Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Questions for the landlords out there!
We are getting ready to re negotiate our lease, and curious as to go about it. We have never met our landlord & a REA did everything before moving in. Do we need to renegotiate with our REA?
If you have a great tenant that pays on time, & has rarely addressed concerns, would you raise the rent? Do you make any repairs to the house in preperation of the new lease? Would you make repairs if the tenant addressed small concerns like the hot water heater acting funny?
We've never extended a lease before so I apologize for the questions. Thanks in advance!
Re: Questions for the landlords out there!
If the person came with their own agent, I probably wouldn't negotiate with them at all. I would have to pay a commission to your agent and also my property manger. My area is pro-landlords right now.
I see now that you still leave there... I would work with the landlord directly then.
I have not raised the rent on my current tenant but I am currently considering it. They have been there for about 1y6m and the lease expired at 1y.
My place goes through a huge cleaning before new tenants but that is it.
When my tenants complained about the hot water being funny, I replaced the hot water tank completely. It was getting old so I wanted to take care of it before it became a problem.
Do we need to renegotiate with our REA? No, you should be able to go to the landlord directly at this point. We almost always list our properties with an agent, but after the initial lease is signed we deal with the tenants ourselves, including for renewals.
If you have a great tenant that pays on time, & has rarely addressed concerns, would you raise the rent? Yes, actually, we might depending on other factors. If there was a large increase in property taxes and/or condo fees, for example, some portion of that may be passed on to the tenant (we'd try not to in the case of an excellent tenant, but it really depends on the size of the increase). Or if we'd done expensive upgrades at the tenants request we would likely raise the rent, but we'd also have made that clear before the work began so you'd already have been aware and agreed to it...it wouldn't be a surprise.
Do you make any repairs to the house in preperation of the new lease? Not really. Certainly nothing routine like carpet cleaning, painting, etc. If there's an issue that requires attention we'd certainly take care of it but we'd do that whether you were signing a new lease or not.
Would you make repairs if the tenant addressed small concerns like the hot water heater acting funny? Again, it depends on how "small" a concern. DH would absolutely look at a hot water heater that didn't seem to be acting right. He'd do that at any time during the lease, though, not just related to a renewal. Although if you were a good, reliable tenant he'd definitely be more open to looking at "smaller" issues at renewal time as a way to interest you in wanting to stay (especially if there was going to be a slight rent increase!).
Do you send your rent directly to landlord or to a management company that takes care of the property? If you deal with a management company, then I would contact them and ask about process for extending the lease otherwise contact landlord.
We manage all our properties ourselves, so we deal directly with the tenant. Whether we raise the rent depends on expenses for the property. For instance we have one property right now where the tenants use a lot more water than previous tenants, so it is costing us more. We will raise the rent for this tenant to cover the extra expense. Normally we would not raise rent every year, usually every 2 years but again it depends on the expenses we incur for the property.
As far as repairs before a new lease, we would fix what is necessary. If the water heater was not working properly, we would have it checked and repair/replace as necessary.
Would I make any repairs to the house in preparation for the new lease - no, I only do cleanings/major repairs in-between tenants.
As for addressing concerns, I expect my tenants to tell me things like the hot water heater is acting funny, shower is leaking, etc. These are things I need to know to keep the property in good condition - in fact, it's a condition of the lease that I be notified. If you've been after your landlord about things that are really more nit-picky, then yes, the "pain in the butt factor" could come in to play if the landlord is already considering raising the rent.
DS1 born June 2008 | m/c at 9w March 2011 | DS2 born April 2012
Wow ladies thank you so much for answering my questions. I assume we have been good tenents, weve only asked for one thing to be fixed, & paid his "fee" for sending someone out.
The hot water heater needs to be replaced, it sounds like it is going to explode, and come through the ceiling. I didnt know if it were right to ask for it to be replaced.
He is a one man show, he is a property management company, but he himself is the owner of all the properties.