh (00:08:36):
Yeah. And from what, from what I remember, the, when I was a renter, as in New York at least, there was, there was a number of just affordable plans. Like it was almost like, it was almost like not worth it for me not to have it. Not to have it. Yeah.
Andrew (00:08:52):
And
Josh (00:08:52):
I, yeah, because one thing goes wrong, and, you know, back in those days you’ve, I’ve got my, my PlayStation, I’ve got, uh, yeah. You know, my valuables, my all, all my belongings, my bed, all that kind of stuff. Your clothing, just not to have like a, a po my clothing.
Andrew (00:09:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Josh (00:09:08):
Not to have a policy that was, I, I can’t even remember what it was. It was, it was relatively low back in those days when I was a, when I was a college student mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but just not to have it was just, was just not a, uh, a logical thing for me to do back then.
Andrew (00:09:24):
Yeah. Well, and we’re, we’re actually dealing with a situation right now. We have a tenant that’s going to be moving into one of our units that they’re moving out of a unit because there was a fire in another unit in the home, and
Andrew (00:09:36):
They sustained a bunch of damage, just water damage as a result of the fire department being there to put out the fire because it was in a, on a floor above them. Right. So they lost their bed set. They lost their bed, they lost a whole bunch of clothing. Um, and they had renter’s insurance and they had let it lapse like two years ago. ’cause they’d been living in this property for like 10 years and never had an incident and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. As soon as you don’t have it, that’s when you’re gonna need
Josh (00:10:00):
It.
Andrew (00:10:00):
So renter’s
Josh (00:10:01):
Insurance second. Yeah. Like
Andrew (00:10:03):
150 bucks a year maybe. It’s so worth it.
Josh (00:10:06):
Yes. That is the second that you think you don’t need It is, is of course, when, when something happens, which, which is unfortunate. So, yeah, definitely. Uh, definitely get renter’s insurance. Yep.
Andrew (00:10:19):
Um,
Josh (00:10:20):
Okay. Let’s, uh, let’s flip over to this question. We’ll do a Facebook question. Let’s do a question from, I think it’s pronounced Ed. I don’t from what I, what I’ve seen in the Facebook group, but the question is, do you all think getting warranties on your appliances is a good idea when buying them for new rentals? Generally, for me personally, I wouldn’t do it. Just wondering for a rental, so she’s saying she wouldn’t do it for her own personal, her own personal house.
Andrew (00:10:52):
No, we don’t bother. Um, it’s, the problem with putting a warranty on an appliance is you have to wait for the service technician to come out and service the thing. And if it’s a refrigerator and your tenants are complaining that they don’t have a working refrigerator because you’re waiting a week for your service technician to come out, and then do they have to order a part? Is it gonna be another week or two weeks? Or how long do you stretch the, the timeline out where these tenants are without a refrigerator?
Josh (00:11:19):
Yeah. Um,
Andrew (00:11:20):
I don’t think it’s worth buying the warranties on most appliances in, in today’s day and age. Maybe if you’re buying really high-end appliances for your own home, then it might make sense. Right. But if you’re buying appliances, number one, if you’re buying appliances for a rental property, they should be as basic as you can get away with while still being able to maintain, you know, comparable with other place, places in the market. Yeah. But if you can avoid refrigerators with ice makers and water dispensers and stuff like that, that’s a best bet because there’s that much less stuff that can break on it if you can. <crosstalk>,
Josh (00:11:51):
I think we talked about that’s more
Andrew (00:11:53):
Basic than, you know, it’s, there’s less stuff to break on it. So Right.
Josh (00:11:57):
Every, every talk about this
Andrew (00:11:58):
Is one more thing that can go wrong, is the way I look at it when it comes to appliances.
Josh (00:12:02):
Yeah. I think that question came up over the summer, maybe early on. Um, but I had told the story, I think I had, I had just bought a new fridge for my personal home mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and it does, it did have in fact a, an ice maker in it. Yeah. And I was having issues with the, it was, it was freezing up, so, uh, it was getting jammed. Luckily, and I think this is the, the case with most products. I know I had gotten it through Orville. Um, it did have a one year manufacturer warranty right. Already on it. So within that one year period, which I think actually just ran, oh, it ran up in May. Um, they had, I had ’em come out I think three times to, to replace. I had, I have an AutoFi pitcher on the, i on the fridge.
Josh (00:12:48):
Right. They had to fix that twice. Be, uh, the picture was, there was a seal that was broken on it, and then there was a dispensing, uh, issue with it. And then they had to come and completely take out the ice machine and, and put a new one in because they couldn’t figure out what it, what had happened. But that just goes to, to show like every additional feature you have. And yeah, it is nice for your personal, it’s nice for your personal home to have those things, but like, sometimes just kind of more of a hassle than, than the benefit that they provide.
Andrew (00:13:18):
I mean, even our, our fridge in our kitchen is a very basic, we have a basic 18 cubic foot Frigidaire in our, in our kitchen. Yeah. We have a second fridge out in the back room. That’s also another very basic fridge. I don’t have an ice maker in either one of them. I actually have a countertop ice maker. Uh, ’cause I figure at least that way if the countertop ice maker breaks, I can just unplug it and move on with my life. And I’m not losing a bunch of space in my freezer and everything else. But yeah, I don’t like ice makers, water dispensers, anything like that. You get into like washers and dryers and they have like the dryers with steam functions and No, none of that. Yeah.
Josh (00:13:54):
Very
Andrew (00:13:54):
Basic. The more basic you can go on your appliances while still meeting the requirements for your market, the better off you’re gonna be as a landlord, because appliances are, you’re not getting an appliance technician out for less than 150 bucks for the service call. And then you’re gonna be spending money on parts on top of that, almost guaranteed. So if it’s
Josh (00:14:11):
Right
Andrew (00:14:11):
Outside of that manufacturer’s warranty, I would just move on at that point.
Josh (00:14:16):
Yeah. And that’s funny you say that. And I of course wanted to have the ice maker on the door and do all that. And to tell you the truth, more often than not, I have to pull the ice, make maker out because I’m not using the ice enough. Yeah. So it’s getting stuck at the top. Yep.
Andrew (00:14:30):
And
Josh (00:14:30):
Then it’s, it’s starting to freeze, and I’m chipping it out with my hands because Josh wanted to have the bells and whistles and all those, that’s all those things with this, with this thing. And Yeah. More, more often than not, I’m, I’m trying to bang on the <laugh>, knock the ice out from jamming up and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, it’s a, it’s a mess. So yeah. Go when in doubt, go. Um, go simple.
Andrew (00:14:51):
Go more basic. Yeah, go simple.
Josh (00:14:53):
Yeah. All right, let’s go. Let me just check that one off so we don’t do it again. Let’s, let’s stay, let’s stay with this one in Facebook. Questions from Tim. Unbiased question here. Normal wear and tear. Oh wait. Normal tear wear and tear question. Should an apartment need to be repainted after less than a two year tenancy follow up question? If, if yes, should any of the costs be deducted from a security deposit? What metrics do you use to make this determination?
Andrew (00:15:31):
So, e everybody, I, I actually looked at this question and I think that this was one that was in, might have had the rent prep group, and I may have even posted a response on the question. I don’t remember what my response was at that point. But for, for the way that we kind of operate our properties, the way that we manage our properties, we use a standardized paint color wherever we can, which helps a lot with this question because rather than repainting an entire room, sometimes we can get away with repainting just one wall, or in some instances you might be able to get away with a spot touch up, but they almost always, even if the sheen’s match, they almost always have a little bit of variation there. Yeah. Um, you are more than likely going to be repainting every, I would say three to five years is probably a pretty good, pretty good timeline for paint in terms of like, when you’re turning over apartments.
Andrew (00:16:24):
But I think that even at that three to five year mark, you may not have to repaint every room. There are probably rooms that you’ll be able to do a wall or, um, you know, spot touch or whatever the case may be. Is it normal to have to repaint an entire apartment after a less than two year tenancy? I would say no. That tells me that they were either, um, smoking or vaping in the unit, or, um, heavy cooking in the unit, or just very dirty people that weren’t cleaning regularly or something like that. It’s not typical for you to have to go in and repaint an entire apartment. And when I say entire apartment, I’m talking everything. Wall ceilings. Yeah. Trim everything in, in under two years. There’s, there’s more going on there if that’s the case, right. On a three to five year basis, you’re gonna start seeing probably areas that do need paint touchup and things of that nature. And then I would say after five years, it’s pretty much almost gonna be a guarantee that you’re gonna be looking at, uh, at painting the entire thing. Just because you are gonna start to see, you know, brushes and scrapes and stuff like that just from normal wear and tear of people moving and stuff like that.
Josh (00:17:28):
So if, if for, say it was a one year lease, so could you, if you had to go in and do a ton of repainting or completely repaint, like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, does that, can that come out of the security deposit? And if, if the security deposit’s not even enough to cover a full, a full repaint, like how would you, how would you handle that?
Andrew (00:17:48):
I would say, I would say, yeah, there needs to be something that comes out of the security deposit for the paint. There’s a few different ways of looking at it. You can say, okay, this apartment was just repainted right before you moved in. We expected to get five years out of this. We only got two years out of it. You know, you’re now responsible for the, the three years that we didn’t get and kind of prorate it that way. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you could charge them on a per room basis or on a per wall basis if you don’t have to do the entire thing. Sort of like what I was talking about before. But yeah, I would say that there should definitely be some sort of a charge against the security deposit in a, in a situation where somebody’s done that much damage to the paint in such a short period of time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Josh (00:18:31):
Yeah. Okay. That’s fair. Alright, let’s move on to a form submission question about this question from Frank. Partially, he, he states partially our fault for not checking our condo rental, trusting the lady and her sickly mother, but now they have moved out. The condo is trashed, and I’m surprised no one in the complex is called the board of health. The one month security deposit does not even come close to recovering to 35,000, $35,000 we had to put into make it a livable. Again, this is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. What do you suggest? Now
Andrew (00:19:11):
Your options are limited. You can send them to collections. If you can find a collections agency that’s willing to take that, or you can pursue them in court for the, uh, amount in the damages, you’ll probably win and you’ll wind up with a judgment that you may or may not be able to collect on. Um,
Josh (00:19:30):
Yeah,
Andrew (00:19:31):
It’s unfortunate that, it’s unfortunate that so much damage can be done to a rental property and that there’s so little recourse for a landlord or a property manager or a property owner, housing provider to kind of collect and recourse on that. Um,
Andrew (00:19:49):
You can send it to collections. If you can find an agency that’ll take it, um, they may or may not be able to collect on it. You can take it to, I mean, that’s gonna be well above, uh, small claims court. I would assume that you’re gonna have to take that case to civil court depending on how the property’s owned in civil court. You may not be able to represent yourself if it’s in an L L C, you may need to hire an attorney. Now you’re adding more fees on. And then at the end of the day, what are the chances that you’re actually gonna recover from this tenant? Are they the type of tenant that is, you know, going to want to buy a home or a car or do something financially someday that’s going to this, you know, this judgment is gonna pop up against them, or are they the type of tenant that they’re never gonna qualify for a new home or a new car because they are already really beat up in the credit department?
Andrew (00:20:36):
And in that case, what are you, what are you getting by getting the judgment? It’s just gonna be a piece of paper that you’re never gonna collect on. Um, I wish that we had better answers for landlords that have taken serious amounts of damage in situations like this. Um, I wish that we had a better answer. I wish that we had a better course of action. Uh, but at the end of the day, realistically speaking, this is one that you’re gonna go to either cl um, civil court or send it to collections, and you’re gonna hope for the best. And realistically speaking, the chances of collecting are probably fairly slim. Um, mm-hmm.
Josh (00:21:12):
<affirmative>,
Andrew (00:21:12):
They get better depending on the type of tenant that you are trying to collect against. But if they’re, if they’re the type of tenant that’s uncollectible, you’re never gonna collect. And that’s just the way that it is.
Josh (00:21:22):
Yeah. That’s tough. That is tough. Okay. Uh, let’s move, here’s a quick one. Um, it is a Facebook question, I believe from Angel. Can I post pictures of the damages and the name of the tenant who did the damages on my own Facebook timeline?
Andrew (00:21:47):
I would re I would not recommend it. Um,
Josh (00:21:51):
Here’s what I No, my Yeah, go ahead. You go first. I’ll go.
Andrew (00:21:55):
What we’ve done in the past is posted video walkthroughs of an apartment right after, like the first walkthrough after an eviction or something like that. Um, we don’t disclose generally the location that we’re at beyond maybe just the city. We don’t really disclose. We never disclose the tenant’s name or any identifying information about the tenant. And we try to make sure that we scrub those videos to make sure that like, if there’s envelopes or something laying around pictures, whatever, we try to scrub those videos so that they’re not displaying a ton of personal information. Um, yeah. I think it’s in bad taste to do something like that. That said, if a tenant were to, for instance, post a negative Google review because they didn’t get their security deposit back after a move out, and I had photos showing the damages, at that point, I wouldn’t be, I would be less concerned about posting a, you know, like a, a link to a Google Drive folder showing all the images.
Josh (00:22:58):
Yeah. And
Andrew (00:22:59):
I would post right in the, in the response to my review, you know, here’s a, here’s a folder containing all of the photos from when you moved out of the apartment. Um, if anyone has any questions with regards to how we, how we, uh, manage our tenants, feel free to contact us at whatever phone number. And I would leave it at that because at that point they’re, they’re calling you out publicly in the form of a bad review at that point. I would not be, don’t be a jerk about it, but just, you know, it’s not hard to put everything in a Google Drive folder, get the, get the shareable link and say, you know, hi, thank you for your, uh, your review. Right. Based on the information provided, we’ve determined that, um, these are the photos from your move out. If you have any questions with regards to your damage deposit, uh, please contact our office at whatever number. And I think that that’s enough, that more often than not, they’ll probably just delete their master review because Right.
Josh (00:23:54):
They
Andrew (00:23:55):
Don’t want everybody to look at their, at their, how they left the apartment on the way out the door.
Josh (00:23:59):
Yeah. So, uh, a hundred percent agree with that. Um, there’s also, and I,
Andrew (00:24:03):
Some laws, sorry,
Josh (00:24:04):
I never,
Andrew (00:24:05):
There’s also
Josh (00:24:05):
No, you’re good
Andrew (00:24:06):
Laws, like New York State has tenant blacklist laws. You can’t put, you can’t create a tenant blacklist or Yeah. Engage in tenant blacklist behavior. And this could very easily be construed as tenant blacklist behavior. Um, yeah.
Josh (00:24:20):
Pub
Andrew (00:24:20):
Publicly posting, publicly shaming somebody with, with their name and the address where they were living and posting the photos and stuff. I, I feel like that’s going to cause more harm than good in most instances.
Josh (00:24:31):
Yeah. So I think what it really comes down to is, and it’s, it’s kind of what the REM prep Facebook group was kind of built on, but it’s, it’s more about education and, and moving on from, from the situation. So I know everybody in the, in the REM prep Facebook group, and I know it’s in our rules, but everyone does, does a pretty nice job of when they are sharing these situations that are happening mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they are, they’re, you know, redacting names. They’re, you know, doing everything they need to do to, to hide the identity of the tenant, but using that material still for the educational purpose to, you know, how do we prevent this from, from happening the next time? And here’s what you can do. And this, and I love your point about your point about the, the Google Review. ’cause I had never even even thought about that, but yeah, clearly you don’t, you wanna show, you wanna respond in a, in a professional way and show the justification for, for why, why you did what you did and Right.
Josh (00:25:31):
And I think that’s a great way to respond. And, you know, you don’t have to be, you don’t have to be rude about it, just, you know, be the bigger person and just say, Hey, here’s, here’s the reason that we, that we found, I mean, this is the reason that we found and here’s the evidence behind it. Like, I’m sorry you’re upset about, about what had happened. But yeah, it, it’s, if you think about it from a, from a, an educational standpoint, like that’s, that’s really the, the key there. And, and the REM prep Facebook group does a, does a great j a great job of that. So Yeah.
Andrew (00:26:02):
Yeah. I would, I would agree. And it’s,
Josh (00:26:06):
It’s frustrating for sure. It,
Andrew (00:26:07):
It’s frustrating for sure. But the, the most important thing is to understand that holding your tongue is one of the most important things you can do as a small business owner. Like, let’s just take this completely out of the realm of landlording, property management, real estate, whatever we’re talking about, holding your tongue as a small business owner is probably one of the most valuable things that you can do. The, the things that I’ve not said over the course of the years have saved me probably several lawsuits. <laugh> number one, like, um, the things that you don’t say when you really, really want to say them oftentimes are the things that if you did say them, you’re just opening up a can of worms. You’re just basically starting drama in your, in your life, in your business, whatever. And it’s not necessary. Mm-hmm.
Josh (00:27:01):
<affirmative>
Andrew (00:27:01):
Being the bigger person holding your tongue and just moving forward. ’cause, and again, at the end of the day, I understand what the premise is here. You want to try to prevent somebody else from running into the same problem with the same person that you did the problem with that is more than likely the person who they’re going to go rent from the next time isn’t gonna see your post or anything, and probably won’t even contact you because most people aren’t even doing landlord references at this point. So by posting it publicly, you’re literally just opening yourself up to, to
Josh (00:27:34):
Drama
Andrew (00:27:35):
And headache not worth it. The things that, the things that you don’t say as a small business owner are often the things that save you the most time, the most money and the most aggravation.
Josh (00:27:45):
Well, yeah. I mean, just one person. Think about that. One person sees, you know, a, a future tenant finds your review that you responded to mm-hmm. <affirmative> or prospective tenant, and they go, oh, I don’t, you know, I don’t wanna rent from that person like you down the road. You’re, you know, you could be hurting yourself more often than just the one bad experience that you had with, with one tenant and responding and getting the upper hand on the mm-hmm. On the response. You could be hurting yourself from people finding you, uh, you know, finding you down the road and just saying, oh, yeah, don’t wanna, don’t wanna rent from that, that landlord. That’s
Andrew (00:28:20):
Well, and something that’s interesting. So I’m in several different property management groups for property management, company owners and things of that nature. And, and Google reviews pop up quite a bit, and one of the things that’s often mentioned in these threads is that, um, property owners will go and look at the review for a property management company before hiring, and they look at the reviews. And if you have a response to a tenant that is basically tenant complaining about not getting their deposit back, followed by a logical response from the, from the property management company along with evidence that the tenant doesn’t deserve their deposit back. There are property owners who have literally called and said, I am calling you specifically because of the way that you handled this post on your Google reviews and things of that nature. So
Josh (00:29:06):
Yeah,
Andrew (00:29:06):
It’s, it’s, it’s one of those things where not saying the things that you wanna say the most sometimes works out the best for you.
Josh (00:29:16):
Yeah. No, that’s good. Um, yeah,
Andrew (00:29:20):
Don’t do that.
Josh (00:29:22):
Yeah, don’t do that. Let’s, uh, all right, let’s go, let’s do another Facebook one. Um, how about question from Sandy, had a tenant give only a 15 day notice? She got out at the end of the month in my lease. It says 30 day notice. So she broke the lease. She also left all kinds of furniture behind. Can I keep the whole deposit since she broke the lease? Did we cover this one already last month? I’m not sure.
Andrew (00:30:00):
I think we did. That sounds familiar from last, and I don’t have it in my questions list here.
Josh (00:30:05):
Huh?
Andrew (00:30:06):
I don’t have that one loaded up.
Josh (00:30:08):
Let’s, um, all right, well, let’s quickly, let’s quickly answer this one. I do think we answered this one last time. So the, so Sandy head of tenant only give her 15 days notice. She needs 30 notice, um, according to the lease. So she broke the lease, she also left all kinds of furniture behind. Can I keep the whole deposit since she broke the lease? Well, leaving the furniture behind also is, is probably a violation of the lease, correct? Yeah.
Andrew (00:30:34):
I mean, you’re gonna be able to charge for the disposal of the furniture, and you’re also going to be able to charge for the, um, lemme see. Had a tenant give only 15 days notice, got out at the end of the month, 30 day notice. So she broke the lease, she left all kinds of furniture behind. Can I keep the whole deposit? Since she broke the lease? I think you’re probably gonna wind up keeping the entire deposit based on having to dispose of the items left in the apartment, and then any damages or anything along those lines. But that being said, if they only gave you the 15 day notice, um, I would say that yeah, there probably is going to be, and I don’t know what, what state this is in, so I don’t know what the duty to mitigate damages is. Um
Josh (00:31:15):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Andrew (00:31:16):
Got out at the end of the month, broke the lease, left all kinds of furniture behind. Some states have an obligation for the landlord to mitigate damages. And there’s nothing in here that says how much time was left on the lease. It sounds like it was coming up on the end. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But for instance, in New York State, we have to go ahead and re-list that apartment. In theory, the the tenant is responsible for all of the damages. Um, any rent charges, any utility charges that they’re responsible for up until the point where we place a new tenant and it’s the landlord’s responsibility in the state of New York to mitigate those damages, to go out and find a new tenant, essentially.
Josh (00:31:51):
Yeah. Um,
Andrew (00:31:51):
So that would be how it would work here in New York State. Um, it doesn’t necessarily apply to other states. Um, so you’ve gotta go in and double check your state laws to see what the rules are in your area. But it sounds to me like you’re gonna have not only enough to justify keeping the security deposit, but more than likely enough to be above and beyond the security deposit just based off of unpaid charges and disposal of the furniture.
Josh (00:32:15):
Yeah. Yeah. That, that makes sense.
Andrew (00:32:20):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Josh (00:32:22):
All right. Let’s stick with another Facebook one. Let’s do a question from Patricia. I am renting out my finished basement apartment. I am taking pictures of the unit and posting it in the ad because I do not want to show the place until I know the prospective tenant will qualify. So after the application, credit, background check, history of evictions, then we will show it. What do you think of that process?
Andrew (00:32:49):
Um, I’m torn, to be honest with you. Um, and I’ll explain why we are, there are some property managers in Western New York that are doing self showings, which is basically where you’ll give someone a lockbox code and they can go in and look at the apartment at their convenience mm-hmm. <affirmative> on their own timeframe. And we’ve been looking at it and looking at it, do we wanna do it? Do we not want to do it? You know, the pros, the cons, this, that, and the other. And some, there’s different landlords do it differently. Different property managers are doing it differently. Some are not doing it at all. That seems to be the bulk of people are, are not embracing this yet. Some are requiring the full application be completed prior to the showing. Kind of like what we’re seeing here with what Patricia’s talking about.
Andrew (00:33:34):
Um, others require you to fill in the application and be completely approved before you can go out and see the place. So there’s some different variations in the marketplace depending on, you know, the, the place that you’re looking at and who’s trying to run it out. Um, the process that we were talking about internally was to collect the, lemme back up. So the way our application process works is it’s all digital. For the most part. Everybody fills out their application using rent preps quickly, pro software, um, then they upload their ID and their pay stub information. Um, and then they input their credit card information and actually we can set it so that it doesn’t charge for the credit and background check until we go in and say, yes, charge this person. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So what we were looking at doing was having them complete the entire application process.
Andrew (00:34:28):
Um, we were gonna go in and verify the income portion of it, only not do the credit and background until they’ve gone out and actually looked at it. So we know that they have the income before they go out and look at it. So we’ve income qualified them and we have their ID and we have their proof of income. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, and we have a credit card on file. We haven’t charged it yet, but we have a credit card on file that gives me enough confidence to be able to give someone access to a property without me or a leasing agent being there.
Josh (00:34:56):
Right.
Andrew (00:34:58):
We have a lot of information at that point, somebody’s probably not gonna try to scam an entire rental application. Um, they might try to scam a pay stub or whatever, but we’ll catch that when we’re doing our verifications essentially.
Josh (00:35:10):
Right. So
Andrew (00:35:11):
That’s kind of what we had looked at. We have not started that yet. We are still going out and doing every showing, either with myself or with a leasing agent. We’re going out and doing all of the showings in person. I’ve just not at a point where I’m comfortable doing it yet in a, yeah. In a self showing capacity. I know that there are a couple of property managers here in Western New York that are doing it with good success. I’ve been in contact with them. ’cause, you know, I want to know, uh, how’s it working out for you guys? Is this this going well? Is this not going well? And I’m fortunate to be friendly with a lot of the other managers in Western New York so we can have those conversations. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but I’m just not there personally yet. I can’t, I can’t, I don’t know. Maybe someday, but not, not currently anyway. Yeah. Going back to Patricia’s question here. Um, I think that’s a lot to ask before somebody comes out to look at a place, especially if you are going to be meeting them there for the showing. Um,
Josh (00:36:06):
Yeah, that’s
Andrew (00:36:07):
A, that’s a lot. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like if it was a self showing scenario, I can see the justification because you’re not physically meeting the person there with you being there and physically meeting the person there. I think that’s a lot to ask somebody to do prior to coming out to look at the place. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that said, give it a go. You may find that it works well in your market.
Josh (00:36:24):
Yeah. Um,
Andrew (00:36:25):
I don’t know. I don’t know if I would go through the whole credit and background check process on every single person prior to showing it. Um,
Josh (00:36:33):
Yeah. Maybe just an income verification,
Andrew (00:36:36):
Maybe just do an income verification, and I would definitely not tell them that you were the one living upstairs. Like, yeah, they don’t need to know that information. They’re gonna figure it out once they move in, but they don’t need to know that information in the application stage. So just don’t, yeah. You know, be there a few minutes early and be standing outside, oh, hi. You know, thank you for coming, blah, blah, blah. But don’t make it as though you are the, um, property owner. Make it as though you are a leasing agent or the property manager or, or something. Um, just so that there’s not that direct connection between well, this person lives here and this, that, and the other thing. So. Yeah. Uh, the other thing I would mention is, since you are talking about doing a finished basement apartment, just make sure you are, you know, in compliance with whatever guidelines there are in your state and municipality for egress and smoke and co detectors and, and stuff like that. We talked about that a few times on here.
Josh (00:37:30):
Yes. Yeah. That, uh, that had, um, happened to me. I was supposed to live in a basement. Um, I was supposed to live in a basement apartment, but there was not, uh, I believe there was only one window down there, so
Andrew (00:37:47):
Yeah. And
Josh (00:37:47):
It didn’t meet
Andrew (00:37:48):
The egress requirement. It
Josh (00:37:49):
Didn’t meet the egress. Yeah. So yeah,
Andrew (00:37:51):
There,
Josh (00:37:51):
There was that. And so I ended up having to, uh, he ended up converting another room into a, uh, into an actual bedroom. And that ended up meeting the, the specifications. But yeah, I was, I was supposed to live in this huge basement, finished, finished basement, but it just, um, it didn’t fit the requirements and he did not wanna put the, did not wanna put the money into making it, uh,
Andrew (00:38:16):
<crosstalk>. So we had some, we had some South campus rentals, UB South Campus Rentals that I used to manage back in the day, and pretty much every basement was finished. Um, the, the one client that I’m thinking of in particular, they would go in and finish their basements as living rooms, and then they would convert everything on the first and second floor wherever they could squeeze in a bedroom. They were squeezing in a bedroom. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I didn’t go super in depth on this in the House Hacks video, um, but I know we have a second House Hacks video coming out that’s talking more about the financing. The client that I’m talking about right now is the client that started with a house hack that became a multimillion dollar rental portfolio. Um, all of it kind of ties together. It’s all, it was all campus, you know, by UB south campus there, but like they would, anytime that they could find a place to squeeze in an extra bedroom legally, like, so it would meet code, they would do it even if it meant moving the living room to the basement level. Um, and it seemed to work like college kids didn’t really care. They were fine with the living room in the basement for the most part because they’re college kids and they didn’t really care. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they were just happy to be able to have all their friends under one roof and, and stuff like that. So
Josh (00:39:26):
Yeah. Yeah. There’s,
Andrew (00:39:26):
Um, there’s definitely options for, for updating basements. You don’t necessarily need to put a bedroom in there to make it usable space. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you might be able to do something where you convert one of your other rooms into a bedroom and convert your basement into a living room space. Now is that gonna work for literally anybody when you go to sell that house? No, absolutely not. They’re gonna want a living room on the first floor, <laugh>. They’re gonna want a dining room. Most people don’t live the way the college kids live, you know? Um,
Josh (00:39:57):
Yeah. And I remember too, um, it actually, it actually ended up kind of working out for me because they also had the, the laundry room was downstairs mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you could tell that you would definitely, you would’ve definitely needed a, a dehumidifier. Yeah.
Andrew (00:40:15):
Um,
Josh (00:40:15):
Just the smell of the moisture just from running. I remember a couple of like, loads of laundry being in while I had been looking at the place. Right.
Andrew (00:40:23):
And
Josh (00:40:23):
It was, you could physically feel the humidity down in the basement and in the summer it was, it was a little bit warmer. So, I mean, between that mix and, uh, yeah. So it ended up being, ended up working out for me, but yeah. Mm-hmm. There’s different, you know, basement, basement, uh, apartments can be, you know, they can be different for sure.
Andrew (00:40:44):
Yeah, definitely. Well, and it’s, again, it’s one of those things, like the house hack video is very interesting because we talk about that strategy and we talk about adding extra bedrooms to make it a better, make it a better house hack. There is a point where the house becomes less livable as a result of configuration changes too, so. Right. That’s definitely something to keep in mind. Uh, and like I said, nobody’s going to buy a house where the living room is in the basement. No, no. Normal person wants to live like that, but college kids didn’t really care. Um, they, they really did very, very well on a couple of house hacks that they had. Uh, well, one house hack that they had then everything else they bought was purchased, uh, traditionally. But the, the numbers back then were so good that like they’re, they were untouchable. They were making money hand over fist using that strategy, so,
Josh (00:41:35):
Oh, yeah. I remember, uh, I was gonna live in an attic once that ended up not being able to, there was like a fire code violation with it, and Yeah, I had that story about the basement, like Yeah. Back in, back in the day, I would’ve, uh, and like you said, like just to get everybody under one roof. Sure. Like, I was like, yeah, sure. Like, uh, and it was like technically a bigger room and all that when you, when you, when you are in the attic or in the basement, so yeah. There’s, there’s pros and cons, but yeah. College,
Andrew (00:42:03):
Your priorities are different when you’re a college kid versus don’t.
Josh (00:42:06):
I’ll sleep on the floor. Yeah, yeah,
Andrew (00:42:08):
Exactly. Come
Josh (00:42:08):
On the floor. If you knock some around off <laugh> <laugh>, it’s, uh,
Andrew (00:42:13):
Got that right. Yeah.
Josh (00:42:15):
Nowadays I would not <laugh>.
Andrew (00:42:17):
Yeah, right.
Josh (00:42:18):
I’m like, I need to be in a bed.
Andrew (00:42:20):
I need to be, I want my privacy, blah, blah, blah. Need
Josh (00:42:24):
The air conditioning to be exactly at 67, 68 degrees, like degrees back then. It’s like, ah, no. Like, I don’t need an AC unit, I don’t need ac, I don’t need this. I don’t need that. But yeah, definitely different, um, yeah, depending on who your, what your demographic of, uh, of renter is and, and just kind of what they’re, what they’re interested in is for sure. Definitely that that house hacking video is, is something to take a look at
Andrew (00:42:52):
For sure. The second one’s gonna be really good. I just finished recording the second one over the weekend, and, uh, it’s gonna be really good. I’m happy with how that came out. The second one talks about finance. I actually go over a property that’s in the same neighborhood as where my client started his portfolio. Then I look at a multifamily property as well, and when you start talking about doing a house hack on a multifamily property, the numbers are unreal, so,
Josh (00:43:15):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Going
Andrew (00:43:17):
Back to, um, basement bedrooms and attic bedrooms for a second though. We, I mean, I’ve never lived in New York City. I don’t know if you have either, but like we talk about non inhabitable spaces here being attics and basements. Like in New York City, you’re trying to cram people into closets mm-hmm.
Josh (00:43:34):
<affirmative> and
Andrew (00:43:34):
Turn those into bedrooms in some instances. Like, I can’t even imagine
Josh (00:43:38):
Some
Andrew (00:43:38):
Of the stuff that gets passed off as a, as a quote unquote bedroom in, in places like New York City or any other major metro really, um, where the rents are astronomically high and everybody’s just trying to find a, a spot to live, you know?
Josh (00:43:50):
Yeah. So another, I’ll, I’ll do this quick, but my, uh, COVID had just ended, and I had a buddy whose sister had lived in New York City, but she was moving back to Buffalo, so they needed a couple guys to go down there, help her move out. So I ended up driving down there in a U-haul with a couple buddies. Uh, her brother went down there and moved her out. Uh, it is like a normal apartment complex. Like you get door, door, door, door, even lease spaced out. It looked like they had cut a door down the middle and one was one unit, one was another unit, and to enter it was, I mean, you talk about just moving stuff into that unit mm-hmm.
Andrew (00:44:31):
<affirmative>,
Josh (00:44:31):
And I mean, it, it was so small. Yeah. And, you know, that’s, that’s just, that’s what it, what it is to live in the city and, and in New York City, but it was, I couldn’t believe it when I had gone down there. I’ve only lived in Buffalo and Rochester my whole life, so I’ve never really experienced an actual city, city living.
Andrew (00:44:52):
Right.
Josh (00:44:52):
Um, but it was, it was for sure different.
Andrew (00:44:56):
I don’t think I have any interest in that, to be honest with you. Like, that sounds, that entire experience sounds awful to me. No part of it sounds enjoyable. Yeah. Um,
Josh (00:45:06):
You just couldn’t, you couldn’t believe it. Yeah. Like, that’s just, you gotta, you gotta like that kind of, you gotta like that kind of lifestyle if you’re No,
Andrew (00:45:14):
I get it. Gonna
Josh (00:45:15):
Be in a city like that.
Andrew (00:45:16):
Well, and I had like, I had a friend that lived in New York City and kind of lived in one of these style of apartments, and he never spent any time at home. Like he was always out and about and whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Josh (00:45:25):
And
Andrew (00:45:26):
It’s fine if that’s the lifestyle you wanna lead, and you don’t wanna, you’re not a homebody or whatever, but like at this point in my life, I like to go home at the end of the day and, and not be near people for a few minutes and stuff like that. Yeah.
Josh (00:45:38):
And
Andrew (00:45:39):
It just seems like that would be so non conducive to my lifestyle. I don’t think that I could ever live in New York City, to be honest with you, but definitely not in a situation like that.
Josh (00:45:48):
Yeah. It was, it was wild, but cool experience for us to go down there and see, and then between even just like having a moving truck on the streets of New York City, <laugh> is like, it’s just different. Like, we’re not used to it. Just being in, I mean, I’m in the suburbs of, of
Andrew (00:46:06):
Right. Buffalo,
Josh (00:46:06):
New York, which already is a city buffalo is, is nothing compared to some of the bigger, the bigger cities out there. Right, exactly. It’s not used, you know, it’s just not my cup of tea. Well,
Andrew (00:46:17):
And like for a perspective sake, like to go from North Atlanta to South Atlanta could very easily take you two hours to go from North Buffalo to South Buffalo, or even like Tonawanda to Orchard Park, a northern suburb to a southern suburb during rush hour might take you 45 minutes. Yeah. During, uh, during normal traffic conditions, probably 20, 25.
Josh (00:46:40):
I know. So I’m frustrated when there’s 15 minutes of traffic. Yeah, exactly. I can’t imagine the 45 to an hour
Andrew (00:46:47):
We get caught by the water tower. It’s game over <laugh>.
Josh (00:46:49):
Oh God. I’m like on the two. Yeah. I’m like, come on, like, what is going on here? And I’m like, five mi five more minutes later to get home than I normally in, and I’m like, yeah,
Andrew (00:46:58):
Exactly. You
Josh (00:46:59):
Know, throwing my hands up in the air, like, what the hell’s going on here? But
Andrew (00:47:02):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Josh (00:47:03):
All right, let’s move on. We got, we got time for probably, we got a couple more. Yeah. Two more questions. Yeah. So let’s, let’s do one here. Let me get back to the form submission questions. Um, okay. Question from Eric. I have two families where I am currently renting out two units. The kitchen upstairs is above the bedroom downstairs, and the downstairs is complaining about creaking and noise. What can I do to create a happy space for both tenants? The floors upstairs are hardwood.
Andrew (00:47:38):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you’re probably gonna have to, this is the worst possible scenario when you’re talking about having one room on top of another. Having a kitchen on top of a bedroom is a nightmare.
Josh (00:47:49):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Andrew (00:47:49):
It sucks because every step, every pot and pan bang, every microwave beep, like depending on how much insulation there is between units, you’re hearing a lot of noise transfer between these two, these two rooms. Having a kitchen above a bedroom sucks. There’s no other way around it. Um, your best bet is probably going to be to try to get some sort of insulation layer in between the upstairs and the downstairs. You can do this in a couple of different ways. You can update the flooring upstairs and add some sort of a padding or insulation layer under your new flooring. You can add insole board or, um, there’s products out there that will reduce noise transmission that you can apply to the ceiling of the unit underneath and then go over it with drywall or drop ceiling or whatever the case may be, depending on what’s there currently.
Andrew (00:48:47):
Um, there are some options available for, for, you know, noise buffering and things of that nature. You’re gonna spend some money on it. That’s the biggest thing I can tell you is that there’s not going to be some free method by which noise stops transferring from one place to another. The only thing that’s gonna stop that noise from transferring is barriers. Barriers, preventing the acoustic noise from traveling from one place to another. Um, that’s basically the only answer, um, by resolving the issue, I should say. The other answer is you just ignore the problem and don’t do anything about it, and you’re probably going to churn and burn tenants through that downstairs apartment continually until the issue actually gets addressed. Um, this can be especially problematic if you have someone who is a night shift worker so they are asleep during the day when the upstairs apartment is getting up and getting ready to go to work in the morning or something like that.
Andrew (00:49:45):
That can be a real challenge because now you’ve got somebody who’s trying to fall asleep while somebody else is trying to get up and get moving in the morning. And I know I’m not quiet when I get up and start moving around in the morning, so I, I, you know, it’s a tough situation for that person in the lower unit, but I think the only solution there to address the issue is going to be doing something to isolate the noise between the two units. Yeah. Whether it be new flooring with, with some sort of isolation barrier or some work on the ceiling with some isolation barrier or something. I mean, I would start by talking to the upstairs tenants and seeing if there’s something that can be an agreement that can be made or something. Hey, do you mind not being loud in your kitchen? But realistically you’re not gonna be able to tell somebody they can’t cook their breakfast in the morning because the guy downstairs is still trying to sleep.
Josh (00:50:33):
Yeah. I, um, that’s funny. This question’s funny to me because I lived, I lived in the upper of a, an apartment and then a year later I moved down to the lower mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I knew every creek that I was, that I was making in the top, I a year later found out exactly exactly what everybody else was hearing underneath me.
Andrew (00:50:57):
Yeah.
Josh (00:50:58):
Um, and I could tell. And just from living in the top, I knew exactly where the people were above us, where they
Andrew (00:51:03):
Were
Josh (00:51:04):
Stepping, what we’re doing, what, what the creeks are. You obviously learn your, you learn your spots, but mm-hmm.
Andrew (00:51:09):
<affirmative>,
Josh (00:51:09):
I think those are, that’s a, that’s a few nice tips as far as just what you can do to, to mitigate the noise. And obviously Yeah. You can’t tell somebody they can’t cook their, can’t cook their breakfast or their lunch, you know, it’s, that’s
Andrew (00:51:22):
A, that’s a tough situation. Like normally you don’t wind up with a bedroom stacked on top of a, or I’m sorry, a, a kitchen stacked on top of a bedroom, unless you have basement level bedrooms or something like that.
Josh (00:51:33):
Right.
Andrew (00:51:34):
Um, but yeah, that’s a, that’s a tough one. That sucks. That’s a very, very rough situation for, um, for that downstairs unit to, to be in.
Josh (00:51:43):
Yeah. Alright, let’s, um, I actually, I’m looking at the Facebook Live here. I see that Leslie, uh, Leslie had asked a question here, so let’s see if we can answer this question and then, um, then we’ll call it a day. Okay.
Andrew (00:51:57):
Uh,
Josh (00:51:58):
All right. Leslie asked, we have a single family home on three acres. The draw to this property is the landscape of a large yard in tree-lined areas. The homes on the road on that road are family owned and decorate fairly simple. And tastily, we’ve considered adding a c clause to the lease stating the beautiful, the beauty of this property is the natural landscape and to avoid large numbers slash area of outside holiday decor, would this be legal? Which we don’t wanna micromanage, but we also wanna respect our neighbors.
Andrew (00:52:32):
So Leslie doesn’t want eight foot inflatables in her front yard. Yeah. She’s
Josh (00:52:35):
Not, she doesn’t want the six foot pumpkin. Yeah.
Andrew (00:52:38):
It,
Josh (00:52:38):
It appears <laugh>.
Andrew (00:52:40):
So the question, can you, can you do anything about that legal? Um, yeah. Can you put something in
Josh (00:52:45):
There that says you
Andrew (00:52:47):
Probably could, you know, I mean, you probably could put you, you can put whatever you want in your lease. It’s just a matter of what is the judge gonna say when you actually get to court. Um, here’s the thing. This is one of those weird situations where you start talking about freedom of speech versus, um, you know, their right to quiet enjoyment versus the, of the unit versus landlord’s. Right. To, um, you know, own and control the property. Okay. Would it be legal? That’s, again, that’s one of those things that I’m not an attorney and I’m not gonna sit here and say, yes, it would be, or no, it wouldn’t be. That’s something you would probably would wanna talk to an attorney in your state about.
Josh (00:53:28):
Yeah.
Andrew (00:53:29):
I’m, we have something in our lease that says that you can’t park on the grass. We have something on our lease that says that you can’t put up like trampolines or swimming pools or something along those lines. I think that this would probably fall kind of in the same language as that, if I’m kind of thinking through it logically here.
Josh (00:53:48):
Yeah. I think I had, that had no Christmas. I think I had a lease that said no Christmas lights on the outside of the property. But like you said, the beginning of this and, you know, just preventative for fires or anything like that, um,
Andrew (00:54:03):
Could be because they don’t want,
Josh (00:54:05):
You said in the beginning, holes
Andrew (00:54:05):
In the outside of the property to hang, you know, they don’t want hooks on the outside of the house for your Christmas lights, which I can understand. You know, I think that there’s, I think that there’s ways to approach this where you can do it without coming across as being the Grinch is, is probably the best way of putting it. And I would, you know, depending on the type of decor that’s being put up, if you have somebody that’s putting up a large religious display or something like that, you have to be cautious because you are dealing with situations where you might have a free speech issue or whatever the case may be. This is a good question. This is probably one that would be something that maybe we could have an attorney come on and, um,
Josh (00:54:47):
Like a more actual to
Andrew (00:54:48):
It. I don’t, I’ll be honest, I don’t have an, this is one where I would call my attorney and be like, Hey, how would you handle a situation like this? I mean, and I can tell you for instance, like, let’s akin this to, it’s not a giant pumpkin, it’s an inflatable swimming pool. Um, or it’s a trampoline. The way that we handle those scenarios is we send a letter to the tenant and say, Hey, you need to remove this swimming pool because it violates your lease. Or, Hey, you need to remove this trampoline because it violates your lease, and if it’s not removed within X number of days, we’re going to remove it and we’re going to charge you for the privilege and you’re not going to get it back. Um, and that seems to work pretty well. Most of our tenants are, are compliant when they get those letters. We have had situations where we’ve had to go and, um, like physically remove something from a property, like a a, an inflatable pool or something like that. Of course, as soon as you do that, you get a phone call screaming, why did you do that? Where’s my pool? Gimme my pool back. Well, no, you were non-compliant with your lease. This is the, you know, this is the repercussion for your actions.
Andrew (00:55:53):
Yeah. So I would say, is it legal? I would say you need to talk to an attorney in your area. Um,
Josh (00:56:03):
Yeah,
Andrew (00:56:04):
I would,
Josh (00:56:04):
I think we need to. Yeah, I’d be curious. So let me, let’s, let’s do some digging in this, in this, uh, area. Well, and
Andrew (00:56:11):
Because there’s so many ways, there’s so many ways you can take this. There’s, I want to hang an American flag, right? I want to hang a Russian flag. I want to hang a Ukrainian flag. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I want to hang a pride flag, I want to hang a religious flag. I wanna put a big inflatable, you know, um, nightmare before Christmas thing in my front yard. There’s so many ways that you can look at this. Yeah, I think that, that’s a good question for an attorney. That would be one where there’s probably some nuance to what I would think, or maybe I’m just completely outta outta line here. And it’s just you set the policy and the tenant has to comply with it.
Josh (00:56:45):
Yeah, no, that’s, uh, I like that one to finish here we are, uh, we are getting into, we’re
Andrew (00:56:51):
Getting close.
Josh (00:56:52):
Not only, I mean, the holiday season just in general is kind of starting up and then, like you said, just like flags in general or mm-hmm.
Andrew (00:56:59):
<affirmative>,
Josh (00:56:59):
You know, there’s a lot of different ways you could look at it and interpret it. And I, I think that is a, that is a good question. So Yeah,
Andrew (00:57:06):
Maybe I can, well, I mean, ’cause there’s a lot of different, there’s, there’s the traditional, like what we were talking about, just your general average everyday flag. There’s political banners or political decorations, there’s holiday decorations, there’s, you know, everything from I want to hang lights around the window to giant inflatables to full scale viral houses. And yeah, I think that there’s, there’s gotta be some nuance there, I would think, but I don’t know exactly from a legal standpoint. I don’t know as though there’s anything stopping someone from saying you can’t do that.
Josh (00:57:37):
Yeah.
Andrew (00:57:38):
Interesting.
Josh (00:57:38):
All right. Well, yeah, that’s interesting. Leslie, if you, if you find out anything else for sure, uh, feel free to ping us back and I’m gonna try to do some digging as well to see if we can find any resources that
Andrew (00:57:50):
Yeah, I’m gonna try to remember to ask my attorney the next time I talk to them about this.
Josh (00:57:54):
Yeah. But, alright. I think, um, I think that’s a good, good place to, to stop. Yeah, I think so. That seems like a pretty
Andrew (00:58:01):
Stopping point.
Josh (00:58:02):
Yeah.
Andrew (00:58:04):
Very cool. Well that worked out really, really well. Actually. This was the October a m a, um, we had a ton of questions we didn’t get to. I mean, we say that every month, but this month especially actually a lot, we had a lot, a lot. So yeah. Thank you for submitting your questions. Excuse me. Whew. Thank you for submitting your questions. If you didn’t get your question answered this month, um, Josh, what are we doing? Are we holding the questions from month to month or should people just
Josh (00:58:29):
Resubmit?
Andrew (00:58:29):
Yeah,
Josh (00:58:30):
So, uh, we have had people resubmit. I’ve been rolling them over and trying to get them answered as the first ones I, I bring up on the, on the next a m a just because Gotcha. Just for time constraints. So I, I do put them at the top of the list. Um, but yeah, always, always feel free to, if we didn’t get to it, you know, submit another form submission if you’d like. Uh, we’ll, we’ll definitely try to get to it. And we have been doing a good job this month. We just happened to, man, we got a lot of form submission questions this month. We did. So
Andrew (00:59:03):
Yeah,
Josh (00:59:04):
It was, uh, we almost, we almost weren’t even able to pull from the, from the Facebook group, but we, you know, I tried to make it work here. So we do have some rollovers we’ll get to in November.
Andrew (00:59:14):
Very good. Well that’s awesome. It’s good to see that people are getting more involved, getting active, bringing questions to us for, for us to answer, which is always exciting. So we’re definitely gonna keep doing these. These seem to do really, really well. Um, Josh and I enjoy doing ’em, so I don’t have the date for our, do you have the date for our November one? Did we set the date?
Josh (00:59:33):
No. November one. No, I don’t think we do, but it would, it would most likely. Well ’cause we’ve got Thanksgiving in that month. There’s
Andrew (00:59:39):
The holiday.
Josh (00:59:40):
We’ll have to, we’ll have to figure that one out. But once we, once we know it, we’ll obviously, uh, we’ll have the event posted in the Facebook group.
Andrew (00:59:48):
Yeah, that’ll get posted in the Facebook group. And then we also send out, Ashley sends out the newsletter on a, on a mm-hmm. <affirmative> weekly or biweekly basis. Um, it shows
Josh (00:59:56):
It’s a weekly
Andrew (00:59:57):
On that as well.
Josh (00:59:58):
Yep. It’s a weekly basis. And then when, uh, I think she does it two weeks, you’ll do a special email for the, so you do not miss marking your calendars for when the, when the a m a is.
Andrew (01:00:08):
Awesome. Alright, let’s go ahead and wrap things up. Josh, anything to add last minute?
Josh (01:00:15):
No, uh, just, uh, have a good, have a good month. I’m, I’m excited. I, I’m a big, uh, it is getting colder here in Buffalo, but I, uh, I think I needed it. I’m ready for, it’s, I’m a weird guy, but like, I’m ready for kind of some of the colder weather.
Andrew (01:00:31):
Oh, you’re the exact opposite of me. I can’t stand the cold weather. I’m, I’m already running around in, in a full coat and everything else. Yeah. <laugh>, <laugh>.
Josh (01:00:40):
Yeah. Yeah, whatever.
Andrew (01:00:42):
All right. Well, let’s go ahead and wrap things up then. Uh, I’m Andrew Schultz for rent prep.com. Thank you all for watching the October. I keep planning to say September. Keep watching. Yeah. For our November a m a. We’ll get the dates out the door on that as soon as we have them available to you. And, uh, we’ll talk to everybody soon.