"Stolen goods all over the property!"

[Tyler Rowland]

Beginning of this week, there was a police notice that went out on our local Facebook page.  It said that if anyone had their storage unit burglarized in the last few weeks, to contact the police, stating they had caught the culprit, and had found some of the recently reported stolen goods.  

Didn't think much of it.  They mentioned in the noticed which Storage units were broke into, which were plenty far away from my storage unit's location.

Fast forward a few days; My friend (an RE investor)  asked me if I had heard about the recent storage unit break ins.  I told her "yes, I remember something about that happening."  She said "The thieves were her tenants."  

I had been talking to her about her rental property in the previous month, as her property was a lot like mine.  So I was really taken aback when she said they were her tenants.  I was able to get the scoop, and the situation is almost verbatim for the warnings that are talked about on the Podcasts and written about by RE investors.  

Turns out the Tenants were from California, they found the property for rent on Craigslist, and offered 6 months of rent up front; on top of the Security Deposit.  My friend, who has been courageously battling cancer off and on for years now, and relatively newer to RE investing jumped at the opportunity.  She did a quick background check (typed their names into google), and signed the lease.  

After getting the phone call from police that her duplex was the one where they were storing the stolen goods at(among other substances) she got with a lawyer to see what she how she could mitigate losses.  Luckily she was able to get them legally evicted very quickly to gain access to the property, which is a lot easier to do when the tenants are behind bars.  The way she described the state of the property, is as follows.  "I cannot see what damage they have done to the duplex, because there is so much junk and tons presumably stolen goods. "  

She has quite the road ahead of her, and she did the right thing to lawyer up and see if she can recoup her losses.  Luckily, they were caught about 3 months into their lease so she has some room to work and good people to help her in this crazy event.  But this could have been so much worse.

I just wanted to share this story on BP, to show that the advice given by David Green and Brandon Turner, as well as the many experienced investors on this platform, is not without cause.  Read the books, listen to the podcasts, ask questions on the forums!  They will save you from having to go through situations like these. 

Anyone ever been offered 6+ months rent up front and taken it?  How did it work out for you?