All Forum Posts by: Sean McKee

@Wesley Rugg- What is your projected ARV of the 2 unit once you have completed renovations? I'd go with your gut regarding the tenant being a potential headache.

 @Jonathan Klemm I agree with Baris.  There aren't enough landlords to cause a lot of push back.
Landlords are outnumbered by tenants, former tenants, and people who simply don't care about landlords. The truth is landlords struggling doesn't really stir the same kind of emotion in the broader public as their favorite restaurant closing.

You are correct, there's not a lot of hard data to support this extension. The Governor to my knowledge did this very discretely and did not provide a lot of details on why.

@Aaron Zimmerman. I read a news articles about the Governors intention to extend till 10/3, it is not an official executive order yet. We will probably find out for certain what his intentions are this Friday.

@Sandeep Agarwal- I would check your local laws. A lot of places you either have to hand serve them, post, or send by certified mail.  I assume in Connecticut you only have to give them a 3 day notice or quit? If so, assuming you served them proper notice you could turn it over to a lawyer and go to court. Again you would need to consult your local laws.

If they are only 3 days late, hopefully the email wakes them up and they let you know they won't have it until the 10th or something.

@Rob Hayes. Please see link below.  He has not officially released another executive order, but a spokesperson says he intends to extend it to 10.3 to match when the CDC ban would have ended. So I would expect him to further extend it, and hopefully he decides not to.  He kept his decisions to extend it very low key and I almost missed it. I hope I am wrong with him going past 10.3.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/c...


"A spokeswoman for Pritzker said Friday the state’s moratorium, which was slated to end Sept. 18, would be extended to Oct. 3 — the date the federal moratorium was to end."

@Rob Hayes. I believe Pritzker extended it until 10/1 unfortunately. I hope he doesn’t keep extending it, but I won’t be shocked if he does. He now has the momentum to extend until at least end of the year.

In your case I'd terminate. In my opinion that's way too many pets.  I've had someone sneak a pet on before. I worked with them and they turned into an absolute disaster. If they bend one rule, they will bend more.

This is a potential warning sign of a tenant willing to do whatever they want. She is clearly testing the waters. If you do decide to keep them as tenants. Make the pay a 200 dollar pet fee and charge them an extra hundred a month. If they become annoying later, at least you are getting paid for it.

@Cindy Schneider-  Tenant screening criteria depends heavily on neighborhoods and local laws. 

As long as you are following fair housing and any local laws, you can set your criteria to whatever you want. You just need to be consistent about it and apply it to everyone. 

I used the use this criteria for high level screening on sites: 600+ credit score, income must be 3 times monthly rent, 2 years of work history, no evictions, must provide at least 1 landlord reference. We can't blanketly deny people in my market based on criminal history, so I would double check in yours.

I'm in C class markets, so everyone pretty much has some kind mark on their credit. My key areas of rejections are: any past eviction in last 7 years, past due car payments, judgements/bankruptcies , utilities in collections, address/social security mismatches(I've caught a lot of scammers this way), fake landlord references(usually caught through simple county searches). I would error on the side of caution and just go with what the report says about their background unless they can provide compelling evidence against it.

Both your applicants seem like typical renters and both have credit scores higher than my average renter.  Just verify all their information before you proceed.

@Julie Batt- I'm sorry about your situation. The government has been incredibly one sided and has definitely stripped us of our most powerful tool for reclaiming our properties. I had a tenant not pay for 2.5 months and then left abruptly. She probably left because at the time it was announced the moratorium was ending, we had served a 5 day notice, and sent her to a collection agency. In terms of rental aid, to my knowledge the landlord doesn't get a dime unless the tenant cooperates and they have to still be living on the property.

First I would try cash for keys. Offer them 1,000 dollars to leave in like a week and you'll forgive the past due balance and avoid court.  Admittedly this technique has lost its effectiveness since tenants know they can't be evicted and it won't show up on their record. However I've only had one tenant ever reject this(the one mentioned above). 

At the same time I would prep your lawyer of the situation. If cash for keys fails; have them immediately start the eviction process.  I think you can file against non-covered people and challenge declarations of those that do submit them, but double check with your lawyer as the laws are constantly changing.  Even if you don't get a hearing right away, you can at least be positioned to once the ban ends. If she has a home, she might have assets you can go after.

Lastly, while Illinois sealed eviction records, you can still report them to the Credit Bureaus. All you need is their date of birth or social security number, full name, and address. You can accomplish this in two ways. The first is to turn them over to a collection agency. They will report on your behalf, but it will take a few months to actually happen. The second way is to go through a service that will do it on your behalf. Landlord Credit Bureau is a site that I now use for all my units. Most people that are willfully withholding rent are doing so because they think there won't be any consequences for their actions. Reporting them to the bureaus will hold them accountable. You might even get paid back in a year or two when they want to get a new car or something and can't because of their credit score. Just discuss all this with a lawyer so you make sure you do it properly.

Hang in there. We are approaching the end of this nonsense.

@Dan L.- I set it to 70. I tried 68. I had way too many complaints about it being cold and was not worth all the grief. I haven't notice a huge difference in cost. So every unit can control the same boiler?  It depends on the cost of the rewire.  I think you can likely get away with just locking all of them.