All Forum Posts by: Russ B.

Beyond that, it'll exacerbate the problem that often motivates this kind of law - a lack of housing availability for lower income people. 

If they make it harder to evict, credit requirements have to go up. 

Likewise, if they make it impossible to check major background info like evictions, many landlords will again take the next best choice - go to higher priced units, so the tenants will be worth chasing if things go bad.

Maybe I'm cheap (I am lol).. but if I paid 1/3 my gross income for housing at any point in my life, that would have felt like a LOT. I'm currently paying about 1/12, and it still feels like a major bill. 

It seems like anybody would be really tight at 3x, so it would have to be quite risky to go below that, especially with lower priced rentals. As mentioned above, a flat tire could be a major expense for someone whose rent is $700.

As for the original question, I agree with the posts above - keeping the requirements the same but cutting down on wording would probably help. As it is, just the length of the section probably makes people who would get approved think that they won't.

Thing is, the bank isn't the true owner of a house (it's not like a car loan) - the homeowner is the one on the deed. The bank is planning to get paid and leave, while a rental is not permanent. 

Landlords need to be able to get inside for a lot of reasons, including the example above with the exterminator - the building needs work, and some hard headed tenant (who can just leave when the place deteriorates) is making life difficult by violating the lease. 

This is even more true with someone who's not paying their own rent, because payment is now riding on third party inspections. In this case, the inspection failed because of another lease violation (the gas being shut off). 

This tenant doesn't need to be shown more respect - she needs to be shown the door. 

 Also.. can you picture how someone with a personality like this will be affected when, years down the road, they're still getting turned away from rentals, car loans, and even jobs over their little temper tantrum? 

Every time it happens, they'll think of you and that fridge, and probably flip out all over again. It's almost heartwarming to think of it 😊

Application fees, at least in some states, have to be applied to actual costs - you can't just pocket it. 

Charging application fees to people you don't even intend to evaluate or approve (ie, taking people's money and then just throwing their apps in the trash) would be fraud. 

That said, not all credit pulls show up as "hard" pulls - so if you're a renter wondering why you don't see the check on your report, this could be why. 

It might also be worth helping the roommate understand that evictions can turn up in background checks as soon as they're filed - it doesn't have to get all the way to set out day. 

Trying to rent with a recent eviction is like trying to buy a house with a recent bankruptcy.

Better to leave while you can still get in somewhere else... 

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Randy Barnard:

I have an applicant that had an eviction come back on his background check.  

When called he stated that it had to be a mistake.  My spider sense tells me he is being less than truthful but I’m not 100% sure.   

I have only been a landlord for a year and this is only my fifth unit so I’m still a newbie.  Has anyone run into this before?

 Yea they say stuff like this all of the time. Deny the tenant, no questions asked...

P.S. 

Take a look at a recent conversation between one of my leasing agents and a tenant who claimed the things we found on their background report were a mistake.

The bad part is, this person is probably now renting from someone new at this, who either didn't do a background check or fell for one of these convoluted sob stories.

Good tenants typically fill out exactly one app, while bad ones will apply all over town until they get in somewhere. They also get a lot of practice at talking their way past their background...

A local real estate agent could probably tell you whether the whole neighborhood has that issue. Seeing it on all sides is obviously not a good sign. 

Maybe the ground slopes toward the house? That would also cause it. This could still be fixable, although it might involve bulldozers pushing the yard around. While it's better than having really expansive soil, you'd probably have to get the place for very cheap for that to be worth the effort. 

If the house is relatively new, the problem could be something really bad - if it's 50 or 100 years old, it might be less bad. 

I mentioned the mold because you did.. meaning, don't forget about it just because the bowing was scarier 🙂

You might want to also figure out WHY the foundation is bowing, and whether it's gonna keep happening - this is probably more important than upfront the repair cost. 

If it's built in an area where the houses all have this problem due to the soil, that's pretty bad - you'll probably always have issues. On the other hand, if it's only happening in one spot under a missing piece of gutter (for example), then it was probably just an ice lens that caused it. This would be a relatively easy fix. 

I would also not be so distracted by the foundation that you neglect to consider the other issues...

Mold probably means either a bad roof, or faulty construction (in the basement, it might be the same issue as the foundation). While mold itself is not as big a deal as people think, I'd make sure I knew how much damage there really was, and what all will need to be done. 

It could be a disaster that you need to avoid at all costs - but if you're lucky, you might be looking at a house with easily solvable problems, that other buyers are scared to touch 🙂

This is where being a landlord is tough - not so much the scumbag tenants that you enjoy kicking out, but the ones who haven't done anything wrong (yet!) that are just too poor to make the investment work. 

Moving is no fun no matter who you are, and these guys are probably looking at getting a place that's much less nice than the one they're in now (because it was a sweetheart deal from a family member). So, they're gonna want to hang on as long as they can.

That said, the people who become the most trouble are often the ones you helped for as long as you could. When you finally stop, they'll hate you for it much more than if you were cold from day one. 

I'd probably push em to stick to the original deal, and maybe point out that this time of year there's more selection than there will be in May or June. They'll probably find a nicer place moving now, and besides, you've got bills to pay and contractors waiting.