All Forum Posts by: Tim J.

I have a tenant who is abusive on phone.  I blocked his texts. 

All future contact is email or letters.  His issue, not mine.

Be professional.  Block the texts.  Some people thrive on negativity and chaos.  Don't feed it.

If you don't want to hire a PM, maybe hire a "personal assistant" who is an intermediary for this tenant.  The tenant has earned the special handling of never being able to contact you via your phone/text any more.

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Tim J.:

I doubt the tenant thinks they violated the lease.  Most tenants in my experience don't read leases that carefully.  

If she's a good tenant otherwise, I don't see why its necessary to get panties in a bunch about it.  

Add him to the lease and be done with it.  

Or, if it annoys you that much, don't renew.

For me, this is not a reason to get adversarial or end a lease.

Yesterday I suggested we go through the lease together in case they had not read or understood it in full. They claimed full understanding of the lease but said I have no compassion - in words that weren't nearly as respectful - for wanting to enforce lease regulations when all they were doing was helping the son. Honestly, if they had been open about it and discussed things with me in advance I would likely have tried to be helpful. Now it appears to be a total disregard for the lease.

In that case, I agree with those who suggest to toss them out.  

I doubt the tenant thinks they violated the lease.  Most tenants in my experience don't read leases that carefully.  

If she's a good tenant otherwise, I don't see why its necessary to get panties in a bunch about it.  

Add him to the lease and be done with it.  

Or, if it annoys you that much, don't renew.

For me, this is not a reason to get adversarial or end a lease.

Use rent collection software - most of them have ACH "pull"/auto withdrawal available.

If the tenant wants to wire money that may cost you on your side.

Don't allow tenant to control the conversation.

Give two options:

- here is the account info and bank - they can walk the cash or deposit to your bank and deposit it
- ACH/auto withdrawal.


That's it.

(I no longer use Zelle or cashapp or venmo  - too much hassle.  and never, ever trust paypal - those guys are thieves - just google paypal for examples of ridiculous problems with that company.

With that much unsecured debt it may be a challenge to get any different or new refinancing.
Might be worth it for one or both of you to get a W2 job or otherwise jack up the income for a year or two to bag out the heloc/other debt.

good luck.

I expect your state is far more friendly to landlords than my state(s)

One thing you might try to do is offer cash for keys - if that helps get tenant out sooner.

Sometimes that is cheaper than the full process.

I remember watching late night tv and seeing commercials with Carlton Sheets and Tom Wu  "no money down!" real estate investing.  

Always makes me leery when I hear people talk about it.  

+1 on replacing with stairs.

There are a many that can be argued as the most important.  And it will probably vary from stage to stage.

One consistent strong need for investors (IMO) is the ability to realistically assess risk and put plans into place to mitigate the risks.  If you can't understand the risks and manage them, then you're pretty much just along for the ride. 

One other thing to note - there is a diverse range of aptitudes across the population.  Some aptitudes and skills that some of us take for granted or are second nature are scary or unknown to many others.  And vice versa.