All Forum Posts by: Daniel Miller

It definitely sounds like I should only rent to this group if I'm *really* desperate (i.e., nobody else worked out). Fortunately, it looks like I've found a good, peaceful, mature couple with good income to take the house, but I was getting worried because I only had four applications on hand, this was one, and the "lop-sized income" family was another. I hope the signing this afternoon goes peacefully, and I can just relax for now!!

However, I'm going to put the "joint and several liability" clause in my contracts anyway; it would have been relevant for the un-married "lopsided income" family as well!

Thanks for all the excellent advice!

I'm studying the first application for my dad's house. It is a guy and gal that have been living separately and want to move in together. I met him at the viewing, but have not met her. I pulled credit reports on both of them via SmartMove.

He is a well paid engineer, credit score 800+, lots of money in the bank, paid last two months rent on time, all-green credit report. However, he owned his home from 2002 to 2011, then suddenly is renting. I *think* he said something about divorce, but need to clarify that. Either way, his all-green credit report goes back far earlier than the move from his house, so whatever caused that, did not damage his credit.

She has highly-fluctuating but generally low income, credit score 513, credit report looks like a paintball target; two accounts written off as bad debt, one in 2009, one in 2012.

I'm not sure how to evaluate this situation....

In evaluating the debt load that this rent would put on them, I am disregarding her (low and unreliable) income, and looking at his; the rent on this house will be about 50% of his income. When I look at the rest of his expenses, they add up to 80+% of what's left.

Somewhere on this site (I *think* it was on this site...) I saw some discussions of what should be considered a maximum debt load, I cannot find those discussions now; could someone here give me some pointers?? Either specific advice, or links to earlier threads that addressed the debt-load topic, or both, would be very welcome!

I'm sort of multiple questions in one thread, but I don't think they can really be separated;

1. Should I consider only his income, since hers is both low and highly fluctuating?

2. If I *do* consider only his income, is that debt load too marginal?

3. more generally, I presume this situation where one person is more stable than the other, is a common situation that many people here have dealt with; how do you typically handle it?

For now, I'm going to ask them for another month of bank statements, to try to get a better idea of their cash flow. I'm going to tell them outright that I think they are marginal for a rent of this size, and that's why I want more data. I have no doubt that they'll provide it, they really like the house, and have been very cooperative so far.

Well, my weekend showing went very well. I had six families/groups view it, and I've received applications from four of them. Not too bad. I felt good about every group who came through. Nobody was picky or asking for modifications up front.

I had one group that I'm a little uncertain about. Actually, they are third in line for review, so I may not even be checking them out, but I wanted to see what people think about applicants like this;

Two women showed up to look at the house. They were both in their 20's (my guess, I haven't actually checked). They were friends, not related, and want to rent the house with their boyfriends (so four 20's adults total). They (the two viewers) told me they (all four prospects) had reliable jobs and plenty of cash. They got all four applications back to me expeditiously (within a few hours), which probably is not a bad sign.

My main concern is "division of financial responsibility" (to make up a phrase); by that I mean, if one person moves out, will the others be able to make the rent? What if two move out (for example one couple decides to get married and get their own place)? Let's say two move out, the other two want to stay, but can't easily make the rent and want to find other tenants to move in??

Has anyone else dealt with this situation in the past? Is there an accepted process for dealing with such eventualities? Or should I just consider them ineligible?

speaking of "letters testamentary", I was actually unable to get those letters generated until the probate was concluded, which took months (they came from the court, IIRC). I've since read elsewhere that I should not have had this problem, so I don't know why I did... and without them, Fidelity Investments wouldn't allow me to manage mother's IRAs at all.

Ummm... that's really probably rather tricky, legally... the problem is, once a human being dies, his entire existence is folded into an entity called "his estate"... that includes all his debts and responsibilities... so, for example, I would suspect that the only entity which could legally deal with a change in the value of the "estate" (i.e., any addition or reduction of value) would be the "executor" of the "estate", whoever that might be. Of course, for a random person picked out of the cloud of humanity, any of these quoted entities may be difficult to identify.

If you *do* know who the executor of the deceased's estate is, you can try to negotiate with them, but ultimately you might be stuck waiting for quite a while for some court to make a decision. Certainly, my dad's life was put on hold for a ridiculous period while we went through an absurd probate on mother's estate...

And please realize that I have NO legal training, the only value that I add to this discussion is my experience as executor of my mother's rather odd estate (and my engineering training in analyzing a situation). So I'm just pondering what I think about the situation, and offering my thoughts, hoping they are useful! 8-{)

Oh, Theresa K.!! That's so simple!! Yes, that's what I'll do from now on; I'm also using the SmartMove site, I've used it once already, it worked very simply. That will also solve the problem of me having to return money to a bunch of people if I get 5 applications, and accept the first applicant! That also lets them submit the application via email, which is so simple (if they don't need to give me cash).

Ah! Excellent reference, Theresa K.!! Article 1710.2 addresses two of the three issues that I asked about here...
1. "prior to the date the transferee offers to purchase, lease, or rent
the real property"
2. "No cause of action arises against an owner ... of a transferee of real
property, for the failure to disclose ... where the death has occurred more than three years prior to the date [of transfer]"

My mother died in January 2009, so it's been more than three years (unless the law calculates using floor(current_year - event_year)). So that resolves the legal issues. The moral issues, nobody can answer except me!!
Thank you again for all of your thoughts!

That's what I need to find out, I guess, whether there are any legal obligations for this disclosure, and if so, whether it applies to sale only or even for rental.

Based on what I've learned from dad's care manager, and some other people that I've discussed this with, it may be more of an issue with Asian cultures than with others. I disclosed the issue separately to my first applicants (who were Hispanic), and they told me it was of no concern to them.

For the moment, I'll take applications today without worrying about it, and then do more research next week, unless someone here is familiar enough with California law to know the answers already!! 8-{)

If someone moved in, then called me a month or two down the line saying something like "We aren't happy here, my wife and I have both been having nightmares that some spirit is roaming the house", I would be in a very uncomfortable place...

I've mentioned before that this house that I'm trying to rent out, was occupied by my parents for 40 years. One thing I didn't mention, is that my mother committed suicide (by gunshot) there in 2009...

When my father's dementia started getting more serious, early this year, I hired an elderly-care manager to handle a variety of tasks like getting him to doctors (he wouldn't go with me), and eventually transition him into assisted living, where he is now.

I was initially thinking of selling the house to pay for his care, so I discussed it with her. One thing that she mentioned at the time was that I probably should disclose this event to prospective buyers. She is Chinese, and she told me that many Chinese people might be uncomfortable living in a house where someone had died violently.

So, *should* I be disclosing this to prospective renters? If so, when, at viewing time, or at lease signing?? Obviously, I would prefer not to mention it at all, but am unsure what legal and/or moral constraints I might be operating under...

Okay, thanks for the clarifications. I don't have any problem with the application fee, and all but one of the people I've met so far expected the fee, and had cash. It was just managing this pre-deposit that I didn't know how to manage.

I've seen both fees mentioned repeatedly in articles here, usually in the context of "when they hand me the application, I collect [both fees] IN CASH at that time"... that's why I had the impressions that I had.

So I'll chill out (something I'm not all that good at!) and just enjoy showing the place today!!