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8 Common Pitfalls for Landlords

First day at the office
Kelly Nesbitt of Nesbitt Realty
Are you consider renting our your property?  If you're doing it yourself, you may want to consider how you'll handle problems like these:
  1. What if your tenant does not pay rent?
  2. What if the lawn isn't up kept?
  3. What if the A/C goes out in the middle of a humid heat wave?
  4. What if the sink is clogged? Who's responsible if the sink is clogged by the tenant?
  5. What if the tenant will not let in a handyman?
  6. What if the condo unit above leaks on the unit below?
  7. What if the tenant leaves the unit walls scuffed and the floors dirty?
Nesbitt Realty is provides professional property management services and we deal with problems like these every day. We'll deal with more rentals in a day than most landlords will have in a lifetime.  You could do it yourself, but why risk it?Talk to a professional property manager to know how to avoid and overcome these pitfalls.
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We are family-owned and operated.

Does the 2 year lease actually assure me of rental income for that time period?

A landlord asks us:
Here is a view of the courtyard at the Royalton
Here is a view of the courtyard at the Royalton

I should know the answer to this question but does the 2 year lease actually assure me of rental income for that time period? In other words, if the tenant breaks the lease after 12 months do I have any financial recourse/protection or do I simply take my losses and start looking for another tenant?

Yes . . . and no. The way our leases (and most leases in the Commonwealth of Virginia) are written, the lease is structured so that the tenant is agreeing to pay a large sum of money for a fixed period of occupancy.  That large sum is then divided into monthly payments. For example, if the monthly rent is $1,000 then a tenant is promising to pay $12,000 for a one year lease.  For a two year lease of the same property the tenant is agreeing to pay $24,000 but will make monthly payments of $1000. The promise is to pay $12,000 not to pay $1,000 per month and this is an important distinction in the law because it means that if the tenant breaks the lease he is still obligated to pay the entire lease amount. But here's where it gets a little complicated.  If the tenant breaches his contract and defaults on the lease, then the landlord can sue and recover the entire amount left on the lease from the tenant.  At the same time, the landlord is obligated to attempt to mitigate his damages.  That means that if the tenant does breach the lease the landlord must try to find a replacement tenant.  However, the tenant is responsible for all the landlord's damages.  For example, if there is an expense for finding a new tenant, the old tenant must pay that cost.  If there is any vacancy between the tenants, the old tenant must pay that to cover the landlord's loss.  And a court will back the landlord up to that point. However, if and when a new tenant is identified then the tenant is off the hook for any further debt which may be left on the lease.  The court will not allow the landlord to let a property sit vacant just because the tenant breached a lease. So the tenant has an obligation to find a new tenant and to minimize vacancy and to pay for any vacancy. But the landlord has an obligation to mitigate his damages. In theory the tenant has obligated himself to pay two years of rent, but in reality things happen and we already have established practices to extract a tenant from a lease. For more information or to set up an appointment call Nesbitt Realty at (703)765-0300.

Home Contractor Scams a Growing Concern

Home contractor scams are often on the rise in the spring, and home owners should take steps to make sure they aren’t duped. The scams often target the elderly, with scammers offering to complete yard or household work for money up-front and then never completing the work after the payment is collected. Or, contractors may complete the work but then attach a higher price than was originally agreed upon. Several reports of home contractor scams across the country have surfaced in recent weeks. For example, a 77-year-old man in the Philadelphia area was reportedly scammed into paying for a roof repair, which he later discovered was completed using a useless, tar-like substance. In another case, an 83-year-old woman paid a contractor $4,300 and then never saw him again. "In many cases, we see a person posing as a licensed or reputable contractor, and all checks out until the first payment is made to begin the job, and then the subject disappears,” says Tom Burnett, a spokesman for Wymoo International, a detective agency based in Jacksonville, Fla. “We see fake business cards and web sites being used, and criminals can assume the identity of a real contractor, register a company or use an alias. The goal is always the first payment." Burnett recommends contacting the Better Business Bureau to check for any complaints against the company or contractor, asking for references and then actually contacting those references, and asking for the contractor’s license number to verify with your state’s Department of Professional Regulation or the contractor’s state license board. "If someone offers to do a really quick job on your house for a really low price, and it sounds too sound to be true, it probably is,” says Amy Matthews, a spokesperson for Home Advisor, an online site that matches home owners with licensed home contractors. Source: “How to Spot a Home-Contractor Scam,” U.S. News & World Reports (April 24, 2013)

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