All Forum Posts by: Tricia O'Brien

I do backgrounds checks that are conducted through www.Avail.co and they run them through TransUnion Smart Move.  In addition to that, I check for criminal background and evictions through the local source for that region. For example, in Indiana you can go to mycase.IN.gov and put in someone's name and date of birth. It will pull up civil and criminal cases against them if there are any. You should try several different spellings of their name on these govt websites such as: last name only; last name and first name; last name, first name and middle name.  

In California, if you do a search by county under, for example, "Case Index Stanislaus County California"   it will show you how to search someone's history for criminal and civil cases. You just need their name and date of birth.

The national databases sometimes miss things that the local sources (state and county) will reveal to you.

@Richard F. Good points! By certified, return receipt you mean the green postcards from USPS that the receiver has to sign to confirm they received a letter, correct? 

It's usually a red flag when people are eager to move in and send money even though they have not done a formal application yet. I would put her through your normal screening process and see what you find. The credit report she gave you might have been altered by her.  Since she is self-employed, check to see if she has had any business evictions in addition to evictions from a personal residence. You might call her bank to verify she really has the account she is stating that she has if they will talk to you.

@Nathan Gesner

When I sign the 30 day notice to vacate, should I NOT put down the name of the property manager or their PM company name? Just sign my name and date it and state that I am the owner?  Thanks again!

@Peter McKernan. 

Hello Peter, Do you recommend I just sign the 30 day  notice with my own name and title (owner) and not say that I am signing for the PM ? Thanks

I am considering putting my occupied single family rental home in California on the market.  I have a sellers agent realtor that I have talked to (but I have not signed any agreement with yet ).  I agreed that he could drop by the property on Monday 7/25/22 to knock on the door and try to call the tenant on her cell phone and ask if she has any interest in buying it.  This is his standard procedure for dealing with occupied rental properties.  He wants to try to be the good guy , the nice guy, and try to get people pre-qualified to buy before just helping them get kicked out. 

My property manager, to whom I pay a monthly fee, has been pretty unresponsive to my calls and emails in the past 7 days. My plan is that, if the tenant is not interested in buying it or if she does not respond to the realtor's "meet and greet " attempt, I will probably want to give her a 30 day notice to vacate no later than 7/30/2022.  I'll decide by 7/28. 

However, I want to know -  can I do this 30 day notice directly myself since the property manager has been pretty unresponsive? I am worried if I leave it up to the PM, He will not get it done until after Aug 1, and at that point it will have to be a 60 day notice rather than 30 day notice because of the California law.

I've looked up this question in the California Landlord's book by NoLo press and it does not address this issue.

I was going to use the 30 day notice to vacate form from the NoLo press book, and where it says "Manager signature / Date"  I was going for sign my name  "Patricia O'Brien (owner) for Kyle  ******* (manager)". Then have it delivered by a process server.

I was going to use Kyle's name since he is the managing broker who signed my property management agreement . However, another realtor, Matt, signed the lease with the tenant. 

What are your thoughts? Suggestions?  Thanks in advance!  :) 

Typo alert... I meant to say "exceeds my minimum income qualification. "   Lol...:)   

I have 3 roommates (all in their early twenties) who have applied to rent my house.  Two are recent college graduates and have okay jobs. The other is still in college and only makes about $7,000 per year plus has student loans. The one who is the student offered that her Dad could be a co-signer.  

What do you think is the minimum documentation I should require from the co-signer to move forward?  Is it enough if he gives me a copy of his driver's license and 3 month's of paystubs to verify his address and his identity and current income? Or should I require he pay the $55 fee and do a formal application with credit check, eviction  history, and criminal background check?  

The two who are working full time (and not going to school) have income that exceeds my minimun income qualification.  But these 3  people have been roommates for 2 years now and are used to having co-signers , so I thought I would add the co-signer for extra security for me.  

Thanks in advance! 

I would be very cautious about buying something in a town that small that is over 25 miles from a major city unless you can find at least 3 property management companies that do business there currently.   It can be very hard to find property managers in small towns and there might be only one in a town that size.  

@Colleen F. I made the qualification  4x rent because the utilities for the house usually run $280/mo to $400/mo and I thought that if a household only makes $2250/mo (3x rent) in gross income, then their rent plus utilities could easily be more than 50% of their net income.  Could be too much for people to handle and pay rent in full and pay on time every month.