Accepting a tenant with an eviction
Coral Springs, FL · Member since 2016 · 21 posts · 7 votes
I'm looking for my first tenants right now and had come to the conclusion that I wouldn't take ANYONE with an eviction, but I may break my own new rule.
I've also decided that I want long term tenants and I'm not going to be a slumlord. I've budgeted for repairs and have maintenance agreements.
Other than a CURRENT eviction, one prospective tenant appears to be rock solid so I'm wondering if people think the pluses outweigh the eviction.
Everything isn't verified yet but here's what I can see so far:
I'd like to hear what other people think? Especially if anyone has any kind of experience with this type of a situation.
Thanks much!
An eviction is always a big no no.
An eviction doesn't mean that they didn't pay rent, it means that they didn't leave when requested to.
I will also throw my vote in to say no to these tenants - based on the problem that you will then have to accept tenants in the future with evictions. Your criteria will become too murky and complicated.
I don't know why people think this. I don't think you should rent to anybody with an eviction, but, if you did just one time, you don't ever have to do it again for anybody else. It does not change your criteria for future tenants in any way. It's not like you are setting some legal standard that you have to follow forever.
@Account Closed I disagree. Let's say you rent to someone who's had an eviction, and he was a white guy. Then, a black applicant applies who has an eviction, and you turn him down. How do you explain that to the fair housing office? And what if they were both fair housing testers?
One of the first things that the fair housing office or HUD will ask to see is your written criteria. If your written criteria is solid, and you implement it across the board, you should be fine (assuming it's legal criteria). If not, you could be fined. Would you say, "Well, actually, I just changed my criteria." Just in time for the black applicant? Why take the chance?
@Account Closed I disagree. Let's say you rent to someone who's had an eviction, and he was a white guy. Then, a black applicant applies who has an eviction, and you turn him down. How do you explain that to the fair housing office? And what if they were both fair housing testers?
You don't explain it to the fair housing office, because you don't have to. How does the black guy know you bent the rules for somebody else? This is private information. Also, you do not need to give a reason for not picking somebody for your house. Don't give them a reason. "You don't meet our qualifications" is all you need to say.
There is no legal requirement to accept a black applicant with an eviction if you previously accepted any color person with an eviction. You are allowed to change your qualifications at any time.
@Account Closed Good luck with that.
I have to say this forum is a lively bunch! I'm learning quite a bit here about landlording - mostly that there's no hard-and-fast rule about following hard-and-fast rules. It seems that some people's success comes from sticking to the rules while others comes from finding the gems that fall through the cracks.
The biggest thing that stands out in this discussion is that what some people see as facts, others see as presumptions. As just one example, one person may say "speak to the previous landlord to learn what kind of a tenant they were" and someone else will say "yeah, but the prospect could have just given you the name and number of a friend and not the landlord." For me, I have to say that if I speak with the previous landlord, that means I would have only spoken with a friend if the landlord was a friend.
By the time I've spoken to the previous landlord (since I'm just getting started, I've only done this twice so far) I've verified the landlord's name, phone number, property ownership in the county, state business licenses and names of relatives - about the same steps as I would with a prospective tenant. I KNOW they are the landlord. This takes about 1/2 hour.
So, back to the prospect in question... It ends up that the prospective tenants have no criminal convictions, nor expungements, etc. The man has 20+ years at two water treatment companies, and the woman is a tenured teacher. They have two boys who are (clearly) heading to college this year and in 2 years.
But as for the landlords - they have a criminal traffic violation, multiple evictions (as landlord), a felony conviction, and multiple foreclosures. I stopped by the current residence and found all the things the tenant said about the property to be true, including that they (the tenants) take good care of it.
Only having a triplex, I've had the chance to do more digging than I could if I had more units but it's been a good experience. I've gotten to know the tenants pretty well and have established a respectful open communication channel with them. I was able to keep the rent at $1520 which is at the top of the market. (A few months ago I wasn't sure I would get $1450.) Having already discussed it with them, we're planning on signing a 3 year lease with 3.5% increases. I know I don't even have a lease yet but for now I'm feeling like this has gone well.
@Jeffrey Duck You've sold me. And I re-read your original post and see that they stayed at the last place with the evil landlord for 16 years? Wow. You may have just found the golden tenant. Good on you.
OK, one last update...
So as I said, I have a triplex, and I'm hoping to have the leases signed by tonight (for Sunday 5/1) For my second unit, I AGAIN have a tenant lined up with 16 years in their past residence to sign a 3 year lease. I almost lost her because I started out using Rentalutions which totally destroyed communications and relationships with prospects (for various reasons). I switched platforms and things are starting to go much smoother. She came back and contacted me after I changed platforms
My third unit won't be ready to occupy until later in May but I've had a lot of interest in it and have a tenant (about to sign) who has been a nurse for 20 years. I'm told the oldest son is in medical school while she has a 23 yo son in nursing school. She's only been in last place for 1 year but the two before that were each 7 years.
All that said, I REALLY feel now that this is all too good to be true. I only believe in luck to a certain degree so now I feel like I'm missing something or doing something wrong that hasn't come to a head yet. When and if things change, I'll post back (hoping this is interesting to others) and share what went wrong. In the meantime, my fingers are crossed.
@Account Closed It's not luck, it's just good management of your business. The part you're "missing" is that no matter how good the people are you rent to, some are going to wind up defaulting. It's just part of the credit cycle and you'll get to experience that at some point as a creditor/landlord. Just don't take it personally, keep making good decisions and those will only be a small blip in your portfolio.
I'm looking for my first tenants right now and had come to the conclusion that I wouldn't take ANYONE with an eviction, but I may break my own new rule.
I've also decided that I want long term tenants and I'm not going to be a slumlord. I've budgeted for repairs and have maintenance agreements.
Other than a CURRENT eviction, one prospective tenant appears to be rock solid so I'm wondering if people think the pluses outweigh the eviction.
Everything isn't verified yet but here's what I can see so far:
I'd like to hear what other people think? Especially if anyone has any kind of experience with this type of a situation.
Thanks much!
being this is your first tenant, I would definitely say no. You don't want someone with a eviction as your first tenant. She's already shown you she's willing to take it to court and be a thorn in someone's ***. Also, be sure to contact the landlord that filed the eviction and get the bigger picture of her as a tenant. Court docs don't tell the whole story.
Will you guys rent to tenants who have had evictions filed against them, but no judgement?
NOPE!!! I just recently filed an eviction but the person moved out before the court date so there was no judgement. Good screening means no evictions. Set your standards as a LL and stick to them.
@Account Closedundefined You're clearly out of your depth here. Your ideas about fair housing laws are more in tune with a Fox News broadcast than reality. Let go of your preconceptions about race and treat every applicant as an individual.
@Jeffrey Duck It's not luck, it's just good management of your business. The part you're "missing" is that no matter how good the people are you rent to, some are going to wind up defaulting. It's just part of the credit cycle and you'll get to experience that at some point as a creditor/landlord. Just don't take it personally, keep making good decisions and those will only be a small blip in your portfolio.
Interesting. I've studied the fair housing laws extensively and interestingly enough, never watch Fox News. I have no idea what you're referring to. Especially, because my point was exactly that what a landlord needs to do, is apply his/her criteria exactly the same across the board - or it can be seen as discrimination. And if you do, nobody will ever accuse you of any preconceptions about race.
If you think a HUD complaint is a walk in the park, or can never happen to you, then you are clearly out of your depth on the subject.
And you might want to switch to decaf.
@Jeffrey Duck You should not be signing 3 year contracts. In essence you are giving up control of your property to strangers that you know nothing about for 3 full long years. Test out new tenants first for 6 months to a year on M2M then if they are working out sign a 1 year.
Clearly you are under a great deal of pressure as a new landlord trying not to lose money but you are making a lot of novice mistakes. This business is all about mitigating risk. Each step in the process is designed to reduce your risk as much as possible. Simply accepting a applicant is not the end of the process you still need to test them out to discover everything they have not told you. How do you know you have not rented to a undiagnosed psychopath. Ask me what that is like.
I know it's been awhile: @Thomas S. I'm not clear how the 3 year lease works against me. I think a tenant either meets my requirements or needs to be evicted, and the eviction would be the same either way. When I got the building I started with a M2M eviction which cost me a lot. I feel I'd have less management anxiety if I'm not worrying about a M2M tenant, but I'm still too new to see the benefits.
So the can of worms may be reopened, but I've made a final decision... no evictions allowed! I'm sharing this to show how a small crack can expand.
(Just to summarize, I had a prospective tenant with a long history at their last place but ended up with an eviction request recorded that was negotiated, so there was no actual eviction. Some people commented that something was wrong with the big picture and that was true.)
I'm seeing that current life events can be the secret reason for a relocation, especially with someone who otherwise appears very stable.
The 'husband' was the 'father' of the 2 teen boys. I had reason to believe he has enough money to buy a house but he wouldn't fill out a credit app so he couldn't move in. The woman qualified on her own so she and the boys moved in. She's a school teacher with a near guaranteed salary.
The school district matches teacher's savings for summer so over 9 months, they save 1-1/2 months of pay but get paid during all 3 months of summer. One month in (I later learned), she got a DUI and that left her short on funds so she retracted/cashed-in her summer savings plan believing she would get 3 months salary but since she didn't take it monthly as pay, she only got the 1-1/2 months that she paid in. So now she has to work for the summer but summer school is only 2 months long so she's still going to be short by 1 month. I set an 'absolute' rule for myself that once rent is late, notices go out on THE day they're supposed to, BUT having just started, my head was spinning over this, and she came to me asking for my help with her finances so I decided to work with her.
So... I know what she makes and when she can make it. And she's VERY a very clean housekeeper. So I made a new lease from $1540/mo to $915/2-weeks and she gets 3 pay periods each year that she doesn't pay rent (xmas, summer start/end). It's working perfectly! She's very happy and I'm getting my money back, and over time, I'll be ahead (although my plan was to give her back the 'extra' and/or bring the lease back down once things stabilize.)
The second summer rolls around and she's not able to pick up a class for summer school. She can't get any work tutoring and she stops paying the rent because an Alien ate her Buick and various other excuses. Oh, AND she got another DUI, and went off on the officer, and was now wearing ankle jewelry.
Fortunately I didn't break my eviction rule this time and the documents went out on time so with the help of Judge Miniana she was removed in about 1-1/2 months.
After the increase rent, missed rent, and eviction costs, I lost a total of $300 and I'll chalk that up more to luck than skill, but I can see now how you need the best of both to succeed.
<soapbox>Some people have bad luck, some make bad decisions, and others just live with the decisions of their parents but they all want and need a home. As their stuff was being carried to the curb I tried to explain it to the 6'3" 250# 19yo weight lifter (not the point your thinking) why his and his 18yo special needs brother's stuff was being placed in the street. Both of the boys may always blame me and that's fine. When I drove off, that boy was sitting on his mattress in the street crying in his girlfriend's arms. It was a sad sight. I guess my point is, it's not my fault they got evicted but the better job we do of screening prospects, the less likely we have to see people like that.<\soapbox>
It sometimes takes getting burned yourself before you (we) realize that fire burns.
I having a sliding ruler for many things but two are almost absolute judgements: 1) No Evictions. Period. 2) Once you set a income/rent valuation, don't deviate from it. If a tenant doesn't make enough money to afford the rent, they don't make enough money to afford rent.
I have never deviated from the first rule. In the beginning, I was lax on the second a time or three, but learned to make that one an absolute rule as well.
All in all, $300 wasn't a big price to pay to learn that lesson.
Good luck going forward,
Randy