All Forum Posts by: David Hines

@Dan Raphael

Hi Dan, I am an investor, real estate broker and property manager in Houston. Your plan looks strong. I would be happy to help you in any way I can. I will send you a direct message and all my contact information is on my profile page.

Take a lot of pictures to document the condition of the property. Absolutely go after him for the amount owed. Make sure you add in the damages beyond normal wear and tear that his security deposit doesn't cover. It may not seem worth your time now, but you never know when his circumstances may change and he'll be forced to pay the debt to get a future loan.

It doesn't matter that the lease was signed with the previous owner, it is still in effect. They owe the rent payments to you since you now own the property. However, if they choose not to sign a new lease, they can still enforce the old one and live in the property until the lease expires in a year. Did you collect any outstanding security deposit from the previous owner?

@Account Closed Dude, really?!?

To everyone else, thank you very much for your responses! I really appreciate your thoughts and ideas.

@Jon Q. The news makes it look worse than it is. I own properties in the west Houston areas of Katy and Cypress. I spent most of Sunday night watching my street flood and the water creep up my front yard. However, my own home, none of my rentals and none of the other properties I manage got water in them. The latest estimate I heard is somewhere around 50,000 homes flooded, but there are 1.8 million homes in Harris County alone. That is not an overwhelming percentage. As long as you are careful with your due diligence, there are plenty of areas to buy in Houston that don't pose much of a flooding risk.

I own properties in the west Houston areas of Katy and Cypress. I've already been notified by one tenant that they may have trouble making the September rent payment due to not working this week at all. None of my properties flooded, but schools are closed and a lot of employers are keeping their employees home all week. What would you recommend I do?

Does anyone in the Carolinas, Florida or New York/ New Jersey area have experience with a similar issue after Matthew or Sandy?

I am inclined to be pretty lenient, the last thing I want to do is initiate an eviction immediately following a natural disaster.

New Orleans had a mandatory evacuation with a large number of residents coming to Houston who just decided it wasn't worth the effort to go back. Even if Harvey displaces tens of thousands of people, there are 5+ million people in the Houston area and most of the displaced people haven't left town. Moving away from Houston is a much bigger step than just staying where you've already been evacuated. Keep in mind as well that the news will focus on the trouble areas. I have 5 properties in the west to northwest area of Houston and not a single one got water in them. I also manage properties spread from the east side of Cypress down to the energy corridor and none of those properties flooded either.

I disagree completely that Houston will experience anything close to the population decline New Orleans saw after Katrina. Remember New Orleans had a mandatory evacuation with a large number of residents coming to Houston who just decided it wasn't worth the effort to go back. Even if Harvey displaces tens of thousands of people, there are 5+ million people in the Houston area and most of the displaced people haven't left town. Moving away from Houston is a much bigger step than just staying where you've already been evacuated. Keep in mind as well that the news will focus on the trouble areas. I have 5 properties in the west to northwest area of Houston and not a single one got water in them. I also manage properties spread from the east side of Cypress down to the energy corridor and none of those properties flooded either.

I use Ideal Air services. Check them out online, the system won't let me post their number.

First of all, I am not a lawyer and you should definitely reach out to a lawyer if you need legal advice.

I am a real estate broker, property manager and investor and I've had a similar situation. If you are using the Residential Lease agreement promulgated by the Texas Association of Realtors, there is a section that deals with exactly this situation. Paragraph 16 covers Move-Out and specifies that a tenant may not abandon the property and outlines exactly what constitutes abandonment. If you follow the lease agreement and establish that the property has been abandoned, you shouldn't need to go through the whole eviction process to take possession of the property.

Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. All my contact information is on my profile page.