Great advice on leases clauses. I would add three points:
- Lease should contain written, signed move-in condition of the home.
- Update and edit your lease constantly. Steal every good idea from articles, landlords, other leases, court cases. Customize to match your judge’s thinking and local laws.
- Time spent orienting/training the new tenant makes managing easier and more profitable. We do a “Lease Ceremony” – tell new tenant to allow an hour and get a sitter for the kids. We review the lease highlights, they initial each critical clause, answer their questions, do a safety walk (breakers, shut offs, filters), handle monies, give keys, and take their picture while happy in a clean home.
Now to this week’s tip
Landlord Damita Russett-Allen wrote to suggest a tip. Her issue:
Lately when we have a vacancy, while we are preparing the property (apartment/house) for rental we have break-ins. Just last night we had someone break into one of our apartments that was ready to start showing and bust sheet rock and glass. It was just vandalism. They had already broken a couple of windows and saw we left nothing to steal.
Thanks for the suggestion, Damita.
I did some research on the question and found some interesting information, ideas and suggestions.
First, let’s look at why do people break in to vacant properties.
There are three reasons. One, as Ms. Allen found, was simple vandalism. That is usually kids (under 25 with mental ages of 13) looking for a “good time.” They just want to trash something. Lucky you, it’s your property.
Second, it could be drug users looking for a place to shoot up. They won’t care what havoc they wreak to a property, but aren’t there to do damage, only to get high.
Third, the break-in could be to steal things out of the house or apartment. Even if there is no personal property in the house, the crooks could be after copper pipe, water heaters, and copper wire. To steal any of those things, they will have to do damage to the property and most likely won’t be careful. This kind of theft has been a serious, on-going problem in vacant, bank-owned, foreclosed properties.
In the first two situations, difficulty of entry is likely to scare off or dissuade the perpetrators. They will look for an easier target. In the third situation, difficulty of entry would most likely discourage, though not completely dissuade the criminals. Criminals don’t want to work hard. If they did, they would get a job.
Here are five things a landlord can do. Four are easy and inexpensive; the fifth is the “ultimate” solution, but extraordinarily effective.
One easy, effective and inexpensive solution is to change out the locks on all exterior doors. Former tenants and owners may still have keys. Those would provide easy access to do any kind of mischief.
A second easy, effective and inexpensive solution is to check all windows to see they are locked and secure. If a window is loose or shows tampering, cover it with plywood until it can be repaired properly.
A third, easy, effective and inexpensive solution is light timers. If you leave a light burning all the time, it shouts “vacant, break in!” Just be sure that the lights come on and off at different times. Also use motion sensing exterior lights. That can keep bad guys from even looking at the property.
Finally, keep the property looking good: grass cut, shrubs trimmed, weeds pulled, and trash picked up. A poorly maintained property tells everyone, bad guys included, that the owner doesn’t care, be that true or not.
The ultimate solution is from Vacant Property Security, a company that specializes in securing vacant homes and apartments. Nancy Spivey, of the Real Estate Investors Resource website, wrote:
“I had to stop and take a closer look at this. Then I called the number to find out more. Basically, these “screens” over the windows also go over the backdoor keeping out criminals but letting in light. The front door is removed and replaced with the steel door you see in the picture. The steel door is accessible. Just the looks of this thing reminded me of a jail -surely a criminal would not want to go through the effort to get through this or like the jail look. When I called the company, they said that there’s a 1 in 1000 chance of break in with the system installed. It’s about $450 for the installation of 9 screens and the front door and less than $250 per month for the rental of the system per the Atlanta representative – Nick 404-578-1009.”
One deterrent solution that is appealing, but a truly bad idea, is booby trapping the property. While I wouldn’t get too upset about criminal being shot with a rigged shotgun, I would feel bad about a firefighter getting shot trying to fight a fire in the building. Of course, the landlord might also forget and get shot himself or do in a prospective tenant.
Love your investments. Tending to vacant rental property, making sure it is safe and secure, keeping it neat and tidy has three important benefits: it tells bad guys someone cares and is paying attention; it tells prospective tenants that the landlord is a step above the run-of-the-mill landlord; and it reinforces the rental owner’s love and respect of his or her investment.
I would enjoy seeing other landlords’ ideas about keep their vacant properties safe and secure.
Landlord Question
The tenant has not paid the rent. It is the 10th of the month and you haven’t heard anything. What do you do?
It is vital that you do something. The most effective action is to send the tenant a three-day notice (or whatever is required in your state) saying the rent is past due and that he or she has three days to pay up or you will file an eviction.
If this tenant has been with your for a long time and has always paid the rent on time until this month, you will probably want to call to find out if there is a problem. It could be that your tenant simply forgot to pay the rent; it happens, and he or she will be properly embarrassed.
Regardless of which action you take, it is essential that you take charge of the situation. Landlords are not the bank, and most are not rich, in spite of what many tenants think.