Housing Bubble, credit bubble, public planning, land use, zoning and transportation in the exurban environment. Specific criticism of smart growth, neotradtional, forms based, new urbanism and other top down planner schemes to increase urban extent and density. Ventura County, California specific examples.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Time to share
Seems there are number of we landlords here. Amazing how these kinds of interconnectedness reveal themselves. Anyway, I thought a simple thread to offer tips, share misery, brag, whatever about our common experiences.
I'll go first. Screw the mail. The check is in the mail crap don't fly. Instead open a savings account at the nearest physical bank that allows ETF. Give the new tennant a sheaf of preprinted "for deposit only" deposit slips and tell them that you are doing them a favor. "Use these and the bank around the corner and you can wait until the last minute to deposit and you don't have to worry about mailing ahead of time or bothering to put a stamp or anything."
You get an explicit uncontestable permanent record of payment history, easy downlaodable year end tax summaries and best of all... Naw, I'll save the best for a few more posts.
I live in London, and own a house here (that I live in) and also own a house in Sydney (that I rent out). In most countries outside the US, rental payments are collected via Direct Debit.
It's the best way. Make sure your tenants have a regular job, and have their paychecks DD'd into their account. Then DD the rent outta the same account.
This solved my Sydney problem. The tenants were always late ... they clearly had the ABILITY to pay, but just not the willingness to do it on time.
By the way his attempt at a traffic grab is solely based upon content he riped off from here. Maybe he is learning a thing or two about traffic trends. Next thing you know he'll change his name to C-Dawg and start ripping on Nigel.
I'm on the other side of the fence. I'm a renter, and have never had a particularly decent landlord. I'm usually about 5 days late with the rent, and part of the reason is because I know it pisses him off. But I live in an illegal basement apartment, so it's not like he can say much.
One thing I don't understand is why anyone would not want to maintain a property they own. I actually had to partially reroof one of the houses myself that I rented. Of course, at $300/mo for a four bedroom plus a garage apartment, it was still worth it. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is that landlords are evil soulless creatures feeding on the decaying corpses of dilapidated buildings.
Ok, I'm kidding. But seriously, fix your freaking roofs.
Downside? Delivery guy rings his bell instead of mine, pissing him off late at night. His kid runs around and makes shitload of noise.
Upside? He takes care of the building, never complains that my kid runs rampant, never raises the rent and is generally pleased to have a nice young family that pays the rent always and on time as opposed to the guy who used to break the window when he forgot his keys and once got so drunk he puled a gun on the landlord.
Additional upside? We can SAVE loads of money whle people in shitty apartments pay SCARY mortgages in a declining market.
I've got nothng against my landlord, he knows he's lucky to have "passive income". And by that I mean he's lucky to break even in this market.
I'm not a landlord, but I do hear the occasional horror stories from the ones I rent from. There was one tenant who had tie-dye curtains, a Pink Floyd poster on the ceiling, and had very quiet get-togethers with his friends every weekend, if you know what I mean. Now, I don't have anything against that, but it would help explain what happened next.
The tenant turned in the keys without warning and without leaving a forwarding address. When maintenance went in, they found that the walls had been painted black and then strange designs had been spray-painted in bright colors on the walls, ceilings, and carpets. Finally, the sink was almost completely clogged and had obviously been allowed to overflow many times. The water damage was so bad that the whole kitchen had to be torn out and the floor replaced.
Most of the other major problems I hear about involve domestic violence. I don't know details, nor do I want to.
@ No Rent For You
There are a lot of illegal basement apartments around here. You'll even see them advertised as "2 bedrooms (no egress)". As you say, it creates a situation where neither party can use the legal system. If the landlord goes to court, the legality of the apartment comes into question. If the tenant calls the building inspector, they get evicted by the city instead of the landlord. A very common outcome in situations like yours is for the tenant to call the inspector when they move out.
Tenants from Hell played paintball outside *and* inside the house. They used my lovely built-in bookcases for knife-throwing practice. A bottle of hot pink nailpolish exploded on the carpet in the third bedroom. And we won't even talk about the filth.
We had to give them their deposit back first or they refused to move. Since we were selling to take advantage of the insane run-up in coastal Calif. property, we paid them to get out, basically.
Good news is that the proceeds paid our other rental off free & clear and took our primary residence mortgage down to five figures and a 15-year insanely low fixed.
And for the record, always used fixed full doc loans and refis.
I'm still trying to imagine the nice judge who will say, "You're absolutely right, Mr. Serin, everybody did it, so it's not wrong. Free to go and get some Jamba Juice!"
Well thank you very much. I'm getting ready to rent out a unit & now all I can think of is paintball, meth labs and cat pee. On the positive side, I need to keep reminding myself that I pay a property management firm & they run prospective tenants through the ringer on my behalf.
Once upon a time I used to read the Craigslist housing forum. I stopped when I realized there were too many odd, repetitive, unhappy posters. The oddest thing (to me) were the number of San Francisco posters in illegal apartments that kvetched about their landlords but started the post with "I am living in an illegal apartment." They all ended the post with either "and I am calling the authorities" or "I will withhold rent." I have no experience with illegal apartments & always thought it odd that no one seemed to care about that status until they weren't happy with the LL. Californians, please don't "hate on me" for the observation. I just remain bemused by your ways. :)
I'll take the paintball and meth lab over the cat pee. Gallons of "Nature's Miracle," muriatic acid, removing wallboard, ultraviolet detection... Give me the meth lab.
The risk exposure of illegal apartments just doesn't work unless the landlord is in a position where there isn't much more to lose.
@ Ogg Yeah, that's why I don't worry too much about getting him the rent on time, but it's also why he doesn't worry about fixing anything in the apartment, and he lives directly above me. I've got the furnace, water heaters, breaker panels, and all of the utility meters in the apartment, so it gets pretty old having people coming in to do work on the building, especially when they tear my apartment up to do the work and then don't put it back. I had the pleasure of having a crew of Russian plumbers use my bathroom as their designated shitter for a week while they fixed his apartment. Yay!
So here's a story for all you landlords to think about when you get pissed at your tenants. I used to know some guys who lived in an old wood frame house. The landlord never checked on the house or fixed anything, even though she lived around the corner.
Anyway, the house had a room at the back that had obviously been added after the rest of the house was built. It had one door that led into the house and one that went outside. They weren't using it, so they let this bum that was always hanging around live there for free. (I don't know why, but a lot of people thought the bum dude was "so cool", I'm not sure why. The story was that he used to be a college professor, but then flipped out due to large quantities of drugs or something. I always found him to be annoying.) They closed off the door into the house, and bum dude would just come and go as he pleased through the outside door.
Well, it turns out that some pipes in the ceiling and walls busted during a freeze, and bum dude didn't tell anybody. He just moved his stuff somewhere else. So for like six months or a year or something water was just dumping into this room. They didn't figure out that bum dude was gone until the entire room collapsed off of the house. The only part of it that stayed up was one wall, and that was only because they had built a skateboard halfpipe in the backyard and nailed it into that wall for support.
So when you're pissed off at your tenants, remember that things could always be worse. Or maybe the moral is "check on your property more than once every five years." On second thought, the moral is probably "don't rent to skateboarders that hang out with bums." Yeah, that's probably it.
I won't tell you what agency I work for, just know there are 3 letters, and there is a vowel in there. I was approached by this agency way back during the xwing vs tie fighter wars. I was noticed in my group as I was one of the hardest people to beat in a tie fighter. The agency wanted me to test fly one of their ships(yes, it is still a prototype and I can't talk about it). I also played Splinter cell on my xbox 360 on HARd, that's right, hard, so you know I got's the ninja like skills. My hands are lethal weapons, I have beaten fight night 3 6 times already, including muhammad ali and joe frazier in their prime. I received a notice regarding two mutual friends that frequent here every now and then, I evaluated the targets, and declined the mission. Why? I think it was going overboard for the crimes they commited. They didn't DESERVE such a harsh punishment. Oopss, my batphone just went off, gues Commisioner Gordon needs my help again. What? Yeah mom I took my meds this morning..sheesh..I think she is in cahoots with the enemy.
I must be the one lucky tenant, because the last three landlords I've had have all been quite decent. I tend to go for multi-unit buildings where there's professional management, but not always; one place we lived in in San Fran had only 4 units and the owner's son was the guy doing most of the maintenance. The building was old and not the greatest quality, but it was clean and problems were resolved in a reasonable timeframe.
The tenants right above us were kind of a pain, especially when they got drunk and started to yell and throw things, but it got a lot better after the nasty drunken boyfriend moved out.
I'm really pleased with the building we're in right now. It's the kind of place Casey would dream about -- multi-unit, positive cashflow, professional management -- but he'll never, ever be able to buy.
Oh, and direct EFT of the rent makes everyone's life much easier.
Is the EFT initiated by the landlord or the tenant? The former would make me nervous when dealing with a new landlord, because they could easily clean out my checking account if so inclined.
I wouldn't worry about my current landlord doing something like that at this point, but then I know them a little better than I did when I moved in.
I have a friend who has been a landlord for about a year. His first tenants were drug dealers. He found out when the city police broke down both doors and called him the next day. The city boarded up the broken doors and charged him $500 for the "favor". The drug dealers were out of jail and back in the house the next day. Amy Klobuchar, the county attorney at the time now a U.S. Senator, didn't prosecute. In fact she refused to prosecute any drug offense until the fourth offense and these guys were dealers not users. I guess she got lots of votes from dealers and their friends. Anyway, I digress.
He said the dealers were generally good tenants, always had lots of money and if they were late he just dropped by and they paid in cash. After the drug bust he asked them to end the lease and they left willingly a few days later. I haven't asked him how his new tenants are.
I'm the guy that the goto guys GO TO. I'm the guy that stands alone between America as we know it and total chaos. They could drop me off in the worst part of town with some dental floss and a tootbrush and I'll show up the next day with a dental floss wedgie and a tootbrush sticking out of my ass..wait that's not right. I need a better writer..sigh
Legion said... They could drop me off in the worst part of town with some dental floss and a tootbrush and I'll show up the next day with a dental floss wedgie and a tootbrush sticking out of my ass Actual LOL, you silly bastard!!
I do the "bank around the corner" thing too. I have also let tenants pay by PayPal in the past.
My newest tenants are odd. They started the lease to own in Jan and both Jan and Feb they sent a cashier's check FedEx'd on the day the rent was due. All they have to do is send a post dated check on the first and I will hold it.
I understand that most people do not get paid until the 1st, so I always wait until the 5th before giving people crap about being late.
We also rent to my husbands dad. He send us a check each month on the first when he receives his retirement. He is the best tenant. (Well, besides the fact he and his wife are chain smokers and the carpets will have to be replaced and the walls re-painted) For repairs we have an agreed upon handyman service. When an event happens he gets an estimate and calls me. I approve, he pays for it out of pocket and deducts the money from the rent and sends me the receipt.
Horror story: Had a subcontractor in the past who always did good work for me until we moved away. I always paid him upfront. We met at the property and discussed a new deck. I paid him upfront and he used the money to to put a new roof on his house. It took him 3 months to finish the deck and because he had already spent MY money, he purchased less than optimal materials.
Horror story: The tenant I have so many problems with is also a neo-nazi. We have received complaints from our former black neighbors that he is very raciest. But because he never took action we had little recourse. It sucks when one mean person polarizes a formerly harmonious mixed neighborhood.
McMissile’ moment lands mother in jail Driver gets felony conviction for tossing cup of ice into car 2 years jail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17212960/?GT1=9033
Ummm yeah, sure they aren't going to prosecute Casey. They went after a mom who tossed a cup of ice..Now if only I could drive by Casey, oh wait, his junker doesn't work...if only I can get Casey to toss a jamba juice at me.
I turned down a decent opportunity to buy a small office building this summer (already had one tenant, room for one more). I don't want to deal with the headaches of owning an investment property, although, I'd say leasing an office building would be less troublesome than leasing a home or apartment.
I generally don't hold grudges against landlords, but then I generally do my research before I sign a lease. The only negative situation I had was moving into a horrible dump in Oakland because I had to move suddenly (flaky roomate decided not to renew our lease at the last minute, and I could'nt afford the whole rent), and my then girlfriend lived in the building (in a studio, no room for me to live there). The landlord was a true slumlord, the place was falling apart and a mass of health violations (mostly mold) and illegal wiring and apartments that were rehabbed by slathering goopy plaster into any hole in the wall, crown moldings or trim, the cheapest industrial grade carpeting you can get that was never cleaned after being installed in the 80's (I cleaned it with a rug cleaner, and the water was black), and the wiring was so flaky I could trip the breakers with a 400w microwave. There was so much cheap white paint slathered onto every surface that you could sink a pencil in 1/8" and never hit wood or plaster. I could go on, it was sheer hell, but it was cheap, easy to get in, and easy to get out. I never had a "lease" per say, and they were lax about rent, so I was able to get myself back on my feet and OUT.
The shame about it all, is that if rehabbed carefully, it could be a showplace - as far as I could find out with a curious neighbor, the building was built in the 20's, and under the paint was gorgeous hardwood moldings and trim, like you can't find anymore, and under the carpet was stunning hardwood floors...ruined with masses of staple holes. (The carpet was stapled right onto it, no padding.) Each unit had the remnants of old murphy beds, and the bathrooms had cast iron bathtubs, feet and all (surrounded by cheesy plywood and cheap tile enclosures). The studios had fascinating murphy beds that swung 180 out of closets on a central pivot - the bed parts were gone, but the pivot/frame was still there, and working.
Sadly, it would cost more to rehab it than tear it down, but lots of it could be salvaged - the wood floors alone could probably go for a pretty penny. The building was simply trashed beyond repair, at one point it was said it had been a crack house, and I believe it.
The laughable thing is, they were starting to replace the cast iron tubs with cheap fiberglass stalls...and leaving the tubs on the sidewalk for the trash. They did'nt know how much they go for!
There used to be some really cool older places you could get cheap, with tons of character and cool old details, but they're quickly being stripped or torn down for "gourmet lofts" and tacky granit countertop apartment condos.
Don't even get me started on lofts. I'm an artist/designer, and I wanted a loft, have for a long time, and now they're the biggest rip off of all. My hope is that in a few years I can get one cheap - but paying 3-500K for one is simply stupid. SF and Oakland used to have a fantastic loft culture, but now it's all snooty Boomers and eurotrash living in them now. Feh.
Damnit, Legion, stop scaring all of the super-villains out of the neighborhood with your ambiguously gay genital hygiene. We need a few of them to stay in the hood to keep the rents down. Although I'll be the first to admit that butt-flossing isn't just for the ladies anymore, it hasn't really caught on with the evil-doing crowd yet.
So far, I've avoided any really bad rental situations. I've always been warned off in some way, either by a bad gut feeling about the situation or explicitly by the current tenants.
In one memorable case, I went to a major management firm, who supplied me with a set of listings that might meet my needs. Rather than make an appointment with each tenant for me to view the rentals, they told me to just go over & knock on the door. Well, I went to the first one but did not knock. There were several notices taped to the door. The first:
PROSPECTIVE TENANTS: Do not knock. We do not show without an appointment. We're sick of ABC Rentals sending people around all the time.
The second:
ABC RENTALS: YOU MAY NOT ENTER WITHOUT X HOURS NOTICE EXCEPT IN AN EMERGENCY. WE WILL FIND OUT IF YOU DO, AND WE WILL SUE. (followed by a printout of the relevant state law)
The third notice was a lengthy screed detailing all the problems the tenant had with ABC Rentals. I didn't bother to visit any of the other units. As I got to know the local market better, I learned that ABC Rentals' reputation was entirely in line with what was taped to the door of that house.
Hey, you beat me to it.. was going to mention the same..
I am also quite surprised by the supposed comment by Nigel's law enforcement friend. I suspect that friend does not deal with what is called white collar crime. Hey guys.. the amount for the FBI to get involved is $5000 in interstate crime... Considering that these purchases were across state lines....
Classic. He asks questions and denies people the chance to answer. My guess is that the post wasn't so much honest questions as a rant that we should read as "screw you, I'm taking my toys & going home".
I can't say I blame him.
@BJ:
Did the purchases actually take place across state lines, or did he merely travel across state lines prior to making them?
I have had the best success by investing in high rent areas with young professional tenants - the sort who are new in town and not yet ready to buy a condo, but have a job at a law firm or lobbying firm and are raking in the cash. Only one who was late at paying. I'm tired of being a landlord so invested in a TIC that takes the landlording out of being a real estate investor (sciproeprties.com)
Whether traveling across state boundaries, or purchases were done w/o traveling but occurring across state boundaries.. both are domain of the FBI. Police are regional... FBI is not, CIA can only investigate outside US (country). The separation was intentional, to prevent government running rampant over citizens rights (or at least reduce the ease at which it can do this)
34 comments:
I'll go first. Screw the mail. The check is in the mail crap don't fly. Instead open a savings account at the nearest physical bank that allows ETF. Give the new tennant a sheaf of preprinted "for deposit only" deposit slips and tell them that you are doing them a favor. "Use these and the bank around the corner and you can wait until the last minute to deposit and you don't have to worry about mailing ahead of time or bothering to put a stamp or anything."
You get an explicit uncontestable permanent record of payment history, easy downlaodable year end tax summaries and best of all... Naw, I'll save the best for a few more posts.
boring....
without Homey or other Casey stalking this blog gets me bored, let me know when Homey posts or you got pics with Galina in handcuffs
lol @ Anon. Well, this blog was around before Casey. Funny post regardless.
I had a tenant last year with several unneutered male cats the pissed all over the house. 30 gallons of Kilz later, I got rid of the smell.
Rob, I missed all the fun this weekend. Your posters are definitely getting to Casey. Congrats.
I live in London, and own a house here (that I live in) and also own a house in Sydney (that I rent out). In most countries outside the US, rental payments are collected via Direct Debit.
It's the best way. Make sure your tenants have a regular job, and have their paychecks DD'd into their account. Then DD the rent outta the same account.
This solved my Sydney problem. The tenants were always late ... they clearly had the ABILITY to pay, but just not the willingness to do it on time.
Solved THAT problem...
Rob, after our sitemeter conversation the other day I was tickled pink to see that for YOU at least "it's all good":
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s25rob7ert&r=36
But our little friend, despite his latest troll...
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s27iamfacingforeclosurecom&r=36
not so much...
By the way his attempt at a traffic grab is solely based upon content he riped off from here. Maybe he is learning a thing or two about traffic trends. Next thing you know he'll change his name to C-Dawg and start ripping on Nigel.
I'm on the other side of the fence. I'm a renter, and have never had a particularly decent landlord. I'm usually about 5 days late with the rent, and part of the reason is because I know it pisses him off. But I live in an illegal basement apartment, so it's not like he can say much.
One thing I don't understand is why anyone would not want to maintain a property they own. I actually had to partially reroof one of the houses myself that I rented. Of course, at $300/mo for a four bedroom plus a garage apartment, it was still worth it. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is that landlords are evil soulless creatures feeding on the decaying corpses of dilapidated buildings.
Ok, I'm kidding. But seriously, fix your freaking roofs.
No Rent 4 You
I live in a 2 family that my landlord lives in.
Downside? Delivery guy rings his bell instead of mine, pissing him off late at night. His kid runs around and makes shitload of noise.
Upside? He takes care of the building, never complains that my kid runs rampant, never raises the rent and is generally pleased to have a nice young family that pays the rent always and on time as opposed to the guy who used to break the window when he forgot his keys and once got so drunk he puled a gun on the landlord.
Additional upside? We can SAVE loads of money whle people in shitty apartments pay SCARY mortgages in a declining market.
I've got nothng against my landlord, he knows he's lucky to have "passive income". And by that I mean he's lucky to break even in this market.
I'm not a landlord, but I do hear the occasional horror stories from the ones I rent from. There was one tenant who had tie-dye curtains, a Pink Floyd poster on the ceiling, and had very quiet get-togethers with his friends every weekend, if you know what I mean. Now, I don't have anything against that, but it would help explain what happened next.
The tenant turned in the keys without warning and without leaving a forwarding address. When maintenance went in, they found that the walls had been painted black and then strange designs had been spray-painted in bright colors on the walls, ceilings, and carpets. Finally, the sink was almost completely clogged and had obviously been allowed to overflow many times. The water damage was so bad that the whole kitchen had to be torn out and the floor replaced.
Most of the other major problems I hear about involve domestic violence. I don't know details, nor do I want to.
@ No Rent For You
There are a lot of illegal basement apartments around here. You'll even see them advertised as "2 bedrooms (no egress)". As you say, it creates a situation where neither party can use the legal system. If the landlord goes to court, the legality of the apartment comes into question. If the tenant calls the building inspector, they get evicted by the city instead of the landlord. A very common outcome in situations like yours is for the tenant to call the inspector when they move out.
Tenants from Hell played paintball outside *and* inside the house. They used my lovely built-in bookcases for knife-throwing practice. A bottle of hot pink nailpolish exploded on the carpet in the third bedroom. And we won't even talk about the filth.
We had to give them their deposit back first or they refused to move. Since we were selling to take advantage of the insane run-up in coastal Calif. property, we paid them to get out, basically.
Good news is that the proceeds paid our other rental off free & clear and took our primary residence mortgage down to five figures and a 15-year insanely low fixed.
And for the record, always used fixed full doc loans and refis.
I'm still trying to imagine the nice judge who will say, "You're absolutely right, Mr. Serin, everybody did it, so it's not wrong. Free to go and get some Jamba Juice!"
Well thank you very much. I'm getting ready to rent out a unit & now all I can think of is paintball, meth labs and cat pee. On the positive side, I need to keep reminding myself that I pay a property management firm & they run prospective tenants through the ringer on my behalf.
Once upon a time I used to read the Craigslist housing forum. I stopped when I realized there were too many odd, repetitive, unhappy posters. The oddest thing (to me) were the number of San Francisco posters in illegal apartments that kvetched about their landlords but started the post with "I am living in an illegal apartment." They all ended the post with either "and I am calling the authorities" or "I will withhold rent." I have no experience with illegal apartments & always thought it odd that no one seemed to care about that status until they weren't happy with the LL. Californians, please don't "hate on me" for the observation. I just remain bemused by your ways. :)
...paintball, meth labs and cat pee.
I'll take the paintball and meth lab over the cat pee. Gallons of "Nature's Miracle," muriatic acid, removing wallboard, ultraviolet detection... Give me the meth lab.
The risk exposure of illegal apartments just doesn't work unless the landlord is in a position where there isn't much more to lose.
Rob,
The fact that you know about using black lights tell me you've been there.
@ Ogg
Yeah, that's why I don't worry too much about getting him the rent on time, but it's also why he doesn't worry about fixing anything in the apartment, and he lives directly above me. I've got the furnace, water heaters, breaker panels, and all of the utility meters in the apartment, so it gets pretty old having people coming in to do work on the building, especially when they tear my apartment up to do the work and then don't put it back. I had the pleasure of having a crew of Russian plumbers use my bathroom as their designated shitter for a week while they fixed his apartment. Yay!
So here's a story for all you landlords to think about when you get pissed at your tenants. I used to know some guys who lived in an old wood frame house. The landlord never checked on the house or fixed anything, even though she lived around the corner.
Anyway, the house had a room at the back that had obviously been added after the rest of the house was built. It had one door that led into the house and one that went outside. They weren't using it, so they let this bum that was always hanging around live there for free. (I don't know why, but a lot of people thought the bum dude was "so cool", I'm not sure why. The story was that he used to be a college professor, but then flipped out due to large quantities of drugs or something. I always found him to be annoying.) They closed off the door into the house, and bum dude would just come and go as he pleased through the outside door.
Well, it turns out that some pipes in the ceiling and walls busted during a freeze, and bum dude didn't tell anybody. He just moved his stuff somewhere else. So for like six months or a year or something water was just dumping into this room. They didn't figure out that bum dude was gone until the entire room collapsed off of the house. The only part of it that stayed up was one wall, and that was only because they had built a skateboard halfpipe in the backyard and nailed it into that wall for support.
So when you're pissed off at your tenants, remember that things could always be worse. Or maybe the moral is "check on your property more than once every five years." On second thought, the moral is probably "don't rent to skateboarders that hang out with bums." Yeah, that's probably it.
Well, I guess I have a confession to make as well
I won't tell you what agency I work for, just know there are 3 letters, and there is a vowel in there.
I was approached by this agency way back during the xwing vs tie fighter wars. I was noticed in my group as I was one of the hardest people to beat in a tie fighter. The agency wanted me to test fly one of their ships(yes, it is still a prototype and I can't talk about it). I also played Splinter cell on my xbox 360 on HARd, that's right, hard, so you know I got's the ninja like skills. My hands are lethal weapons, I have beaten fight night 3 6 times already, including muhammad ali and joe frazier in their prime.
I received a notice regarding two mutual friends that frequent here every now and then, I evaluated the targets, and declined the mission. Why? I think it was going overboard for the crimes they commited. They didn't DESERVE such a harsh punishment. Oopss, my batphone just went off, gues Commisioner Gordon needs my help again. What? Yeah mom I took my meds this morning..sheesh..I think she is in cahoots with the enemy.
I must be the one lucky tenant, because the last three landlords I've had have all been quite decent. I tend to go for multi-unit buildings where there's professional management, but not always; one place we lived in in San Fran had only 4 units and the owner's son was the guy doing most of the maintenance. The building was old and not the greatest quality, but it was clean and problems were resolved in a reasonable timeframe.
The tenants right above us were kind of a pain, especially when they got drunk and started to yell and throw things, but it got a lot better after the nasty drunken boyfriend moved out.
I'm really pleased with the building we're in right now. It's the kind of place Casey would dream about -- multi-unit, positive cashflow, professional management -- but he'll never, ever be able to buy.
Oh, and direct EFT of the rent makes everyone's life much easier.
Sprezzatura:
Is the EFT initiated by the landlord or the tenant? The former would make me nervous when dealing with a new landlord, because they could easily clean out my checking account if so inclined.
I wouldn't worry about my current landlord doing something like that at this point, but then I know them a little better than I did when I moved in.
Legion said...
Oopss, my batphone just went off
HAHA!
I have a friend who has been a landlord for about a year. His first tenants were drug dealers. He found out when the city police broke down both doors and called him the next day. The city boarded up the broken doors and charged him $500 for the "favor". The drug dealers were out of jail and back in the house the next day. Amy Klobuchar, the county attorney at the time now a U.S. Senator, didn't prosecute. In fact she refused to prosecute any drug offense until the fourth offense and these guys were dealers not users. I guess she got lots of votes from dealers and their friends. Anyway, I digress.
He said the dealers were generally good tenants, always had lots of money and if they were late he just dropped by and they paid in cash. After the drug bust he asked them to end the lease and they left willingly a few days later. I haven't asked him how his new tenants are.
@T
Wait you'll miss my steven seagal monologue!
I'm the guy that the goto guys GO TO. I'm the guy that stands alone between America as we know it and total chaos. They could drop me off in the worst part of town with some dental floss and a tootbrush and I'll show up the next day with a dental floss wedgie and a tootbrush sticking out of my ass..wait that's not right. I need a better writer..sigh
Legion said...
They could drop me off in the worst part of town with some dental floss and a tootbrush and I'll show up the next day with a dental floss wedgie and a tootbrush sticking out of my ass
Actual LOL, you silly bastard!!
O M F G!!
I'm still laughing!!
I do the "bank around the corner" thing too. I have also let tenants pay by PayPal in the past.
My newest tenants are odd. They started the lease to own in Jan and both Jan and Feb they sent a cashier's check FedEx'd on the day the rent was due. All they have to do is send a post dated check on the first and I will hold it.
I understand that most people do not get paid until the 1st, so I always wait until the 5th before giving people crap about being late.
We also rent to my husbands dad. He send us a check each month on the first when he receives his retirement. He is the best tenant. (Well, besides the fact he and his wife are chain smokers and the carpets will have to be replaced and the walls re-painted) For repairs we have an agreed upon handyman service. When an event happens he gets an estimate and calls me. I approve, he pays for it out of pocket and deducts the money from the rent and sends me the receipt.
Horror story: Had a subcontractor in the past who always did good work for me until we moved away. I always paid him upfront. We met at the property and discussed a new deck. I paid him upfront and he used the money to to put a new roof on his house. It took him 3 months to finish the deck and because he had already spent MY money, he purchased less than optimal materials.
Horror story: The tenant I have so many problems with is also a neo-nazi. We have received complaints from our former black neighbors that he is very raciest. But because he never took action we had little recourse. It sucks when one mean person polarizes a formerly harmonious mixed neighborhood.
McMissile’ moment lands mother in jail
Driver gets felony conviction for tossing cup of ice into car
2 years jail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17212960/?GT1=9033
Ummm yeah, sure they aren't going to prosecute Casey. They went after a mom who tossed a cup of ice..Now if only I could drive by Casey, oh wait, his junker doesn't work...if only I can get Casey to toss a jamba juice at me.
I turned down a decent opportunity to buy a small office building this summer (already had one tenant, room for one more). I don't want to deal with the headaches of owning an investment property, although, I'd say leasing an office building would be less troublesome than leasing a home or apartment.
I generally don't hold grudges against landlords, but then I generally do my research before I sign a lease. The only negative situation I had was moving into a horrible dump in Oakland because I had to move suddenly (flaky roomate decided not to renew our lease at the last minute, and I could'nt afford the whole rent), and my then girlfriend lived in the building (in a studio, no room for me to live there). The landlord was a true slumlord, the place was falling apart and a mass of health violations (mostly mold) and illegal wiring and apartments that were rehabbed by slathering goopy plaster into any hole in the wall, crown moldings or trim, the cheapest industrial grade carpeting you can get that was never cleaned after being installed in the 80's (I cleaned it with a rug cleaner, and the water was black), and the wiring was so flaky I could trip the breakers with a 400w microwave. There was so much cheap white paint slathered onto every surface that you could sink a pencil in 1/8" and never hit wood or plaster. I could go on, it was sheer hell, but it was cheap, easy to get in, and easy to get out. I never had a "lease" per say, and they were lax about rent, so I was able to get myself back on my feet and OUT.
The shame about it all, is that if rehabbed carefully, it could be a showplace - as far as I could find out with a curious neighbor, the building was built in the 20's, and under the paint was gorgeous hardwood moldings and trim, like you can't find anymore, and under the carpet was stunning hardwood floors...ruined with masses of staple holes. (The carpet was stapled right onto it, no padding.) Each unit had the remnants of old murphy beds, and the bathrooms had cast iron bathtubs, feet and all (surrounded by cheesy plywood and cheap tile enclosures). The studios had fascinating murphy beds that swung 180 out of closets on a central pivot - the bed parts were gone, but the pivot/frame was still there, and working.
Sadly, it would cost more to rehab it than tear it down, but lots of it could be salvaged - the wood floors alone could probably go for a pretty penny. The building was simply trashed beyond repair, at one point it was said it had been a crack house, and I believe it.
The laughable thing is, they were starting to replace the cast iron tubs with cheap fiberglass stalls...and leaving the tubs on the sidewalk for the trash. They did'nt know how much they go for!
There used to be some really cool older places you could get cheap, with tons of character and cool old details, but they're quickly being stripped or torn down for "gourmet lofts" and tacky granit countertop apartment condos.
Don't even get me started on lofts. I'm an artist/designer, and I wanted a loft, have for a long time, and now they're the biggest rip off of all. My hope is that in a few years I can get one cheap - but paying 3-500K for one is simply stupid. SF and Oakland used to have a fantastic loft culture, but now it's all snooty Boomers and eurotrash living in them now. Feh.
Damnit, Legion, stop scaring all of the super-villains out of the neighborhood with your ambiguously gay genital hygiene. We need a few of them to stay in the hood to keep the rents down. Although I'll be the first to admit that butt-flossing isn't just for the ladies anymore, it hasn't really caught on with the evil-doing crowd yet.
So far, I've avoided any really bad rental situations. I've always been warned off in some way, either by a bad gut feeling about the situation or explicitly by the current tenants.
In one memorable case, I went to a major management firm, who supplied me with a set of listings that might meet my needs. Rather than make an appointment with each tenant for me to view the rentals, they told me to just go over & knock on the door. Well, I went to the first one but did not knock. There were several notices taped to the door. The first:
PROSPECTIVE TENANTS:
Do not knock. We do not show without an appointment. We're sick of ABC Rentals sending people around all the time.
The second:
ABC RENTALS:
YOU MAY NOT ENTER WITHOUT X HOURS NOTICE EXCEPT IN AN EMERGENCY. WE WILL FIND OUT IF YOU DO, AND WE WILL SUE.
(followed by a printout of the relevant state law)
The third notice was a lengthy screed detailing all the problems the tenant had with ABC Rentals. I didn't bother to visit any of the other units. As I got to know the local market better, I learned that ABC Rentals' reputation was entirely in line with what was taped to the door of that house.
@Ogg.
Dang. No wonder you went for a cave.
@ Bemused Guy
Yeah, it's not the nicest looking place around, but at least the landlord doesn't hassle me.
My apologies for being off topic but i just about shot my lunch (lasanga) out my nose when I read our FFF latest post...
"Have you made up your mind or are you finally going to approve of me when I find a way to payback/settle all my loans later this year?"
Worst of all, the comments are closed! I was actually going to break my silence on his site but can't do it!
What an idiot.
Hey, you beat me to it.. was going to mention the same..
I am also quite surprised by the supposed comment by Nigel's law enforcement friend. I suspect that friend does not deal with what is called white collar crime. Hey guys.. the amount for the FBI to get involved is $5000 in interstate crime... Considering that these purchases were across state lines....
Classic. He asks questions and denies people the chance to answer. My guess is that the post wasn't so much honest questions as a rant that we should read as "screw you, I'm taking my toys & going home".
I can't say I blame him.
@BJ:
Did the purchases actually take place across state lines, or did he merely travel across state lines prior to making them?
I have had the best success by investing in high rent areas with young professional tenants - the sort who are new in town and not yet ready to buy a condo, but have a job at a law firm or lobbying firm and are raking in the cash. Only one who was late at paying. I'm tired of being a landlord so invested in a TIC that takes the landlording out of being a real estate investor (sciproeprties.com)
make that sciproperties.com....
@Ogg
Whether traveling across state boundaries, or purchases were done w/o traveling but occurring across state boundaries.. both are domain of the FBI. Police are regional... FBI is not, CIA can only investigate outside US (country). The separation was intentional, to prevent government running rampant over citizens rights (or at least reduce the ease at which it can do this)
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