All Forum Posts by: Priyanshu Adathakkar

@Jon Pitcher you are missing the point, you have control over what happens inside the property you own, you have no control over peoples lives outside your domain. You cannot refuse to rent to people who smoke, you can restrict them from smoking in your space. A smoker might not be a protected class but what prevents me from accusing you of using my smoking habit at my nightclub as an excuse for denying me housing because of my ethnicity? You might just be hiding your racial bias behind this flimsy excuse. Can you imagine how expensive that would be to defend?    

@Josh C. I do not fear the lawyer but I do worry about my dollars, they do not come by easy. As I mentioned earlier, I've had to defend the property before various authorities against false discrimination allegations, it did not cost the tenant anything but it cost the company money to hire lawyers and defend the property. In the meanwhile, the tenant stopped paying rents and we could not evict, it was a double whammy! Lucky for me the corporation I worked for footed the bill, but still it cost somebody (the landlord) money. 

@Jon Pitcher point taken but you cannot reject an applicant because you suspect that they are smokers. You can have a no smoking policy and once their tenancy is established and they violate your rule you can evict them! I would rather not go down that path, it is long and costly.

@Josh C. Thanks Josh but please refer to my post above, I am a very cautious guy and my approach is always be safe then expensive.

@Matthew Olszak do you really want to take the risk of a complaint? I have been dragged before various authorities on flimsy discrimination charges with no basis whatsoever. Thankfully I worked for a corporation and they footed the bill. It is always smart to be cautious than to be adventurous,  just my opinion.

I am no lawyer but refer to this very informative article here Dealing With Tenants Who Have an Addiction to Drugs or Alcohol

This is what I would do but consult an attorney first:

1. Take it off the market for a few days for "newly discovered, critical repairs"

2. When ready to rent announce an application period "applications accepted from 12 noon Monday to May end 5 PM "

3. Establish rules:

4. You could reject tenants for poor credit history, income that a reasonable businessperson would deem insufficient to pay the rent, negative references from a previous landlord or employer, a criminal conviction, or a prior eviction lawsuit (even one that they may have won). As long as you don’t discriminate, you can basically choose whomever they want. For example, you can refuse to rent to smokers or disallow pets because smokers (and pet owners) as a group are not protected by antidiscrimination laws.

Best

Pri

Sorry @Jon Pitcher but just suspected drug usage is not a reason to reject an applicant They must be current drug users and you need to be able to prove it if challenged (like a drug test). If they are in a drug treatment program and no longer use drugs, the Federal Government considers them handicapped and protected by the Fair Housing Act.

From an investment point of view, CAP rates are relative to the market. What is more important is cash on cash. If you have $10 to invest, what kind of good stabilized property can you buy to give you a steady, say 7.5% CAP rate? I've seen properties that were 10 CAP when sold but went down to 4 CAP in a few months because most tenants were month-to-month and they left one-by-one! What you need to look at is whether the property is stabilized and whether there are long term tenants in an industrial/business market or established (waiting list) property in a transient (like a college town) market. What you need to look at is for every 10 dollars you invest how many dollars are you going to get back every year.

One word NO! Beware of any agent that accepts the assignment.

If you can show proof of legitimate funds you can buy almost any property in the US, The best way to do this is to engage a good local licensed agent.