Leasing monthly instead of yearly due to Covid

[Dana Williams]

My realtor happens to be my exwife and she was telling me over Thanksgiving dinner with our young adults that other landlords have been changing their leasing to 3 months rent up front and month to month due to the horror stories many landlords are facing now due to Covid.

How do you all feel about that and what are you doing to make sure your rents are paid?

Thanks,

Dana

[Filipe Pereira]

@Dana Williams it really doesn't matter WHAT you are evicting for right now. Whether it be for non payment, lapse of time, nuissance, etc. The issue isn't necessarily that the CDC has halted evictions or that there are moratoriums in place - it's that even when these moratoriums are lifted, there is going to be a heavy backlog of eviction cases. 

I'd like to think that there is some protection in having a shorter term lease, but at the end of the day, you're going to be in the same eviction line as the guy with a 12 month lease, so be ready for that. You can evict for reasons not related to non payment of rent (as @Kyle J. said), but even those evictions are going to put you past most eviction moratoriums in place right now anyway. 

We're proceeding as usual, and giving special attention to income vs debt ratios and how much a tenant has in savings.