Your tenant just texted. Rent is going to be late this month, but do you let it slide or do you enforce the lease?

And what does your response right now say about how you'll run your business for the next 20 years?

Today we're answering three real questions from the Bigger Pocket's forums covering exactly what Rickies are wrestling with right now.

How to handle a late-paying tenant without blowing up the relationship or your standards,

whether a single family or a duplex is actually the smarter vibe when the numbers look identical on paper

and how two first-time partners should structure a flip versus a burr decision before they sign up for this. This is the real estate

rookie podcast. I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's get into today's

first question. So our first question says, my tenant has warned me in advance that rent will be

late this month due to some

financial difficulties. This is the first time it's happened in the eight months that they've been

renting. My question is, how do I manage this situation? Do I simply wait and see if the rent comes?

Do I give them a deadline of when I need the rent? Also, my lease states there is a late fee if the rent is

not received by the fifth of the month. Should I my lease states there is a late fee if the rent is not received by the

fifth of the month. Should I waive this or enforce this? I want to be a fair but firm landlord

who is understanding of personal circumstances while at the same time needing to run a profitable

business. Any advice would be appreciated. So, Ash, obviously, you've got a lot more experience

dealing with tenants than I do,

but I think I'll just share my quick two cents and I'll pass over to you.

You can be a fair landlord and be firm.

So I'm glad that you said that because I think where most Ricky investors get into trouble

is when they start deviating too much from the lease that was signed,

and they allow all of this gray area to seep into the situation. So if your lease states that late fees happen, if rent is not received by the fifth, then even if they're in a tough situation, say, hey, you know, Mr. or Mrs. John or Jane, I hate to hear that. Thank you for the heads up. Let me know when the rental come. As a reminder, here's what the lease states about late payments. And I just want to make sure you understand what will happen from here if the rent doesn't actually come. Happy to chat if you need to about what the lease says, but I'm just going to give it to you now. So you're still there. You're still nice. You're not saying like, hey, screw you for not giving me my rent. You're saying, hey, that sucks. I hear you, but also here are the steps we're going to take if the rent doesn't come when it's

...