Your education as a landlord never stops. That means you’re facing and ongoing series of landlord classes either through design, or via trial and error.
And I’ve done both!
I’ve taken all types of training on being a landlord over the years and I’ve learned through the school of hard knocks.
Often times with the hard knocks version being significantly more expensive landlord classes than the ones I pay up front for…
Which brings up the question for you, What do you need help with to nurture your landlord education?
Landlord Classes
If you’re not aware, I already have multiple landlord classes I’ve created over the years to help landlords avoid the steep expense of learning the hard way.
These include courses like my Introduction to Landlording Course which covers the basics of cash flow, several valuable lessons I learned early and a couple interviews with successful landlords who share some of their secrets.
Or for slightly more experienced landlords looking to learn secrets about avoiding bad tenants I have my How To Screen Tenants Like an Educated Landlord Course. Here you’ll learn the secrets of writing ads that attract better more qualified tenants, questions you have to ask prospective tenants that will help you avoid wasting your time and how and where to get credit and background checks done on your rental applicant.
There’s even a joint landlord course called The Street Smart Educated Landlord Training that The Street Smart Diva Julie Hoffman and I put together that combines the information we’ve both learned through purchases of hundreds of properties and after dealing with thousands of tenants.
But those courses are just the tip of the ice berg as far as learning to be a landlord.
What Landlord Information Do You Need?
I’ve written hundreds of landlord articles over the years that help fill in more of the information gaps that landlords have, but few of them do the deep dives into specific areas that perhaps some of you need.
From helping you fill vacancies to dealing with Realtors to learning about financing there is something to help just about every new and seasoned landlord out there, but what landlord information do you need?
What landlord course, landlord class or landlord info do you need to help take you to the next level?
If you tell me where you need help, I can provide soem direction to help you get there. But you need to point me in the right direction.
So what problems are you having? Dealing with tenants? Renovations? Paperwork? Creating Systems?
Leave a comment or email me and let’s see what we can do together to help get you educated.
Hey Bill! Thanks for everything you do.
I’ve recently had tenants move out who damaged a number of things: One panel of the garage door, a fridge crisper and a fridge shelf, kitchen counter tops and two leather sofas. Needless to say, their $1300 damage deposit did not cover all of the damage. I know that a damage deposit cannot exceed one month rent (with the exception of a separate pet deposit). Is the landlord legally able to require a deposit for furnishings in addition to the deposit equal to one month rent or is the additional rent supposedly charged for a furnished suite over an unfurnished supposed to compensate for that? Thanks Bill.
Hi Sheri,
Sorry for the slow response, that is one of the challenges we face as landlords and why it’s so important to diligently screen. The rules for this will vary depending on where you’re located as different States, Provinces and sometimes even cities have different rule in force.
Now while this may not fit under Residential Tenancy Laws it’s often legal to have a separate furniture rental contract to work around this. This would have the tenant rent the property and then a separate agreement regarding furnishings which would be outside the local landlord tenant laws. You may require a lawyer to draft this for you so it becomes a question of how difficult it would be to enforce versus how much it would protect you as well.
It also may come down to the type of property and how you can legally make it work for your region. AirBnB, short term rentals and long term leases would all require different setups.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I had one of those bad tenants! Everything seemed great until one day they didn’t reply. I investigated and the house was destroyed and excessive damage. Looking for advise on action a LL can take to recover some of the costs.
Thanks
Ian
Hey Ian,
If the tenants are still there you have more options. If they have gone and you have little idea where they are unfortunately it’s usually not worth the wasted time and aggravation trying to track them down.
You really require a judgment against them to get any traction and even then it’s an uphill battle. With the judgment you can garnish their wages if you know where they work or even go after their possessions. Without one you can have collections possibly try and call them but there is no legal weight or ramifications if they don’t.
So if they are there you will know where to serve them and can move forward. If they are gone and in the wind you can consider it an expensive lesson.
Bill