All Forum Posts by: Andrea Proeber

I'm not sure but I think you are confusing Florida with California maybe? I've been a property manager here for nearly 20 years and it's actually incredibly rare to have squatters. Maybe down in South Florida it's more prevalent? We are in Central Florida so that stuff doesn't fly here.

We did have a house that was sold through one of our agents to someone out of State and when the buyer got here, there was a squatter there (hence the original question). The buyer simply called the cops and the person was escorted off the property. I didn't hear if they took them to jail, but this law is definitely in play. No eviction was necessary. Thanks for the comment though.

82.035 Remedy for unlawful detention by a transient occupant of residential property; recovery of transient occupant’s personal belongings.—(1) As used in this section, the term “transient occupant” means a person whose residency in real property intended for residential use has occurred for a brief length of time, is not pursuant to a lease, and whose occupancy was intended as transient in nature.

(a) Factors that establish that a person is a transient occupant include, but are not limited to:

1. The person does not have an ownership interest, financial interest, or leasehold interest in the property entitling him or her to occupancy of the property.

2. The person does not have any property utility subscriptions.

3. The person cannot produce documentation, correspondence, or identification cards sent or issued by a government agency, including, but not limited to, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or the supervisor of elections, which show that the person used the property address as an address of record with the agency within the previous 12 months.

4. The person pays minimal or no rent for his or her stay at the property.

5. The person does not have a designated space of his or her own, such as a room, at the property.

6. The person has minimal, if any, personal belongings at the property.

7. The person has an apparent permanent residence elsewhere.(b) Minor contributions made for the purchase of household goods, or minor contributions towards other household expenses, do not establish residency.

(2) A transient occupant unlawfully detains a residential property if the transient occupant remains in occupancy of the residential property after the party entitled to possession of the property has directed the transient occupant to leave. A transient occupancy terminates when a transient occupant begins to reside elsewhere, surrenders the key to the dwelling, or leaves the dwelling when directed by a law enforcement officer in receipt of an affidavit under subsection (3), the party entitled to possession, or a court. A transient occupancy is not extended by the presence of personal belongings of a former transient occupant.

(3) Any law enforcement officer may, upon receipt of a sworn affidavit of the party entitled to possession that a person who is a transient occupant is unlawfully detaining residential property, direct a transient occupant to surrender possession of residential property. The sworn affidavit must set forth the facts, including the applicable factors listed in paragraph (1)(a), which establish that a transient occupant is unlawfully detaining residential property.

(a) A person who fails to comply with the direction of the law enforcement officer to surrender possession or occupancy violates s. 810.08. In any prosecution of a violation of s. 810.08 related to this section, whether the defendant was properly classified as a transient occupant is not an element of the offense, the state is not required to prove that the defendant was in fact a transient occupant, and the defendant’s status as a permanent resident is not an affirmative defense.

(b) A person wrongfully removed pursuant to this subsection has a cause of action for wrongful removal against the person who requested the removal, and may recover injunctive relief and compensatory damages. However, a wrongfully removed person does not have a cause of action against the law enforcement officer or the agency employing the law enforcement officer absent a showing of bad faith by the law enforcement officer.

(4) A party entitled to possession of real property has a cause of action for unlawful detainer against a transient occupant pursuant to s. 82.03. The party entitled to possession is not required to notify the transient occupant before filing the action. If the court finds that the defendant is not a transient occupant but is instead a tenant of residential property governed by part II of chapter 83, the court may not dismiss the action without first allowing the plaintiff to give the transient occupant the notice required by that part and to thereafter amend the complaint to pursue eviction under that part.

(5) The party entitled to possession of a dwelling shall allow a former transient occupant to recover his or her personal belongings at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions.

(a) Unless otherwise agreed to, a reasonable time for the recovery of the former transient occupant’s personal belongings generally means a time period within 10 days after termination of the transient occupancy, when the party entitled to possession of the dwelling or a trusted third party can be present at the dwelling to supervise the recovery of the belongings.

(b) If the party entitled to possession of the dwelling reasonably believes that the former transient occupant has engaged in misconduct or has a history of violence or drug or alcohol abuse, it is reasonable for the party entitled to possession of the dwelling to impose additional conditions on access to the dwelling or the personal belongings. These conditions may include, but are not limited to, the presence of a law enforcement officer, the use of a mover registered with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, or the use of a trusted third party to recover the personal belongings. For purposes of this paragraph, misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

1. Intentional damage to the dwelling, to property owned by the party entitled to possession of the dwelling, or to property owned by another occupant of the dwelling;

2. Physical or verbal abuse directed at the party entitled to possession of the dwelling or another occupant of the dwelling; or

3. Theft of property belonging to the party entitled to possession of the dwelling or property of another occupant of the dwelling.

(c) The person entitled to possession of a dwelling may presume that the former transient occupant has abandoned personal belongings left at the dwelling if the former transient occupant does not seek to recover them within a reasonable time after the transient occupant surrenders occupancy of the dwelling. The time period to recover personal belongings may be extended due to the unavailability of the party entitled to possession of the dwelling to supervise the recovery of the personal belongings. Circumstances that may shorten the time include, but are not limited to, the poor condition of or the perishable or hazardous nature of the personal belongings, the intent of the former transient occupant to abandon or discard the belongings, or the significant impairment of the use of the dwelling by the storage of the former transient occupant’s personal belongings.

(d) If the person entitled to possession of the dwelling unreasonably withholds access to a former transient occupant’s personal belongings, the former transient occupant may bring a civil action for damages or the recovery of the property. The court shall award the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees and costs.

(6) This section shall be construed in recognition of the right to exclude others as one of the most essential components of property rights.History.—s. 1, ch. 2015-89; s. 1, ch. 2018-83; s. 5, ch. 2018-94.

The only US states that currently require you to be licensed in order to wholesale real estate are Illinois and Oklahoma. 

There are also some laws that you must adhere to in Florida. For example, Florida state laws dictate that you can’t market a property unless you are the current seller or contracted agent. So that means as a wholesaler, you can’t actually put For Sale signs outside the property or market the property in any way unless you currently have the legal title or are representing the seller as a licensed real estate agent.

Otherwise if convicted of unlicensed activity it is a 3rd degree felony. 

However it is much more likely that you will be sued for fraud by past customers or their families that feel cheated and lied to. More and more judges are looking at this as a predatory practice that takes advantage of the most vulnerable of the general public, namely the elderly and the disabled.

The ethics of real estate wholesaling can be a complex issue that depends on several factors, including the specific actions and practices of the wholesaler. 

Generally speaking, real estate wholesaling is currently legal and it involves finding distressed or undervalued properties and then assigning or reselling the contract to another buyer at a higher price often on the same day. (As you mentioned).

However, there have been many, many cases where some real estate wholesalers engage in unethical practices, such as misleading property owners, buyers, or investors about the value of the property or their own involvement in the transaction, misrepresenting property conditions, or engaging in fraudulent activities.

It is important for real estate wholesalers to operate within ethical and legal boundaries, be transparent in their dealings, and provide accurate information to all parties involved in the transaction. Wholesalers should adhere to industry standards and regulations, including obtaining the necessary licenses and permits, and disclose any conflicts of interest that may arise during the transaction.

Overall, real estate wholesaling can be ethical if conducted with transparency, honesty, and integrity. But the often shady and unethical practices from the majority can undermine the credibility of the wholesaler and harm the parties involved in the transaction.
Enough of an outcry over the years by people that have been defrauded, has initiated  changes to the legality and abilities of a wholesaler to sell without owning a portion of the property for a certain amount of time or limiting the amount of transactions you are able to have without a real estate license. 
I know in some States they have laws for car sales as well. If you sell 10+ cars in a year, you must have a license. 

I'm sure as quick as they come up with legislature, they will come up with loopholes around it all, but my comment stands, why risk a felony? Just get a real estate license and keep up with your States upcoming laws regarding wholesaling.

While it is far kinder and better business practice to do slow incremental increases, at times for various reasons, situations like this arise.

I'm not sure what you pay out in commission to find a new tenant to your property manager or leasing agent, but I bet it's not over $6,000!

In the math mentioned of $1,595 going up to $2100 that's $505 increase monthly. On a long term (aka annual) lease term of 12 months that is $6,060. 

Even if you miss a full month of rent because of turnover, it's still in your best interest to do an increase. 

The tenant then has the choice to continue renting at that price or find a unit elsewhere. Are they really going to find something better for less? If that is truly the market rent, it probably doesn't make sense for them to pay costly moving expenses. 

Maybe negotiating down to $1995 per month may allow you another year, without having to pay for turnover and leasing commissions. 

Hope this helps!

The laws in several States are changing because of wholesalers at times questionable business practices. If you have to lie, maybe don't do that.

Also, many wholesalers are essentially working as a licensed real estate agent without having a license. Here in Florida it's now a felony and they are targeting wholesalers.

Being a "middle man" to a real estate transaction that you do not have ownership in and are going to make money on the transaction...is essentially a really good description of a licensed real estate agent. 

The laws are changing and going into effect all over the country, so be very careful with not only what your current laws are, but also, what are the new laws and when do they go into effect.

My advice would be to look into getting a real estate license. It may be worth it for you.

After doing property management and owning our own properties as well, I would honestly say that the biggest thing you can do to have a smooth landlord experience is to screen the tenants into oblivion. 

I do not trust that the computer screening is going to give an accurate depiction. 

For example, maiden names or if the prospective tenant messes with their own name it won't allow you to see their public records or evictions. Also, some counties (not to mention States) are not very forthcoming with their eviction or court history. When you do a computer based screening, if it can't get access quickly and easily it will skip it and say: "No records found" which leads you to believe there aren't any evictions when in fact there may have been 5 but the screening honestly couldn't find them.

We check id and use that, not just what was scribbled down on the application

We run the computer based screening (We use rentecdirect for our property management/screening and quickbooks for accounting)

This will normally give you a list of former addresses. 

We then go to those county courthouses and do a manual search utilizing maiden names and just initials along with birth dates in case the court house misspelled something (This happens often)

This also helps with past lawsuits by former apartment complexes. Yes, the tenant may have left and not been evicted but they left the place trashed and owing several months rent and were then sued by a former landlord. This will not necessarily come up on a computer screening as well.

We only check their credit in so far as their living expenses are paid. If they have a recent divorce, student loans or medical bills it can give them a bad credit score that does not give the true picture. So I highly recommend going with a company that will not just give you a score, but the actual items on the credit report. We look at unpaid electric bills differently than unpaid medical bills.

I would also check on their social media presence if you are worried about pets. They won't put an aggressive dog on their application but they will put it on facebook along with its 12 puppies and that they have decided to keep 4 of them.

It takes a little longer to find a tenant, but figure out your process and stick to it. 

In 15 years and hundreds of houses and thousands of families including going through a global pandemic...I've had to do less than a dozen evictions total over the years. 85% of those were 'inherited' tenants, in that we took over management with the tenants there that were placed by a different management company.

Hope this helps.

I am a Realtor in Central Florida. Our brokerage has a healthy property management division which attracts a lot of investors.

In the past, finding a lender or program for a foreign investor was easy but since covid that seems to have changed dramatically.

Is anyone currently utilizing a lender that can/will lend to foreigners? Fully 30% of investors here in Florida are foreigners so this seems a little disconcerting for us.

Every one that I have reached out to have sent me emails back similar to this:
"Andrea,

I appreciate you reaching out! Unfortunately, we cannot lend to foreign investors. Due to our regulations, I honestly can’t think of anyone that can."

Thoughts? Recommendations? Referrals?