All Forum Posts by: Ihe O.

OK. But how does that correlate  to anything that I  posted.

I did not say that I have 1 place and I did not say that I have 1 family Sir. 

I'm not worried about being paid on time, I'm worried about being paid and they pay every month.

They are a family, mother her sister and their adult son, when they moved in she was working at the school at the end of the street so they had obvious motive for wanting to live their.

They deposit into my bank account, very occasionally I have collected cash. 

I have had them for 4 years. Some initial teething issues because in the hood they assume you are a slum landlord and they have to fight for everything. 

Bottom line they are good people. That family will probably stay in that house forever.

Not only that I rent to people that most people here would disqualify on grounds of credit history. In fact  I don't know the credit history of any of my tenants - never checked it.

Yes I check stuff, yes I have grounds for rejecting applicants, no the state of their credit isn't one of them, yes I know some people here will get apoplectic about that, no it doesn't make any sense to do that for the demographic that are going to apply for a rental in the hood.

So with that out of the way and it is relevant context, I am going to post about conversation had with one of my tenants last week.

Me: Hi it's starting to get warm and I noticed last year the house seemed rather hot in the summer are you alright for air conditioning.

Tenant: We ok Mr O, we got some air conditioners last year.

Me: Really, you bought portables.

Tenant: No we bought some had someone install them in the windows.

Me: You should have told me you needed that I would have got it for you.

Tenant: That's ok Mr O.

Me: Do you have the receipts so that I can reimburse you.

Tenant: You don't need to do that Mr O we are ok. 

 See this is what amuses me sometimes. You all go on about credit checks, which for me are a waste of time because they don't reveal anything about rental history.

Then  there is thing that paying cash for keys rewards a bad tenant. 

Look a bad tenant is the one who sits in your house until eviction day and costs you more than the cash for keys guy. The cash for keys guy you can reason with the one who sits in your house you can't. Maybe the cash for keys guy just can't afford the rent anymore and can't afford to move so it is both of your best interest to help him move on. That's not necessarily a bad tenant.

Irrespective bad tenants only cause problems for landlords who don't do their due diligence and take references from previous landlords. Cash for keys has nothing to do with this.

First lets talk about timelines.

You have to wait for a court date to be allocated 2 - 3 weeks.

You have to wait for the hearing date to arrive - up to a month.

You have to wait for the court paperwork to send to the sherriff after you win - 2- 3 weeks.

You have to wait for the sherrifs to schedule your eviction - anything up to 3 months.

So rushing to file eviction as soon as legally possible isn't going to mitigate much of that loss. Further it is going to generate fees (I use attorneys) that either I or the tenant have to pay and that I would rather see go towards rent. 

Cash for keys mitigates your losses in the case of a tenant you want out of your home. That's the right way to look at it, the notion of rewards and behavior don't come into it because the relationship is being terminated. 

In a similar vein I am a landlord not a tenant vigilante. I am not in the business of using the legal system to chase after monies I am unlikely to recover and if a future landlord has  the sense to go to past landlords for tenant references they can get all the protection they need.

Just because I owned a house it doesn't mean I need  to sit in judgement  over someone who was unable to pay me under the terms of a contract. Sometimes life happens and even if it didn't it is better to look forward than to look back just so you can punish someone. 

1. Stuff happens. People lose their jobs, get their hours cut, run into an unexpected medical situation. As much as a landlord thinks rent ought to be a tenants top priority if you are faced with a bunch of legal bills because a family member has some issue with the simple fact is events can conspire to derail that notion or desire. For the vast majority of people it makes no sense to be a "bad tenant" because it jeopardizes the roof over your head. 

2. In Baltimore City there is a 2-3 month lead time to the eviction date, plus you have to add on time to upgrade and fill your vacancy plus whatever time it took to decide to file the eviction in the first place. 

In PG County in MD they do not tell you until days before when your eviction date will b.  I had a 5 month gap from initial court filing to actual eviction because you first have to get a preliminary ruling (things like warrants of restitution). 

So  for a tenant who can't or won't pay it is very easy to rack up 5 months of rent losses. This is why I am not a "rush to file eviction landlord". In MD you are easily looking at 5 months plus to have your tenant evicted so I would rather wait a few more weeks to see if the situation resolves itself. Those few extra weeks are only going to be a minor component of your overall loss in the worst case, more often the situation resolves itself.

What people forget is that eviction is a solution  designed to get rid of a tenant. It is not designed to accomplish what most landlords want which is to get their money back.

One last thing. I very much doubt that the recipient of a cash for keys views it as a reward, the person has lost their home, so it helps neither the landlord nor the tenant to view things that way.

Although you spent too much in legal fees overall that is extremely cheap. I lost 5 months rent with my first eviction and spent 7k on upgrades after they left.

Pro -  You have no mortgage obligation every month so there is no need to freak out every month  a tenant is late with the rent.

Pro - You have no mortgage obligation every month so there you don't feel pressured to rush to fill a vacancy with an unsuitable tenant.

Con - You have no mortgage obligation every month so there is less of a tax write off and you are more likely to pay more taxes on your rental income.

Like there is any evidence of you doing that in this discussion. 

You are wasting your time taking issue with where I see disparate impact. Make your views known to HUD and tell them you think they are wrong to investigate landlords who go around checking applicants immigrant status.