All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

Fellow landlords, I have a few questions regarding FHA protected classes.

(1) Familial Status:  My understanding is that this class applies to marital status, families with children under 18, families with someone expecting or adopting etc...What about roommates?  Can you rent a single family home to a couple (husband and wife) and decline two unrelated roommates?  Would this fall into a gray area?

(2) If an applicant is tattooed from head to toe, can(would) you decline based on that alone?

(3) Can you decline someone to even apply due to sheer stupidity?

I find an "open house day" but I set specific appointment times for each 20 minutes apart.  I don't just have an open window for anyone to come by in case they all come around the same time and parking is limited.

I would rekey the locks and charge her for the expenses.

When the rent check comes and the expenses is still outstanding, then I would use part of the rent to pay for the expenses, which makes her short on rent.  Then file for eviction due to insufficient rent payment.

You should have a clause in your lease which states that when a tenant pays you, no matter how that payment is designated, it is first used to apply for damages and repairs, then late fees, then outstanding fees from prior months, outstanding rent from prior months, legal fees etc etc etc...

Another thing that's really annoying with Zillow is they seem to have a problem with properties not bought and sold via MLS.

With MLS sold properties they seem to be able to carry most of the information correctly.

But with private sale they do not have info on them and if you claim it as your property and edit the details, features, uploaded photos, in about a month or so this information will be erased automatically. I have contacted their support before and was told they fetch info from MLS and when it does it overwrites the old data with new info. Only in the case of my two properties bought through private sale they would overwrite with old data on MLS which wipes out my new data. There is no way to fix it they said. I have one fourplex that's shown as land only on Zillow but because it changed hands about 4 times in the last 30 years all through private sale, Zillow keeps saying it's land only LOL.

I get that quite a bit.  People who sent me email from Zillow and have zero content in the message.  I am not sure what triggered that.  I usually just sent back a reply saying "Thank you for your interest in this property, please let me know if you need additional information and good luck with your house hunting".

I just activated a listing on Zillow Rental Manager.  It's an old listing that I reactivated that I created over 5 years ago.  Once I made some edits (descriptions, rent, terms, newer pictures) I activated it and I can see it says"

Zillow: Pending

Trulia: Posted

Hotpads: Posted

After a few minutes, the status next to Zillow changed:

Zillow: Declined

Trulia: Posted

Hotpads: Posted

But the listing is actually active.  I sent an email to support and they said something about sorry for the frustration and please allow 48 hours for the status to update.

I use email, text and instant messaging quite a bit.

Text is used when I need a quick and short communication.  Things like "on my way ETA 20 minutes".  They are more likely to see it immediately.

Text is also valuable when trying to get a better idea of the issue in many cases.  For example, imagine this via email: "I have a leak", "what is leaking?", "pipes", "where?", "kitchen", "drain or supply?", "what do you mean?", "is it leaking constantly or only after using the faucet?", "it's pretty much leaking..." Okay...why don't you snap a picture of where it's leaking and send it to me.  In these situations, text is more efficient and a picture is more useful then a bunch of back and forth emails.

I use email when there is longer communication with no urgency.  Such as notifying tenants next Monday there will be a crew there to do tree trimming and to leave a specific parking space open for the big bucket truck, or I will be there on September 5 for the monthly maintenance etc...

One thing that is annoying, and I haven't figured out how to correct, is people don't do a reply to all recipient in group text or email.

I am texting/emailing four people, I need everyone to be aware.  One person texted me back, directly, leaving everyone else out.  I have to then reinsert everyone else, and include the singular message, to everyone again.  I wish there is a feature where you can lock an email or text conversation to allow only all inclusive group replies.

Zillow Rental Manager used to be Postlets.

I also got an email today about their new pricing structure.  $9.99 per week per listing.

Are there other good places to place rental ads?  I have never gotten anything out of Craigslist.

I have a four unit building, apartments 1, 2, 3, 4.  Each apartment is different, some are two BRs, some are 1BRs, and they are all different in sizes, with slightly different layouts.  Making each unique.

Unit 3 is moving out at the end of a lease.  Unit 4 wants to move into unit 3.  Unit 2 wants to move into unit 3 as well, and Unit 1 wants to move into unit 2.  They all have their reasons, the other unit is bigger, more natural lights, its an end unit, closer to laundry, more storage etc etc etc...

I have done this in the past, allowing one unit to move into another, but it translated into more work because instead of having to turn over one unit for rent, I have to turn over two units.

Now, with unit 3 moving out, instead of turning over unit 3, if I let them all switch, I have to turn over ALL 4 UNITS!  That translates into more time, effort and cost.

I don't think I can selectively pick and say unit 1 can switch but unit 4 cannot.  That would create some negativity between me and unit 4, and some between the tenants themselves.  I would have to say yes or no to them all.

One option - is to do some calculations and figure out what it might cost me.  Then approach each tenant who wants to move with a new lease - because a new unit requires a new lease and a different (HIGHER) rent.  Some may elect to stay once they find out how much (although they know how much the existing tenant is paying).

Thoughts on how you would handle this?

 Not any more.

Last Action: 5/3/2019 Senate - Indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration

Don't know what happened.  Very disappointed.  I sent an email to Senator Diaz asking what happened.