All Forum Posts by: Jermaine Washington

Ensure that you thoroughly review your state regulations and display the necessary notices before changing any locks or removing any items left behind. Additionally, be sure to keep copies for your records.

@Jermaine Washington how do you know they've legally abandoned the property?

Check your state laws on tenant abandonment - then follow them.

You can choose to be more aggressive, but make sure you understand the risks!

You can try to pursue them for a money judgment, but how will you collect?

1. Why hasn't your property manager already answered this question? This is troubling. The PM should be an expert on state law, and they should have policies and procedures in place to handle these situations. The fact that you are asking this question of strangers instead of your PM indicates you have an amateur managing your property. I would consider looking for a new PM.

2. Here's the state law: https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-66/chapter-28/p...

3. Inspect immediately to verify. I recommend you make a video of you entering the unit and documenting exactly how it is found. This may be needed to protect you from claims later.

4. If the unit is empty, change the locks, clean it, and get it rented. You should still do the abandonment notices to protect yourself.

5. If you find belongings inside, look closer to see if the tenant has been abandoned or is just gone for a long vacation, hospitalized, in jail, etc. If they've genuinely abandoned, you'll notice their clothing, personal hygiene, and things of value are all gone. They'll typically leave behind mattresses, couches, broken furniture, rotten food, etc. In this case, change the locks, clean the place up, and get it rented. Post your notices to protect yourself.

6. If there are items of value left behind, or even personal items of sentimental value, I will follow the abandonment rules to a "T" to avoid any legal issues. If the law allows, I will sometimes move the personal items to storage, which is much cheaper than lost rent, so I can clean up the rental and find a new tenant. If the original tenant wants to claim their belongings, they must pay any unpaid rent, plus the cost of moving and storage, then I will give them access to pick up their belongings. If they don't pay within the required timeframe, then I auction off the storage unit and wash my hands of it.

I have been seeing this a lot lately: people who hold on to underperforming properties because they add to their door count or to their self-worth as real estate investors. If you don't like buying hoarders' houses, don't be a property hoarder. A property hoarder keeps properties just to keep them. See the old mom-and-pop investors in their sixties that you are trying to buy off-market properties from.

This is like people who buy for cash flow but don't realize that with the best cash flow comes capital expenditures and tenant issues. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Appreciation is great, but not when all of that appreciation is eaten by the repairs you aren't doing. It's ok to sell properties. It's ok to sell properties at a loss (you get the downpayment back to repurpose into something better).

If you have four or more properties, this is what I would do (I just posted part of this as an answer to someone and thought it would make a good post):

1. Rank them from best to worst in cash flow

2. Rank them from best to worst in how much you like them

*3. Rank them from best to worst in management cost

*4. Rank them from closest to farthest in proximity

5. Rank them from worst to best in capital expenditures expected

*optional, not always necessary

Add those numbers together for each property. The lowest number is your best property, and the highest number is your worst property. Sell your worst property first. Then, take that money and repurpose it into something better.

Door culture is crazy. If you own ten doors and six aren't cash-flowing, why do you want to hold on to them if there isn't overwhelming appreciation coming? Don't be a property hoarder.

Are you guys doing this or seeing this? Who wants to sell their worst-performing property and turn it into a better asset?

@Jermaine Washington Glad I could help! A big part of succeeding in this game is simply staying in the game.

Make sure to take the lessons from this experience so it’s not in vain:

• Always keep reserves.

• Stay liquid.

• And prioritize managing your money effectively.

You’ve got this!