All Forum Posts by: Monique Burns

This is horrible!  I agree with Russell Brazil.  I cringe when people tell me they listen to their gut instincts in this field.  Our "gut" isn't accurate with seasoned liars we don't know.  Our gut is more accurate with people close to us like our family.  I have Detroit properties.  I've dealt with a few hundred tenants at this point.  None this bad!  I have fine-tuned my tenant screening process over the years.  I am a big believer in doing a home visit to where they are currently living before they get to rent from me.  Even then, nothing is foolproof but, again, nothing like THIS!  Holy smokes!  I hate this moratorium stuff.  It has hurt my own investment properties even with the government handouts to me (less 10% of amount due, less the late fees).  I've definitely raised rents elsewhere across the board to recover.  

@MikeMcCarthy Did you mean to @ Nadir M, not me?  I agree with you fully about knowing your state's laws.  Each state is a little different.  Different states have their own Fair Housing add-ons too.  

You may decide to rent to someone with Section 8.  I made a playlist on Youtube which is basically how I trained my staff on just how to work with Section 8 successfully.  Search for Section 8 Secrets Revealed.  I have tips in there too on phone screening and running someone's background.  These tips work whether your tenant has Section 8 or not.  Best of luck!  

What are some mistakes a well meaning person can make when it comes to Fair Housing? I don’t mean the obviously egregious ones. But things like, “Oh, that’s an interesting name. What nationality is it?” We can’t say that! Or you have a two bedroom home and 2 women, a 7 yo girl and an uncle want to move in and you know you can’t say, “But who is sleeping with whom? It’s only two bedrooms!” I did have that scenario and knew I better show them the house anyway. None of my business. They were no shows. But what other ways can we unwittingly get ourselves in trouble?

@Joe P. If you find their excuse legitimate, I would go for the kindest solution. What did they cost me really? That is all I would keep. It’s easy finding new tenants these days. It’s harder finding kindness.

@Giovanna Jeanina Joubert. Why isn't your criteria Best Return on Investment? Or the city where the cost of houses are 40% lower than national average but rent for 20-30% higher? Or where you could buy a single family home for only $49,500, pay $1,200/year in taxes, $600/year for insurance, pay 10% of rent in property management and it rents for $825/mo? Why do you need to visit more than once to meet the property manager and see the area if your property manager does such a nice job that you just enjoy at 12-14% ROI easily deposited in your bank each month? Or how about a city with no natural disasters that borders a peaceful foreign country right on the St Lawrence Seaway? Or a city on the rise whose tech presence is growing — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Pinterest? My own investments are in Detroit. They've been performing well for years.

Landlord friendly?  Well...at first my tenants were all paying.  My properties are in Detroit.  Then for the last three months three of my tenants stopped paying altogether. 

I tried to evict the one who did not have Section 8.  My attorney said each eviction now gets delayed because free legal aid gets brought in so his rates went up.  

Then another one who has Section 8 stopped paying.  But so did her Section 8 because Section 8 claims she never turned in her paperwork.  She showed me the string of emails with her paperwork that she had sent repeatedly to her nonresponsive caseworker who is now happily "working" from home.  This is a typical caseworker thing to do.  They just blame the tenant when actually they aren't doing their job.  So I've been duking it out with Section 8 to get our payments reinstated.  

The third one also has Section 8 and quit paying.  The third one is my savvy one.  I'll call her A.  A let me know that she found a resource who will pay me the rent.  She found the organization in Michigan that disbursed the underused Eviction Diversion Program.  The caseworker at this nonprofit called and let me know that my tenant applied for it and I just need to send in my ledger and the state will pay me the missing rent less the late fees and 10%.  I have to agree to not charge my tenant the late fees and 10% of the missing rent that is due. 

I asked A to please help me with these other two tenants get on this program.  She said she would do it happily and A claimed she has learned how to make the most of COVID-19 in every avenue of her life.  Life has never been so good to her.  She never stopped working but she knew she could get out paying me my full rent.  And now I'm in a position to take a discount on what she owes unless I want to evict her.  

I'm happy there is the Eviction Diversion Program.  But I'm not happy that my tenants who never lost a day of income know about it so they could use my rent money themselves these months and now I take a financial hit on rent.  My other option would be to go through with the evictions.  But the evictions would cost me double if not quadruple.  So here I am!

Landlord friendly?  Well...at first my tenants were all paying.  My properties are in Detroit.  Then for the last three months three of my tenants stopped paying altogether. 

I tried to evict the one who did not have Section 8.  My attorney said each eviction now gets delayed because free legal aid gets brought in so his rates went up.  

Then another one who has Section 8 stopped paying.  But so did her Section 8 because Section 8 claims she never turned in her paperwork.  She showed me the string of emails with her paperwork that she had sent repeatedly to her nonresponsive caseworker who is now happily "working" from home.  This is a typical caseworker thing to do.  They just blame the tenant when actually they aren't doing their job.  So I've been duking it out with Section 8 to get our payments reinstated.  

The third one also has Section 8 and quit paying.  The third one is my savvy one.  I'll call her A.  A let me know that she found a resource who will pay me the rent.  She found the organization in Michigan that disbursed the underused Eviction Diversion Program.  The caseworker at this nonprofit called and let me know that my tenant applied for it and I just need to send in my ledger and the state will pay me the missing rent less the late fees and 10%.  I have to agree to not charge my tenant the late fees and 10% of the missing rent that is due. 

I asked A to please help me with these other two tenants get on this program.  She said she would do it happily and A claimed she has learned how to make the most of COVID-19 in every avenue of her life.  Life has never been so good to her.  She never stopped working but she knew she could get out paying me my full rent.  And now I'm in a position to take a discount on what she owes unless I want to evict her.  

I'm happy there is the Eviction Diversion Program.  But I'm not happy that my tenants who never lost a day of income know about it so they could use my rent money themselves these months and now I take a financial hit on rent.  My other option would be to go through with the evictions.  But the evictions would cost me double if not quadruple.  So here I am!

Just to piggyback on the 2-year lease idea.  It's hard to get rid of someone who is within the one-year lease period.  After that one-year lease is up, I can simply not renew the lease.  There are times within the first year that I want the tenants to move, but I don't have reasons to actually evict.  Signing a 2-year lease is not an incentive to me.  I agree with finding the most qualified applicants.  

I'm a big believer in thorough tenant phone screening. I made a video about it.  Phone Screening Explained HOWEVER...there are times it is not an efficient use of my time or my staff's time.  When I have a hot property and the phone is blowing up with people who want to see it, I do the process sort of backward.  I schedule all 10-30 people for the same time to see the house.  A few will show up. Of those who show up, I email the $35/adult the applications.  A few will fill it out.  I then do a quick court search.  Very few will have no history with landlords.  I don't look for evictions only that come up on background checks.  I'm looking to see how many times they've been involved in ANY landlord/tenant case.  I make sure it wasn't dismissed before I judge.  Innocent until proven guilty, right?  THEN I call them and ask my "prescreening" questions before I spend the money running their background check.  

I admit too, my staff has skipped the prescreening questions because I'm guessing it's a more pleasurable use of their time to run around showing houses than sitting in the office working.