All Forum Posts by: Jennifer T.

One of the concerns I'd have about a service like Rhino is, what happens if the tenant stops paying the monthly Rhino fee?  I assume that means the security deposit insurance also disappears.  

Perhaps a way around that is if the LL/PM is notified before payment lapses and can pay it instead.  Their FAQs section is pretty skimpy.  But it's something I've thought about and I'll need to e-mail them sometime to get answers to the plethora of obvious questions I have that their website doesn't bother answering.

The other thing that makes me nervous.  They're relatively new and I haven't heard many reviews about them.

I don't think there are disadvantages.  A lease protects both parties and keeps everything crystal clear.  Which I think is especially important if the roommate is someone you are close to.

When I first bought my personal home, I charged my live-in boyfriend rent and we had a simple lease agreement also.  For some context, we'd been living together for a number of years and had always kept our finances separate and each paid half the bills.

Once we got married, we mostly combined our finances and I didn't charge him rent anymore.  At least finance-wise, I did not get the better end of that deal, haha.

Since you are looking to buy an owner-occupied house, it shouldn't be a big deal as long as your credit score and debt-to-income ratio are fine.  

I bought my first home, a duplex, 10 years ago. That was only a few years after the housing crash and lenders were STRICT!!! I don't think the process was any different then if I'd bought an owner-occupied SFH. Similar situation to yourself, except my credit was only mediocre at the time (670s-680s). Before I bought my first home, there were a few credit cards and one car loan on my credit report. I still live there and rent out the other side.

The house itself didn't qualify for an FHA loan because there was some work needed, so I did conventional financing instead. I could have done a 5% down payment, but chose to put 20% down instead in order to avoid the PMI. Not necessarily recommending that. But that was before I knew how gung-ho into real estate I was going to become!

And that's one of the bummers about an FHA loan that I don't usually hear people talk about. The PROPERTY has to qualify for the loan also and be in pretty good condition. If you can swing a 5% down payment for a conventional loan, it will open up a lot more potential properties for you.

Yes, she is that terrible.  It's not so much the money, it's her refusal to communicate with us or lift a finger to help herself.  You are making two HUGE assumptions.

1) That she even needs help.  I have no idea why she hasn't paid the rent.  She won't communicate with us.  She briefly contacted us in mid-Feb. when she got served her eviction notice (though with no court date set).  It was only then she contacted that agency who paid her Jan. and Feb. rent.  There are three adults and no kids living in this home.  I assume all of them received the Jan. and have/will receive the current stimulus payments.  The main tenant either still has her job she's always had or is collecting unemployment.  At least one of the other adults is eligible to collect unemployment also.

2) She would even apply for that state/federal rental assistance.  We contacted the agency that paid her rent in Jan. and Feb.  They would help her for March also, but she is the one who would need to initiate it.  We left her a voice mail and sent her a text message to that effect.  She didn't reply to either and I assume didn't even make that one phone call/visit to make sure her March rent got paid, because there are forms I would have needed to sign if she had.

Plus, as I explained, it wouldn't be "free" money if it means I would have to go months without any rent.  Because that is certainly what would happen, considering her history.

That long story really wasn't pertinent to the conversation but, since you made such negative assumptions about my character over a situation you know nothing about...there ya go.

I've had droughts sometimes with rentals also.  It's tempting, but don't do it!  Now is the time to be especially careful with who you rent to with all the eviction problems going on.

In pre-pandemic times, I was almost always sorry when I lowered my standards.  One person I did that for had a problem paying rent almost from the day she moved in and I had to evict her only 8 months later.  Hindsight is 20/20, but I WISH I had waited for a better candidate.

I'm glad you passed when that person didn't have the full SD and first month's rent anyway.  Never let someone move in with a "promise" they will pay the rest of the SD the next month or whatever.  I made that mistake in my earlier, more naive days!

As another warning, I had some vacancies in July-Aug. of last year and noticed a major uptick in people lying about who their landlord was.  I don't know about your parish but, in Orleans parish, you can look up property records online.  I do that before I call a landlord reference and see if the name matches.  There can be reasonable explanations if it doesn't, but that puts me on alert.  However you slice it, sometime during the call, I will casually ask a question that probably only the real owner would know.  My favorite is when the property is owned under a business name.  Towards the end of the call I'll ask, "For verification purposes, what is the name of your business that you own this property under?"  Get's 'em every time when it's fake.

As a buyer myself of "buy and hold" rental homes, my preference depends on the tenants!  If it is market rent and they are tenants with a great pay history, that's an asset to me.  But it seems like that is rarely the case.

I've twice purchased homes with inherited tenants that I knew were already problems (pre-pandemic), ie a detraction.  I used that as part of my negotiation to get a lower sales price.  Because I was taking over that "problem" for the seller.  Back then, it was fairly quick and easy to evict people.  The sellers could have gotten thousands more money for their properties if they had just evicted the bad tenants.  It made no sense to me but, for whatever reason they weren't going to file evictions so, thanks for the cheaper properties.

If you do decide to rent it out to another tenant, I'd suggest you keep the lease month-to-month.  That way, the potential buyer could at least a little bit have the best of both worlds.  Keep the tenant if they want to.  Or serve a Notice to Vacate after the sale, if they don't.  Plus, especially with the nightmares some areas are facing right now with evictions, you want to make getting a potential bad tenant out of there as fast as possible.  Either for yourself and/or the new owner.

That is a risk you would be taking in placing a tenant.  A non-payer or even they just make showings more difficult because they're annoyed about it.  Even with good vetting, bad tenants can slide through.  I'm stuck with one of those right now.

Here's another thought.  Is this in an area where you would be allowed to run an AirBnB and it would make sense?  That might be a great way to earn some extra income until you are ready to list the house.  Though keeping in mind the cost to furnish it.

They just opened it up in Louisiana about a week ago.  Unfortunately, a few parishes (our version of counties) have created their own rules that make things much more difficult.

My properties are in Orleans parish.  I was initially excited because I have an awful tenant who refuses to even communicate with us.  In Orleans, you can file for an eviction, but they aren't scheduling eviction court dates for non-payment of rent.  We filed anyway.  When she got her notice, she contacted some agency who paid her Jan. and Feb. rent.  Now she only owes March.  But Orleans Parish falls in the "extra rules to make things onerous" category.  Under their rules, I can't apply on her behalf for the state/federal rental assistance from the stimulus package.  She has to initiate the request for rental assistance.

Which is just as well because, at this point, I wouldn't accept the help anyway.  One of their other rules is that I cannot evict her for 6 months.  And, after 6 months, I cannot evict her for 60 days after her assistance ends.  And that is I cannot evict her for ANY reason.  Not just non-payment of rent.  

Unfortunately, some people are ridiculous and unreasonable.  You promptly replied to and temporarily corrected the problem.  And scheduled the permanent solution about as fast as it could be done.  All of that is what I would have conveyed to the tenant.  Sometimes it is what it is.

Here in the South (New Orleans), the three times I've had tenants get outrageous with me about repairs was related to air conditioning.  I get it.  It's hot here in the summer.  But I also don't have magic fairy dust to bring an a/c back to life.  And that is no different then for my own home or if the tenant owned the property.

Just as an example, one tenant contacted me at 1PM on a day last summer that her a/c wasn't working.  My husband was out there two hours later to see what was wrong and if it was something he could fix.  He couldn't and, while he was still at the property, called our usual a/c company.  They couldn't come out for two days.  Understandable, but we wanted to do better for our tenant.  My husband called a few HVAC companies until he found one that could come out the next day.  They went out late morning, but needed to order a part.  They retuned the next afternoon to install it.  Her a/c was fixed within 48 hours of when I first received her call.  In New Orleans.  In late June.  I felt like a miracle worker, lol.  But I was (in her words) "heartless while her family suffered" because I didn't get it fixed faster.  I reiterated the timeline and told her I couldn't have done it any faster if it was my own home but, if she sees a way I could have expedited it, let me know.  Of course, she didn't reply back.

Haven't you heard the old joke about construction?  "You can have it good, you can have it fast, and you can have it cheap.  Pick two!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist telling my corny joke!  Alas, I wish I could give you a recommendation, but my husband and I are largely DIYers and have never used a GC.  But you have my sympathies.  We took on two Algiers duplexes in 2019 (next door to each other, same seller) that both needed substantial work.

Good luck with the quad.  If you end up needing a new roof, I highly recommend Garcia Roofing. 

That's ridiculous and speaks volumes that the landlord is a pushover.  It doesn't matter how "difficult" the tenants are.  The property owner just needs to post an appropriate notice (usually 24 hours) that the property will be entered for a showing on X date and Y time.  And then you all enter the unit, whether the tenants like it or not.

Keep in mind, almost no lender will give you a loan without an appraisal being done on the property and those usually require the appraiser entering the property also.  This seller needs to figure out how to post a notice for access issues or sell it for a song to a cash buyer.

I had an issue like this with two duplexes I purchased about two years ago from the same seller.  He wouldn't do the smallest thing to help himself.  He didn't even have his own set of keys for the units.  I agreed to no showings until after we were under contract.  But wrote a special clause that he was responsible for any additional fees...to be paid at the time directly to the provider...if either my inspector and/or my appraiser needed to make multiple trips because of access.  Each one of those people had to make a second trip and it cost the seller $200 total.  But it was really worrisome to have to depend on all the tenants to allow access and I almost walked over it.