All Forum Posts by: Orlando Goodon

BTW, so now after a week on the curb he brings back the trash can, the day before pickup and puts trash in there

The law allows me to inspect with 24 hours notice. I already had that planned.

I inherited these tenants and the expired lease they have is useless. No smoking policy, not trash policy. So I can't use the lease here. Already have evictions going, but in the meanwhile they are above the law and can do whatever they want while I'm still being held accountable to them? This is what is happening:

-Littering on my property ON CAMERA

-Harassing me by calling the city and making bogus claims about heat, then refusing to let city in, to see if its true or not

-When they call the city about one issue, they will rattle off a LONG list of things they should "look into". Clearly trying to get me in trouble. mentions things that happened before I even was owner.

-Response to me politely asking them to follow the city trash rules is cursing me out on camera and giving me the middle finger

So basically the tenant is saying that my house is actually theirs and they will do what they want and I can't do anything about it. They don't pay rent. They smell up the entire building with their smoke. Already lost a tenant who had allergic reaction and was sick for days. Other tenants have had to clean up after them and I get numerous complains from other tenants about this guy. Even people who live nearby complain as well.

Please tell me that eviction is not the only way to hold a tenant accountable? They can just do whatever and be the biggest nuisance and nobody can do anything? There is nobody for me to call? So until they are out, they are untouchable and can do whatever, short of violence or literally setting up shop on my front porch selling drugs? We are all held accountable. We all have to follow rules. Why are they not bound by any rules? 

Will be making offer soon. Wish me luck!

so I spoke to another attorney today and he mentioned an interesting point. Sneaky tenants try to renege on cash for keys deals. I think the term he used was order to show cause. Basically we make a deal they agree to it then they go into court and suggest that I tricked them or manipulated them or somehow coerce them into signing something that he didn't realize what it was.

so as far as that goes the good news for me is that both tenants have legal representation so that makes it harder for them to suggest that they were manipulated because they may be ignorant but their attorney shouldn't be. Their attorney should protect them from being taken advantage of.

in other words it is dangerous to do a cash for keys where the tenant does not have an attorney. That tenant can take advantage of the system and try to challenge the deal.Not saying they would win but what's the cost of months of you challenging them in court? Bottom line is if you can avoid this it's best to do so and the way seems to be make sure your tenant has an attorney.

 There are basically only two exceptions to the rental protection and they're pretty simple and in your face, not buried anywhere. I might understand that you don't find a problem with attorneys who after a year of this law being created don't even know the only two exceptions that would allow for an eviction? How can you do an eviction and not know?

it's acceptable to you to after a year of being paid by multiple homeowners to not even have 5 minutes worth of knowledge of the very rule that you're challenging?

the law very explicitly States that evictions will not be allowed unless the owner is looking to occupy as a primary residence and it's a four family or less. What reason would an attorney have for not knowing this after being paid but dozens of clients in the last 12 months to do evictions?

how on Earth would this be considered micromanaging? If you hire a mechanic to do an oil change who does not know how to check the oil being concerned is not micromanaging...

I'm in STX

For example one thing I would like to try is to see if I can start by communicating directly with the tenants before sending them anything legal. Try to appeal to their humanity and take on a negotiation posture in terms of actually genuinely trying to work with them. Putting emotions aside and seeking to make a deal that will make sense for them.

I don't want to just focus on what I want I want to try to understand from their perspective and try to be reasonable and work with them but on the same token realize that I have to be very careful about what I say because if they reject it and we go the legal route things I say can and will be used against me.

I have a 5 unit with only one tenant paying rent and I would like to try to do a cash for keys deal. I've been struggling to find legal representation because all the attorneys are apparently horrible.

has anyone done a successful cash for keys deal in a low income area? Or otherwise? I would really appreciate if you would contact me privately and I can let you know what I'm looking to do and see if you have any suggestions. I will share my results with the community after everything is done. Hopefully we can help others as well who will be in the same situation as I am.

 I would like to second this opinion very strongly. Don't you even dare considering starting to invest in Newark without first spending sometime learning about programs like ERAP. Learn about things like the homeless homeowners who have tenants in their houses living for free for multiple years while the city prevents you from doing anything about it. Newark is very tenant friendly. The last thing you want is to start your investment career materializing all of your worst nightmares.

for the record I like you was very intrigued by the deals and opportunities in Newark but thanks to this community they stared me away from it and now I understand 100% why.

I ended up investing in a different community that had an excellent opportunity that was too good to pass on but unfortunately the area I invested in is similar to Newark so I'm now experiencing what people warned me about.

in short I was led to believe that typical evictions were pending on two of my tenants and it was just a matter of a couple of months before they'd be out. Owner concealed from me the fact that the tenants had not paid in over a year. My attorney didn't do his job and neither did the seller's attorney. Now I have an over $6,000 mortgage and only one tenant paying less than $2,000.

I've been struggling for well over a month to simply find an attorney who's willing to do their job and I have now settled with trying to pick a horrible attorney that's not as bad as the others because it's that bad. 30 minutes of reading has made me more knowledgeable about the government programs that are taking over people's homes then every single attorney that I've spoken to. This tells me in the last year they've pretty much all been ripping off homeowners pretending to work their eviction cases while basically sitting on their butts cashing our checks.

start your investment career in a normal market and if you find yourself good at it then and only then consider investing in these pro tenant areas. Also just because there's a high risk doesn't mean that everybody has a bad time so there will be people who tell you they're doing great in Newark or wherever. That is anecdotal. The fact of the matter is every new investor intent-friendly errors are under extreme levels of risk for multiple reasons. Whether you luck out or not is irrelevant. The risk exists for all of us and the risks are pretty severe.