All Forum Posts by: Jack B.

 I used tenantbackgroundsearch.com

Other than her 9K civil judgement against her from a car accident, their credit was as white as a ghost. He had no credit at all. 

I ONLY rent to people with 700+ credit scores from now on. NO exceptions. No credit? Not my problem.

I can't evict them at this point since they've already abandoned the property. I'm debating giving them a brief run down of the documented facts when I send them their deposit slip so as to dissuade them from wasting anymore of my time by trying to take me to court over their non-sense.

Inspection found no bed bugs...they pay rent late after much hounding, without the late fee I told them to pay per the lease. 

Then her husband starts the email barrage of more demands for pest inspections an hour later, also claiming he over paid when he paid move in costs (I not only gave them change, but when I counted the money they had actually overpaid by an additional $100 and I gave it back to them and they celebrated for having such an honest landlord), their receipt reflects what they paid, not what they claim they paid after I enforce the rules...

I get a bill from the utility company for unpaid bills and go to serve them notice to comply or vacate within 10 days. They demand I leave (I already did when they were not there at that time) and claim they paid all their bills. I have an email from the utility company that no one has transferred service out of my name since xyz date when last tenant moved out, address, acct#, etc.

Then they show the house and claim I told them to do so....They send me a demand for a pro-rated refund that I never said in writing or otherwise, remember, I sent all of their calls to voicemail on purpose and they even call me out on it...I saved all of their texts, call logs and emails.

They leave behind some garbage and had an unauthorized pool, which they left behind. 

I don't know if these people are just dumb or scammers. I'm guessing both. They have very poor spelling and reading comprehension, which makes me think they are just dumb. But the fact that they misremember clear events that were notable (always in their favor), combined with the fact that they have had no rental history for ten years, and have no furniture, makes me think this is a scam they pull...

I will let a unit sit empty or sell if I have to before I ever lower my standards again. I've also considered creating a 3 day cooling period from application date to approval, so as to make sure I think about any red flags that I might have overlooked, etc.

 In retrospect, yes. Red flags were that they wanted to move in IMMEDIATELY, within hours of their background checks coming back, the same day of viewing, claiming they were tired of living in a hotel since moving here from Atlanta. The only thing that came back in that other than her 9K civil judgment (against her) for a car accident was the fact that the system did not have any records of residential addresses for them for the past TEN years. Only from 2006 prior. Who knows about references, I can never tell if their landlord is legit unless they rented an apartment complex, in which case I can easily verify their landlord reference is in fact a landlord.

I went over the history of events with them and have a pretty tight case against them. The emails and texts show their lack of honesty, reading comprehension and tendency to jump to conclusions and make things up when the lease is enforced. I found a bunch of stuff left behind (wine glasses, a pool, against the terms of the lease) as well as a yard waste bin and fire pit full of trash. 

The neighbors even thought it was odd that when they moved out, they still had no furniture. Oh, and did I mention that although I have texts of them claiming they paid all utilities, I managed to get an email from the utility company that the utilities have not been in anyone else's name for that address and account since the last vacancy date....

I have all of the emails and texts, even screenshots that prove I sent them to voice mail when they called, so I can document. The texts and emails show two clearly erratic and emotional people, dishonest as can be. I should have know, they looked scummy...

Ummm...OK.

Good advice all around. Like I said this was to vent, but written as if to them. I only talk to them via email and text when I have to. They vacated last night allegedly. They also said that they showed the house to a prospective tenant because I gave them permission (again, I've never talked to them via phone and funnel all communication to text and email so I have documentation, I've never given them such permission).

I'll be there to change the locks soon, with my body camera and a witness. Their deposit is getting dinged the fees and unpaid utilities. These deranged lunatics will likely piss and moan about that to me then too. I will enjoy laughing them out of court with all the emails showing their lies, late payments, and erratic behavior. 

This is the jist of what has happened. I've written this as a letter to them to vent, but you get the idea. It's all documented via text and email, as well as video (I used a body cam when interacting with tenants, with their permission when legally required). I am pretty confident I dotted my i's and crossed my t's on this. Text and email are practically a mountain.

Let’s review the documented facts:

You move into my house from a motel, allege bed bug infestation in the carpets. When I ask where, since I’ve never seen them living there myself or had a tenant complain, as I want to come see for myself instead of taking your word, your husband accuses me of knowing about the alleged bed bug infestation, merely because I asked “where”, then claims that he responded with “logic”...

I hire an inspector to inspect the house, and not even the eggs or poop of bed bugs are found…Turns out your husband is proven wrong…

You then pay rent late after a month of no complaints about bed bugs or anything else, and after I had to remind you repeatedly to pay rent with the late fees since you hadn’t paid, you still only paid rent, without the late fee.

Immediately after this, your husband begins sending me a list of more false accusations and demands for more pest inspections. I give you notice to move out, as I have no intention to deal with erratic and dishonest people who try to retaliate with more made up scams.

I receive a bill from the utility company for unpaid utilities. I come to serve you legal notice to comply with the terms of your lease (paying your utilities, etc.) and just merely being outside the house far away, never entering or even knocking on the door, you threaten me with your husband and demand I leave.

And you claim that I’m the problem and emotionally unstable. I will say it again, if you do not comply with the terms of the lease, I will evict you. I can come by the house to show the house to prospective tenants for my business, or serve legal notices, WITHOUT your permission, as I need to serve you legal notices to do so. Your attempts to intimidate me are felonies, because you are trying to use intimidation and extortion. The reason I avoid your emotionally unstable phone calls is to purposely document via text and email your erratic and unstable behavior. Yet somehow you claim you’re documenting, despite being the ones who always want to talk on the phone instead of email or text. The emails and texts paint a clear picture of your dishonest behavior, combined with your failure to comply with the terms of the lease, (paying rent on time, paying late fees when you pay late, paying your utilities). What is shows is two emotionally unstable people who make up accusations to retaliate for their own failures to pay their contractually obligated bills. So yes, please let’s take this to court. I would love to see your reaction to losing to the mountain of evidence of your dishonest, erratic behavior, combined with your failure to pay rent on time, pay utilities, and pay late fees.

 Sooo what you're saying is that investing in property that you only make money from via appreciation is the way to go? And exactly how does this protect you in a down turn when your property value goes down or never goes up and you're losing money every month on paying the mortgage portion the rental income doesn't cover?

Because all I said was that cash flow is the primary source of income, appreciation is a bonus. I never said to the exclusion of all else, you came up with that in your mind. In fact you came up with a lot of fantasies in your mind very quickly. It's a proven FACT from the top investors out there that cash flow is the primary source of income, appreciation is a bonus. The math proves it. Only someone who has no idea what they are doing would gamble on equity alone. No professional real estate investor touts that. They would be laughed out of the room.

Your argument that equity is king and cash flow is irrelevant is beyond reason. The math doesn't work that way. It's like saying that spending more than you earn while playing the Lotto is the way to wealth. What I'm saying is that you invest in an asset that pays for itself AND pays you income. If it goes up in value, like it does here in MY market in Seattle, one of the most expensive in the country (my handful of houses missing a finger or two pays me 53K a year, not counting appreciation) then you made a niiice bonus. If it goes down in value you weather the storm. It will bounce back. 

Oh and to your disbelief, somehow I managed to buy these cash flowing properties in one of the top 10 most expensive markets in the country. Even as recently as a few months ago for a half million dollar house...In a market where it's cheaper to rent than it is to own. Yet somehow I make it cash flow...while it goes up in value.... 

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 Your post makes no sense. It's the tenant that is having trouble paying, not the landlord. Or was that not clear in the thread?

It's times like these that I'm thankful to insist upon first/last/deposit and only do monthly leases anyways. 

Tenant has been nothing but a problem since moving in. Made up claims and accusations, that upon professional inspection turned out to be baseless. 

Now here we are, the due date/grace period for rent was yesterday. Of course banks were closed but they could have paid Saturday or any number of other days the bank was open.

So I email them and ask that if they have paid to disregard my email but if they have not, since rent was now late (I only accept rent deposited in a business checking account) to include the $25 late fee ($15 general late fee + $10 per day late). She replies, "No problem" and that's that.

Well, these people have yet to pay today. Looks like in a few hours I'll be stopping by to serve them their notice. Sigh, I may very well just ask them to move out at the end of the month anyways even if they do pony up the money. Nothing but problems from these people from the beginning and I don't imagine it getting better.

I learned early on from reading blogs such as investfourmore.com that gambling on appreciation is just that, gambling. Appreciation is a bonus, but cash flow is king. It is what keeps you afloat. I could lose my high paying job and still live the same lifestyle while my houses appreciate - because of cash flow. Cash flow = less risk of losing the houses due to non payment. Not only do I get to keep my houses if I was not working, I get to live off the income. The appreciation is a bonus. When you deviate from this fact, you are taking on risky business, no different than stock picking and hoping it goes up in value.

Plus some of you miss the point. Just like credit score and background is an indicator, so is education, but it doesn't mean that just because you have it you're guaranteed success. I was a high income earner before I ever had a degree. I know many people who have advanced degrees and can't pay their own phone bill...But generally I prefer dealing with people with more education and a higher income, as it usually shows that they get it. Certainly I'm not going to buddy up with someone just because they don't have a degree. So long as they demonstrate intelligence it's fine. These people clearly don't.