All Forum Posts by: Cathy S.

Problem tenants moved out finally but they took all my inherited furniture from past seller. It used to be a furnished Airbnb (furniture was “used”) but still. I’m not 100% sure of what was all in there, but it was at least a couch, 2 beds, coffee table, bar stools etc. I texted the previous seller and she said everything was used and probably not worth a lot (no big ticket items). Out of principle, would you try to take some out of their security deposit? Or just let it slide and use it as a learning experience.

I don’t really care about the used stuff but they essentially stole what was not theirs and I could have maybe resold for a few hundred bucks.

Seeking advice! I have an interesting situation. Current problem tenants who I inherited and have not paid 9 months rent due to Covid are trying to break their lease 1 month early! I did get all their owed rent from the city of San Diego though.

I’m currently doing garage construction and the noise has been getting to them and they have said that they will vacate by end of month (dream come true) if I don’t charge them for the month of April. Their lease actually ends on April 30. Literally a few weeks ago they said they wanted a lease renewal to “save up money for a house” but I said no I’m not renewing due to renovations.

I want them out asap so it’s a miracle that they are trying to leave on their own. Now the question is do I still try to get them to pay for the month of April? On one hand yes that is the legal agreement that is the lease. On the other hand the sooner they get out of my property the better so I’m willing to forgo that one month’s rent, renovate it and rent it to better tenants

Hi everyone.

I would like some suggestions on how I should approach this situation. I have a set of tenants who have been living in my rental for over a year (before I even bought my property) and their lease with me is ending end of next month.


During the last 12 months they have only paid rent three times. The other 9 months I got the rent directly from the city of San Diego through the Covid assistance program thankfully. These tenants only paid their rent on time a handful of times, are terrible at communicating and wouldn’t tell me that they weren’t going to pay rent before applying to the assistance program, and again did not pay rent for 9 months.


I texted them today asking what their plans are for when their lease ends end of next month and they wanted to a new lease “so they can save for a house”. I want them gone and obviously don’t want to renew. If I do nothing, their lease automatically becomes month to month (with an increase of $200/month on rent). If they don’t pay rent, I can just give them a 30 days’ notice and start the eviction process.

What should I do about this situation? Should I just put them on month to month or is there another way for me to get them to leave?

@Dan H. yes! I would love to do a BRRRR but it's hard to find any sort of properties that have that potential to add value to from the MLS. Seems to be way too competitive with offers going way over the asking price/all cash offers. Perhaps the only real shot I have at doing a BRRRR is networking and finding off market deals?

Hey @Dan H. thanks for bringing up those points. I am planning on sticking with the 2-4 unit buy/hold/house hack strategy in SD but was hoping to find a way to quicken the process rather than wait 2 yrs between properties to accumulate the down payment for the next property. It seems like commercial deals are for the more advanced professional players and companies that specialize in that arena specifically. I think I'm just antsy and want to find a way to save faster for the down payment rather than just slowly accumulating my paychecks from my full time job

Hi everyone! I am very interested in getting into the world of commercial real estate where the loan you can get is not dependent on your income, and you can seriously increase the value of the property via NOI, simply raising rent by x amount and decreasing some expenses can greatly increase the value of the property. Maybe I'm naive but this seems too simple?

I am looking to connect with other investors who already have experience with commercial properties 5+ units. I would like to start connecting with brokers and analyzing deals. It seems like commercial lenders will readily fund good deals if all the numbers look good.

Perhaps I am over-simplifying things and commercial real estate is difficult to get into because it’ll be me going against full time professionals who only do commercial deals… any insights / suggestions / comments appreciated! I am specifically looking in the San Diego market but open to others.

@Khoa Ha @Oscar Miguel

Do you guys mind sharing what the appraisal came back as? Was it greater than the cost of construction? How was the value per square foot evaluated? Thank you!!!

I reached out to Loan Depot today and gave the rep on the call some of my numbers. TBD what he comes back with.

@Khoa Ha Wow that's awesome! I will have to check out Loan Depot. Do you have a contact that you would recommend? Also curious how dd the appraisal come back for the ADU? I keep on hearing that the appraisal for ADUs is not as high as you would think due to lack of comps. Also who does the appraisal? Thank you!!

@Oscar Miguel @Khoa Ha

Resurrecting this thread. I was wondering if you guys had any updates on this. I am in a similar situation (currently in the process of adding an ADU + JADU to my duplex) and my lender pretty much told me the same thing that they can't refinance it because of the current rules with Fannie Mae.

What I would like to do is somehow tap into the equity of the property but based on what I'm hearing no one will want to refinance duplexes with an ADU. Is this true? What other options can I do to use some equity in the property?

Thank you!!

For those interested in what ended up happening…the best case scenario. I was firm with the tenants multiple times over text/in person and essentially hardballed them with a strict deadline saying their items may get damaged by contractors by this date, and they ended up clearing everything out.

Didn’t have to pay them any cash, hire an attorney, build a shed, or pay for storage. Just sent some carefully worded texts and pressured them in person and they got all their junk out.

phew! Many lessons learned from this experience and will be more careful in the future.