All Forum Posts by: Randy E.

While replying to another thread about family size, I was reminded of two separate incidents regarding size of another nature.

The first was a few years ago when I showed a vacant 2BR/1BA house to woman who had called and asked about the property.  When she arrived at the house, she was extremely overweight, probably around 350 at least.  Her husband was also rather large.  Then noticed the two young adult daughters in the van who would also be living in the house and they were very overweight too.  I wondered if my little bathroom could handle such weights on a constant basis.  The couple liked the place a lot, but ended up declining because they didn't like the utility room where the W/D connections were located.

A second incident was when I rented that same small property to a young single man who was well over 400 pounds.  I questioned again if my little bathroom was up to the challenge, but was very pleased with the guy overall, so the lease was signed and he moved in.  A few months into the tenancy, he complained of a very high water bill.  A plumber looked at the relatively new toilet and said he had to repair something that had come loose and caused a non-stop leak.  I reminded the tenant to call me immediately if he hears a leak.  Near the one-year mark, the tenant had to be hospitalized for a weight-related ailment and ended up moving out.  He moved out immediately (actually he went to the hospital immediately, then moved in with his mother because he would need to have a caregiver in the house with him) but he paid for the following month to make sure I had 30-days notice.  As I was checking out the otherwise clean place, I realized the toilet was wobbly.  Bottom line, his weight had loosened the floor screws, damaged the flange, and water had been leaking into the subfloor and had damaged the subfloor.  Basically, he was too heavy to sit and rise with ease, so he PLOPPED down to sit and ROCKED himself back and forth to stand. It was a $450 repair overall.

So, now I'm wondering if obesity is a protected class.  I don't want to automatically eliminate obese people, but I'm curious.

 This is generally how I evaluate applicants.  I don't mind renting to an extended family that includes two married, four children, two grandparents, and maybe another grown child or two.  However, I wouldn't want to rent a 2BR house to such a large family.  It just doesn't seem wise, or maybe even legal, from an occupancy standpoint.  If I had a 5BR house, sure, move the large family right on in.  But I don't know if a 750 square foot 2BR house could even support a family of nine people.

I find it hard to believe that I could be charged with discrimination in that scenario.

On the other hand, I have had people ask to see a 2BR house, and while I was showing it I figured out they planned to live with five or six other people.  It might be that I deduce that while they're thinking out loud about putting a bed in the dining room.  I gently remind the applicant that we are looking at a 2BR/1BA house and ask if they really want to live in such a small place.  It always blows my mind when they say something like "Oh, this is just the perfect size for us."  Fortunately, those situations usually involve people who don't qualify because of other reasons.

An investment group I'm part of in a nearby smaller town bought a house in the middle of the small town's downtown area about ten years ago.  The house was little more than a tiny shack built at the turn of the 20th century, so we tore it down -- the deal was essentially just for the lot.  

Five years later, a national drugstore chain wanted to build a store on a quarter-block area that included our smallish lot.  After some negotiation, the deal was struck.  It was a great profit, something like 2000%.  Wish we/I could find more deals like that.

If it's worth $140K and all it needs is cleaning and paint, an offer of $60-70K is way off the mark.

Last summer we saw a few of those in our house.  Then we saw more.  After a while, we were seeing over a dozen a day.  It was driving my wife crazy.

Long story short, I had fallen behind on my outdoor chores and hadn't cleaned the gutters in much too long.  The gutters were full of old pine straw and a few leaves.  As I soon discovered with a search on the internet, pedes love old plant matter to live in and eat.  

Immediately, I took out the ladder and headed roofward to clean the gutters.  I was stunned to see so many pedes crawling on our roof and in the gutter.  At first it was hard to see them because they are mostly black and our shingles are black, but as I looked closer I saw hundreds of the things, mostly on one half of one side of our roof.  I thoroughly cleaned all the gutters.  Voila, just like magic the pedes problem in our house basically disappeared overnight.

That reminds me, I need to clean the gutters this week.

Aaron, I don't know if students are a protected class, but you can have rules in place that would probably eliminate the vast majority of students from consideration.  

Such as, first off don't allow co-signers.  Most students don't have full-time jobs and don't earn enough money to qualify for properties that require income minimums.  Speaking of which, if you don't use income minimums, immediately institute 3X or 4X income requirements.

Having the income requirement coupled with the no co-signers policy should eliminate most students from qualifying for your rental.  And if a student is working full-time at a job that meets your income requirement AND is taking college classes, she probably doesn't have any time left for partying. 

Good luck.

I have no idea if insurance would cover this.  However, many landlord insurance policies have deductibles up to $1000 or more, so even if insurance covered it, much of the bill would still be unpaid.  

With an unpaid bill, a landlord has to ask, "is it my fault?"  In this case, the answer is NO.  Next, the landlord has to ask, "is it the tenant's fault?"  In this case, the tenant's invited guest allegedly created a disturbance that led to the police being called to the residence which led to the blood damaging the property.  I thing the landlord was within his rights to send the bill.

If it turns out the killing by the police was unjustified, then the city should pay for the damages.  Until and if that day comes, the tenant is responsible.

To me, it's not different than if the tenant has a small party and somehow the carpet suffered irreparable damage.  The tenant's guests caused the damage and the tenant is responsible.

I've done 35 minutes.  I would consider up to an hour, but I'd really like to keep it a little less.  Unless I get a vacation rental, but that's just a distant idea at this point.

Being successful in REI means I can support my family in a modest fashion entirely via my Real Estate investments. It's that simple for me. Anything more is just a bonus.

Get used to it.  If you offer a grace period, some tenants will use it.  If you don't like payments after the first of the month, change your leases going forward to say that all rent is due on the first of the month and the late fee is assessed as of the 2nd of the month.

If you have signed a long-term lease that allows for a grace period, you'll have to live with it until it expires.