Hi everyone! I’m helping my aunt rent out her 1bd/1ba unit in the Silver Lake area, and I’d love to get some advice from our experienced landlords here.
The unit has been listed on Zillow for about a month now. Her previous tenant lived there for 10 years and just moved out last month so she is kind of new to the whole market now. Unfortunately, the listing hasn’t gotten nearly as much traction as she’d hoped. She’s received a lot of ghost inquiries, had people no-show for scheduled appointments, and dealt with some very unqualified applicants (low credit scores and criminal backgrounds).

She’s already lowered the rent to below market value, and I feel bad seeing how stressed she’s become trying to figure out what to do next.

I’d really appreciate your thoughts on a few questions:
Should she take down the Zillow listing and repost it? She already paid for Zillow’s Boost feature, but in my opinion, it hasn’t made much of a difference.

What other platforms would you recommend? Are there any good alternatives to Zillow for finding quality tenants in the LA/Silver Lake area?

Any other tips or strategies? What would you do differently to help the unit get more visibility and attract better-qualified applicants?

Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!

Edit: Thanks all for all of the really helpful information. I now know about my FHA exemption, and info for when it is time for renewal or not, and if there are damages or not. This is my first post here, and it is a very responsive and helpful subreddit. Thanks all!

I am renting my townhome and had an applicant, did background check, all looked fine, they said no pets.

After I approved the application and provided a lease and they signed it they said oh they have an ESA dog. NC looks like I cannot restrict an ESA, cannot charge a pet deposit or pet rent, and there’s nothing I can do?

Can I ask for proof of ESA documentation? Any other recourse? My rental allows pets so it’s strange they lied about it until after. I proceeded to rent to them since the other applicants had horrible credit and criminal backgrounds and this applicant was otherwise good. But now wondering the state of the apartment and how to handle move out / potential security deposit damage or potential lease renewal if they want to extend.

Our home is up for rent. We are using our realtor who is also a property manager to manage it. We have an applicant, good credit above 750, clean records, works close, makes over 3x the rent per month. Only the applicant and the 8yo dog will live there.

She asked before she applied if we would consider renting to her with such a large dog, and we agreed we would with a pet deposit and monthly pet rent so long as her application looked good. No lease has been drafted yet, but we were ready to move forward.

Well, we now know that she works 12 hour shifts. Well asked our realtor to find out what her plan is for those hours with no one else living there to let out the dog. She said the dog is used to being able to go out of a dog door into a fenced yard. Our yard is not fenced. Would it be extremely stupid to allow her to put up her own fencing for her dog? What advice would you give us?

I am so sick of banks not really understanding this stuff at best, and giving misinformation or outrageous fees at worst. Cap 1 took me hours in the bank every time and they always screwed it up one way or the other. Citizens Bank told me I could manage this from my desk at home, but it would cost me $2,000 a year! Chase told me that wasn't even possible, that I needed to submit multiple forms besides the W-9 and come in no matter what.

All I want is to be able to handle this from my desk instead of having to go to a bank branch and waste my time. I know for certain managers of 100 doors are not wasting their time screwing around like this. If it wasn't for the stupid New Jersey laws I would simply open a sub account in my Vanguard and give my tenants top money market rates on their deposits! But among the reasons why this can't be done is that Vanguard is not based in New Jersey, like the physical location of a bank matters for anyone anymore. /rant

In northeast Ohio.

Have been renting with my ex (bf at the time) for 2 years now. We signed the lease together. The lease was for 12 months and then after the 12 months it goes to month to month. So we are currently on a month to month lease. (We did not sign a new lease after the 12 month lease if this matters)

Our place changed management and since then it's been shit.

So the bf and I broke up, toxic situation. I emailed the landlord office exactly one month ago explaining the situation, and that I'm needing to leave and be taken off the lease. He intends to stay.

They tell me we both need to put this in writing and sign it. Cool. We did that. I faxed it in. They now tell me I have to wait for him to reapply on his own, be approved, and sign the new lease. (Soo... The signed paper was... to waste our time? Cool.)

So he applied. Sent everything they asked of him. And then they replied to him that they will be sending the lease for him to sign. Awesome I thought! Finally going somewhere.

No.

It's now been several days they have not responded to me, OR him. They have NOT sent him the lease to sign. It's now been 30 days since I've mentioned my wishes to move out and end my tenancy. I've literally explained to them that this is a toxic situation for me to be in and I need to leave.

So I'm seeking what my options are right now, because there's got to be some sort of legal protection I can take for myself when I'm basically being held hostage by the landlord not fullfilling their part in everything when we've done everything they asked.

How do I get out of here?????? Please.. I'm feeling so fed up.

I own a rental property in Santa Ana, CA, and am dealing with a nonpayment eviction while considering selling because it's too difficult to do business here. Santa Ana has its own rent limits, just-cause protections, and rental registry. This tenant most likely already has a lawyer. Has anyone visited the city’s RSO office to talk with staff? Were they helpful and receptive to a landlord trying to follow the rules while dealing with a difficult tenant? Any other advice in navigating Santa Ana would be appreciated.

This year property building insurance for 6 unit building went up 20% paying $4k now. No new claims over the past year. Roof 7 years old. Building is 48 years old. Deductible is $2k. Liability $1.1 million. Wind hail deductible 2%. Anyone else see a dramatic increase in coverage for their buildings? Located in Midwest. How to get better rates? We are already bundled for our home and auto with the company. It’s State Farm

Hello,

I purchased a property from a family member a couple years ago. It includes two units with a shared parking lot of 3 spaces in the front and 2 handicap, and on the side of the building there is another 4 spots.

One is a mechanic shop that is very busy, these customers park all over including the spots in front of the other establishment. Owner of the other establishment has been furious and has been consistently pressing me to fix the issue recently since the mechanic has been so busy. The lease’s I took over from my family member does not state anything about parking or say what’s allocated to each unit, my family member told me the lot is supposed to be shared but the first two parking spots are for the other establishment. The other establishment attempted to put signs on those spots for her customers and the mechanic shop did not like that and prevented it, what could I do in this situation? I’ve tried finding the land survey to see if it shows any information but that’s been impossible, I’ve contacted zoning and they haven’t been any help, I just want to settle this and be done with it

Thanks