All Forum Posts by: Karen F.

You are very wise to ask to receive the property vacant of tenants.  The tenants are not gonna be easy to get out of there.  Right now, most courts are closed, and evictions suspended.  In certain tenant-friendly areas, it could be a year long expensive undertaking to get them out, that wouldn't start until the courts reopen and the moratorium on evictions is lifted.  The owner may be balking on getting them out because he cannot get them out.

Don't expect that you're gonna get over market value, no matter how much you renovate. Decent tenants know that they are decent tenants - when I was a single person with a steady good income, and always away at work, I was able to rent places  I wanted for 25% under market value, because the LL knew what a great tenant I would be.  If you expect over market, expect large households with marginal income and bad credit, who you really do NOT want as your neighbor in your duplex, who have to pay above market just to get housed.

So, if you found out that the place needed a roof, you'd ask for the cost of the new roof to be deducted from the price.  Find our worst case scenario how much it might cost to get the tenants out, and offer him 325 vacant, or 325 minus X amount with tenants in place.  Beware that you can't be sure that the tenant won't vindictively vandalize the property when forced to move out - it's happened before.  If you do take it with tenants in place, make sure to get copies of the lease, and documentation of their deposits, with tenants' signatures confirming the amount of their deposits, and the deposit money.    And notify them of the increase in rent the second you close - it will motivate them to get out sooner.

Realize that you could be buying a nightmare.  From what you describe, his place is worth more with at least one, if not both units vacant.  The fact that he is reluctant to deliver it vacant may be a big red flag that the tenants are going to be very hard, if not impossible, to get out.

I would let tenant know you have heard his concerns, and ask him to make a video of the interior of the property for you.

I would assume that they might have been exempt, from the day that they notified you.  They didn't notify you until after the lease was over (and aside from that, their service certification may very well be bogus), so from the date that they notified you, going forward they pay no pet rent (assuming that it is a valid service dog).  Of course, since they didn't notify you until after they moved out, no refund.

You mean ignore the letter the attorney sent?  All it said was "Please advise your insurance of this claim ASAP, delay may jeopardize your coverage."   It would certainly impede their ability to negotiate a settlement with our insurance. There were no details whatsoever regarding his injury.  I assume that if we were to just ignore it, they'd have to do something, like actually file a suit.  And that would cost money and legal time.  The claimant is indigent.

Probably we will call our personal friend who is a busy local injury lawyer.  He'll know how best to handle it.  We just want to make it difficult for them to even make a claim.

Chris, do NOT get fooled by the "if it cash flows, it's a great property" mantra.  Look at it this way.  You have a single family house that has tied up in it maybe 60K equity and 140K loan at 4.25% (which is 1.25 higher than the best you can get now).  Plus it is most definitely in saleable condition now.  If you were to keep it, and were able to rent it for $1400/mo, by your calculations, it would barely produce a profit of $1200/year, and the tenants would surely be hard on it, and it would need to be reconditioned before sale.  If you were to sell it, you might wind up taking out of it 40K, which could be a 20% downpayment on a 200K property that hopefully would be a much better investment, with better cash flow.  Plus it could be a bargain property in less than perfect cosmetic condition, that could be a rental just as it is (and who cares then whether the tenant is hard on the paint or the floors) for a few years, then you could recondition it, and sell it for a significant profit, and roll it into the next property.  I just think that it could not be that difficult where you live to find a better return on investment than $1200/yr on 200K.

I appreciate the advice.  We're gonna wait over the weekend.  We got a certified letter today - of course the attorney is asking for our insurance.  We'll discuss it with a good friend who is a personal injury lawyer.  Certainly, we could contact the police department and ask them if there was a 911 call from our property that day, or if a police report was filed.

MIL should live somewhere else.  If you feel that the house is a good deal as a rental, (to me, it doesn't sound like it), rent it to one party.  Otherwise, sell it. Sounds to me as if MIL would qualify for some assistance, if all she can afford is $400/mo in rent.  It would be one thing if MIL were well off, and were paying rent to you as a means of transferring wealth to the next generation.  But your MIL is impoverished, and turning your property into a rooming house to support her is a BAD idea.  You'd be better off getting her onto the shortest waiting list you can find near you for subsidized senior housing, and meanwhile, get her into as inexpensive a single unit nearby as you can - and subsidize her rent yourselves, because she's your wife's mother.

I guess it had to happen, after ten years in the business.  Just got notice of our first slip and fall lawsuit.  The tenant was at the time being evicted for non-payment of rent, was evicted, and now, about six months later, we got a letter from an injury lawyer saying that he's suing us for unspecified injuries that he claims occurred right at the time that he was being evicted.

So, I'm assuming that we just give it to the insurance and don't give it another thought, but I know the insurance will be motivated to just settle it for the deductible.  We have a $5000 deductible. We doubt that  he sustained any injury on our property, he claimed that he was having surgery on his leg about 2 weeks before he sustained the injury, he may  even have moved out before the date of the injury.  In addition, the man is on social security disability fraudulently - he works under the table as a roofer, and we have texts from him about it.

So, what do we do?  Any advice from anyone who has been through this would be welcome.

First go and inspect.  Then, consider what needs to be done to fix the place.  I wouldn't pay to replace the microwave.  I'd let the tenant either live with it the way it is, or let her pay to replace it, with one you agree to.

There is more damage than you realize with a kitchen fire.  We had a tenant who had one, said she'd fix it all.  Instead, she made things much worse.  She dripped paint all over the cabinets trying to repaint, and when she left, there was still greasy soot on all the walls.  The window by the stove was melted - had to replace it, not easy to do since it was not a standard size.  We had to custom re-make the window.

We waited until they were out, then charged them for the cleanup and repairs.

Unless there are different criteria in Hawaii, this cannot be done.  Not to mention that the entire 3 bedroom house would have to pass inspection, and you'd be surprised what they might fail you for.  Our class D units routinely pass inspection, because we know what the inspector is looking for (grounded outlets, no chipped or peeling paint anywhere, etc.)

But a voucher is for a single unit.  I've never heard of a voucher being used in a rooming house type situation, and definitely not in a shared house.  The only thing that you could do (and it would be a violation of the rules of the program) is to rent her the entire 3 bedrooms for the price of the 1 bedroom voucher's maximum, and then with her agreement rent the other 2 bedrooms under the table to the other tenants.  Or if she is disabled and needs the other roommate to help her, she could request a 2 bedroom voucher to house her and the roommate, and so on.

Long answer.  The short answer is she should go find herself a one bedroom, and you should get a new tenant.