All Forum Posts by: Mark Hu

We have a property which had been designed for the 'party crowd' in a party area. We can't seem to avoid running into soap opera cases on a regular basis.
Also we sometimes get a rare surprise from among our 'normal' tenants.

I don't understand the details of what you are doing, but I do know vacation rentals are way down now. They were the first to be hit when the downturn began, and they will be the last to recover.

Again I would say, don't do it unless you can survive losing your investment.

But lots of my pals do ignore my advice.

So the message here is listen to the cop!

I have indicated in an earlier post that I do agree with most of you, interfering in a domestic situation is VERY BAD.

One last question: 'The book' mentions one should begin eviction proceedings against either the aggressor or both parties involved in the domestic dispute. Correct?

The books is 'Every Landlord's Legal guide' by Marcia Stewart.

Of course I don't want to get shot for getting involved in someone else's soap opera. But the book does mention the landlord being 'liable' if he knows a tenant is in danger and does nothing.

If true that puts one between a rock and a hard place, doesn't it? Fortunately things like that only come up once every 2 or 3 years!

Looks to me like you are betting the bottom of the downturn is here. If you bet right, you might do well. But I believe you also better be able to handle a complete loss in case the economy continues to worsen over the next couple of years.

It does seem like a bad time for a newbie to make the plunge.

I recently read a landlord law book which stressed, although landlord should stay out of domestic/roommates disputes, that if a tenant's life or health was in serious danger from violent/spouse or roommate, landlord might be liable if they do nothing.

The book recommended landlords learn how to get a restraining order so they can advise a potential victim to get such an order how to do it.

But a cop at a local police station told me that was a bunch of baloney and my best bet was to keep entirely out of such situations, and not even give advice.

Who is correct here?

I don't think it fair to call the naysayers knife throwers. I think you are getting honest opinions from people who do normal rentals as a business. This crash pad rental business is full of ideas that for a normal rental business are VERY BAD.
For example, your prospective clients form less than .0000001% of the population. Regular landlords who rent to 30% of the population are having a hell of a time getting rents nowadays.
Crash pad rentals is an interesting idea, but I've heard tons of interesting ideas that never panned out. You should listen to the naysayers as well before betting your time and money.

It seems like many people felt that if everyone believed the real estate market boom would never end, that belief would keep it going forever.
So while there were some warnings were made of this coming bust, those warnings were either ignored, or silenced.
Similar to what happened before the Great D. Hopefully the consequences will not be similar

I've heard of software called Yari. It's supposed to be used by large real estate companies. I've never had the chance to use it but wish I did. Has anyone here used it?