All Forum Posts by: Maggie Tasseron

 Sorry, Dennis, but I'm not in favor of offering people like this a dime; that only encourages them to keep doing this to other landlords. I would much rather pay the price of the eviction, including the Sheriff if necessary, than pay a bad tenant.

My guess is they will be gone by the time the Sheriff gets there. They know exactly how long they can drag this out and believe me, they will have some new place lined up. Next time a tenant gets behind on rent, even if it's only a week, issue the 3-Day notice and get that eviction going immediately. Even if they did have an honest glitch and do get caught up, it will alert them to the fact that you mean business. Best of luck!

 That's pretty funny. I have many years of experience in rei and just discovered BP and already I've read all kinds of helpful information. But what else were they going to say, right? BP rocks!

I'm a long-time real estate investor and a friend of mine regularly asks me about strategies for him to get in on this market. He recently attended a Tarek and Christina event and was debating about whether to get in deeper with their program. I repeated what I've always told him: Check out the market, buy a crappy property in a good neighborhood, fix it up and sell it. He already has a HELOC on his own house so has the starting capital, which is how I did it at the beginning. There is no magic that people like Tarek and Christina know and are generously wanting to share with us. Get to know the market, learn everything you can about improving a property and how much it can cost, and just go from there. I do all my own work as I'm not otherwise employed but even if you can't or don't want to quit your job, it's possible to find a good team to do the work for you; most importantly, you need to know everything there is about the projects they will be doing for you so you can price out the rehab and don't get ripped off.

 K. marie: Even though all your legal premises are correct, the fact that these tenants have stated they need money in order to move, plus the fact that they do not appear to have made any effort to pay the rent they owe, even into the estate, indicates that they are simply trying to capitalize on an unfortunate situation by getting some free time in the property. Rick Harris states that he is the sole heir so eventually the property will be transferred into his name. My advice to him stands and the only other thing I might do would be to suggest to the tenants that they open an escrow account to take care of this; it's my suspicion that they will not do it, but at least he can make the attempt in good faith.

Also, I'm curious about what sort of a "potentially giant lawsuit" he may be open to? Hope to hear more from you.

 Immediately give them a new 60-Day Notice and also give them a 3-Day Notice for non payment of rent. In CA, even if they pay what they owe you on the 3-Day, the 60-Day Notice stays in effect. If they don't pay you, proceed with the eviction. At the very least, it will stay on both their court records and their credit reports for 7 years so you will at least have the satisfaction of knowing they will have to live with that. I wonder how much they owed your Mother? Also, I'm sorry for your loss.

 Gee Karen, he might not appreciate having that posted on the Internet... I know how you meant it but that may not be the best testimony to his honesty. Sorry...

Hi Tyrone: A few questions for you: How much was the original rent and how much did they persuade you to lower it to? How did they "slick" you in the past? And what was it about the system that declined their replacement tenants?

All that aside, it sounds to me like these people change their minds on the spur of the moment as one day they want to buy the property and the next, it's too small and they want to move. I know it's tempting to hang onto the bird in the hand but sometimes you have to take a leap of faith that there are also good birds in the bush.

 Generally, I have accounts at the banks my tenants deal with so that when they go in to cash their checks they can deposit the rent into my account at the same time. These days, however, there are all kinds of ways to transfer money quickly so I would check those out. Question for you: Is he a good tenant otherwise? If so, I would try to set up a more efficient way for him to pay you and not create bad feelings by charging him late fees.

 I live in the California Desert so know a bit about AC units, and when it's 118 degrees out, my own AC will run non-stop for at least 10 hours at a stretch, which has never caused it to freeze up. Setting it at 68 is irrelevant, as the house will never get that cold anyway in really hot weather. I would have a different company come and check it out as it sounds as though you may have a different problem. Hope this helps and best of luck!