Does anyone go the "discount rent" route?
I love it. Instead of late fees offer a price for early payment that is what you want anyway.
For a house that I want 995.00 for, I take a deposit of 1250.00 and say that is what your rent is, and it is due on the 5th of the month, BUT, if you can put a check for 995.00 in my drop box by 5pm on the first day of the month, you get discounted rent.
Anyway, just this week a family I have had for years in a house sent me a text that they can not pay today, they will have to pay on the 5th, and they know that is 1250.00.
This family has been AWESOME!, for years, and I called them right back and said hey, I seen your text, you have always paid on time, and now you gave me a heads up that you have a problem, so only 995.00 will be due on the 5th.
The lady cried, and said thank you, and she said she had just retired, and her pension did not arrive as fast as she thought it would.
Sucks that apparently they have always lived paycheck to paycheck and must not of had any savings to just pay the rent, but such nice people and have been in that house forever, I could not charge them the extra fee.
Anyway, along with the payment on the 5th they sent a nice note about thanks for understanding, and also a text saying the same thing.
And very sad my best friend that was also my real estate agent passed suddenly of cancer a week ago, that he never knew he had, he had been going to the doc in the box places and had been being treated for the virus stuff, and he 100% thought that was all that was wrong with him.
If I ever want to buy another rental house I can do that with any real estate agent, BUT, to just go ahead and pay Dwayne the first month to find me a awesome tenant, and then manage myself after that is lost now.
Dwayne was awesome with background checks. He would tell potential tenants that by the the time I am done looking at your past, I will know the interior color of your Daddy's car when you were a baby.
Anyway, I have 3 awesome rental houses, with 3 awesome families in them.
Right now if anything changes I would just sell the house.
I hope someone in my area reads this and lets me know about a awesome agent they know that is awesome at background checks and judging people in general.
I did learn a lot from Dwayne, and I may be fine anyway, but with prices so high it would be tempting to sell if I have a vacancy anytime soon.
And damn I get tired of the junk mail all the time from investors wanting to buy my houses.
So funny how those letters look so cute like they are hand written.
The letters piss me off, I would never do that, but at the same time with interest being nothing, and who knows or trusts the stock markets, if you can have good houses, and good tenants, then a pretty good income.
Dwayne passed suddenly at around 58, and 2/3 of my tenants are older than that, it is just scary for me right now, to never be able to talk to him again and get his opinion if I have a question about anything.
I always thought that everyone I depended on would outlive me.
Anyway, I wish all of you the BEST!