Another landlord investment property problem

[PetMom]

I know many dream of being a landlord who has rental houses and some make it work.

I am not a fan of that as evidenced by many of my posts.

The latest debacle happened with a landlord who had rented out his home (are people doing thorough background checks now?) and the people just let their life go. They ran a home daycare and it went out of business. They did not make it on a single income.

They had their car repossessed.

Then (tenancy laws are very favorable to the tenant) they finally had to move.

The landord was not there as they moved out. They sneakily would later come back that night and steal everthing not tied down:

Refrigerator
Dishwasher
Washing Maching
Dryer
Ceiling fixtures

Of course police report was made.

They also 'trashed' the house. Stained and ruined the carpets, holes in walls, debris everywhere.

Did read that some landlord recommended have only the following type of renters:

Divinity students
Medical residents

as those tend to be the most honest and reliable - great tip.

If you have a rental house be alert as they are moving out and change locks immediately.

Apt.s have after move out inspection and have that deposit on hand to be refunded after the fact.

Landlords should have the same type of thing set up. But if being ousted as non paying tenants this would be moot point. Just get the locks changed as they pull out of the driveway.

[97guns]

rule number one is never let a tenant run a business out of the property, needs to be in the contract, the wear and tear/damage done to the property was a direct result of running a day care through it. landlords need to monitor their investments, if it was my property i would have put a stop to the daycare right away, if thats their only reported income dont house them. rentals like you said are not for everyone, i myself have learned through failure but real estate can be very lucrative as well.

[f0rgiv3n]

You specified above that some people recommend only renting to a certain demographic. I have been looking at becoming a landlord and read somewhere that it is illegal to "filter" out certain tenants? Is that true or am I misinterpreting what I read?

[97guns]

it is true but you do not wear the stipulation on your T-shirt, you screen as you please. i have my own criteria and it could even be a race issue but i will not advertise it. just like a business i have the right to refuse service to anyone. rentals are a business and imo are much better and less riskey than opening a "business"

[PetMom]

97guns I wondered about that exact same thing - how that affects a rental property, even insurance - if the tenant was not fully covered then some injured party could then go to property owner. Or Landlord might need more insurance for tenants with homebased businesses.

Redlining is where people were not rented to, shown property or shown only houses in a certain area - this is illegal and would likely result in a license suspension. This was historically directed more at race profiling and is much more rare now. The redlining warning referred more to realtors and banks.

I was referring to a suggestion to put the rental property ads aimed at Seminary students and residential medical students - redlining due to this is something I have not heard of.

Added stuff that they took:
Stove!
dishwasher
sinks

Wonder if homeowners landlord ins. would cover cost of replacing all that stuff (ins. is not my expertise).

This landlord cannot rent until he has those basics in the property.

He is losing rental income as he scrambles to get it replaced either by ins. coverage or purchasing it himself.

[PetMom]

97guns that is a good idea to have very strict criteria. I actually wonder if this landlord even ran a criminal background check on these people.

I would ask for income tax records.

Credit bureau reports.

References.

I would thoroughly check out the people.

And drop by to make sure the home is being kept up.

This will be on the tenant's record now and their renting days may not be so good - they may have to go to those apts. where they have 'do not check background' as a selling point.

[97guns]

i have a manager that drives by my properties every day or every other. we have noticed that most everyones credit scores are very bad so we dont even look at those anymore. even if the tennant tells you he works cross check because they can easily give bogus phone numbers for references. when the potential tennent comes to look at the property look inside his vehicle, if its a pig sty chances are he will live in the house the same way, also make sure his dmv tags are paid up and current.