In 2023, rental owners wrote off $4.2 million in bad debt. Almost one quarter of that, 24.5 percent or $1.029 million, arose from landlords renting to applicants who completed fraudulent applications reports the National Multihousing Conference (NMHC). Application fraud has become so prevalent that in that year, 93.3 percent of rental owners experienced fraud, reports […]

What a great time to own rental property. Rents have risen to the point where they slowly make up for the lost income during the pandemic. And the shortage of rental properties promises to keep rents where they continue to make a profit for rental owners. The high interest rates and limited supply of houses […]

Years ago as I rode the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic I wore a t-shirt I’d had made with “The Northwest Landlord: The newsletter for landlords” printed front and back. A group of three or four young women came up behind me and one of them said something to the effect that I shouldn’t be […]

Rental owners and managers, the top ones, know their properties and the areas those properties sit in. They are in the best position to know what their units should rent for. They know that by taking time to survey the rents of comparable properties. They know what the comparable properties rent for and how they […]

Billy Bad Tenant wanted to move so he wouldn’t have to sleep on his friend’s couch anymore. Besides, his friend had gotten tired enough of Billy that he kept suggesting that Billy find a new place to crash. His reputation preceded him with two evictions and more bad debts than he could count or care […]

A July 16, 2024, a White House “Fact Sheet” reported that the president “is taking action to make renting more affordable for millions of Americans.” Biden wants to require rental owners to “cap rent increases on existing units at 5% or risk losing current valuable federal tax breaks.” Also proposed are building more affordable housing […]

Mike Charton has lived in his apartment for many years. When I asked my fellow author what kept him there, he listed five things. Those five things reflect reasons renters stay in their rental homes for a long time. He first listed the neighbors he has. Second, he can write, rather than working on a […]

One bad tenant can destroy a rental business. That’s why we screen applicants carefully by examining credit reports, rental histories, employment information, and verifying that the information is accurate and belongs to the person applying to rent. Failure to do that is a disservice to other tenants and to our investment. But you know that […]

Losing an eviction starts when you send a notice to your tenant demanding that he or she pay the past due rent or move, but you make a mistake and lose the eviction. One or more of four errors bite landlords and guarantee a lost eviction. Bad Form Bad or incorrect form tops the list. […]

How can you conform to a law that has no specific, measurable requirements? Impossible? Perilous? Case in point are the occupancy standards for rental properties that HUD expects rental owners to abide by. A rental owner may have legitimate cause for limiting the number of people allowed to live in a property. That limit may […]