All Forum Posts by: Jeff B.

@Levi T.

You won because you as a defendant had no Status or Standing- - aka procedural error on the part of the plaintiff.  Round One to you.  As noted, a vindictive tenant, or better still a tenant with righteous indignation with tenacity can still refile the complaint properly and you then get to reappear with all those pristine documents supporting you side of the refund debate.  Round Two has yet to be scheduled.

The at risk amount here would never bankrupt anyone (god I would surely hope not) so the findings of Round Two in this case doesn't matter much, other than all those reading the Tenant Forum have be cautioned on what NOT to do.

Here in Calif, filing for an Entity is an annual $800 fee, so not filing would cover the 'lost' from this case in two or three years (actual deposit in question never stated) - - some $15,200 in my 19yrs of no law suites.

IMO, advocating an LLC as protection in this case is laughable. You've already spent more time and effort (and are exposed to spend still more) than it's worth. Wait until you file for a UD and get $9,500 of unrecoverable damages to your property. Your LLC will do nothing and as the tenant has nothing, there's nothing to go after.

The LLC will not ensure law suite dismissal for every case. Report back when you get a $1,000,000 liability case that goes against you and all you forfeit is the LLC assets.

If your documentation was up to snuff and you followed the State procedure for deposits, it should have been a cake walk to defend.  As you found out, you STILL had a court appearance and won only on a technicality, not the merits of the case.

So either way you still had to defend yourself.

 IMO, the size / work effort becomes the threshold for the PM.  I did well enough for 19yrs with a 6-plex even being remote.  My guess would be 12 doors would max out the mom-n-pop owner-self-managed as that would be close to 1 vacancy per month.  Here in Calif, an onsite manager is required at 16+ doors and that defacto leads to the PM per the discussion above.

The big benefit of the PM is they have the direct responsibility of dealing with the Fed & State employment regulations - - THEY do the reporting, get the Workman's comp and are responsible for the employee.  You get to pay for it, but do not have to be managed by the State employment regs as you Contract For Service.

 Got that one backwards - - we've had Hotels and Lodging business model from time immemorial while all the STRs are a new business model which adversely effects residential zoned home owners.  

The Newest player on the field will be the one disturbing the playground.  New is not always progress or better.

IMO, the issue is not SFR vs MFU, but the age of the property - - service obsolete.

Look for something that Geo. Washington Didn't sleep in, at least built in the '60s and start fresh.

For a low cash flow/month SFR, this could easily create red ink. I think it might be worth considering for an MFU where the cash flow is higher.

Consider: $40/mo x 12 mo is $480 every year (likely on a per door basis).

In 19yrs of MFU self manage, I've only had 3 evictions, so that's a lot of money for a low-risk event (at lease for me).

 Agree.  How do you think you will not offend them all?

Unless this is a high-end, Class A area and property, staging just adds expense.  Then too, you could easily poison the opinion of the viewers as their taste can easily vary significantly from yours.

Avoid Time & Materials based bids - - go for Fixed Price contracts.  The bids are more accurate, no point to low-balling and the completion dates are frequently better too.