I give up on Tenants ! Left in the night again.

[newbury]

I grew up working on my parents rental houses. <snip>
You either have to inspect the house all the time, or realize that they don't care what happens to it and what it takes to fix what they do. I've come to the conclusion that their are two types of renters. Those who are there short term because they have goals and plans to buy their own place, and those who are irresponsible and self destructive that just don't get it that they are the problem. Sadly, those are what we had to deal with most of the time.<snip>

There are also those who are nice and like to live there.

when you have a rent house or houses your going to loose money no matter what you do.we have 1 rent house an have lost an spent more money on it than its made.weve had to redo our rent house twice.

It's to bad you loost money.
Part of the advantage of a rental house is "security" with a good renter in a market that is going up.

It is possible to get good tennants. I have a rental unit that I have let for over 10 years with no problems. It is to the same tennant.

We have an understanding that I don't bother her and she doesn't bother me. She pays on time and looks after the unit better than I would. I do not need to do inspections and simply have a look around when I do maintenance.

We have also agreed that I will give her lots of notice if selling and she will give plenty of notice if leaving. Neither of us are plannning any change for years.

Weedepharma

This sums up my situation.

I've a rental unit that:
Tried to rent myself but due to work ended up renting thru an agency - Couldn't turn down a young married couple. After eviction I pulled steel wool from every metal pipe and replaced every plasic ppe which they had poured boiling oil down. And that was the easy part.

Rented again to a couple of lawyers, about 30 years ago. One is still there. We charge under market price. Our understanding is that I'm going to make $$ when we finally sell (or my estate does). I probably make less than $3K a year on it.

I had planned on "Lending" it to one of my children but that hasn't happened yet

Right now it's worth about 10 times what I paid for it in 1978. And with the market coming back up so does it.

Plus - when I decide to sell it I'll work a Starker exchange and roll the profits over to land in Mississippi, hopefully blowing by my 1 square mile goal in one swell foop. Hopefuly moving on to two square miles.

So if you get the right real estate market and the right tenant it's worth it. Otherwise grow trees.

 

[Scooby074]

Problem is tenants have too much power... and the bad ones know this and use it against the landlord.

Considering it's "my" building, I should have the right to evict you if you dont treat it in a way I consider good. Random inspections with 1 hr notice should be allowed. Unfortunately, those days will never come. The tenants have all the laws in their favour.

 

[zonta223]

The only rental I had I worked out a deal with the tenants.
5% of the rent went into something like a trust account.
Each week this built up and if they looked after the house and did the right thing the got the money back as a lump sum.
If they did the wrong thing at least there would have been some money towards repairs.
The longer the tenant stays the more money builds up in the trust account which reinforces good behavior.
Only had one problem with one tenant. He let a toilet leak (into the bowl not on the floor) for months. I got a large water bill which was more than covered with the money in trust.
There is an old saying.............better no tenant than a bad tenant........very true saying

 

[joshuabardwell]

Considering it's "my" building, I should have the right to evict you if you dont treat it in a way I consider good. Random inspections with 1 hr notice should be allowed. Unfortunately, those days will never come. The tenants have all the laws in their favour.

Laws or not, I would never sign a lease with that in it.

 

[scesnick]

Wifey and I ran into a fantastic deal on two college rentals a few yrs ago and we couldn't pass it up.

Student rentals are a bit different. We charge "Per Student" and "Per Semester" and the lease is a yr. lease so they are locked into atleast two semesters.
We also have a HUGE non refundable pet fee which is also per pet. That way they hopefully pawn off their pets on their parents and don't let them tear the crap out of our houses.
we also have the parents co- sign the lease. Most tenants are over 18 yrs old but we really don't care. We still have the parents sign. That little thing right there seems to really save our rentals a ton of wear and tear.

So far the wife and I have done fairly well financially, I hope it continues...

 

[ultrarunner]

I've been in rentals for 30 years... mostly in Oakland CA.

Bought my first while still in college and working 3 jobs... it was a cottage with no floors... they had rotted away... anyway, I moved in, fixed it up and became a landlord about a year later... still have that home today.

There is no easy money in residential rentals... it is a business and one where the renters have gained many rights, especially over the last 30 years with Rent Control and through the Legislature.

Much of this has come about to address problems with unscrupulous landlords and more recently to shift the burden away from local government... i.e. making more difficult to evict means less homeless to drain public coffers... so the thinking goes.

My take is you are fortunate in that the tenant is gone... a clean break is the best and the reality of collecting a judgement for damages or lost rent is just about nil in most every case.

If it was easy... everyone and his brother would be in the Landlording Business... the thing I hear most often is once and never again... and who can blame a person... almost have to be an expert in many areas just to keep yourself out of trouble.

It's too bad the bad tenants and the bad landlords can't find each other and let the rest of us take care of business.

One of my tenants is going on 24 years... she has had her ups and downs for sure... but the rent is current and rent lost due to turnovers is lost forever.

I make it a point to be on site at least once each week... most of the rentals have sprinkler timers and my rental agreements state I will maintain and adjust the programing... so if a prospective tenant has a problem with a landlord being around... I'm not the person they want to rent from...

Making a go of it today is not easy... especially if you have only a few rentals... if you have one rental and you are vacant... you are 100% vacant and still have to get the bills paid.

I do all the normal things... verify references, income and run a credit check which I pay for... I will not rent to anyone with an eviction or bad credit... anyone can have a problem... but, getting a credit report with nothing but problems screams "Danger"

Also remember that most people are on their best behavior when apartment shopping... no room for wishful thinking or hoping for the best.

The tried and true way to minimize potential loss is to get a large security deposit and first months rent in hand before move in and then act like a business... 3-day notice goes out on sixth of the month and by the 10th papers are filed.

Of course there are always exceptions... if someone with a good history comes to me AHEAD of time... I will do my best to help out... I will not spend time chasing people to get them to do what they are supposed to.

I'm sure things vary for each jurisdiction... here in California, especially in areas with Rent Control... everything has to be done by the book or it is the Landlord that looses.

I definitely understand your situation and these kinds of things can't help but make you less trusting... sad, but that is today's reality and I think it will only get worse.

I've slowly been transitioning away from residential rentals and exchanging into commercial property... mostly because it is a business to business contractual relationship that is similar to what residential rentals were many years ago...

 

[Scooby074]

Laws or not, I would never sign a lease with that in it.

Then you would never be my tenant.

I rented for 15 years before buying my house. I treated those apartments as if they were my own. I had nothing to hide and would allow my landlord in anytime, if he requested it.

Problem is, tenants think THEY own the building, they dont.

My family has had several rental properties over the years, so I've seen and heard the stories, but I'll never get involved in rentals until the law understands that its the landlord tanking all the financial risks and they should have the ability to protect their investment without having the expense and time wasted in court.

 

[MNBobcat]

Rent where you are paid every Friday by direct deposit. Rent it as a "residence inn" and not an apartment. Then its treated like a hotel stay. You don't have to evict someone - if payment isn't in the bank on Friday they are out. No courts involved.

 

[Stick895]

I had an Army officer tell me once that his key to successful renting was he rented to gays. He said "John, they keep the place better than I ever did! I'm not sure my neighbors would even let me move back in!" :thumbsup:

 

[joshuabardwell]

Rent where you are paid every Friday by direct deposit. Rent it as a "residence inn" and not an apartment. Then its treated like a hotel stay. You don't have to evict someone - if payment isn't in the bank on Friday they are out. No courts involved.

This is a clever idea.

My (admittedly limited) experience as a landlord led me to conclude that there are a lot of laws around what landlords can and can't get away with. Some of those laws pertained to when you were officially renting, even if you didn't say you were. For example, if you have someone living in your home, under certain conditions, that is treated as a rental and you have to evict them, even if you don't have a lease. In some cases, even if they're not paying rent! So it would surprise me if you could sidestep those laws simply by putting "residence inn" on your property and requiring weekly payment.

But I've been wrong before...