I saw this earlier today.

The mistake the landlord is making us not offering “cash for keys”. I’ve done it twice and it’s very effective.

A little showmanship helps. I showed up on the porch with $1000 in $20s (impressive roll) and promised the deadbeat tenant he could have it all if he was out by Friday. Once he accepted I added that the deal included vacating the garage and the charge for additional garage storage was $100 per day.

He was out by Friday, and considering that the attorney wanted some $8K to handle an eviction I considered it a bargain. He took six more days to vacate the garage and the whole deal ended up costing me $400.

I rented the place back out for $300/mo more than he was paying and recovered my loss in the security deposit.

You probably weren't 12K in arrears on the rent. This guy is letting sunk costs drive his thinking.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
You probably weren't 12K in arrears on the rent. This guy is letting sunk costs drive his thinking.

Nope. I did it at month 1.

This is exactly why I sold my little house in the town I had planned to retire to. The moment the governor announced an eviction holiday, my tenant quit paying her rent, despite having a high paying federal govt job. She claimed she now had to support relatives affected by the pandemic. I had to have an attorney write her a letter explaining that the eviction holiday didn't apply to her. She shot back by threatening to go to the health department to complain that the house was dusty. Then she threatened to smear me on social media. Then she asked to renew her lease until March. When told that the house was now for sale, she threatened to be present for every showing and tell prospects how horrible the neighborhood was (it isnt).

I finally got rid of her a month before the lease was to end by buying her out.

It was sheer bad luck. The property manager had rented to her before and vouched for her--but that was before her divorce. She was the only tenant i did not personally vet myself.

I was so badly spooked by this I sold a property I didn't want to sell. But i am sure I spared myself even worse headaches.

I should have asked my barber, who owns a dozen or so rentals, if there was CARES or some other program monies available to make landlords whole with the eviction moratorium.

I've spent some time looking up who got how much in PPP forgivable loans and it is pretty stunning. my financial advisors, who are a firm of maybe 15 people and whose income is a percentage of assets managed, got half a million. Seems landlords should get equal treatment.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:


I've spent some time looking up who got how much in PPP forgivable loans and it is pretty stunning.

I've done the same. A cemetery around here got between $350K and a million.

For others who might be interested....

http://ppprecipients.com/

Fortunately, the people who rent my house by the month don't have tenant rights. I think ...

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Fortunately, the people who rent my house by the month don't have tenant rights. I think ...

I suspect they have Federal rights if they don't have local ones.

Well, it's a "vacation rental," so I hope no one tries to squat there ...

The rule on "vacation rentals" is (or was) that the tenant could not stay there for more than 2 weeks. After two weeks it was subject to the rules for long term rentals.

When I worked for the RV Park company we would have campers pull out for a night or two before allowing them back in.

Interesting. We have a couple who stay from Jan through May. But our clients are rather well-to-do. Not the folks who fall on hard times and then use the rules to squat on your property.

They’re the kind you want.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Interesting. We have a couple who stay from Jan through May. But our clients are rather well-to-do. Not the folks who fall on hard times and then use the rules to squat on your property.

You are right to be thinking about this. Once someone is in your house, be they renter, vacationer, or even just a non-paying guest, if they decide not to leave, you are vulnerable.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
Once someone is in your house, be they renter, vacationer, or even just a non-paying guest, if they decide not to leave, you are vulnerable.

This is one of the reasons multi-tenant properties make better rentals than single family homes.

For the price of a nicer house you can generally buy a fourplex. You'll get some 3X the rent and if one tenant flakes out it's not the end of the world.