All Forum Posts by: Michelle Fenn

I took the classes to gain the knowledge but did not get a license for a period of time. On one hand you are an investor with a password for the MLS on the other hand ethical considerations of the license prohibited me from making offers that were accepted prior to my obtaining my license. It is a balance, I have missed out on opportunities because of my license, but I have probably profited from more than I missed.

Did your buyer inspect the property prior to making the offer. If not, you have a much better chance of keeping the EMD. They were acting in a manner that looks much more like an option than a earnest money deposit. They tied up the property preventing its sale for a excessive period of time. Generally the EMD is returned, but in the case I described I have been able to keep the entire EMD.

I use mysmartmove.com and have the tenant pay.   Provides a Transunion credit report, eviction and criminal history.   If you are a beginner reading the reports it provides an overview and recommendation. 

If you are only being impacted by the national CDC eviction moratorium you can post a 3 day notice and file, the tenants are required to send the landlord affidavit that they are affected by covid and attempting to pay rent.  Since most courts are not hearing eviction cases the only benefit of posting the notice is to get their attention.   We have had some success just by posting the notice and then calling tenants with arrears.  

If you are unsure they are even occupying the property post a 24 hour notice for HVAC repairs.      Bring a funace filter, this will give you an opportunity to check on the property and maybe even speak with the tenants.

Even during Covid moratoriums  a Legal aid attorney told me, an owner occupant with no other place to go would been seen by the judge as a hardship case.    File at earliest possible timeframe and make sure that in the filing, your hardship time restricted mortgage terms and occupancy are also considered,

The owners that are unable to handle non-payment of rent due to eviction moratoriums are already selling. Residential home prices are up due to low inventory and low interest rates. This is not a repeat of 2008, especially for SFH. Once on the market, a SFH they can be purchased by owner occupants. This buyer is not subject to an existing lease, as an investor is. There will be a lot less of SFH rentals available once the covid crisis and eviction moratoriums end, but I do not expect see a lot of residential foreclosures in the near future. Commercial properties, maybe.

Just this week the Fair Housing Court dismissed an emotional support animal complaint against me and the company I work for.    The tenant who claimed on her application that she had a service animal filed a complaint against us, when we called her on having an unauthorized person living in the basement.    When the dog appeared,  it was excessively chained on the porch, damaged the porch decking and disturbed the other tenants on the property.  In response I asked the new tenant to provide a prescription for the dog.    It took nearly 30 days but her therapist provided a letter.   I never required that the dog be removed from the property or charged  the pet fee required by the lease.   The Fair Housing investigator kept the suit open for more than 6 months, while asking the tenant what she wanted from us.    When the tenant voluntarily dropped the suit the investigators asked her more than once if we had coersed her to drop the complaint.  They finally dropped the case after speaking to 2 other non-related tenants in the triplex who told the investigator that the dog was continually chained to the porch and the tenant stopped even letting it in the house once she had paid to have her carpet cleaned.  There were much more serious issues going on, such as the tenant lying about her criminal history and hiding a community control order.   I asked for guidance from both the public housing organization and the Fair Housing Dept. The public housing reply was no guidance, but we were required to house the tenant for the term of the lease.   Fair Housing Courts' response was, that they provide no guidance to landlords and call an attorney.   With the incoming political party calling for increased tenant rights, up to declaring housing as a human right, I am very concerned that cases like this will become  common.  I am seriously considering paying for ongoing legal representation just to be protected against similar incidents going forward.

Purchased a home in 2018 and did a full renovation.   Was convinced by a reliable vendor to help out his cousin a single dad with 2 boys.   I did do the credit check, and knew going in he had a previous eviction but he claimed it was due the ex wife.  I put him in the home as a seller finance, cutting his housing costs by 500.00 per month.    The first 3 /4 months all went well, then he went to Florida in December of 2019 and the payment problems started.   By March, with the eviction moratoriums he stopped paying at all, I am almost sure he abandoned the property in July, he denied it and whoever was occupying the home started to destroy it.   He had signed a purchase agreement, but because he had failed to make the option payment I held off on filing the deed.   During the 30 days period between eviction moratoriums I filed for eviction.    It became a zoom court case, and he elected to attend while driving his car.   I told the judge it was a rent to own, he told him it was a sale but the judge granted the eviction.    He was more than 5,000 behind in payments and did more than 20,000 in damages.   I sold the note, with the home in as is condition for what I had in it. 

If I would have renovated the home again I could have made a profit, I purchased well in 2018, but my heart was not in it.  Just being inside the carnage left behind made me angry.  My lawyer rightly advised me to walk away, the title issues would have made a damages suit highly problematic.    Whoever, moved out just before the bailiff put them out. The note buyer was an associate that is providing me an additional layer of complexity just in case he hired an attorney.   He did not within the reversion period.   The home should be ready to sell soon.   My take-away is be careful to whom I rent, have better contracts for seller finance and never offer owner finance to anyone that has not been a responsible tenant for at least 3-4 years.    I have been successful in owner finance in the past and quite frankly I relaxed my requirement when someone I trusted vouched for a relative.     NEVER AGAIN. 

Buy a duplex in a good area and let your tenant make your mortgage payment.    

• I purchased the majority of my rentals for cash.   A cash purchase is a huge advantage in todays competitive markets and practically speaking the only to get an accepted offer this year in my market.   I sleep better at night knowing a vacancy or continued eviction moratoriums will not be a financial disaster. In a pinch I have sold investments to note buyers. Last one I sold went in less than a week at 90% value.