All Forum Posts by: Ray R.

@Rachel Miller

Until he gives you the keys, you don't have possession. It makes his case a lot harder.

In CA, after the person moves out, you have X days to send a written statement with any deposit refund.

Good Article on the new law, AB 329:

Section 8 and Source of Income Protections – SB 329 and SB 222 

My 2 cents:

Section 8 I have heard is a mixed bag.

Some cities, San Jose for example, already had existing rules against Discrimination for Section 8.

The new law in CA says you can't discriminate against income source for paying the rent - Section 8.

Some landlords love Section 8, because it guarantees the tenant pays the rent. Others dislike it because you have to go through an audit, to be approved to take section 8. Per one lawyer I spoke with, until you take a section 8 person you don't need to go through the audit. Other landlords worry about the type people associated with some section 8 tenants. If the Section 8 person violates their agreement, they can lose their section 8 benefits forever.

The comment the two lawyers I have heard speak on the matter, is that most Section 8 applicants have a poor credit history, so if you have a requirement of X score to qualify, they usually won't qualify.

I am not a lawyer, I don't do tenant application reviews, so this is a SWAG and not legal advice.

Two points:

1. Not accepting undocumented immigrants as potential tenants in some states may be illegal discrimination. In CA its' covered under CC 1940.3 I believe.  I would guess is undocumented immigrants don't have much of a credit history, so they would probably fail the credit requirements for most properties for approving new tenants. The other argument is if they can pay, have a good rental history, does their immigration status matter? Would it work to require a higher security deposit to reduce the risk? I don't do tenant reviews / approvals, I am not a lawyer, so this is just a SWAG.

2. Deduct the unpaid rent from their deposit. Since they abandoned the premises, change the locks. Check your local laws on what is considered abandoned, any posting you need to do, etc.

Any workarounds about how Facebook forces you to use your personal profile, and you can't use a business page to post to FaceBook Marketplace?

I have this old fashioned idea, about keeping personal and business private...

Some third party services will list to Facebook Marketplace, but my guess is then your giving up the Facebook chat. And forcing them to call - which may actually be a good thing to filter out time wasters.

From speaking with a plumber, with older homes, gas leaks can happen with galvanized pipes as they corrode. Galvanized pipe life span per one website is usually 40-50 years, but can be longer. Sometimes if you have a concrete slab floor, and the gas leak is under it, the easiest thing to do is run a new gas line through the attic, instead of jackhammer up the floor. One the gas line is turned off, it can become very hard to find out where the leak is if it's underground. With the gas on, it's much easier to detect the leak. You can buy a cheap handheld gas detector off Amazon.

In So. CA, The Gas Co. is responsible for the gas line from the meter back. At one property when we took over management, we noticed a gas smell right after we took over management. Luckily it was on the meter side, so the gas company replaced all the lines to the meters to the street. My guess is trees that used to be there, caused the leak. I'm still surprised the previous management did not notice the issue.

In Southern California, if you call in a Gas Leak the Gas Company will come really fast.

I did not know the answer, so I researched it if C02 Detectors will detect a natural gas leak.

Carbon Monoxide (Co2) Detectors won't detect natural gas. Natural gas is mostly methane CH4, and not C02. After natural gas is burned, and becomes part C02, yes, it will be detected.  CH4+O2 = H2O + Co2 or in English, Methane + Oxygen when burned becomes water plus Carbon Monoxide.

A locksmith I work in the inland empire with mentioned how a squatter would have the place rekeyed. And the squatter had done this multiple times.

A former boss explained to me, that locks are to keep honest people, honest.

Apartment.com is slowing rolling out fees, depending on number of units and geographic area. If you have above X amount of units, you need to pay to play. The problem for small guys in my area, Inland Empire, is the minimum for month to month, is 3 months, at $250 per month. And this is per property. And the sales person can't do anything on the price. And by paying you get put on the top of the listing, think alta vista.

My frustration with Trulia, is somebody posted a neighborhood review that was negative, and I think that affected the number of leads I'm getting for one property. And I see not option for posting a neighborhood review, sigh.

My take away after reading multiple threads on Scams:

1. Watermark with a tel. # all my pictures. What a pain if you have lots

of pictures...

2. In Google you can set up alerts for your address. I am worried about my inbox getting buried with alerts, but it's worth try.

3. In Craigslist you can set up alerts on your address

4. Police and FBI usually won't do much. I do plan on calling tomorrow,

but I am not expecting much.

5. Signs saying your units empty can cause more problems

6. Using your real address is a mixed bag. Some sites require it, plus the challenge of reviews.

7. WIth Craigslist, to get the adv. removed, claim copyright violation.

8. Alarms for empty units with remote access is a great idea.

9. Scammers are also after personal information, for identity theft.

10. Scammers are often out of country.

11. Craigslist if you delete it, will only delete it on your computer

unless they get multiple complaints. Craigslist is very slow to react.

12. I wonder if something can be done with reverse image search, and

setting up alerts.

13. Stickers on the door that verify the rental price company and how someone would be contacted.

14. Video if you can, there are some portable solutions that use a cell signal, so you don't need to have Internet set up. Or have a wired video system. Fake cameras probably would not hurt, if you don't have a video camera system in place. The video camera systems we have in place have helped a huge amount make our rentals a nicer place.

@Dennis M. - I did a test post on Craigslist Marketplace and it did get a lot responses the one day it was up for two listings. People that responded were low quality leads it seems. My wife/partner/boss had me take it down, because it was linked to my personal Facebook page, and we try to keep personal and business separate. The headache is at this time Face Book does not allow business pages to post to marketplace. You can use a thirdparty service to post to Facebook marketplace, but then you lose the messaging ability. 

@Aaron K. - Thanks for the idea on the stickers!  Very useful!

First time mentioned on the various scam threads I have been looking at on Bigger Pockets.