All Forum Posts by: Mitch Kronowit

Eliminate the obvious. Are they running the garbage disposal before they run the dishwasher? If not, debris in the disposal could cause the air gaps drain hose to back up. Is the sink backing up? Check and see if the lines into and out of the air gap are clear as well. It could be the air gaps itself (cheap fix).

Good luck and report back what it was. Thanks.

Did you add the taxes and insurance in addition to the 50%? They're included.

It sounds like the Investment Specialist specializes in separating the investor from their money.

By law, the 3-day notice cannot expire on a weekend or holiday. It must be a business day, so if you posted the 3-day notice yesterday, today counts as day 1, tomorrow as day 2, and MONDAY will be day 3.

Sorry Joe, I didn't mean to discount your post. We're more on the same page than I made it look. I was just getting a little cheesed at all the math experts out there devaluing the effects of appreciation ("It just keeps up with inflation") without mentioning or realizing the true power of wealth creation in long-term real estate investing involves leverage.

Nolo publishes a pretty comprehensive guide on DIY evictions. You can probably find a copy at your local library.

http://www.nolo.com/products/the-california-landlords-law-book-LBEV.html

Sitting in a a courtroom listening to eviction cases isn't going to teach you the process of how those parties arrived there. You're going to need to learn procedure. That's why you either need a good book, spend several hours on the Internet, or hire an attorney who already knows how to do this. Here is a law firm I've used before: http://www.liddleandliddle.com/

In a nutshell, after the 3-day notice to pay or quit, you need to file an unlawful detainer with the superior court. This filing is termed a Complaint and once entered into the court, the clerk will issue a Summons. You will need to find a process server to serve this Summons to your tenant (I don't believe you can do it yourself).

After successful service of process, the case can go two ways. One is the tenant does nothing by the deadline provided in the Summons and automatically loses the case in the form of a Default Judgement. Once this occurs, you can usually get a Writ of Possession quickly so the Sheriff can go boot the tenant out. However, if the tenant responds to the Summons, called an Answer, then a court date is set and the process drags on even longer.

Word to the wise, always file a Prejudgment Claim of Right to Possession at the same time as the unlawful detainer. This puts EVERYONE who may possibly be residing in your property on notice that eviction proceedings are in process and gives them some time to file their claim as to why they should be allowed to remain. This adds time to the process up front, but can save weeks, even months, in time later should a friend or relative of the tenant "move in" suddenly and claim they're legally residing in your property. This could happen when the Sheriff shows up and he will in fact turn around and go away until resolved. The Prejudgement Claim short circuits all those little tenant tricks.

This is a very elementary overview of the process and I'm not an attorney, but you can see how complex it is. If you plan on doing this yourself, it's going to be a great learning experience. But realize this learning experience may cost you loss in rent for several months if the tenant is well armed with knowledge of the law and attempts to drag it out as long as possible.

Best of luck and please report back with your experience so we can all learn from it.

After the 3 day notice expires you have to file an "unlawful detainer", the legal term for an eviction.

If you're not sure what to do, you should hire an eviction attorney otherwise a knowledgeable tenant will be able to drag this out for 6 months, living in your property rent free the entire time.

We have one property that we purchased 20 years ago, however, I first bought it as a primary residence. We didn't begin renting it out until the late 90's. Since then the rent on the place has almost doubled.

Ahhh, but you're forgetting the beauty of leverage. Sure, if you pay all cash for a house and it only doubles in value after 2 decades, big deal. But what if you only put 20% down (or LESS)? What's your return then???

Hey Andrew, if you don't have any luck finding something, send me a PM. I have family down in Peru and can probably get you a contact.