All Forum Posts by: Yiv L.

@Guleed Yusuf Welcome to BP. It's good thing that you and your wife are looking to buy instead of keep renting, but you need to make sure you do thorough homework first. Matt brought up one good point to consider. Also, with price upswing in SD area in the last two years, a decent livable 1200-1300 SFR closer to DT area will cost you approximately $400k. If you decide to buy townhome or condo, HOA fees are outrageous there, ranging $300-$400 per month. Also, newer construction has additional property tax called Mello-Roos, which can add a few hundred $$ per month to the cost of ownership. Not to scare you, but just to give you some info to work on.

At the same time, you should begin talking to the bank to see how much loan both you can qualify so that you can see you will be able to get. With all the info on the table, then you can decide whether you want to buy or continue to rent. Good lucks.

I agree with everyone here. If the collection guy is ruled out of scheming, the seller is at fault here. A misleading or fraud case can be formed.

I also employed a tenant as collection guy in some situations such as late or last minute payment, but I only allow him to pick up money orders, not cash.

Perfect then. You are more mutual now to learn the value of patience, especially in dealing with tenants. So, it's perfect time for you to start :-)

I communicate with my tenants mostly in texting. Of course not the legal matters such as notices ... Every month, I text them on around the 5th: "Received rent for the month of xxxx. Thank you".

@Carrie Herrmann you have a PM, IMHO you should not talk to the tenant directly, or at least direct the tenant back to the PM.

Besides carpets and walls, I think plenty of odor is trapped in air vents and ducts, that need to be taken care of as well.

@Sam Leon while you are trying to locate the tenant, you might want to check Florida law on abandonment. Once you meet the required minimum number of wait days, put his stuff aside or in storage, post a sign, and fix up the place for rent again. There is nothing much you can do although you can find him or not.

@Christopher Talbert, I would handle this in two separate situations:

- First deal with your existing tenant (the parent, I assume it's the mother since you did not say). Since she is hospitalized and can not pay rent, terminate her lease by sending out 30 notice (or whatever local law) immediately. Or you can first get approval from her (if she still can talk) and do a "mutual termination" (both you and her agree to terminate the lease). I believe there is no minimum days required for the latter. Again check your local law.

- Then deal with the children. If you think they are decent peep, you can get application from them and write a new lease the way you like with them if they qualify. If they do not qualify, kick them out immediately. But, this is what my guts sense. If you sign the lease with the children, after the mother gets well and released from the hospital, then you will see mother and children all happily live in your place together. So, make sure you emphasize with the children so they understand that can not happen. Or as others said, just kick them all out and look for new tenants.

@William Petrisko SunnySlope is an over supply area, and I am not surprised to see difficulties filling the vacancy. Did you try newspaper classified with Arizona Republic and such? Also I find that posting on Craigslist is not effective just because your post will get bombarded and sunken to unreachable bottom within hours with those corporation automated posts. On the other hand, low-income tenants usually do not have internet access.