2nd November 2008

Some Great Landlord Advice

posted in Uncategorized |

A couple of weekends ago I had the good fortune to talk with a friend’s dad who is a veteran of the landlord business. This guy owns 175 units in Lake Worth, Florida and has been a landlord, as well as being in other businesses he started, for many years.

The conversation started out with me lamenting the fact that the economy is totally putting a damper on my rental business and that I thought that with scale (more rental units) things would be better. It turns out that his vacancy rate is not much different than mine which was kind of comforting. By the way, another landlord friend in West Palm Beach, FL also mentioned that her vacancy rate was lower but said that hardly any of her tenants were paying on time and in short, she is having to do a lot more work to maintain her business. Also comforting to know that I’m not alone.

Here are a couple of interesting things I learned from my friend’s dad:

One thing that that struck me was that he handles all of the maintenance requests/problems himself. (!!!) I’ve heard stories of him taking phone calls from tenants while vacationing in the Andes mountains of Chile but I didn’t believe it until that day. He was dealing with a sewer problem in no less than 3 of his apartment complexes. When I asked him why he does it that way, he said that maintenance costs will eat you alive if you let them. He has a small maintenance crew which he directly employs in order to keep costs down.

Another interesting thing was his experience with the landlord/tenant court in his area. I mentioned the frustrating experience I had in court when trying to evict one tenant and he said that he sees the same thing. The judge basically does what he or she wants regarding the landlord/tenant code. He said that a judge once told him in open court, “In here, I’m the law.” Nice! It seems that the state statute is simply a guideline even though it specifies certain things in detail. My friend’s dad said that that’s why you need to have your papers in order or the judge will use it against you.

Despite these two things, he kept referring to the whole exercise as “fun” which was interesting. Hopefully in the future, I’ll get to talk with him again soon. It was truly enlightening.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 17 responses to “Some Great Landlord Advice”

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  1. 1 On November 3rd, 2008, Elisabeth said:

    I just have a few rentals, and wanted to know where to get a REAL credit report, and background check on my applicants. Everybody wants a long contract, and big fees to join.

    Any help would be great! Thank You!

  2. 2 On November 3rd, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Hi Elizabeth,
    I completely feel your pain. Apparently due to government regulations, the credit reports we used to get (the complete ones) are no longer available. We have been requesting that potential tenants pull their own credit reports from a site like http://www.freecreditreport.com/ and submit it with their application. We also do a full criminal background check.

  3. 3 On November 4th, 2008, Mark said:

    TheLandlord’s Note:
    This site looks like a great concept but this will eliminate about 80% of my tenants since they don’t have internet access. Feel free to try it out anyway.
    —————————————————————————————————

    Check into Landlord Info Systems, they give the private landlord who only has a few rentals, a Credit Report, Criminal check, and a Leasing recommendation.

    We small landlords can finally get a real credit report, not a stripped down summary. They don’t have any sign up fees, long term contracts, or site inspections. the website is: www dot landlordinfosystems dot com

    Lots of luck.

  4. 4 On November 10th, 2008, Cherie said:

    I have some rentals in Lincoln, Nebraska, and here most landlords use a service called Tenant Data (www.tenantdata.com). It’s pretty common in this area to charge a $20 application fee, which is enough to cover the credit report and a criminal history check. I’ve been really happy with the results.

    Best of luck!
    Cherie

  5. 5 On November 14th, 2008, George C. Torres said:

    I use the National Tenant Network for background checks. The service provides credit reports or a simple analysis (your choice), criminal histories, rental histories, and judgements (if any). They’re not that expensive. I believe the analysis report I pull is only $17.00. That’s not bad considering I charge $50.00 to prospective tenants for a background check (the $50.00 price tag weeds out the bad tenants and their ilk.)
    Check them out at:
    http://www.ntnonline.com

  6. 6 On December 23rd, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    I was encouraged by reading your eviction experience. I am a new landlord of 3 years. I bought a new condo in West Palm Beach and until I move to the area again, I thought I’d rent it out. Well, this couple have been in it for 2 months. Last month they wrote the check payable to themselves, of course causing delays. This month they wrote a check on a closed account. They gave me 5 different stories and basically said “well, we just don’t have any money.”!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your renting my new condo on the golf course .5 miles from the ocean and you have no money…
    I sent the 3 day notice to pay or quit. They said they can “try to get me 1/2 by …..” they never did and now I am filing eviction papers. What a nightmare..The agent that helped me said that they had no evictions, their credit was not too bad, but not perfect. They had been on the job 7 years…what gives??

  7. 7 On December 23rd, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Colleen,
    My strategy for dealing with tenants in general is be nice and respectful as long as they are performing as promised. As soon as they deviate, come down on them like a ton of bricks.

    In fact, I have a landlord friend that posts the three-day notice and then refuses to talk to the tenant. This way, they either pay or get an eviction filed against them.

    My favorite is the tenants who can’t keep their cool, get served with papers and then refuse to show up to court. This equals an instant eviction against them just for not being responsible.

    Being that you live out-of-town, if I were you, I’d retain an attorney local to your property in case you need a “ton of bricks” to drop on a deadbeat tenant.

  8. 8 On December 24th, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    I don’t have an attorney. I contacted one and they wanted $1,000 just to file eviction papers that cost me $15.00 and the court fees were $250.00. I have an agent who owns property himself and said he would just go to court and get the papers and fill them out. He evicted 2 of his on “non-payers in 3 weeks”.
    I served the 3 day….and have not contacted them. I am not interested in making a deal. My bank won’t make a deal with me like that. One problem is the agent wrote high speed internet included in the lease. Well…it was free with our association, so no cosst to anyone. However, the tenants left me a message after the 3 day..that they have no money ” and will try to get some, but in the meantime “how do you get on the internet?” they actually had the nerved to ask! I called the association and found out they they stopped providing that 2 years ago. I hope that isn’t a problem. From the laws I read the tenant needs to give you noticce in writing of any repairs..ect. I never got anything like that..only bounced check after bounced check. At this point I don’t care if they pay, I just want them out.

  9. 9 On December 25th, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Colleen,
    Really anyone (with power of attorney) like the agent you mentioned can file the papers. Please be sure and monitor the proceedings though because landlord/tenant judges like to find any excuse to let the tenant stay in the property.

    In my opinion, it’s really unfortunate when judges behave this way. It makes me want to say to the judge, “Why don’t we just repeal the landlord/tenant code and let you decide the landlord/tenant disputes” but then I wouldn’t be able to appear in front of that judge again with a positive outcome.

    Just make sure that you have all your documents in order before you go to court. Also, the deal with the internet access should not be an issue. The bigger issue is that they have not been paying the rent. This is fundamental and the judge should see that and rule in your favor.

    Also, in my experience, the judge likes to give the tenant more time to get their affairs in order before they are kicked out. This is why, if I’m going to evict a tenant, I let no more than 10 days go by before filing the papers.

    I wish you luck with this case.

  10. 10 On December 25th, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    Must I appear in court? It would cost me to fly out, rent a car, hotel, time from work?? It is 2000 miles away.

  11. 11 On December 26th, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Colleen,
    Typically you personally do not have to appear but the judge may require an actual attorney to.

    If I were you, I would ask the agent to appear at the initial hearing and see what the judge says.

    As an aside, be sure to request back rent when you make the initial filing otherwise you’ll have to file again (including new filing fees) to get a judgment for back rent.

    Best case scenario is if the tenants don’t show up in court. This way, everything will go as fast as possible. The fastest I’ve seen this happen in Melbourne (FL) is 20 days from initial filing to changing the locks.

    Also, in a few weeks I’ll be launching a discussion forum at http://forums.landlord-success.com for discussing situations just like this. Check back soon for more details and again, good luck with this.

  12. 12 On December 28th, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    Hello again, yup I am having a hard time still. Have you ever heard of these folks called Eviction Runners?

    They say they will do it all for $549.00

    1) Select State —Select— Florida 2) Select County —Select— Broward Miami-Dade Palm Beach
    3-Day Notice $49
    3-Day Notice upgrade to Full Eviction $529
    Full Eviction Package $549
    County Eviction Forms $34

  13. 13 On December 28th, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Hi Colleen,
    Eviction Runners: I’ve never heard of them but I reviewed their web site and it looks like they will do all the “leg work” of the eviction including send an attorney (of their choosing) to court should that be required.

    In my experience, the eviction process rarely gets to court because the tenants know they’re in the wrong. If they do make it to court, it’s because they’re trying to buy time for themselves even though they know they will lose the case.

    The $549 full eviction package seems worth it since you’ll spend about that anyway with all the running around and filing fees.

    Good luck with this and please let us know the outcome.

  14. 14 On December 28th, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    Thanks for your help by the way. It helps me to calm down. Sometimes as a new landlord you can feel alone. Just 1 quick question. The tenants as of January 5th will owe another months rent. If I file court papers as of now” I already gave the 3 day notice…” It will go through before I can add January’s rent. Then they might just pay that..but they will be late again in a week..
    Also I wonder if the tenant can keep repeating this process for the whole years lease. Get evictions filed…go to court, by time, pay.. late again..same old.
    ??
    Again thanks for your help. And thanks for checking out the Eviction Runners website..

  15. 15 On December 28th, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Hi again Colleen,
    Glad I can help. As you can probably tell, I know exactly where you’re coming from.

    To answer your question: When (and if) you file the actual eviction complaint with the court, be sure to file for eviction AND damages including back rent.

    If this does go to court it’ll be near the end of January. Typically, after you file a three-day notice, you can not accept any money from them or the three-day notice will be ignored by the court and you’ll have to start the process all over with another three-day notice. If they send any money, simply send it back to them via certified mail with a note that you are filing for eviction.

    Hopefully they won’t show up to court and you’ll get a judgment for all the back rent. This means that they will not be able to buy a house, buy a car, etc. without paying you off first.

    Again good luck!

  16. 16 On December 31st, 2008, Colleen Menendezt said:

    Hey, those Eviction Runners in Palm Beach really get on the ball. They called me at home, respond to my emails quickly, present options, have lawyers for a low fee….So far I am impressed. I’ll let you know how it all turns out and give their info so others can use them.
    Colleen

  17. 17 On December 31st, 2008, TheLandlord said:

    Hi Colleen,
    Glad Eviction Runners are working out so far. Definitely let us know how this comes out and how Eviction Runners performs. I may even write a blog post about them. :)

    Cheers and Happy New Year!

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