All Forum Posts by: Brian McCarter

Medical students actually are my target market since it's a 1 min walk to a medical school. 

I am also well versed in landlord tenant law to the point that I have corrected real estate attorneys on a few occasions.

The problem is that I am in the legally flawed state of Massachusetts which lacks a rent escrow law and has a sanitary code that is easy for a "professional" tenant to abuse legally. A code violation that is the landlords fault can be created as easily as removing the outlet cover and calling inspectional services. The only real cure is to screen people.  Lots of the old time landlords automatically reject lawyers and law students because since they have a high tendency to take you to court and abuse the numerous loopholes in the laws. Even if you do everything right, you can still lose in court here. We lobby constantly to close the loopholes to at least make the law fair.

When I got my real estate license and took the refresher class to keep the license (by an attorney no less teaching) it was stated that it was legal to discriminate against law students and lawyers. As others have mentioned, law students and attorneys, don't appear to be protected classes.  I am wondering if anyone has tested it in court people and if they have ever run into problems? 

Also I apologize for any flaws in my grammar since this was typed and edited on my phone.

Hey everyone. So I am trying to determine if it's still legal to automatically reject lawyers and law students on that basis alone?  I am in Massachusetts. 

It's a new rental season and I like to brush up on my knowledge of the law in out very landlord unfriendly state. 

What are the groups of tenants attorneys that you need to watch out for? I was doing some digging to try and find out, since I thought it would be good to know who they are, in case one of them ever crosses my bow. Many people have mentioned the free attorneys funded by the interest on the escrow accounts or from the "reasonable attorneys fees", attached to many judgments. So what are the names of the groups to watch out for?

@Marta M. Your are right to avoid charging an application fee as a landlord. In Dolben Co. v. Friedmann, 2008 Mass. App. Div. 1,2008 WL 81549, at *4 (Jan. 2, 2008) the court held that it was a violation of the statute to charge a $35 application fee “once [the tenant] agreed to lease the unit.”.

If you have serious money to burn for us, you could go to court and get the definition of “potential tenant,” as opposed to “tenants or prospective tenants” sorted out for us since Dolben did state that a landlord may pass some reasonable costs of processing applications and other expenses incidental to the review of "potential tenants" but not to "tenants or prospective tenants" since case after case after case (Mellor v. Berman, 390 Mass. 275, 279 (1983), Cote v. Sylvia, 2008 Mass. App. Div. 27,9 2008 WL 217396, Hermida et al. v. Archstone) call section 15B is unambiguous in that you may only charge first, last, security and key change.

Now can a property management firm or real estate agent charge and application or credit check fee? This I do not know. Would they be agents of the landlord and fall under the same rules. My bet would be yes, but I am not an attorney and have no case law knowledge on the subject. My guess is that will be the next defense someone tries in court after the recent Herminda case.

@Mike Hurney,

Can you please explain what certification requirements you speak of that are mass specific, in order to be able to review credit checks?

Is this the credentialing requirements that each credit agency has that include site visits, before they allow you to directly pull credit reports(as apposed to smart move that operates a different way) or some other kind of cerftificaiton?

You might want to be a little more specific about what your looking for? Is it a specific deal your raising funds for, or trying to have funds ready to be called on when you have a deal?

Was the link to the law requiring a person to be registered in Massachusetts to review credit checks ever located?

Hey everyone, I am looking for good books on the nitty gritty of how to write the contracts for private notes directly with people with money. I have a very strong finance background and am looking for a real solid book on the subject. I will use a lawyer to complete the contracts, but I want to be able to get 90% of the way there on my own.

The ownership % to the heirs will be known and in the will. Would it be easier to split it into three to 10 notes (depends on if the will is to kids or grandkids and kids) or to find a servicer that can just split payment as directed by estate. I know the owners lawyer, accountant and advisors and can ensure any of the details are done right assuming we agree on the major terms or price, rate, and duration.

Hey everyone. I wanted to see if their was a list of third party loan servicer for a seller financed transaction? This might be a fairly long term seller finance so it would have to be a servicer that can divvy up the proceeds to the owner heirs after his/her death.

Thank you.

Thank you John Jobe. Swisco.com guessed the correct window manufacturer and had the part. I ended up calling the maker to verify it was their windows based on the bar code and they offered to ship replacements for free. You just saved me thousands of dollars since this is for a high end rental and the windows have to work.