All Forum Posts by: Divya Sosa

Thank you for everyone who provided guidance. Here is the latest update. 

1. I informed the tenant sometime in second or third week of Jan that I found out that she had lied on the application and I suggest her to vacate the premises by end of Feb. She initially questioned that why I think she lied etc etc. Did not confirm if she will leave or not. 

2. I contacted an attorney to still initiate an eviction just in case the end of Feb comes and she has not left.

3. I just found out today that she probably left the property on Feb 18th or so. I entered the house today and confirmed that she is gone. There is some damage to the house. But nothing major. I may have to get the floors refinished because there are some scratches and some paint touch ups. She did not pay the Feb rent but I got to take care of that from her deposit. And will see if its worth going after her for some of the damage that has been caused. 

Some valuable lessons have been learned along the way and I am thankful that this did not turn into a nightmare. 

Thanks everyone

Hello, 

I wanted to draft a contract for GC to work on various projects with us and I was curious to see if its better to get a proper contract drafted through a lawyer or are there any templates I can use. Contract I have in my mind are pretty straight forward with basic things like scope of work, timeline, price etc. 

Thanks

Property is in class A neighborhood. And I have below clause in the lease

Rental Application: Only those people indicated on Tenant’s rental application are permitted to reside at the Premises, with the exception of any minor children born to, or adopted by, Tenant. If it is later discovered that the information disclosed on rental application by Tenant was incomplete or inaccurate at the time it was given, Tenant shall be in default of this Lease and Landlord may pursue any and all of Landlord’s remedies regarding said default.

Thank you so much for the feedback everyone. It really helps. 

OK thank you for the advise. I have a call with an attorney today.

I am just curious, how do I check the court records myself? Isnt it sufficient using apps like Stessa or Avail or Rentprep etc etc?

Hello,

I had a unit up for rental (a townhome) and received an application from Zillow which showed that she has no criminal history and credit score was good as well. I did all my other due diligence like asking for paystubs, W2s, Tax returns, Employment verification, bank statements etc etc and did not see any red flags overall. I did not do a separate criminal background check as I trusted the info from Zillow (Big lesson learned never to trust the Zillow data again in life). We signed the lease and the tenant moved in the unit in Nov. After they moved in, we started to get some mild complains from our neighbors (for the rented unit which was our primary residence until we moved out in another house a few miles away).

1. Within a couple of days, our neighbor said that they smelled weed from the backyard. (Ok I get it that its 2024 and people smoke weed). I gently asked the tenant if she smelled weed in the backyard and she claimed that she does not smoke anything so she does not know etc etc.

2. Some neighbors also told me that there seems to be more people living in the house (on the lease its supposed to be the lady and her two kids 4 YO and 8 or 9 YO). But the neighbors feel that there are two more adults for sure.

3. And some other small but strange things. No complaints from neighbors about any loud noise or erratic behavior or anything. But they all seem to feel that their overall behavior is just not the best. 

I felt like checking a little bit more so I ran a proper background check on her and was shocked to find that she has multiple felonies including jail time. Starting from 2016 she has several things like giving false information to law enforcement officers, Shop lifting, battery and more giving false identity to law enforcement officers and then the felony for identity theft. The felony was as recent as 2020 so I am not sure how Zillow report did not show that but anyway. 

My question is - Shall I simply not take a chance with her and inform her that I have found discrepancy on her application and her background and just ask her to evict? Ofcourse I am planning to consult a lawyer first. 

One of my friend happens to be a RE agent, landlord and a property manager himself and he seems to feel that as long as she pays rent on time and does not create nuisance, not to worry much and just keep do a quarterly property inspection. If anything is obvious like a solid proof of more people living in the house or signs of smoking in the house or if she misses even one rent payment then start the eviction process. I trust his advise but I feel that its not worth taking a chance and I should ask her to politely leave based on the fact that she has lied on her application. 

Suggestions?

Hello guys, 

I have a tenant who started leasing my residential property in March'24. The rent comes on time for March, April and May. June they paid late rent with the penalty. July they are going to pay late rent again. Tenant says that is due to kid being sick and she missing work due to that. I sympathize with the tenant but I am thinking to send them an email reminder that rent is due on 1st of the month and its not okay to continuously pay late rent. 

Tenant have a co-signer on the lease. Would it be wise to send them an email strongly indicating that its not okay to make late rent payments continuously and that the co-signer needs to step in during these kind of circumstances?

I am thinking to send them a lease violation notice in August IF the August rent is also late. Which I suspect will be the case again because there are only three weeks between the July rent payment and Aug due date.

 And perhaps in that case, I am thinking to offer them cash for keys to vacate the property (After the property is vacated and condition of the property is verified) rather than hoping that this will get any better. 

Any suggestions are welcome. 

Thanks in advance

Thank you so much

Hello, 

I had a rental property in greater Chattanooga TN area  which I got listed for sale back in Aug 2023. Offer was accepted and a closing date was finalized on a date in last week of October 2023. Property was managed by a professional management company. Tenant lease was expiring on Nov 14, 2023. And then the new owner themselves were going to move into the property. Tenants were notified 60 days prior for this already. 

Property sale was completed and fully closed on agreed upon date of last week of Oct. So I no longer own the property from that day onwards. The prorated rent for Oct 2023 after the closing date was deducted from my sale proceeding and is reflected on closing statement as such. 

Then today I get a call from the property management company saying I need to pay them pro rated rent for Nov (for Nov 1-Nov 14). I am not sure why I come into this picture. (1) I have no ownership of the property, (2) The Nov rent does not come to me and as such no deposits are made into my account. So what makes me liable to pay back the pro rated rent for Nov? Makes no sense to me. This sounds like I need to pay out of pocket for this so called Nov pro rated rent. 

Does this sound strange to anyone else? Thanks

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment in Chattanooga.

Purchase price: $110,000
Cash invested: $26,000
Sale price: $155,000

Bought a SFH back in April 2021 in a C class area. Had some expenses on the property that I could not have possibly envisioned. But overall steady rental income. Exceeded 1% rule. Just sold this property in Oct 2023 and did a 1031 exchange to purchase another in Spring Hill TN area. First time doing a 1031. :-)