All Forum Posts by: Jo Zhou

Hi, Everyone

Our family will be overseas for one year. During the year, our primary home will be for rent. Our cars might be in friend's house or in the storage unit. Our current umbrella policy carrier-Geico will cancel our umbrella policy because we will not have a primary home in US. I called around all kinds of insurance companies, stand alone umbrella policy, they all rejected me using the same reason. I just wonder how people will cover their rental houses if they will be out of countries for an extended period?

Thank you.

@Jim Cummings: wow, very thorough. I will study it very well. 1000 thanks! 🙏 

I doubt my PM knows all these or not. 

To All of you that wrote your experience and your opinion: Deeply appreciated. The information that you provided are much more informative and richer than the attorney I met today. Maybe tenant/landlord problem is not her specialty (even if she is listed as real estate and business attorney), I didn't get any useful suggestions. I will rely on all of your opinions and suggestions.

@Jim Cummings: Thank you very much for your guideline, it is exactly what I am looking for. 

@Pinaki M. Even if I have rented houses for 6 years, since I never participate in the property management, I am new to this topic, too. I have the same question as the No. 1.

I think what I encountered is really a drama. Lots of you mentioned this potential tenant has red flag, so I did a simple google search for his name and location. He is pretty "famous" last year, he committed insurance fraud by sinking his own commercial boat. His name is in the all local newspaper everywhere. So my question is "If a landlord could deny a person with criminal record"? "is it a discrimination?"

I cannot discuss such questions with my PM any more because I don't trust them any more. I don't know whether PM missed the background check or they know it, or they didn't deny it based on criminal record due to discrimination? But who want a tenant with that history? 

Lots of people suggest to fire PM. I did, but it takes 30 days to complete it. I still need to work with them during these 30 days.

So I told PM to take down the property not for rent any more. Is there a discrimination for changing mind?

I suspect PM promise the potential tenant something, then things changed. Does the taking down remove all these trouble?

@Dan H. Thank you for clarifying. There are always some bad ones who want to game the system. The law is designed to help those people in real need, those who lies ruin the system. 

@Dan H., I mean 3-4% cap rate. The appreciation is good, but only when I sell, I feel "rich". Mine, cash on cash return is low, I cannot repeat BRRR process. Maybe I didn't do it right. I don't have enough equity to refinance right away. I need more learning.

I do have umbrella policy, but just find out geico will not extend the umbrella policy if we are oversea for one year. Need to find one that will cover if we are not here. 

@Joel Owens: I remember you point out the residential property is a headache in my last post. I have checked that the money we put down in CA to buy a SFH could buy us some commercial property in other state. Here is just very expensive and return is just 3-4%. I really wish we could leave California. So many people in the posts said CA was a crazy state, I feel exactly the same. I am so willing to move somewhere else. We are just tied by my husband's job.

Anyway, I appreciate that you show us some other options. It worths to dig into.

@Dick Rosen, until I sent the above message, I didn’t know it is a service animal, I didn’t know they have a child with autism. If PM properly communicates it with me, I will communicate it with my insurance company, too. If my insurance is ok, I am fine. The whole house has tile floor, it is what the tenant likes for the dog. I am ok with dog because i know it is a family member.

After PM found out the dog is a pitbull, PM’s attorney gave her 2 options: 1. Certify it as a service dog. 2. Get the enough renter’s insurance and sign a hold harmless agreement with me. They chose to go with 2, so the tenant went to get a renters insurance. Preprare to sign the document with me. After I research, I found out option 2 does not provide me with any protection. So I told PM we cannot rent because my insurance will cancel me.  Who creates this mess at first?    PM or attorney? Do both PM and attorney forget to protect me?

It is not me to refuse to rent it to them, it is my insurance policy. However, if the tenant threats to sue, regardless the dog, I don’t want to rent it to people who will sue me. There is always a better way to communicate, lawsuits is just not a right way to do.

I agree that residential has lots of trouble. However, in CA, going into commercial requires a large capital injection at the beginning, even a small Starbucks site sells for 3.7 million. Investing out of state has lots of unknown for the beginning investor. Need somebody who has experience to guide at first. 

Just received PM’s email, she said the tenant’s son is autism, they are getting the dog certified. 

Could I withdraw the property for rent?

@Jason Cory I will go with your route. I found a firm in San Diego who specialize in real estate law (From Yelp, I didn’t get any referral from friends. I just have few friends who do real estate business) because I believe PM is the key thing in this issue, I don’t know what is their plan to betray me.  After this mess cleans up, I will manage myself with attorney’s reviewing of contract. It is so scary to lose the total control of the properties.

Also, do you guys put property in each LLC or buy enough umbrella policy? My attorney who help us create the family trust, said since we don't have lots of properties, LLC is very costly. What do you think which way we should protect our properties?

I called a bunch of attorney yesterday, one of them suggest to great asset protection trust, anyone suggest it?

I am so appreciated that all of you spent so much time to address my issue and share your valuable experience and thought. I feel so supportive in here. Thank you biggerpocks to provide this platform. 

Thank you for all your replies. I feel I lost the control because PM has the tenant’s everything, and PM stands by the tenant, I couldn’t do anything. Get ride of PM will take 30 days, it seems too long for the issue. I need a good attorney because the PM said the tenant had a very good attorney, we will lose the case if they sue. It seems PM is so sure we are going to lose, PM even doesn’t think how we could be protected. This is the weird part.