Residential Escrow
How to Handle Security Deposits So You Avoid Getting in Trouble with State Authorities!
Security Deposits
Security deposits and how to deal with them is a very important area for landlords. It’s important to understand that security deposits are not your money as an investor or as a landlord. They are not for you to be spending on fixing things up or going on vacations or whatnot.
They are the tenant’s money, and you need to treat those appropriately, and if you don’t do that, you could potentially run into some issues where your real estate commission ? every state’s got a real estate commission of some sort ? they could in theory send you a letter or knock on your door and say, “I want to examine your financial records to see what you’re doing with security deposits.”
That is not something you want to have happen. We’ll talk about how to prevent that from happening. Also, how to deal with security issues once the tenant leaves. It’s very important that you document things properly with letters or whatnot, even photos in some cases, and that you comply with your state laws in terms of how to handle security deposits.
For example, in Pennsylvania you have to return a security deposit back within 30 days and you need to understand what your state’s rules and regulations are to make sure you’re in compliance with them.
Again, that’s one of the things that you can do at any point is to go to Google and type in your state and you could put “landlord or tenant regulations” and most likely you’ll be taken to your state’s statutory rules and regulations.
Hopefully, you can get to your state’s landlord/tenant rules and regulations, and as a professional real estate investor you should take some time and read those regulations. Make sure you understand what’s required in terms of escrows and security deposits and things of that nature. It’s very important that you educate yourself on what’s allowed and what’s not allowed in your particular state.
Handling Tenants
One of the things we’ll do on the second night is how to handle tenants, because I think this is a particularly critical topic. Handling tenants is not easy. In some respects I’m going to teach you, but at the same time I’ve learned this through thousands of interactions with tenants, and this is not an easy topic to teach.
Dealing with tenants at times can be very, very difficult. They will test you. They will poke and probe and see how good you are. Tenants know the laws far better than you’ll ever know it, I guarantee. They sit out on their steps at night and they talk to each other about ways to try to wiggle around different rules and regulations.
You need to be very, very professional, very factual when dealing with tenants. It’s important that you are not becoming their friend. I see this over and over and over again where people put family or friends into it, and almost universally it ends up being a bad situation.
There are times when you need to be very firm, very harsh, and there are times when you need to just back off and be very compassionate and try to work it out. One of the things that people hired me to do and one of the primary values that I bring to my clients in my ability to manage through difficult situations.
About the Author
I invite you to learn more about real estate investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. To learn more go to Real Estate Investing Blog.
I need to know the California Building Code for residential sewer cleanouts. Are they required & what’s code #
Specifically what is the code # and requirment. I am in escrow on a house that does not have a cleanout. Without it I can not examine the condition of the sewer line however the sellers are baulking at putting one in. Is this a requirement and if so what is the code?
i bought my house in 2002 and it did not have a city clean out but it’s FHA reg so I doubt there’s any requirement unless your CIty has the requirement. We put one in ourselves with the help of our neighbors who had recently done theirs. Took a couple hours, stank, but beats some the costs I have heard for putting them in ($1,000.00)
|
|
P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor $50.00 Empowers You to Save Hundreds on Electric Bills Electricity bills are rising. Now you can cut down on costs and find out what appliances are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect these appliances to the Kill A Watt, and it will assess how efficient they really are. The large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. You can calculate your elec… |
|
|
The Complete Guide to Your Real Estate Closing: Answers to All Your Questions – From Opening Escrow, to Negotiating Fees, to Signing the Closing Papers $10.40 A PAPERBACK ORIGINAL The first simple guide to understanding the real estate closing process Closing and escrow are among the most importantand least understoodcomponents of a real estate transaction. The Complete Guide to Your Real Estate Closing takes the mystery out of the confusing, expensive process by giving real estate professionals, investors, and consumers a step-by-step explanati… |
|
|
The practitioner’s guide to residential real estate transactions: For attorneys, paralegals, escrow agents, mortgage lenders, real estate agents, and closing specialists … |
|
|
Escrow Display Light $40 Download the Escrow Display Light font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Light Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Light Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Black Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Black Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Roman $40 Download the Escrow Display Roman font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Semibold $40 Download the Escrow Display Semibold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Semibold Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Semibold Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Bold Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Bold Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Black $40 Download the Escrow Display Black font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Light $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Light font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Volume One $360 Download the Escrow Display Volume One font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Volume $360 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Volume font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Volume $360 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Volume font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Volume One $288 Download the Escrow Text Volume One font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Volume Two $288 Download the Escrow Text Volume Two font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Roman $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Roman font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Semibold $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Semibold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Bold $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Bold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Condensed Black $40 Download the Escrow Display Condensed Black font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Roman $40 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Roman font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Italic $40 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Semibold $40 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Semibold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Bold $40 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Bold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Compressed Black $40 Download the Escrow Display Compressed Black font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Display Bold $40 Download the Escrow Display Bold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Roman $40 Download the Escrow Text Roman font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Italic $40 Download the Escrow Text Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Semibold $40 Download the Escrow Text Semibold font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |
|
|
Escrow Text Semibold Italic $40 Download the Escrow Text Semibold Italic font for Mac or Windows in OpenType, TrueType or PostScript format. |