So I’ve written before about how I use Google Voice to mess with Sasquatch Wells Fargo. Well there’s an even better use for this great service and it has to do with record keeping. More and more these days some of my tenants feel the need to send me text messages for things like maintenance requests and general questions. Normally this would not work for me due to the fact that I would need to transcribe the text messages from my cell phone to some form of log so I could keep a record of the conversation.

With Google Voice, you can get a phone number in one of many area-codes, anywhere in the United States. Once you get a number assigned, you can set up multiple other phones to work with the service. Using Google Voice, you can place and receive phone calls and receive voicemail, which is nicely transcribed (sometimes accurately) for you and stored online within your Google Voice dashboard. The great thing however, is that Google Voice keeps a record of text-message conversations in the same dashboard.

Google is sometimes lambasted by privacy advocates for storing all information about how you use their products….forever. This sounds ominous until you find yourself in court with the tenant above and conveniently you have a complete log of all the text messages, voice messages, placed calls and received calls all printed out and ready for the judge.

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How Google Voice Can Help Landlords

Here’s another one of our posts written for Allstate’s Good Hands℠ Community on how to cover yourself and save expenses between tenants.  The title is How To Minimize Costs and Time To Market Between Tenants. The post is about what steps to take to be sure that your turnaround time between tenants is fast and efficient. Remember, if your rentals are mortgaged, the goal is to have your tenants to pay the mortgage, not you the landlord. Thanks again to Allstate for this opportunity to contribute to their excellent Good Hands℠ Community.

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New Post on Allstate’s Good Hands℠ Community

A while back Allstate Insurance approached us to do some writing for them on the blog attached to their Good Hands℠ Community forums. We are truly honored and excited to be able to share our knowledge with their users on the subject of personal finance and being a landlord in general. You can check out their community here and read our first post entitled “How to Find and Keep Good Tenants.”

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Check Us Out at Allstate’s Good Hands Community

So recently, I had a tenant who had just moved to the area and  wanted a 6-month lease.Normally I don’t accept 6-month leases but she said she would pre-pay the entire lease including the security deposit and I accepted. A month before the lease came up for renewal, I spoke with the tenant about renewing and sounded very positive about signing a new 1-year lease. She even went so far as to request that I send the lease for her to sign.

The next phone message I got from her 2 days later, was that she had moved to another house with about 25 days left on her lease. Talk about flaky. I should also mention that she placed this call on a public holiday when she knew she wouldn’t have to talk to me directly. Now that’s what I call flaky AND cowardly.

The very next day after the public holiday, I was contacted by an ex-tenant who (ready for this?) moved out at the end of her lease because she determined that she couldn’t afford to pay her rent. This is quite a shocker because most tenants seem to want a big dramatic showdown because THEY can’t pay THEIR rent, like it’s my fault or something. This was not the case with this ex-tenant. In fact, she has referred her friends to me as potential tenants because, “…they have their act together.” Let me tell you, dear reader, it is absolute LANDLORD GOLD when you have good ex-tenants pre-screening potential new tenants and referring them to you.

The punchline of this story is that this ex-tenant called to find out if I had any units available for rent. “Why yes! Yes I do!”, I answered. I have to say that I couldn’t be happier with this situation. I always treat my tenants like valued customers provided that they keep up their end of the bargain. This time, it paid off in spades!

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Fastest Tenant Turnaround Ever

So, Landlord-Success.com is five years-old today. I would like to say thanks to all the readers of this blog, even the disgruntled ones. You know, the ones who feel the need to post ranting comments with bad spelling and atrocious grammar? Oh that’s right. I don’t publish those comments as I like to maintain some semblance of a good user experience here.

I would also like to thank the mortgage companies who, because of their bad behavior and mistreatment of their clients, make for oodles of content and occasionally a firestorm of comments. I swear, you couldn’t manufacture worse stories and by the way, the mortgage companies standard response is, “Well, you signed a contract…” Those responses DO get published here. They’ve threatened us, sent “cease and desist” emails to us and yet…….we’re 5 years-old today!

We intend to be around for at least 5 more years so please, keep reading. As long as mortgage companies and tenants misbehave, you’ll see it here. You should also see stories about good behavior too but the bad behavior is more fun to read because chances are we’ve all experienced it.

Thanks again for reading!

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Landlord-Success.com Is 5 Today

Recently I had the distinct displeasure to deal with Lender Business Process Services Inc.(LBPS), a subsidiary of IBM.

One of the mortgages on a rental property we own is serviced by these jokers and it seems that I’m not the only one who feels like this. I’ve asked around about other people’s experience with this company and the sentiments all seem to be the same. LBPS is making a (bad) name for themselves by being incompetent, difficult to work with and annoying in general.

I’ll start with their insurance department: I have heard from no less than 3 property insurance agents who have expressed such frustration in dealing with LBPS that the mere mention of the name elicits groans all around. Apparently, if the insurance agent needs documents or escrow information from LBPS it takes an inordinate amount of time for them to produce these documents. When asked if the documents can be emailed to speed things up, the response from LBPS is that “they don’t do email.” Any documents will have to be sent via US Mail. Now remember, LBPS is a subsidiary of International Business Machines (IBM), one of the largest and oldest computer companies in the world….and their subsidiary “doesn’t do email?”

Next, I’ve heard from a number of their other customers that any request for information about their account is met by some pretty surly requests for unrelated information to “verify their account.” These requests include verification of home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, work phone numbers and email addresses. The last one is interesting because remember, LBPS/IBM “doesn’t do email.” If that’s the case why do they need to verify an email address? If you ask me, all of this “verifying of contact information” sounds like you’re dealing with someone in a collections department, especially the recorded announcement at the beginning of the call that says “we may use any information you give us to collect on a debt.” This leads me to my last point…

I recently received a call from someone at LBPS who again was calling  to “verify contact information.” Basically they called and just started asking questions about contact information. Let me mention at this point that in the 6 years this loan has been active, not once have I made a late payment on the account. At the end of the call the LBPS representative asked me if there was anything else they could do for me today. I said that no, I didn’t have any other questions but that I never had a question in the first place and I was the one being called. I mentioned to the rep that he had still not given me a reason why he was calling. At this point he stumbled and fumbled over his words and told me to “have a nice day.” My conclusion is that if it walks like a collections agent and talks like a collections agent…..it’s probably a collections agent!

The main question is: Why is LBPS having their collections agents call customers who have not made a late payment on a mortgage since the beginning of the loan? And by the way, you can tell the difference between a collections agent and a customer service rep by their “polish”, or lack there of, over the phone. You know, typical collection agents don’t need to speak English properly and clearly, they just need to collect. In my, and others experience this is the only kind of person you’re going to interact with when you make contact with LBPS. In case it’s not clear, we’re not ALL stupid LBPS. We know a duck, or collections agent as the case may be, when we see/hear one.

EDIT: Around the time I was about to publish this post, I opened my LBPS monthly statement so I could make my payment, to find that LBPS had inserted a flyer notifying me that they were, wait for it…..rebranding! Apparently they’re changing their name to SETERUS, Inc. The amusing thing about this turn of events is that typically rebranding does not remove the stench of bad service, only time and actual change can do that. It’s almost like they’re following Wells Fargo‘s unabashed customer abuse tactics.

As a final note, IBM should be ashamed to associate their good name with an organization like LBPS/SETERUS. In another life, I did a whole lot of business with IBM and never have I ever encountered an experience like those described above. The IBM name has always stood for quality and innovation in my eyes and the eyes of the rest of the world. In my opinion, LBPS/SETERUS is diminishing that good name more and more everyday.

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LBPS-Seterus Nonsense

After the final notes of Pomp and Circumstance mark the end of another graduation season, summer time for students officially begins. While the more industrious and productive young adults will buckle down and find an internship or summer job to fill their time, their fun-loving counterparts will head to the beach for sun and sand. Students or surf-seeking adults venturing to the beach for a few weeks or months of the year is certainly nothing new, and property-owning landlords can smell prospective tenants coming from a mile away.

Many states have laws to ensure that landlords charge tenants, who may be unfamiliar with the area and the leasing company or individual, in a fair and proper manner. In Florida, home of more than 650 miles of beaches, tight regulations make sure that landlords don’t take advantage of tenant money, accidentally or otherwise.

With such a high turnover of tenants coming and going in some beach towns, it makes good sense for a landlord to require the entire summer’s rent up front from out-of-state guests. This practice actually helps keep rents low by guaranteeing a landlord won’t get stiffed by one tenant and have to overcharge the next. However, there is a specific Florida surety bond required of landlords collecting money in advance.

The Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act includes a clause addressing just this issue. Landlords collecting money above and beyond the following month’s rent have three options available to them:

1. The extra money can be held in a non-interest-bearing bank account as long as it remains separate from any other money the landlord may have.
2. Money may be held in an interest-bearing account as long as the landlord gives 75% of the accrued interest, or a 5% flat rate per year, back to the tenant.
3. The landlord may obtain a surety bond for the amount of advance rent being held or $50,000, whichever is less.

Landlords in Florida with holdings in more than five counties can elect to have one surety bond for the total amount of security deposits and advance rents being held, up to $250,000. The Act also states that landlords must notify tenants in writing where their money is being held or provide them with the details of the bond they have secured.

While there’s not yet a bond to ensure the landlord will fix a toilet on time, at least it’s safe to assume that your rent money will be safe as you soak in the sun all summer long.

This post was written by the experts at JW Surety, the nation’s #1 surety bond agency.

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Landlord Surety Bonds in Florida Can Guarantee a Summer of Fun

This is one of  a very few number of posts you will see here on Landlord-Success.com that is written from a tenant’s point-of-view. This post was inspired by a friend of mine (yes, landlords have friends too) who lives in Denver, Colorado.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This friend called me today to bemoan the fact that she’s, in her own words, “all jammed up” about a situation where she signed a lease and paid her deposit only to realize after the fact that her landlord and various associated employees are at the very least behaving in an unprofessional and demeaning manner while also not living up to their role as property managers.

Before she moved in, she was told that her unit would be painted, an appliance replaced and various plumbing issues would be repaired. Well, fast-forward two weeks to when the place full of boxes of her belongings, including all the headache that entails, and none of the above work was done. A call to the “property manager” was met by a person who behaved like the were doing my friend a favor by answering the phone. She was informed that she should be patient and that a maintenance person would be out to make the promised repairs.

When the maintenance person arrived, my friend was informed that he would need access to her unit off and on for about 10 days. Quite rightfully, my friend lost it. She called the landlord and told him that she could not allow various service people to access to her unit while she was not there because she did not trust these people and you’ll see why in a moment. The landlord was basically behaving in a dismissive manner, calling her “sweetie” and “honey” and telling her “not to worry.” Ya right!

The last straw was the second time the maintenance person was inside her unit painting, all the while dripping paint all over her boxes and furniture. When my friend protested, the maintenance man also treated her like she was 12 years-old and touched her inappropriately on the shoulder and stroked her arm, no doubt attempting to “soothe” her anger at the situation.

Right there and then, my friend decided that she could not put up with this kind of behavior from her landlord and decided that, deposit be damned, she would find somewhere else to rent. I seriously can’t say that I blame her for her decision but if I was in that situation, the landlord would be in court almost instantly for the deposit money with all the facts laid bare before the court.

The landlord-tenant relationship should be treated with respect and professionalism by both sides while each performs their stipulated roles. In my experience, deviation from this usually only leads to heartache.

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How To Handle A Creepy Landlord

Recently, while studying the traffic statistics for Landlord-Success.com, I noticed that about 5% of the traffic comes from mobile devices such as iPhones, iPods and devices running Android. While 5% of the traffic is not a whole lot of people, I personally find it ultra-convenient to read news and blogs on my phone when some other nonsensical activity is wasting my time.

Well, in order to accommodate readers who would rather read Landlord-Success.com posts on their cell phones, the crack web team here has made it so the site will detect that you are using a device with a small screen and format it accordingly. This should make consuming the super-informative and wonderfully entertaining posts at Landlord-Success.com MUCH easier to read than before. It even works with older Nokia phones which is sweet because I have one. Yes I’m waiting for AT&T to acquire T-Mobile so I can switch to Verizon and finally get an iPhone but that’s a whole different story.

So cell phone readers, please enjoy and feel free to let us know if we can do anything to make your reading experience better.

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Now Available On Your Mobile Phone

While I was out getting some exercise one afternoon apparently two tenants living in a single rental property of mine, decided to break-up. Oh joy. The back story is that these tenants had just moved into town from another state. They have two kids between them and one on the way.

I returned to find no less than 12 missed phone calls from the two of them and upon listening to their messages, I understood that they were splitting up and they would like their pre-paid rent back. After speaking with both of them, I explained that they can get out of the lease but that there would be penalties. They would have to forfeit the security deposit and two months’ rent.

The gentleman of the house asked me during the phone call if I could come to the property and change the locks. I let him know that I would come to the property the next day even though I had no intention of changing the locks.

When I arrived on-site, I let him know what I had told the estranged lady of the house on the phone earlier. I would not be able to change the locks due to the fact that even though he signed the lease, she and the children were listed as residents and they had just as much legal right to be there as he had. In fact, if she were to call the police, they would make him produce the lease determine that she had a right to be there and I would be forced to come back and change the locks back to give her access.

On the phone, apparently there was some question as to whose money pre-paid the lease and they were expecting me to make a decision as to who got the remaining money after fees were paid. The way I left it with them was that they needed to come to some agreement and if the lease was to be broken, then give me a call. I should also mention that there did not seem to be any violence, just a disagreement of some sort, so in my opinion, there was no need to involve the police.

In these situations I think it’s best for a landlord to try to stay as neutral as possible so as not to get involved in the domestic dispute. Domestic disputes are not my jurisdiction and neither is marital law.

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Settling Domestic Disputes Among Tenants