All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Saylor

@Renata Tavares Wong So sorry this is happening to you. Sounds like the wife was the responsible one and got tired of his crap. When she left he couldn’t handle the responsibility of being an adult. Unfortunately, I was in a similar situation a few years back. I felt bad because the lady had a teenage daughter but when she asked me about renting out the club house for her daughter’s birthday party when she was 2 months behind in rent I lost it and decided I wasn’t going to be nice anymore. She was taking advantage of my kindness and spending her money on other luxury items. My advice is stick with the evictions. I don’t know where you live but my condo was in Maryland and I had to file for eviction a total of 4 times. Each time the tenant paid the previous months rent but still was always a month behind. Finally on the 4th eviction the judge decided that was the last time. Even if they paid everything in full they were not going to be able to stay in the apartment. Unfortunately they trashed my place. Caused thousands of dollars in damage and left me in financial ruin. I’m still trying dog out of that hole 3 years later. Don’t be nice and wait. File for eviction immediately and still show up to the court proceedings even if they pay the day of eviction. You want to get it officially on the books. The less time you have to deal with him the better.

Hi guys, 

I'm looking to invest in property in the Memphis, TN area. I have about $50k to invest and have been looking at some of the lower cost housing (in the $25-$30k range). I'm hoping to get by with doing minor cosmetic upgrades (max of $20k), although it is difficult to find a property that doesn't need major renovations in that price range. I did find 2 possible houses that would fit my criteria in the Getwell and Orange Mound areas. I'm a little scared to invest in these areas though. I'm worried that I won't be able to sell the property after the work is completed. I think I could rent them out but renters in those areas are going to be very hard on the houses. Does anybody have experience with low-income housing in the Memphis area that is willing to give me some advice? 

Thanks, 
Jennifer

Hey Patrick - I thought about it . But I'll need September to do some upgrades. I was planning on replacing the flooring after this tenant, so I'll need a couple of weeks to get that done. Beyond that, everything else should be cosmetic and could wait another year. I'm hoping to market the place while I'm upgrading the flooring and have it rented out by October 1st. 

Thanks guys - that is pretty much the conclusion I came to as well. Her son-in-law was the one who signed the lease on my tenant's behalf. He also lives in the community and has been a huge help with previous tenants. I'm thinking of just terminating the lease on whatever day he requests and keeping the deposit (which was 2 months rent) but not charging them any extra months of rent beyond what the deposit would cover. I realize it will be financially tight for me for a couple of months, but he did put a lot of work into the place and since he is my neighbor I want to maintain the relationship. So its worth the struggle for a couple of months. I am going to meet with him and his brother-in-law (who is the executor of the will) on Aug 30th to finalize everything. At this point I'm assuming I will have to walk away from this deal with no further cash coming in - other than the deposit. If they offer something else, then great, but financially I'm planning for the worst case scenario. Thank you for the advice! 

Hi, I need some advice on how to deal with a lease after the tenant passes away. I know the law in Maryland states that the lease remains in effect after a tenant passes and the remaining lease obligation will be settled by the executor of the will. But I need some advice about what is morally the right thing to do in this situation. To give you some more details, I leased my condo to my neighbor to use for his mother in law who was ill. My previous tenants were awful and I ended up having to evict them. He helped a lot in getting them out, especially since I live in Tennessee now. He was my eyes and ears back home. Anyway, we always knew that his mother in law was terminal but we all thought she had a lot longer to live. We expected her to last at least 3 years. Last November I leased it to him and gave him 2 months free rent because he needed to make some upgrades to the property to make it more handicap accessible. The lease officially started in January 2017 and was for 2 years, so there is still 16 months left in the lease. The rent was set at $1450 ($50 less than market value - also to accommodate for the upgrades/repairs they did on the property). I can't imagine that they will pay me $23000 to hold onto a lease for another year and half. We all assumed there may be a few months left at the end of the lease and he had said he would just pay me the remainder of the lease from her estate. But I would just not feel right about accepting 16 months rent as that could essentially be their kid's college fund. So, what do I do? Do I just wait and see what they want to do or should I offer to break the lease and keep their deposit but no more money is due unless they need the place through September? Breaking the lease would be the most beneficial to them as they have already paid for August, but it kind of leaves me hanging because then I have to get this place rented out again and the deposit will not cover the costs to do that and I'll be left paying the mortgage out of my pocket for potentially a couple of months until I get the place re-rented. I was thinking of offering to modify the lease to 1 year, instead of 2. That would leave 4 months left in the lease. They would still get their deposit back and that gives me plenty of time for me to do whatever renovations need to be done before renting it out again. Do you think this would be a fair solution? Any advice is much appreciated.