Nice, Wayne (nt) - Posted by Chad (MD)
Posted by Chad (MD) on March 02, 2009 at 06:32:12:
!
Re: Sick of filthy, trashy rental applicants - Posted by camgere
Posted by camgere on March 01, 2009 at 08:54:35:
If you can afford to, get rid of the bad rentals in order of which is most annoying. Having a few less bucks may be much better than walking around muttering to yourself like a crazy person. Creative real estate techniques may help the non-traditional buyer. You actually want your buyer to succeed. You could consider targeting some of the newly poor who really do just need a break.
A lot of life is managing expectations. You sound like an honest person who expects (there is that word) other people to be honest. You will suffer nothing but disappointment dealing with dishonest people. Dishonest people enjoy the challenge of dominating other dishonest people.
I would call most Americans pragmatic rather than honest. Which is great for going out into the wilderness with nothing but a hatchet and determination. Not so good for obeying traffic laws only when there is a cop around. Of course, nobody on this board rolls through stop signs, punches it through yellow lights or drives above the speed limit. That would be, uhh, pragmatic. Similarly many people only obey rules when they feel they would get caught. Yes, I have had tenants who think “no subletting” means they can move their friends in, charge rent and a security deposit and they haven’t done anything wrong. “No smoking” means claiming they don’t smoke in the house. Odd that there are yellow stains all around the tops of the walls and none the the smoke detectors still have batteries in them. Hey, we can do anything if we pay the rent. So buzz off.
Try to deal with people whose expectations more closely match yours. Leave the “I’ll pretend to rent decent housing to people who pretend to obey the lease” to someone else.
Re: Section 8 - Posted by Edwin
Posted by Edwin on March 03, 2009 at 20:12:37:
James, I recently found out that the local Sec. 8 office has had computer problems, so that might explain why my available rentals were not being seen by prospective tenants. The situation in Atlanta where they assigned point values to houses–and didn’t even tell you how they were rating them?!–and disqualifying an otherwise acceptable home only because there might have been a boarded house on the same street seems highly unusual. Maybe even illegal. But Michaela’s right about the better quality houses getting more of the Sec. 8 tenants when there is a surplus of homes. And why not? When your options are a vacancy or renting to sec. 8 and dealing with that bureaucracy, Sec. 8 looks very attractive.
I once lost a tenant who came very close to renting a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom home from me. He eventually found a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house only two years old for the exact same rent, $1,000. That same house would have probably rented for at least $1400 a couple years ago. But that doesn’t mean that’s always going to happen. Maybe he just got lucky? Maybe he was willing to look harder than other tenants?
Allow me to quote myself? - Posted by Wayne-NC
Posted by Wayne-NC on March 04, 2009 at 04:21:32:
“I am not saying that Edwin is one…” With that said, I have the same standards as you. I’ve had the good, the bad, and the ugly in tenants. You can do all the checking that you want but it really comes down to the luck of the draw. You just try to put the odds in your favor. Almost certain problems come with select minority groups, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships and those with a lot of kids and/or so called “pets”. If done tactfully and correctly, those problems can be avoided. I have a 100% disaster rate with those groups and have over 10 years of experience used to compile my statistics. Your results may vary.
(this is a repost, I can’t believe I had to do this. Posted to myself…Blah, but I wanted you to know that I am not making any accusations towards you Edwin)
Re: Allow me to quote myself? - Posted by Edwin
Posted by Edwin on March 04, 2009 at 07:00:13:
Okay, Wayne, I know you didn’t say I was a trashy landlord, but it seemed you left open the possibility I was one, so I just wanted to clarify. However, most of the time I don’t really care what others think. Now, if I understand the rest of your words, you seem to have said you have had 100% disasters when you rent to select minority groups, boyfriend/girlfriend cohabitation, and people with many kids and/or pets? Does that mean if someone fitting one of those characteristics came to you tomorrow asking to rent from you, that you’d deny them? If you did, is that being discriminitory, or is that you simply making an economic decision–and a sanity-preserving decsion–based on previous experiences with similar people? I ask that sort of tongue in cheek, but there is also a serious side to it, too. For example, in some states it is illegal to refuse to rent to unmarried couples, i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend living together. But what if you have a long history of successfully renting to married couples, and a long history of only disasters when you rented to unmarried couples, or to people with pets vs. no pets, many kids vs. few kids, etc. The variations could be many. Suppose next week an unmarried couple applies to rent from you. They qualify on all aspects: credit, income, etc., but you turn them down based on their unmarried status, BECAUSE YOUR EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT YOU THAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS ARE HIGH RISK. But according to the law it appears you have also discriminated. In a perfect world everyone would be evaluated independantly, but in reality many times people do make decisions based on prior experience, and with what they see are patterns. I have always said I don’t care who you are or where you’re from. I’ll rent to anyone who will pay their rent and take care of the property. Just behave responsibly is all I ask. But sometimes I have to make choices that might appear discriminatory to some.