Originally posted by @John Kunick:
Wow, just spent several hours reading through all 22 pages of this thread because, hey, what else do I have to do these days of quarantine?
As an owner and manager of a fairly large portfolio of SFH in Tulsa area, let me say that I am closely monitoring the situation with my tenants. While I have yet to send out a blanket email to all, I have been in communication with those that I consider to be at risk. Also, I have had one tenant let me know they will be one day late paying in April (her part-time job as a waitress was eliminated). I thanked her for proactively communicating and asked her to stay in touch as the situation develops. I also had one tenant, who had just renewed her lease, let me know she now needs to break the lease due to COVID. I let her know that I would immediately start looking for a replacement tenant and will only hold her responsible for the lease for the lesser of 30-days or until a replacement tenant can be found.
All the other tenants that I've communicated with are so far not impacted enough to suggest rent payments will be effected. But, the message to them is "stay in touch, let's communicate and work together and we will all get through this together". As a Christian, I want to deal with tenants with compassion while also letting them know that how I earn a living is by them paying rent. Without them paying rent, I can not keep the properties going - which means we will all be out of business. Will some take advantage of this? Maybe, but hopefully not - as I've done my best to screen the tenants up front. I've been doing this for 10+ years and have learned the hard way that some will take advantage and you must weed them out as quickly as possible. But, the vast majority will respond positively to a landlord that treats them with respect and compassion.
The other lesson that many have mentioned is "take this as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and get your "house" in order". Are you over-leveraged thinking money is cheap and therefore the risks are small? Well, guess again. For myself, I have very low debt to equity ratio so I can weather the storm longer than many. But, this situation has made me think about having greater cash reserves (I do have a business line of credit which is about as good as cash reserves).
God Bless you all and thanks for all of your input on this thread!
@John Kunick
I can relate with every word from your post it was great to hear from another Christian from BA. We could be neighbors if your homes are in BA. Also as a Christian we try our best to work with the families renting our homes and have a lil more flexibility than the average, specially at this time. But of course, as you mentioned, we need to position ourselves to be able to do so. The outcome of this we see with the way they take care of the homes, are helpful when repair is needed and make the move out transition smooth as possible when it comes time. They def see it and respect.
Unfortunately we can’t control if they will take advantage but we are doing our part at best.
God bless!
