All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hi I own a duplex and have been having trouble renting one side of the unit.

What would you do? 

We recently received a tenant lead from an individual with questionable sources of income and limited rental history (discrepancies between the application and credit check). 

My 2nd thought are to rent to her if she can come up with the 1st month rent and the full security deposit. 

At a minimum it'll bring in some income, as opposed to not. 

My rationalization is that I can just evict her if things don't work out. At the moment, it seems like it's no greater risk, than any of my other tenants. 

It does. Would you walk away? 

I was able to verify rent receipts, interview the tenant, view recent pics from when it was available for rent. 

Has anyone noticed anything strange seller "asks" during COVID?  Anything like the below?

I have a seller and a contract for two tenants occupied SFH's filled with the normal exit clauses with "no earnest money to lose".

Both homes are packaged for less than $40k. 

The seller is asking for "no internal home inspection" and "no inside" appraisal due to COVID. 

I interviewed the tenants. Performed external walkthroughs and get rent receipts and reviewed the leases. 

@Theresa Harris 

Yeah, I'm tempted to walk away. We close early next month. 

I have a contract on two tenant-occupied homes for less than $40k in an area of a city that's less than 2 miles from an area with homes selling from $300k+. (Bistro's, Law Offices, etc.) The less than $40k contract price doesn't cause me concern, because as it's kinda par from the area. 

The strange thing this is... The seller due to COVID is requesting that I don't disturb the tenants, due to COVID, etc. 

He also didn't ask for any earnest money.  So we agreed on an external home inspection and external home appraisal. 

So what's your feedback on the deal? Should I run?

I understand that there's a lot of RISK

To mitigate it. We interviewed a tenant who happened to be outside during our external walkthrough, and confirmed rent receipts and lease terms. 

One of the tenants was outside and we briefly interviewed them. The tenant said that everything was fine and working. No issues with the plumbing, electrical, central A/C, etc. (Tenants would complain, in my experience) 

6 months of Rent receipts and lease terms have been reviewed and confirmed. I also found some recent pictures of the inside from it was being listed as available for rent on "apartments.com".

The next mitigation step, I did was to have a contractor I trust to had to walk the exterior of the properties, saw that both of the houses have tin roofs, and have little "wood" carpentry issues. Plumbing under the homes looks like it's been well-maintained w/ no issues. 

The homes aren't neglected. New porch light fixtures, Central A/C, etc.

Both of them are wood-frame houses on beam built-in the 70's. 

Compared to other homes for similar asking prices in the same city, these homes look "Ok" to good. 

What do you think?

Everyone.... Thanks for the feedback. It helps to see it from different perspectives. 

And yes,.. I've relaxed. As many have suggested.

The tenant has paid or has indicated they she'll pay the rent.  So all may be well.

@Theresa Harris, @JM Payne and everyone else. So my "beef" is with the PM and not the contractor.  That makes sense. I just have a feeling I'm going to be out of future rent because of this. 

To make matters worse...

The PMs also reached out to my realtor behind my back to get a copy of the inspection report. The realtor and the PM work for the same company. 

That fact that they went behind my back to the report pissed me off. I think I'm going to have to find a new PM. 

My property management company received a call from my tenant..

Now I think the tenant wants to break the lease because of what he said. 

Do you think I have any legal recourse against the maintenance man for giving recommendations where he wasn't qualified to do so. 

Im likely going to be out of rent. 

She had a concern about the floors. It's a pier and beam house and she thought there was a dip in section of the flooring. 

I received the maintenance guy's feedback and he went wayy outside the scope of checking things out and reporting back to me for next steps.

He spent 10 minutes at the property and decided to speculate that the ceiling was falling, that there was "probable foundation damage, caused by probable probable pest damange. 

He suggested that I relocate the tenant while repairs are being made. 

Keep in mind I had a professional home inspection done a year ago that didn't find any of those things. 

@Michael Ablan What the old "leave some water running" tip? Will, that work?

I have a question. I have some vacant properties in the South but it's still cold enough for a pipe to burst. 

One of the units is a duplex and shares a wall with an occupied units. 

Should the winterizing be different from the duplex which shares some pipes with an occupied unit versus the SFH vacant?

The houses are built above the ground. I have the water turned on, but don't have window units are spaced heaters. 

I think I may have gotten lucky. I just had a pipe burst but the damage was isolated to beneath the house. The cause was a rotted pipe according to the plumber. The interior wasn't affected. 

What can I do to prevent further damage? I have a property management company but I'd like to sanity check their ideas. 

Thanks in advance