Tenants Moving Out? Get Their Feedback First!

Tenants Moving Out? Get Their Feedback First!

It’s amazing what people will tell you when they’re leaving. Whether it’s a girlfriend, boyfriend or ex-employee, the act of walking away often brings out what a person really thinks. Employers use exit interviews to find out how employees really feel about their...
Winterizing Your Rental Property

Winterizing Your Rental Property

The crisp air of Fall is upon us, which makes it the perfect time to winterize your rental property. Winterizing requires the cooperation of your tenant, so it is a good idea to plan ahead and communicate with your tenant in advance. Here are a few tips to protect...
Top 5 Bad Tenant Warning Signs

Top 5 Bad Tenant Warning Signs

In addition to a thorough background and credit check, choosing the right tenant involves acute observation during the interview process and following gut instinct.  There are numerous “tells” you can watch for that will clue you in to possible issues before you...
California: New Tenant Parking Laws

California: New Tenant Parking Laws

New laws in California signed into effect by the Governor in September 2014 now give tenants rights to install charging stations for their electric vehicles.  If tenants follow the letter of the law, a landlord is required to approve the installation and it could...
Five Reasons for Tenant Screening

Five Reasons for Tenant Screening

More people are becoming landlords, whether because they are interested in investing in real estate, or because they need to lease a home they cannot sell. Lack of landlord experience often leads to mistakes that can be very costly. From choosing the wrong appliances...

North Carolina Lawmakers Address Landlord/Tenant Bedbug Disputes

The North Carolina General Assembly is considering a new bill that will clear up some of the “gray areas” in disputes between tenants and landlords involving bedbugs. Under current guidelines, it’s difficult to sort out who is responsible when the bedbugs bite: is it...

Should Property-Trashing Tenants be Charged?

A landlord recently wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper, complaining that tenants had trashed her rental property. They left food and garbage everywhere, along with a garage full of old TVs, mattresses and appliances for the landlord to dispose of. She...

Confidentiality: It’s a Landlord’s Responsibility

Landlords need to collect confidential information from their tenants in order to determine whether or not they qualify for a lease. A tenant’s employer, bank account numbers, credit history, social security number and previous addresses are all valuable to identity...

When to Issue a “Cure or Quit” Notice to Tenants

Cure or Quit Notices serve to inform tenants of a serious failure in the landlord/tenant relationship. Usually, the tenant has broken a significant term of his lease. Landlords issue Care or Quit Notices for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the more common Care...