SWCLA September Meeting Notes

The September 12^th meeting was full of information.

Doug Quattrochi from Mass Landlords was here to kick off the meeting.  He reminded everyone to take advantage of the membership benefits at masslandlords.net/member home.  We will see Doug at the next meeting.

David O’Doherty, LTC, USA, Retired attended our meeting.  He works for Veterans Inc.   He places Vets in apartments.  Veterans Inc. assists the Vets with their First, Last and Security.  If you have any apartments available – please give him a call at 508-845-6176 ext. 335, Cell: 508-769-9578, or email davidodoherty@veteransinc.org.

Ron Bernard hosted today’s meeting and will be hosting the October and November meetings, and perhaps the January meeting if the discussion on Best Practices For Massachusetts Landlords extends to four meetings.  Our December meeting, as always, will be devoted to our annual Christmas Party.

How to get a good tenant

• How to keep a good tenant
• How to get rid of a bad tenant

We talked about a lot of great things at the meeting.  In the discussion about finding tenants, we all had great ideas, including:

• Craig’s List
• Word of Mouth
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette
• Real Estate Agent
• Local Business – go to the HR department

During the discussion on getting your apartment ready for the tenant to move in:

• Get a Statement of Condition
• In & Out Form
• Take photos of the apartment before they move in  - make sure the date is on the photos
•  Call your local health department  -they will write a certified inspection

You have advertised – now we need to get the right tenant:

• Some landlords screen the tenants over the phone, asking several questions

If they answer the questions and you like what they said – well come on down and fill out an application and take a look at the apartment
Rental Applications – we took a look at one and went over a few items:

• If you want the truth about the tenant call the 2^nd landlord not the previous
• Get a photo I.D. of the potential tenant, let’s make sure that the one that you spoke to over the phone is really the one that is standing in front of you
• Why are you moving from the previous apartment?
• Watch the income of the potential renter – 1/3^rd of the salary should pay the rent

After discussing all of this information – we were hungry – Pizza and soda was provided by Dan O’Connor – Thanks Dan!!
We will be talking about Rental Applications again next month, please bring a copy of the application that you use.

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Normandin