Team Captain
Posted on August 4, 2008 - Filed Under Business |
Back in the exciting days of yesteryear, my teachers at my elementary school loved to have captains. For field trips or gym class, team captains were selected from the brown-nosers to be in charge of a small number of other kids.
For myself, I was never a team captain. While the teachers were lecturing about this constitution thing, with Thomas what’s-his-face, my imagination was taking me to much more exciting places. Fighting evil Darth Vader in my tie-fighter, with Howling Mad Murdock as my wing man, saving the beautiful Princess Leia.
Take that Darth!
huh?
With my multi-bedroom houses for rent, groups of renters will show up and each wants to be on the lease. For Project#2, three college girls showed up and each wants to be on the lease. A question which was posed is if each could pay me their portion of the rent.
No.
With having multiple people on the lease, always one person is selected to be the main point of contact for that property. Usually the more responsible of the bunch volunteers. If not, I pick one. If there are any problems with the property, the team captain contacts me. When rent is due, the team captain pays me. If I have to enter the property for some reason, the team captain is notified and they tell the others.
Not having a “team captain” is the quickest way to doubling your stress. With the captain concept, three tenants effectively become one. If one of the tenants doesn’t pay the rent, then the other two can go after them to collect. From my standpoint, I only want one check and that is for the entire amount of the rent.
This concept is not new nor revolutionary. Each apartment complex I ever rested my weary bones insisted that all of us only pay with one check. I only bring this up because I am asked nearly 50% of the time if separate checks would be acceptable.
No.
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3 Responses to “Team Captain”
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Cliff, my sentiments exactly. Not only what you said is true but in Florida, at least, if the time comes to file for eviction it’s 3x the copies of everything, 3x the money for the Sheriff’s services, etc.
Even if it’s a husband & wife, only one of them goes on my leases.
The Landlords last blog post..Landlord Ethics
Tell them to get paypal. They can transfer money to each other and if one is short, they can slap it on their credit card.
@Carla: I definitely would prefer they do that. come to think of it, I’d like to be able to accept rent payments via credit card. The only problem is all the fees associated with it.
Darn it all!