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All Forum Posts by: Kevin Kim

Kevin Kim has started 19 posts and replied 55 times.

I forgot to ask: Do you know how I can check lien information using the lien document number?

Hello,

Finally, we have found a good candidate tenant—a young married couple with a son and their parent, totaling 5 people.

The Zillow credit check and background check did not reveal any negative information, like  what many have mentioned in this forum.

So, I conducted an AAOA check, and it showed two lien histories from their father:

  • Recording date: 06/xx/2019, Amount: $10,xxx, Filing Location: San Bernardino, CA, Document Number: 210xxx
  • Recording date: 03/xx/2019, Amount: $30,xxx, Filing Location: San Bernardino, CA, Document Number: 96xxx

I inquired about these, and he said one was due to a car that was totaled in an accident, asserting it wasn’t his fault. He is still making payments, and the matter is currently involved in litigation.

He claimed the $30,xxx lien is a mistake by AAOA.

I attempted to verify this on the San Bernardino county online website, but I couldn’t find any information.

Aside from that, everything else looks good.

They have been renting a house for 12 years until mid-2023 and recently rented another house for less than a year. However, the owner of the new house intends to sell, prompting their interest in renting our property.

They provided letters from their previous two landlords.

Please let me know what you would do in my situation.

Thank you.

Quote from @Colleen F.:

@Kevin Kim  I would call the local housing authority and see if they have an inspection checklist and you might beable to judge off that. Also mention this is a manufactured home of some age.  I would be concerned it would not pass a section 8 inspection.  I would hate to have you have a tenant in there and then have it not pass inspection and they won't pre-inspect properties. 

Thank you very much!

Hello,

We have a property which has 2 old manufactured houses which we are going to rent in California. 
We're going to ask tenants to have renter's insurance with liability.

However I couldn't find any insurance company who offer renter's insurance for old manufactured house(pre 1976)

Please let me know if you know any insurance company who offers the renter's insurance for old manufactured houses 

It will be greatly appreciated if you can help me to find. 

Thank you. 

Hello,

We have a property which has 2 old(pre 1976) manufactured houses in San Bernardino county California. We listed a rent on Zillow, and I got an inquiry from prospective tenants if we accept section 8.

I googled and I saw that there are  pros and cons. 
Some of the pros that I like is that they normally stay for many years, guaranteed to get paid, and we can get 20% more rent. 

Now, I have questions.

  1. 1. Is a manufactured house which was built 1976 qualified for section 8? 
  2. 2. I just wonder how it works at the tenants' side. Do tenants pay some portion of rent or do tenants pay nothing? 
  3. 3. Does HUDd pay only rent or does HUD pay utility and renter's insurance too for tenants?
  4. 4. Is renter’s insurance mandatory for section 8 tenants? I couldn’t find any insurance company who has renter’s insurance for our old manufactured house. 
  5. 5. What’s the most that section 8 will pay? 
  6. 6. The prospective tenant already knows how much we are going to rent the unit. Can we ask for more money?
  7. 7. There is a storage unit that previous owners built which is connected to the house. And I’m pretty sure that it is not permitted. I heard that there will be Inspection. Do you think we have to remove the unit?
  8. 8. I found there is section 202, something similar to section 8.
  9. Please share what you think about section 8 and section 202.

it would be appreciated if you can answer some of my questions.

Thank you. 

Quote from @Colleen F.:

1. pick a background check that works for you, I don't like zillow, some do. 

2. You need a release if you are going to call references. You just have them sign that empolyer, and previous landlords can talk to you. Make it a seperate page so that you can send it to the party you are requesting info from and make sure you have their printed name on it. 

3. Talk to people. If it doesn't seem right it isn't. I had a woman who had 2 kids and then she let slip 3 would be living with her in a one bedroom.  Most people are okay but you will get desperate ones, don't fall for sob stories. 

4. Electronically, find something that works for you. 

5. No smoking. Anyone who says they will smoke outside eventually doesn't. No smoking of anything and no growing pot.

7. Pets do damage if you allow them limit the maximum number to two. Pet collectors in my experience don't make good tenants.  Might be good to meet the dogs.People lie about breeds.  If they are out of control no thanks.  Make sure your insurance doesn't have breed restrictions. If you have no fence I would plan on getting one. I name the allowed pets in a lease just like occupants.


 Thank you very much for the information that I haven't think about. 

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:
Quote from @Kevin Kim:

I recommend you include some of your key qualification criteria in the advertisement. For example, I mention that every adult must pay a $30 application fee, pass my credit/criminal background, make a combined income of 3x the rent, and whether or not the property accepts pets. Use the top three or four discriminators so applicants can screen themselves.

Then you need to have clear screening criteria yourself. What's the lowest credit score you will allow? Do you check Landlord references? Do you verify their income? Do you know how to read the credit/criminal background? What if they have collections or judgments?

Here's a detailed guide on how to screen applicants: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

California is the most regulated, litigious corner of the earth and you should work hard to educate yourself as best you can. Consider joining the California Apartment Association for education, forms, advice, and more. 


I will check. Thank you very much!!

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:
Quote from @Kevin Kim:

I recommend you include some of your key qualification criteria in the advertisement. For example, I mention that every adult must pay a $30 application fee, pass my credit/criminal background, make a combined income of 3x the rent, and whether or not the property accepts pets. Use the top three or four discriminators so applicants can screen themselves.

Then you need to have clear screening criteria yourself. What's the lowest credit score you will allow? Do you check Landlord references? Do you verify their income? Do you know how to read the credit/criminal background? What if they have collections or judgments?

Here's a detailed guide on how to screen applicants: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

California is the most regulated, litigious corner of the earth and you should work hard to educate yourself as best you can. Consider joining the California Apartment Association for education, forms, advice, and more. 


I will check. Thank you very much!!

Quote from @Cathy B.:

Kevin,

I use Zillow and I've never had any issues with the rental payment portion of the site.  Only thing I wish that had was a way for me issue a payment back to the tenant.  Currently its one way (only they can pay you)

Like you, I am now skeptical of the application/background check on there and will likely use something else next time.  Maybe I got lucky in the past?

Zillow has their own lease, but also allows you to upload your own lease and put in digital signatures where you need them.  I normally print out the zillow lease to make sure I'm not missing anything . . .they try, at least, to update their lease for my area, but I've read where this may not always be the case.  I use a state compliant lease, with a couple of add-on, unit specific policies and make sure I include all of the same attachments as the Zillow one, like the lead disclosure, City required depreciation table, etc.  You are in California so no any lease will do.  Make sure you have one that complies with all of your local laws.

Overall, Zillow has been fine.  They have some useful tools that can help with comparables for pricing your rental.  It also looks like they are adding a maintenance portion to their site, but I have yet to investigate that.


 Thank you very much! 

Quote from @Henry T.:

Personally I don't like Zillow. It's too tenant friendly and doesn't put enough control with the landlord. Especially dangerous in a state like California where landlords have no protections. I haven't used Zillow recently, maybe it's changed,  but I'm still down on it. The first thing you want to do is stop the onslaught of people that aren't qualified. Which means a phone interview first. You can list qualifications all you want, but people refuse to read them.

Thank you for answering!