All Forum Posts by: Joyce Jackson

I have a few properties- some I’ve rented to section 8. All of my properties are above the standard for a rental- falling into a luxury product. I have had issues with a few of my section 8 tenants in the past. Right now there is a housing shortage in Fl and I am having a lot of ppl that are coming to me with vouchers for less than what I would typically rent my home out for. Example: I have a four bedroom and their vouchers for a 3. They are willing to pay the difference if I am willing to accept.... when I read the HAP agreement it states that I’m allowed to charge them reasonable rent however, is it a violation if there is a verbal agreement for the difference? Are you allowed to have two separate leases? This may sound like a stupid question however, I am having a lot of section 8 candidates tell me this is common practice with landlords and tenants. I figured, I would ask you all...

@Marelyn Valdes

You are a lifesaver! I have been losing sleep over this. They were served w a three day notice on Tuesday. On Wednesday she had a representative from Bay Area Legal (local low income pro bono) organization that provides legal assistance to contact me and advise me that he has been to the home and didn’t see any roaches 😲. He would like me to send the details of my complaint to him - I asked if he were her legal attorney to which he replied he was an attorney with Bay Area. I found that tricky. N I figured well, I don’t really see the benefit to me in doing that. She can get a copy of the damage reports from her case worker. Anyways, I’m to file my 5 day on Monday. I’ve requested that a different pest company come out and analyze the damage. Provide a secondary estimate. Hopefully, the tenant allows them in to perform the inspection as well. If not, I just go off of the first ones estimates. I also, sent an email to her case worker and the caseworkers supervisor. Outlining where we’re at with things. Thank you for the information. It brings me comfort.

I will definitely site this, if necessary.

@Dan Mcguire

That was the one thing my husband and I discussed. So you do it as a surprise. Interesting and they don't have a problem with allowing you to come in? If they do, do you deny their application?

@Marelyn Valdes

Thank you Marelyn. She is now playing the victim. It was a new construction home so compared to where they were used to living they literally don't see the problem. They requested an inspection. They believe the way they are living is clean! Yukkkkk! Everything was under warranty still so there are no structural problems and they can't say that I neglected them.

They've broken a few outlets and put a few small holes in the wall. But the primary damage has been the extent of the infestation. The homes over 4000sqft. So its expensive. Also, we paid for pest control but they never allowed the pest team into the home. The pest control company doesn't cover German Roaches. My friend advised us to look through our lease and make sure we didn't cover

them for pest. What are your thoughts on that?

@Peter McDonough

You’re probably right! I have a lot to learn. Tail between my legs on this one. She reneged on honoring the addendum and had someone pretend to be an attorney. A simple reverse number lookup confirmed such- Post 7 days - just served her with a 3 day. Sent photos of damage and estimate over to her case worker including summation. Next Tuesday, we file for the eviction summons- five days later, fingers crossed she doesn’t respond and we can request the default judgement to have her removed from the home.

The whole thing became messy today and I’m over trying to work with this lady. She called her boyfriend who hopped out the car, told us our home was his, and then threatened “to put hands on my husband” he basically tried to get my husband to fight him so that they would have leverage to which my husband replied that he carry’s a concealed weapon and to please back away and not do anything stupid. We’re just going to evict and make sure the damages and eviction is forwarded to the case worker. It’s fine I’m just over it.

@Judy Parker

Oh my!!!!! Yup we discovered the same thing. Plus an extra child and two other adults plus a dog. That did not go over well. We served them w a 7 day back in February but later devised an addendum that included monthly inspections and she was to maintain monthly flooring through a specific service provider175 monthly. She is also paying an extra $100 monthly for the inspections and she had been advised that a re-violation means she’s out - I did not think she would place herself back in that position. Plus, With Covid and all the kids and the eviction stay we thought what’s the point of performing inspections since we couldn’t do anything about possible violations. August was our first walk thru since March. The main issue is the filth and the roaches but I got some really good advise from folks. Which fingers crossed will save us maybe as much as 5 and then she’s accepted an additional 3500 in financial responsibility. I’m offering her another addendum for 3500 plus we are retaining her deposit. She has 4 days to pay it because we’re not pushing the eviction back further. She’s known of the issues at hand since August 2nd. In the future, A re-violation of the 7 day means immediate possession. So straight request to vacate- no time needed. Her lease is up in October. We are going to implement a biweekly inspection since the amount of damage these folks can do in a short time is outrageous! It’s a take it our leave it situation.

@Leona Chan

I saw this video 5 months into this lease... thank you so much for this reminder post I’m going to rewatch it sometime today. It was someone that had successfully done what we were hoping to. I took a meeting today and inked a deal to build a Lux multi family est to be less than 300k total- on one our properties. 2(3s) and an efficiency. Worth the risk worst case - we should net a few hundred off the resale value. He had so many great pointers. Mainly focusing on the proper selection seemed key and I never thought to go and view their current home before accepting applicant. If we try section 8 model again. I know I’m going to use lots of his experience. I think we may possibly because when Covid happened we had no delays or issue there.

@Peter McDonough

Lol at super dumb... right I can see how you would think that... you’re so eloquent! My exposure to folks on government assistance spread beyond that of a landlord. I grew up in a huge family that was on government assistance not because my parents had made a succession of bad decision but, rather because my father was physically disabled fighting for our country and my mom suffered from deep emotion trauma and depression.

It took my father 7 years before he won his case and the VA retroacted his pay. Meantime, we had to survive! We would receive food stamps food from the church. Free lunches at school. Shoes from Payless and clothes from Walmart that we're placed on layaway. My parents would find furniture and electronics that others had thrown away during "pickup" and sanitize them and tinker with them until they were functional and like new. My parents would find the worst homes to rent for an affordable price and clean them and fix them up. Every 2-3years it seemed we moved because the landlords would see all the work my parents had done to improve their homes and sell them! Eventually when I was 16 my parents bought their first home. I bought my first when I was 19. I'm 34 now. I may be considered wealthy now but I got here by helping people. Using resources for moment based solutions. Critical thinking! My parents with my help now own several properties which I manage for them. As do I. The numbers made enough sense to me to at least give it a try! I've done the same thing with a property that's on and acre and half buildable land 5bdrm 3300 sqft home (worth $650) and that tenant which is also section 8 has worked out great! We're now building a Lux multi family on the land. Which is 2(3s) and an efficiency. So that one property will produce close to 5k a month by the time we're done with it and I do mean above P&R after losses. The formula works! I just won't continue to build large luxury homes for one mega family. The Bp community is a place where I come to vent my frustrations and ask other professionals for guidance. They just helped me to navigate a situation I've never been in before. Yes, I placed myself into it however, that's what we do as investors take calculated risk... learn as we go... Now we know the risk is above the reward too many tenants for one door. Either way the home is been in my possession for two years and increased in value substantially in the last year soooo worst case it cost me 15k to make her perfect and sell her off for a 80k to 100k profit😏not so super dumb after all🥳

@Mark Eaves

I’m going to add that on the list. She was trying to claim that the home was clean. My husband and I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not so we asked her to describe how she would clean the kitchen floor for example. She said well if it’s dirty I would mop it. While my husband was there. He witnessed her mopping and unswept floor with dirty mop water.... having a deep cleaning performed while she watches may be sincerely helpful to us and her. Since without it she may just re-violate next month and then what was the point of us kicking the can. She did demonstrate that she understood the severity of the circumstances and was a lot more humble since I think she went from thinking that there was a stay on evictions..: to realizing she does not qualify for that protection. Unfortunately, I realize if a person doesn’t have much. Sometimes, they have no metric of understanding the flip side of loss.

@Raju V.

Thank you so much. I stepped back away from my ego and really thought about what you said. I reached out to her with my husband and asked if she would be willing to prepay $3500 for the services and I’ll retain the deposit after she leaves that way she can have two full months to find another home and retain her voucher. I told her that I would provide her with a cleaning regimen that she is expected to upkeep until such time that her lease is up. She seemed grateful. We made sure to be very respectful of the situation but not so respectful that she mistook our tone for something other than a desire to minimize damages and see her through this lease. I believe that the conversation went well she started to get loud and talking faster but I realized that although what she was saying was not true we were in the position of power and you were truly right... she did not want to lose her voucher! I advised her to “please do her best to keep her tone even and slow it down so we could get through the conversation achieving progress. Yelling and blaming will not build a bridge: we have evidences and we need to know if she would like to work together and improve the condition of the home long enough for her to finish out her lease which is 2 months.” I would rather refi the home and use it for one of our other investment models. We advised her that we would also retain her deposit for damages. As well if she agrees she has until the day before the scheduled court hearing to remit payment. She claimed she could do all of those things. Upon receipt of funds we will send a copy of the newly agreed upon addendum to her case worker advise that we’ve remedied the circumstances and will not be renewing but, I hope to allow the tenant to progress thru her current lease. I also told her that she should pick a home that will either not contact or not care about the condition of their home because I will be honest if I get a call from a potential landlord. Your words were very empowering. I was able to re-strategize once I stopped thinking about this 10,112.60 cleaning fee and started thinking worst case 12k Best case we can salvage the appliances 8k total damages between the flooring, deep cleaning , new paint, pest control etc. That two extra months rent really would help as well: Thank you! I will let you know how it goes!