<p>And market pressure will keep 4 or 5 month deposits to a minimum because not every landlord will charge this much.</p>
<p>Even though I am legally allowed to charge three months, I have missed out on plenty of potential tenants who don’t want to pay that much up front, so they look someplace else. That’s my choice. They have choices, there’s always other apartments.</p>
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A young kid in a first job is a huge risk for me - they most likely have no landlord history worth anything, have no credit to speak of, and who knows if they’ve figured out yet that life after college requires acting like an adult. If they have to live at home for a time to save up money or get someone to front them the up-front costs, so be it. I’m not providing a social service, I’m running a business.</p>
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You are painting with a very broad brush here.</p>
<p>Yes, yes you are. And it’s certainly buyer beware in any business, as I learned from personal experience. Unfortunately, my experiences are not unique, so you might get a sense of where I’m coming from. More often than not, it’s been a boon to the landlord and a loss for the renter, even when they’ve been on the right side. But yeah, caveat emptor.</p>
<p>I have no idea why the term “several” is assumed to mean 4 or 5. Never said that, and didnt imply it either. Maybe a better term is “a few months” rather than “several months” but it seems like semantics.</p>
<p>Those of use who have tried the landlord role and been burned are less likely to go out on a limb, I suppose. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.</p>
<p>My brother had to break his lease when it turned out that his DD and DS had mold allergies. My niece, in particular, was having serious problems due to it and the fact that there was mold in the basement of the rental. The landlord was not willing to do what was needed clear up the problem and my brother could not have anything half way done on this matter as it was a health hazard. So he broke the lease and left the house. He had an attorney take care of the correspondence and whatever with the landlord.</p>
<p>As for down payments on rentals, here in NYC, it’s a sad joke that it’s like putting one down on a purchase. Three months is typical and paying a finder’s fee and other things is not unusual at all. It’s what the market will bear. If you live in an area that is flush with housing as where my one kid went to college, the terms are very generous and getting cheap housing is easy as there are many out there trying to rent. You can’t ask more than the market will bear if you want tenants. But if you are renting where there is a shortage, you can ask pretty much what you want.</p>
<p>I have no interest in doing an all inclusive lease. As mentioned above, there is no incentive for the renters to pay attention to the utility usage. In this area (a small city,) all the rental houses I am aware of do not include utilities. Even the apartment complexes only offer trash and water, or rather they charge about $30/month for those. My son, who now lives in Denver is forced to pay $30/month to have the trash picked up outside his door nightly at his apartment, while he would have been quite happy to walk the 20 feet to the trash chute! Trash has to be put out after 5:00pm for a 6:00pm or so pick up; it is a very rare day that he gets home from the hospital before pickup time, and he isn’t allowed to put it out in the morning before work. That said, he knew this when he chose to live at this location.</p>
<p>My renters are really nice guys, just young and use to their parents helping them out. Unless they trash the house, I am happy to keep them as renters; my gripes are more as a first time landlord learning the ropes. I am guessing my son may have made a few mistakes in his past rental history and young adult life; my daughter on the other hand, wait I take that back We have received a few “what do I do” phone calls from both of them; it reminds up that we can’t teach them everything, some things just have to be learned through life lessons!</p>
<p>Well, I was taught in math back in the dark ages that a “couple” was 2, a “few” was 3, and “several” was 4 or 5, and “many” was 6 and up. So that’s the way I read paying “several” months rent up front. </p>
<p>I do realize that landlord’s probably get the short end of the stick a lot of the time, but I could go on all day with horror stories from renters that I know. I’m sure everyone HERE that rents out homes and apartments are the salt of the earth, but in my real life, that isn’t too common.</p>
<p>My s’s lived in some dumps when they were in college, with difficult to reach and unattentive landlords. Wish we had the folks here as landlords, for sure. And should I say they were never ever EVER late on the rent or paying utilities. In fact, they would cover their roommates when the roommate was short.</p>
<p>Utilities here do not charge a deposit if one has had an account with them and has <em>not</em> previously stiffed them/been late. For new accounts, the deposit is minimal (elec-$90) and is divided over the first 3 months’ bills. If one has a bad credit with them, yeah, they do charge a decent deposit. Shouldn’t they? I don’t think it’s the utilities job to provide service for free.</p>
<p>I do not understand why utility deposits and moving costs should be my problem as a landlord. I’m not Social Services. I have a large financial investment and am assuming risk. Some renters also require a large amount of hand-holding and going looking for the rent…a very real investment of time and energy.</p>
<p>These costs do affect what the market will bear in terms of months paid up-front, however we want to define that. I am in a state where home ownership is very, very cheap. Renters in this state are renters for a reason. I charge the rent and one month for the deposit. If I charged 2 month’s rent to start I would greatly limit my renter pool.</p>
<p>Young kids are a huge landlord risk. As mentioned, they have no credit, minimal landlord references, don’t usually pay as timely, and are more prone to partying. Sometimes they don’t know the most basic things like changing a light bulb (seriously) or worse, they don’t call to let you know of a problem. Just my personal experience…</p>
<p>I’ve been a CPA for 25 years with many landlord clients and I’ve had multiple rentals for 12 years. The landlords I know, myself included, try to provide affordable housing to a somewhat iffy market. I keep my houses in good shape and repair things as quickly as possible. Many renters think that means yesterday after they waited a month to let me know…or call on Sunday to say the heat went out Friday morning.</p>
<p>I’m not a landlord but back in the 80’s in Chicago my landlords required 1st months, last months and 1 month security deposit. I looked at a lot of apartments and that was the standard back then. It seemed reasonable to me at the time and it still does.</p>
<p>what is “standard”, like politically correct speech, changes. Factors such as location, and the general wealth of the poppulation make a big difference on how much or how little a LL can reasonably demand of a potential renter.</p>
<p>I had a tenant once that called me on 4th of July; toilet would not flush out properly and she had guests on their way over!
I came by, couldn’t figure it out, but while I was there she explained it had been acting up for a week. So, since I couldn’t get it I called on a pro plumber. He arrived same day. Turns out, a toy firetruck was stuck in toilet trap. “I wondered where that went!” she said.
Obviously, it was her child’s toy and so her bill. I can only imagine what she paid for same day emergency service on a holiday.</p>
<p>That happened to us in the first house my husband and I purchased, but it was a tub! We tried draino or something similar assuming it was just built up hair from the previous owners. When that didn’t work we figured the drain needed snaking, so we called a plumber. The plumber found a couple of toys in the drain; not ours as we didn’t have children at the time!</p>
We have received a few “what do I do” phone calls from both of them; it reminds up that we can’t teach them everything, some things just have to be learned through life lessons!</p>