All Forum Posts by: Sean McKee

Hopefully this does not pass. @Brie Schmidt has been super helpful in fighting for landlord rights. Lets keep everyone informed when the next call to action is!

Seems everyday now more radical policies are being announced. The way I recommend my clients avoid problems is to only buy nice building in areas with high quality tenants, I cannot stress this enough for new investors in Chicago. A good golden rule is only buy a rental property if you would be willing to live there yourself. For example, my 4-unit in Rogers Park has never had a late payment notice needed in 8 years of ownership and of course never an eviction. I raise the rents to market every year and if someone leaves there is enough demand for multiple qualified applicants who are happy to live in a nice rental. On the flip side, there are other neighborhoods in Chicago where numbers look like great cashflow on paper but they have high eviction rates, even sometimes double digit eviction rates where you are heavily involved in Chicago eviction/tenant politics. In areas where the tenants can't afford the rent raise, you get stuck with either high vacancy/turnover or below-market rents. It's very important you NEVER let your rents get more than 10% below market rate with upcoming potential laws like this. It is not passed yet so if anyone has below market units I recomend you raise them immediately at the next lease renewal. Below are some excerpts from the new law.....

City Council lawmakers are hoping to once again bring to fruition the advancement of such protections for tenants this 2025 legislative session. Introduced by Alderman Desmon Yancy (5th Ward), the city’s proposed just cause eviction ordinance (“Record No. O2025-0017516”) would strengthen tenants’ rights in a concerted way, including by (1) requiring that landlords have just cause, such as nonpayment of rent or violation of the rental agreement, to evict a tenant or refuse to renew a tenant’s lease; (2) requiring that landlords provide tenants with relocation assistance if the tenancy is terminated through no fault of the tenant, or if the rent is increased by more than 10%; and (3) requiring property owners to register their rental units in a citywide registry in order to increase transparency in the private rental market.

Tenants who are terminated from their tenancy due to one of the causes listed are entitled to receive relocation assistance in the amount equal to five times the median monthly rent in the city for a unit with the same number of bedrooms.

Interestingly enough, we had and application today, and on paper they look great.  Initially, it was two adults, two sons, a elderly dog and a grandfather.  Now, it's two adults, two sons, and elderly dog (who's now an ESA) and two grandparents.  We are concerned that it's going to be too small for six people.  Plus, the ESA was told to us after the lease was out.

Additionally, they are complaining about they do not like the lights and asked if they can be changed and they wanted to know if we can change the closet doors to different ones since they are harder to open since they are large.

It doesn't end there.  They wanted their own trash cans, can't do that. As they are provided by the city, not us.  There are four trash cans and four recycling bins.  

They also asked how many other people live in the apartments, and I am not sure if we can provide that information due to fair housing.  They also want access to the garage, which we told that's not possible as that is another person's property.

Lastly, they were on the property again without permission walking around "checking things out".  We saw this on the cameras.

We are probably not able to move forward with them, which is a shame.  But they seem too much of a headache; and they've not even moved in yet!

Hi,

I drove to one rental place listing. It is very unsafe are I felt. How to find the safety and crime in a rental location considering to purchase without physically driving many hours there and disappoint. Please advise

Hey BP

I’m in the process of buying a triplex from a guy and his mother. They want nothing to do with the property anymore—she’s been in poor health, and the place has gotten out of hand. People have moved in without leases, and some of them are squatters with criminal backgrounds and drug issues.

I know how I’d typically handle this, but I wanted to ask—what’s the most cost-effective and efficient way to get them out without risking intentional property damage, lengthy court battles, or unnecessary costs?

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been driving for dollars and finding a lot of distressed/vacant properties in Schulkill County, PA. I’m serious about wholesaling and getting these deals into the hands of cash buyers, but I’m hitting a wall when it comes to finding the owner’s contact info (phone/email).

I’m looking for tips, tools, or possibly someone I can work with who has access to PropStream, batch leads, or another skip tracing method. I’m willing to bring deals to the table and split if you can help with skip tracing and backend support.

Any guidance, tools, or partnerships would be much appreciated. Let’s make some money together!

Thanks in advance 🙏

@Sean McKee you typically serve contractors at their place of business and determine this via secretary of state

@Sean McKee front lobby won't accept credit reporting on a tenant that has already left . He should consider landlord collections.net

Oh I see. I figured an eviction might still work because I haven't received any communication from the tenant, he's just late on the rent and I saw him leave on my security camera and he hasn't been back in a few days... it just happens to coincide with when he wanted to break the lease and I told him that he never sent me official notice. I know an eviction will get me a judgement... at least for the overdue rent and if during the court date we find that he's vacated, then wouldn't the judge use the terms of the lease to access fees? 

I'm not super pissed or anything, it's mostly just that I'm strict with rules and I expect them to be followed so I like to hold people accountable to that. If you are saying that fees require a judgement, then how would you go about getting a judgement in the case that someone had already moved out or are other companies more lenient with their requirements? 

Tenant informed me he wanted to move out about 6 months into his second year (about 30 days ago). He thought he went month to month after the first year but never informed me of it (which is required in writing) and I have the lease set to renew for another 12 months automatically written into the lease. Well I'm pretty sure he just moved out anyways without paying the buy out fee (2 months rent pretty much). I haven't had these terms written into my lease very long and the tenant that broke the lease previously went ahead and paid it. What is the suggested process for this? I'm very familiar with serving notice for things like late fees/evictions but never have tried to collect on this. Technically he's late on the June rent now as well. Should I serve a late notice and then eviction and add the fees up at the eviction hearing or is thttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/1245957-tenan...here a different/better way to do this?