All Forum Posts by: James Mc Ree

@Abhishek Agarwal It's the boots on the ground observation that I am referring to. The write-up from the listing will always be favorable to the seller. I've seen quite a few properties described beautifully with very nice pictures. Upon personal inspection, I often find terrible workmanship.

For example, I saw a "newly renovated" property advertising it had central air. There was a new thermostat and old unit. The seller said the central air worked when it wouldn't come on for me in my walkthrough. The new thermostat was a heat-only thermostat, so c/a couldn't possibly work at least with that thermostat. The seller then said he would call his uncle who did the work all the time to fix it. His uncle is the one who installed the wrong kind of thermostat and somehow verified the c/a worked! There were a lot of obvious misses in that house that you couldn't see in pictures and of course the seller didn't write they were incompetent renovators.

I highly recommend getting someone on your side to eyeball the property before you buy it. You may be able to hire a local home inspector, for example. The example above is a very minor cost. Pictures and listing text won't show you a failing roof, soil pipe, wet basement that is currently dry, etc.

Start the eviction process. You might be through the pay-or-quit and filing periods by the time the lease ends. Hopefully, they just leave at the end of the term and it is a wasted effort, but it may be what chases them out. You can tell them the eviction will go on their credit and be a judgement against them visible to all. Maybe they will care.

It is good to know the area, but I think you are focusing on the wrong thing if that is your primary focus. How does the condition of the house and its features relate to the area?

Your post really only says someone bought a property for $70. They say they invested $40 and are now asking for a significant premium over their investment. What did they do and is it worth it? Have you seen it? Check the value with comps. Don't blindly rely on the seller's numbers, just in case you are.

You would almost certainly run afoul of fair housing with a limit of 1 as you are preventing a partner and a parent with child unless you have a compelling reason for the limit. Even then, it's very risky.

Are you sure the problem is with Section 8 and not the PM? Get the case worker's name and contact them directly. Try to speak with a supervisor if that doesn't work.

I had situations in which the case worker quit, but nothing was updated to say so. Messages just went unanswered. Your PM may be experiencing that, but should have plenty of other cases workers to contact for advice.

You are only looking at less than half the situation. You have revenue (rent) and need to consider expenses to calculate cash flow. $5,000 Rent per month is great unless expenses are $10,000 per month. Consider appreciation as well.

There is more to consider, such as how you will manage the property, etc.

In order of escalation...

1. Inform them they violated a term of their lease and the smoking must end immediately.

2. Inform them they may be responsible for any smoking remediation that needs to be done on their move-out, such as carpet and curtain cleaning, painting, etc if there is a smoking odor or residue.

3. Charge them for smoking remediation (#2 cost made real). Ideally, you get them to pay you directly for the cost. You could charge their security deposit, but it likely wipes it out leaving you with no security at all. You could re-charge them to refill the security deposit.

4. End the lease or evict them. This is the sledgehammer to be used only if this is a major issue for you and you are willing to take the cash flow and renovation impact now.

I would do #1 and #2. Discuss the issue with the tenants before sending them a letter. #3 Depends on their reaction in the discussion. A promise to cease and desist that is kept would end my escalation. Otherwise, I might do #3, but probably only on move-out. I would only end the lease or evict if I thought I caught the smoking early; otherwise, the damage is done.

Self-insurance is really no insurance. Landlords can easily do it without a mortgage but they are taking a huge risk. Set aside a big pile of cash or rely on a line of credit you won't be using.

The oversimplified insurance concept is to pay a small premium to cover a large loss. In self-insurance, to whom does Landlord pay the small premium? Who pays the large loss? It all comes back to Landlord who pays the full bill, so it's really not insurance at all.

@Nathan Gesner Thank you for the info. I will read through the doc. It looks like just the reference I need. In this case, the tenant did have a doctor recommend he get an emotional support animal for his disability. I don't have details on the disability. The reality is he already had the animal as a pet, then applied online for the certification.

@Dan H. Thank you for the reference for petscreening.com. I will use that going forward.

@Cathy B. I agree the chicken wire might not do the job. It was my contractor's suggestion. I think I will be going with a mesh I use to keep critters from getting under sheds.

The doctor in this case wrote a note that the patient's condition would benefit from having an emotional support animal. The doctor did not specify any training or requirements for the animal and the dogs are not trained in any way the tenant represented. I was unaware of the training requirement in this situation, so will study-up on this some more for next time.

@Scott Mac Thank you for the idea. The condenser is in a corner of the backyard. We are going to find a way to block it off with chicken wire to keep the dogs out. We just need to be sure the dogs can't rip out the chicken wire which may cause us to upgrade to a stronger mesh.

There is absolutely nothing special about these dogs. I think they were picked up at the pound. They were "certified" with an online service that never saw the dogs as far as I know.