All Forum Posts by: Karen F.

We own about ten multis in New Britain, looking to sell our two families and buy a few three families, even a six-plex, even an apt complex.  If anyone has anything, or is interested, please contact me.

Here in CT anyone can look up housing court records on line.  But some are disappearing!  These are records that used to appear on line.  As far as I know, there's no statute of limitations on housing cases.  Something is not right here.

Just for the heck of it, I searched our names in the online court records for housing court.  I searched correctly, under active, and under all, and used the section for cases filed before March, 2016.  Imagine how surprised I was to find out that some old evictions that we ran before about 2014, are just gone!  They don't show up at all.

Now I'm worrying that when I'm checking on a potential new tenant, any past appearances in housing court that they may have had, may not show up.  BTW, the old cases that I'm not seeing show up were NOT withdrawn, went all the way to paperwork to have the marshal remove them, and in one case, there was a judgement against the tenant for malicious vandalism.

Anyone know what's going on here?  I KNOW that I am searching correctly in the before 2016 tool, because a case from 2015 DOES show up.  As LLs, we have a very strong interest in any housing court appearances staying available in online searches forever.  How is it that these relatively recent evictions have just disappeared?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/28/after...

It appears that in a privately owned housing complex in Mattapan, MA, a man who had been arrested for domestic violence, and whose girlfriend then refused to press charges, then three months later raped and murdered a neighbor.  The victim's husband then sued the complex owner for 22 million dollars.  Owner settled the lawsuit, rather than risk a sympathy award.  Lawsuit claimed that complex should have barred the man from the property, even though he had not been convicted, and that the complex was at fault because it didn't have security cameras and guards.

So, landlords are now not supposed to automatically bar people with criminal records, but instead must evaluate on a case by case basis.  And how can you even bar someone from the property who hasn't yet been convicted?  Even if the landlord had decided to try to evict the man for possibly disturbing the neighbors with noise during the domestic violence episode, the courts in MA are strongly biased in favor of the tenant, and with the girlfriend refusing to press charges, it's very unlikely that an eviction would have been successful.

How could any landlord have prevented this?  Essentially, what this means is that should anyone suffer a criminal assault in a rental property, the landlord is now liable!

If I had a tenant with your attitude, I'd give them a notice of termination immediately.

You're not an arm's length tenant.  You're an adult child living at your parents' second home, which they only bought to help you out, and you are paying them subsidized rent for the use of one or two rooms.   Your situation is like that of a young adult still living at home - follow your parents' rules, or move out.

You say you can't move out?  Then follow their rules, and stay.  And you might just try being a little bit grateful to them for providing you with a place to live.  They didn't buy this property because they wanted an investment property in San Diego.  They bought it to help out their adult child, who is unable to live independently.

Legally, you can violate the terms of the lease, stop paying rent, ignore their rules, trash the place, do whatever you want.  And legally, they can evict you, and then take you to court to get a judgement against you for the damages, or even bring criminal charges against you for malicious vandalism.   Do you really want to push them to do that?  Your parents who care about you enough that they bought a second home they really didn't need, just to try to help you out?

Grow up!

We have a few multifamilies that we've owned free and clear for anywhere from 2-5 years.  They're all renovated and fully rented.  Now we're thinking about  refinancing to put money into a new property.  Any recommendations on where to get the best deal on cash out refi on between 5-10 multifamilies at once?  We are not under the gun to get money out.  We just want the best loan terms we can get, and still take out a reasonable percentage of the value.

Hi, William.  You are doing great!  We have done the buy, renovate, rent, and repeat in New Britain, without the refinance, about ten times now.  But the kids are approaching college, and we may need to pull out some tuition money.  Can you tell me which bank has given you the best deal on refinancing?

You have to be very, very careful buying in Hartford.  Some areas are very dangerous - I'm talking drive by shooting dangerous.  Other areas are better, but even the West End has a lot of opportunity crimes, like car break ins, burglaries, etc.  I'm seeing a lot of people wanting to move out of Hartford, into New Britain, which is about the same (low) price range, because they feel that their children aren't safe in Hartford.

I found an EXTREMELY useful website. HUD fair market rent. You can see the allowables by town, by year, by 50th or 40th percentile. Then there is a HUD utility schedule, which allows you to calculate the utility allowances. Put in "show state averages" which will give you an idea. You deduct the utility allowance from the fair market rent, unless you're supplying all utilities. Then you've got ammo to use with the housing authority. Don't forget to ask them to consider "amenities", such as laundry, extra bathrooms, off street parking, garages, storage, porches, etc.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/husm/uam.h...

Next is the 2016 40th percentile FMR

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/F...

and here is the 2016 50th percentile FMR

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/F...

Just got a response of an increase to 1350 for 4 bdrm cold flat in New Britain, administered I think by NBHA, for this year's renewal - that's on an apt where sec 8 pays the entire rent, so it has nothing to do with the tenant's income.