All Forum Posts by: Silvana Lavado

Thank you both for your response. You’re right. I need to stay strong and maintain my requirements. They were put in place for a reason. I just hope that it rents quickly with the discounted rent. But like you said, it would be worst to get bad tenants in the house, than to have it vacant for a little longer. Thank you so much for the advise! It was just the reassurance I needed!

Hi BP family! I have a question about screening tenants amid the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m sorry if this has been asked or discussed in another forum or YouTube video, but I haven’t been able to find them - if you have a link to a resource, I will gladly go there. Essentially, I put my place for rent before the pandemic really hit my state (about 4-5 weeks ago). At the time, my asking price was a little on the high side, but I was still getting several request to show it and I was confident it would get rented in a few weeks. Of course, once the my state went into a state of emergency, everything slow down and I’ve had to reduce my asking rent from 1,500 to 1,400 and now 1,350. Now I’m getting request again, but I’m having trouble determining how to screen a tenant in this new situation. My requirements are good credit, good landlord and work references, no previous eviction, and at least 3x the rent, but what do I do now if someone meets all the requirements except for income because their their hours have been reduced or they’re in unemployment at the moment until everything gets back to normal? What if they have good work references and I receive feedback from their bosses that they will come back to work after everything opens again? Or what if, given that unemployment checks are higher now due to the CARE act, they meet the 3x the rent but with unemployment? Is it legal to ask for their unemployment checks as proof of income? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Thank you everyone for their advice. At least now I have a few options to follow and I’m not stuck to just paying the bill with nothing to say or do. Thank you! 

@Theresa Harris that’s a good idea as well. I’ll reach out to the closing company and see if they have anything to say or some sort of advice. Thank you! 

@Jim K. Yes, I will look into talking to a lawyer, or small claims court. I'm just posting it in BP in case anyone had gone through a similar situation and maybe they had some advice on what to do. Thank you for replying!

@Jeff Willis Hi Jeff. Thank you for your advice. Yes, I intend on paying. There’s not yet a lien on the house, but they will put one after February 2020, so I definitely will pay it before then. My question was more towards whether there’s something I can do to make the previous owner pay for it or reimburse me for it. I know there are worst situations, but 2,800 is not small for me, at least not yet.

In reference to what you said about proving that they received the bill, I forgot to mention that the city included in their letter a copy of the letter they sent to the previous owners. The letter was dated February 14th, 2019 and it was sent in their name and to their address. Do you think there’s something I could do   with that? 

Hi BP!

This is going to be my first question in the forums after buying my first property on July of this year. I bought a triplex, and while I’m extremely happy to be living rent free, the property needs a lot of maintenance so I’m learning the hard way how to become a landlord lol. 

However, my question is in reference to a bill that I received today. I live in Beaver, PA and the city sent a reminder of a bill that was invoiced and sent to the old owner on February, 2019. They sent the bill directly to the old owner’s address. 

As you can imagine, Ihad no idea of this bill. The owner never disclosed this bill during closing. The deadline for payment is February, 2020 so a lien hasn’t been placed on the property - that’s why it wasn’t picked up during title search.

So, BP community, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if there’s something that I can legally do to get the owner to pay the bill. The amount is $2,830.84, so I’m reluctant to pay it without fighting it a little. 

Of course, I haven’t talk to the old owner yet. I want to know if what my options are before I approach him. I have his address. He lives nearby - unless he changed his address which I doubt. I could either pay a visit or send a letter.

What do you recommend? Is there something I can do? Or am I stuck with the bill?

Thank you! 

Hi everyone, I also just moved to the Monaca area for the Shell project. @Jeffrey Simone, if you're still there let me know! 

@Jeanni Prescan if there's a Beaver County investor meeting, I would love to participate! If not, what are other investing meetups you attend, maybe I can join those. 

Thank you

@Chris Strokes @Victor Evans That is a great idea! I'll ask my RE agent if he'd be willing to let us use his conference room. His office, however, is located in Reston, VA (approx. 20 min away from Ashburn). Would that be too far?