Picking a rental for Dummies...

[DarkLotus215]

Hi,
I hope to say f this state and take off for ca in a couple of weeks Is there any way to tell if a property ha a basement without going to look at it or blaitantly asking the landlord on the phone? Or is there a good subtle way to ask if a rental has a basement?
There are three places I'm interested in right now. One is owned by a sweet old lady that lives on the other side of the state and she is getting a property management company. This house is considered to be in one of the 'nicer' neighborhoods.I know this house has a basement and a garage however it is only a tenth of a mile from a school (I think there is some law about growing close to schools). The lady was hesitant to say okay to a dog over forty pounds and I have a pit bull and am thinking of getting a rottie in the near future.
There is another that is in a semi residential neighborhood and is by a liquor store and a mechanics with only one 'house' for a neighbor, the owner is an old guy that sounded drunk when I talked to him. This house has a back yard that is partially fenced and the guy said it would be okay to fence the rest for my dog. I'm not sure if this house has a basement but if it does I'm thinking it would be my best bet.
The third is my last choice as the landlord just lives down the street...
In a couple of weeks when I finally go look at them I'll be able to make a better judgement. But I want to know exactly what I should be looking for and what should send me running away
Thanks!

 

[ghettochild]

whoop whoop lol

 

[skull and roses]

There is not very many houses in California that have basements.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I would think the place with the landlord living down the street is a no go. They will be watching everything you do, whether they are trying to or not.

I'm noticing there are more and more landlords with a no pet policy. And the ones that do allow pets, its usually weight limited to 30 or 40 lbs and also limits on breeds.

I lean toward dealing with rental management companies for the basic fact that you know what to expect, generally. When you renting from Bubba, you never know when he may show up to "check for leaks" or any other bogus claim he can come up with to look around. The management companies have hundreds of renters to deal with and don't have the time for shenanigans like that, all they want is their rent on time and someone that keeps the peace with their neighbors.

 

[eddie torres]

I went through a rental management company. Found a sweet house. put down a deposit. moved 600miles. showed up paid in full. was handed the keys and then told "so the owner lives next door" i was pissed. but felt if i backed out at that moment for that reason it would be suspect. Anyways been here 2 mths now. the owner next door is a mid 40s hippie school teacher. so far has left me alone. we talk out in the yard over the fence and thats it. the carbon filter is doing the rest. moral of the story....ask lots of questions, they dont know what your up to. also find a place w good electrical.

 

[DarkLotus215]

Hey folks, thanks for the advice. My main concern with a property management company is that I do not have great credit and am currently unemployed.I was working on a political campaign but it ended at the begining of this month. So I'm going to try to rent the house through a property management company but if they will not take a few months rent in cash then I'll have to rent from a real person instead. Since my experience with real people is that money talks whereas with management companies there are policies.

 

[TribalSeeds]

I think its just twice the penalty for selling drugs near a school. That's not to say that if somehow you screwed up and got yourself busted they wouldnt throw a distribution charge on there even if you smoked everything yourself.
That being said, I'm in the middle of two churches and a school. I know the congregations get a good smell of the dank buds over there.

 

[GadgetGuy]

My vote is for the old drunk guy. He may be the type of guy that doesn't even make you sign a lease. I prefer renting from people as they aren't nearly as religious about checking out the pad as a corporate property management company. I miss the second to last pad I had, that lady only stopped by twice in almost 4 years and all she did was babble about her massage/yoga job. I think she may have actually smoked weed now that I look back. If I had gotten my card earlier in life I would definitely still live there. Your mileage may vary but I've rented from several people and several property management companies. IME, people stop by once or twice kind of randomly in a year and if it's clean and taken care of they tend to not come back very often afterwards as long as they get the check in the mail. Property management companies often have scheduled checks just so they can justify making tons of money off the home owner. Just my experience though.

 

[DarkLotus215]

I went through a rental management company. Found a sweet house. put down a deposit. moved 600miles. showed up paid in full. was handed the keys and then told "so the owner lives next door" i was pissed. but felt if i backed out at that moment for that reason it would be suspect. Anyways been here 2 mths now. the owner next door is a mid 40s hippie school teacher. so far has left me alone. we talk out in the yard over the fence and thats it. the carbon filter is doing the rest. moral of the story....ask lots of questions, they dont know what your up to. also find a place w good electrical.

Please elaborate on 'good electrical' as wiring and electricity are what intimidate me the most about this project. Any links to pictures of what not to look for in an electrical panel vs what to look for would be awesome.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Please elaborate on 'good electrical' as wiring and electricity are what intimidate me the most about this project. Any links to pictures of what not to look for in an electrical panel vs what to look for would be awesome.

I'm no expert but things that have caused me trouble in the past (not even just with growing but in general) are old aluminum wiring, places with fuse boxes instead of real breaker boxes, homes with many curcuits ran to not many breakers etc. OLD wiring sucks, and so do OLD fuse boxes. I would avoid a place like that if possible. I've blown fuses in places like that just running space heaters along with a fridge and basic house lights. As far as looking at a breaker box, I'm not much help unfortunately....

 

[avant gardener]

always feel these people out.

want to know if there's a basement?
ASK if there's a basement.
if they're so nosey that asking about the floor plan arouses their suspicion,
YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THERE!

while you're at it, consider throwing up a couple diversionary red flags,
just to see how they field them.
of course, don't tell them what you're up to,
but try telling them you're going to have your polka band practice there,
or that you're going to hold communist party meetings there,
or that you have a home business distributing heavy bondage gear.
try to find out if they give a damn about anything apart from you paying promptly,
keeping the place in decent order,
and not pissing off the neighbors.

better to get shot down by 50 prospective landlords and know exactly what i'm getting into than to deal with an unpleasant surprise even one time.

ps. rent is theft. did you ever think about it? some asshole has a piece of paper that says you must pay him a monthly tribute for enjoying your basic human right to have a roof over your head, and if you do not, some other asshole with a gun will come and throw you in the street. buy some land of your own as soon as you're able. pay cash too. banks are even worse landlords than landlords.

coming soon: AVG's indoor guerrilla garden. squatter's rights. take back the land!

 

[DarkLotus215]

always feel these people out.

want to know if there's a basement?
ASK if there's a basement.
if they're so nosey that asking about the floor plan arouses their suspicion,
YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THERE!

while you're at it, consider throwing up a couple diversionary red flags,
just to see how they field them.
of course, don't tell them what you're up to,
but try telling them you're going to have your polka band practice there,
or that you're going to hold communist party meetings there,
or that you have a home business distributing heavy bondage gear.
try to find out if they give a damn about anything apart from you paying promptly,
keeping the place in decent order,
and not pissing off the neighbors.

better to get shot down by 50 prospective landlords and know exactly what i'm getting into than to deal with an unpleasant surprise even one time.

ps. rent is theft. did you ever think about it? some asshole has a piece of paper that says you must pay him a monthly tribute for enjoying your basic human right to have a roof over your head, and if you do not, some other asshole with a gun will come and throw you in the street. buy some land of your own as soon as you're able. pay cash too. banks are even worse landlords than landlords.

coming soon: AVG's indoor guerrilla garden. squatter's rights. take back the land!

Dude you rock! Thanks for the tips I got a good laugh over the communist party and bondage gear...

 

[DarkLotus215]

I'm no expert but things that have caused me trouble in the past (not even just with growing but in general) are old aluminum wiring, places with fuse boxes instead of real breaker boxes, homes with many curcuits ran to not many breakers etc. OLD wiring sucks, and so do OLD fuse boxes. I would avoid a place like that if possible. I've blown fuses in places like that just running space heaters along with a fridge and basic house lights. As far as looking at a breaker box, I'm not much help unfortunately....

So a fuse box has the round things that actually need to be replaced right? So are all breaker boxes about the same as other ones with similar amps? Or is there something specific I need to look for when I check it out?

 

[Adze]

DarkLotus215,
Right, screw in fuses, not good. You might also want to see that you've got a 200 amp service, some older houses use to have as low as 50 amp service, many have 100 amp. Should be printed on the box, or look at the main breakers, should be a pair, usually at the top, 100 amp main breakers. It depends on how many lights you plan to run, but it’s always better to have extra capacity.

 

[DarkLotus215]

So this house I can totally afford with just my benefits and not working (okay I'll probably get a day job because I love what I do) but the property management company does not know if it has a basement. From the picture I am assuming it has a partial basement where the lower windows are. Can anyone think of any other reasons for there to be windows below the first floor of a house?
The lady's response was "well we don't go to all the properties we have for rent, you can come here and put a 100 key fee down and go see for yourself" I then asked about if they show the property if someone wants to rent it and here response was "some neighborhoods we just don't go to, if you want to rent it you can come to the office and file an application". Sounds like a awesome property management to me! I'm a bit concerned about the neighborhood if it's bad enough for the manager to not want to go show a rental! Any tips on beefing up security?

 

[DarkLotus215]

New house I'm looking at in ghetto but might be good