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rent payment - What have you been offered for it?
We have several SFH's rentals and now we started renovating/managing a 12-plex we just purchased. One of the tenants got the 3 day notice after a month and a half of promising to pay rent. Well...the 3rd day was up on Wednesday night...that Tuesday night..at 11:40PM...we get a call from the tenants Mom...offering a bracelet as payment for her daughter's rent. My husband who took the call told her we have a rental business...we are not the red cross NOR a pond shop. She was out by the end of her third day...only after telling her Mom that we would also take her daughter to court for back rent and damages and that we will make sure to dent her records. Anyways...I've never been offered STUFF for rent. And by the way...SFH's are a lot easier to manage then appartment buildings!
Have any of you taken something other then money as rent payment?
Never have and never will. Would a professional management company ever accept anything other than cold hard cash? Absolutely not. You shouldn't either if you treat your business like an actual business.
Right...which is what I wrote on my post...I just think it's really funny...and it's the first time I actually get this offer from a tenant.
I had a guy offer to give me a couple of muscle cars for the down payment on a house. With me carrying the mortgage, naturally.
The cars were rusted out junk up on blocks. Not that I would have taken cars in trade for a house, but someone might if the cars were in good condition. I don't think anyone would have taken these cars without charging a big fee to haul them away.
No, the only thing tenants ever offer me instead of cash for the rent is a big empty promise accompanied by an even bigger lie.
During the gap between the eviction and the Sheriff showing up, I got a call from the tenants girlfriend saying that the tenant had just won a large disability settlement and if I didn't have him evicted and just waited another month I'd get all my back rent and all costs, etc., and if I would consider this, she'd get the lawyer to call me. Chuckling, I asked who the lawyer was. Click.
I did some bookkeeping years ago for a little old landlord who was the funniest guy - he leased out rooming houses and he took out rent payments in "trade" from some of the ladies. He is 83 years old now LOL
All I've ever been offered is:
hot air
empty promises
fast talking
vague innuendos
hard-luck stories
don't worry 'cause I've found religion
trust me
trust my mom
new job starts next month
some threats to call lawyers
and on and on......
My husband who took the call told her we have a rental business...we are not the red cross NOR a pond shop.
I'm not so sure, it looks like you've got some pond "scum" renting your apartment. LOL!
More people need to post about the strange items they have been offered.
Thanks for the post, this was fun reading!
This time I've been offered cleaning services...I actually took it !
She said she is having a tough time coming up with all of rent money...but she can clean and stuff for me. I took her offer...she is now cleaning 2 of my 6-plexs twice a month (common areas) hallway, stairs, laundry room, and some outside common areas. I'm discounting $80 from her $450 rent.
Originally posted by abhyler:
This time I've been offered cleaning services...I actually took it !
She said she is having a tough time coming up with all of rent money...but she can clean and stuff for me. I took her offer...she is now cleaning 2 of my 6-plexs twice a month (common areas) hallway, stairs, laundry room, and some outside common areas. I'm discounting $80 from her $450 rent.
Be careful - this sounds like you now have an employee, with all of the obligations that are implied by employment relationships (income tax withholding, insuring for workman's comp, bonding in case of theft in unit rented by somebody, etc).
For down payments on houses I've had for sale: a Harley Davidson, and another time, a 32' cabin cruiser. It was about 30 years old and I'm sure it had 20 years of deferred maintenance.
Steve, thanks for the advice on possible issues. I never thought of it that way - I will be watchful. :cool:
One time my father got a brand new Lincoln Continental for his commission on a sale. Like someone else posted, sometimes I will let a tenant do some work for a discounted rent. I also offer a referral fee if a tenant gets a tenant for one of my vacancies, usually $100.00.
The strangest reason I ever got for not paying rent was that the house was haunted. They didn't want to move but they didn't want to pay rent.
Tenants have pea brains anyway, so cold hard cash is the only way to really go in this business.
I have been offered sprinkler system repair services for a discount. Only about $150 worth though.
I will take anything that I can easily resale for a hefty profit rather than a rent check any day of the week. Maybe slightly more work, but a lot more money.
A year or so ago we went through a twilight zone period where 5 out of 7 renters in a short period of time were all strippers. When I say we, it is myself (female) and my cousin (male). My cousin is an ex Navy Seal and he has a body that is a poster child for the most chisled perfect body. Two of them offered to barter their services with him in exchange for rent.
I had one tenant arrested for carrying a kilo of drugs in his car. He tried to get me to pull an additional kilo out of a vent in my rental property, sell it and bring cash to Alabama to bail him out. Instead I gave the cops a key to the front door for them to do a search warrant and told them to check the vent.
In my younger days....I would sometimes get offers of something other than $$$ from a tenant. I would tell her to ask my wife, since she is the one that wrote the mortgage check. No wild stories, but we were all better off!
Bill
