The Successful Landlord Blog

Recently, in response to a request from a friend, I embarked on a search for property management software. My friend had been using a package called RentRight for many years and was now faced with replacing one of the computers attached to her in-house local area network (LAN.)

Since RentRight is such an old program and is no longer in development by its owner Domin-8, we were looking to find a package that would run on Windows 7 and would also work well with her legacy Novell Netware server.

Now, before you laugh at the fact that they are still running Novell Netware, consider the fact that I’ve seen countless Novell installations where the uptime is on the order of years, not months. This means that the server has been running continuously, without being rebooted, for YEARS. Show me ANY Microsoft server installation that can do that and I’ll shut up right now……..no takers? Ok then…. Read the rest of this entry »

After close to a year of paying her rent late. Every. Single. Month. I had to effectively read a tenant the “riot act” and told her in no uncertain terms that I would be terminating her lease. I let her know that we could do this the hard way or the easy way. The easy way being that she could pay what she owes and vacate the premises, leaving them in good condition, or the hard way being that I could file for eviction and get her kicked out by the county Sheriff. Since she did not send a rent payment I assumed she wanted to do it the hard way. Why am I not surprised?

Yesterday, I posted an inspection notice which is a requirement, under Florida law, before I can enter the premises without her permission. The law states that I must post this notice 12 hours in advance of the inspection. I wanted to inspect to make sure that she was at least preparing to move. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a guest post by Clint Darby of Rentals Done Right.  Check out his blog when you get a chance.

Allow me make a confession to you – I am a conservative Real Estate Investor.

I don’t make apology for it, it is what it is. That doesn’t mean I do not take risk. On the contrary, if you asked my wife, I believe she’d tell you she has to reel me in from time to time. Though I do not mind risk, my conservative nature forces me to mitigate risk as much as possible. I do that by trying to be prepared.

Let’s face it – regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, the economy smells worse than a gut truck. America is hemorrhaging jobs, incomes are down, foreclosures are up and real estate has tanked. Read the rest of this entry »