All Forum Posts by: Lam N.

(1) Inspectors have to justify their job.  So, they will always find something.  One time, we showed them a recently renovated unit.  They literally did not find a single thing wrong with the unit.  But they dinged us on peeling paint on the wooden post as divider for the garden area.  Remediation for that was easy enough.  We just painted over it.  But the point remains.  You can give them a perfect unit and they will still find something wrong with it.

(2) Section 8 tenants are lazy and demanding.  They will literally demand that you come out to press the reset button on the gfi.  

(3) No accountability at all.  Every section 8 tenant I have ever had ended up trashing the place.  They also live in filthy conditions.  

Sorry, will never do section 8 ever again.  Too much of a headache dealing with this segment of the tenant pool.

Edit.

Section 8 tenants are kings and queens of the learned helplessness examples.  They never ever want to improve their lives.  The tragic thing is they pass this learned helplessness onto their children.  It's sad to watch them not able to do the simplest things.  They don't even have the common sense for the simplest things.  

For example, one time they poured grease down the drain and clogged it.  They told us the kitchen sink was clogged.  When I got there, the kitchen was semi-flooded.  Why?  Because they continued to use the sink anyway and it was overflowing onto the kitchen floor.  Honestly, do you really want to deal with people like this?  I was going to say they are dumber than rocks but I'm sure social justice warriors on here will kill me over it.  But how would you describe people who continue to use the kitchen sink that was clogged even though it was flooding the kitchen floor?

Not providing SSN and/or DL is an automatic fail from me.  From my experience, every applicant who either refuses to provide either of these info or "forgot" to have always been 99% problem tenants in the past and future.

I very strongly advice you to move on to someone else.  Trust me, if you let this go you will regret it.

From my experience, most people are not very intuitive when it comes to breakdowns of rent.  Say rent is $500 and you figure the average water bill is $100, if you tell them rent is $600 they will ***** and moan that your rent is $100 more than other comparable units.  You can try to explain to them all you want that rent is really $500 and that water is an additional $100.  There is a mental block in most people that prevent them from understanding this.

From the beginning, I would advertise the unit as $500 plus utility.  Throughout the whole process, I would only refer how much it would cost for the residence and make sure to keep separate that and the total number.  Then in the lease, I would have a breakdown.  Here is a screenshot.

I have found that this is the most effective way to charging for utility.  Don't just simply add it into the rent.  Make sure to make a distinction.  

You really gotta treat people with kids gloves.

This is what I have learned from my life experience:

Experts are great at analyzing the past and evaluate the present.  They are lousy at predicting the future.  I wouldn't say they are always wrong about predicting the future, but they are damn near it.

My personal theory is we show the tenants some of the human side of us to show them that we are just as human as they are.  

 No offense to anyone. I think the landlords that are dying due to unpaid rents and stuff because of covid are part time landlords who have 1-4 units. Those of us who are full time landlords and run a bigger operation should be doing just fine.

It is pretty much business as usual for me. In the last month alone I have rented one 1-bedroom, three 2-bedrooms, and one 3-bedroom units. 

My next big project is opening up some student housing at the biggest university in my state.  

Covid has not derailed my plans at all.

On another forum, I was arguing with a communist/socialist.  He said landlords do not serve any useful function in society.  I said what on earth are you talking about?  We provide one of the most essentials of life.  He said name one thing landlords contribute to society.  I responded are you serious?  We literally provide shelter to people.  And last I check, shelter is literally one of the necessities of life.  Food, shelter, transportation, etc.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I am pretty darn liberal.  But damn, restaurants and grocery stores aren't forced to provide free food to people.  Why are they targeting us to provide free shelter to people?

Learn to change a water heater.  I'm a landlord and can switch out a water heater in under an hour.  It is like riding a bicycle.  Seems impossible to do when you don't know how.  Once you do it, it's the simplest thing to do and you never forget to do it.

And actually, this thread has given me an idea.  For my bigger buildings, I will begin putting in backup water heaters.

 While I agree with you completely, at this point it's pretty much from your mouth to god's ears.  

 Of course they have money.

I recently evicted a tenant.  They started not paying because they thought they couldn't be evicted.  Fortunately, it's a landlord friendly state here.  As soon as they got served by the sheriff, they called me and offered to pay everything they owed IN FULL just to stay.  I said no get the hell out.  Judge agreed with me.  I got a $15K judgement against them (what they owed plus some).  My private investigator has found where they currently live.  It's a house much smaller than the one they were renting from me.  We are moving forward with seizing assets and garnishing wages.

I highly encourage other landlords who are able to go all in and not compromise.  These problem, ungrateful tenants need to learn that we are not going to just let them get away with taking advantage of the situation.