All Forum Posts by: Sergey A. Petrov

When I was in college and had roommates, we never came home and had a nice dinner around the dinner table together. Everybody eats when they want to, in their room, on the couch watching TV, etc. And if we had a party it definitely wasn’t around a dinner table. I don’t think creating a DR would encourage the students to eat only in the “designated area” (or discourage from eating somewhere else)

Zillow, apartments.com, airbnb, VRBO, furnished finder, craigslist, local newspaper classifieds, call the number on the for rent sign you see in the neighborhood? Just a few ideas if you want to do it yourself. For better market info, call (and hire) a local property management company 

Talk to some more lenders. 6 months is very common and typical but there are some with shorter seasoning requirements

A landlord is typically obligated to make reasonable efforts to re-rent as soon as possible. I say typically because I am not familiar with San Diego or CA laws that much but doubt CA is that relaxed or friendly towards landlords. If you don’t the tenant may have a counter claim against you.

Proceed with the inspection as originally planned and scheduled.

ask the building manager (assuming HOA manager) to put the "violation / complaint" in writing, then use that as baseline to notify your tenant. For now it is a baseless allegation that is over the phone and undocumented. I wouldn't be comfortable telling my tenant there are in violation of the lease just because I received a call from someone saying someone else said something. And four complaints in a matter of a few days after months everything being ok (yes, something may have changed in your tenant's personal life and they are on a downward spiral which happens). Or call your tenant and tell them the building manager mentioned things. I wouldn't jump to lease violation at this stage.

As for entry, maybe this is ok under Tennessee laws, but typically you don’t get to enter a tenant’s home without notice just to look around or leave a note on the kitchen counter regardless of what the lease says (State laws would trump the lease if there is a conflict between the two)

are there two different things at play? One being the rent increase and the other being the renewal? Shouldn’t the term auto renew unless terminated upon notice? If that is the case no notice or anyone’s response is needed. If the notice is to increase rent, again it shouldn’t require a response. Not sure if there are local regulations driving something else but my notice would’ve said something along the lines of “as per the existing lease, the renewal is around the corner and the lease will automatically renew for another year. Additionally as per the existing lease, this is your required 60 day notice that your monthly rent is $x effective September 1.” 

Not sure why I would need any type of a response. Or does the lease say it is for one year and terminates unless either an extension or a new lease is executed at least 60 days prior to the renewal? That wouldn’t be the traditional approach…

Quote from @Henry T.:

Fully charge a burner phone, (find my phone enabled) send it priority(fast),  and track where it goes. Drive the neighborhood and find her car, or whatever. 

^^^^ brilliant! I would’ve never thought of that!

p.s. some jurisdictions allow self service
 

Mediation could be a free pre-trial conference / mediation as is required by many counties. You show up for the scheduled trial, they first have you go into a separate room to see if you can talk it out, and then bring you back to the “trial room” for the actual hearing if no luck talking it out.
If I knew where the tenant was and could easily serve I’d go for small claims. If you can’t locate and serve it may not be worth it (skip trace, service by publication gets expensive very quickly and will eat away your $1,500 before you are able to blink).
If you know where they are and can serve, the chances are they won’t show up, you’ll get a default judgment that you most likely can’t collect on. Once I had the default judgment in hand I would then sell it to a collection agency (better dollars than prejudgment). 
Of course you could also tell the boyfriend you are willing to meet to hand over the check but then instead you serve in person. Just bring a bodyguard and watch out for hostilities!

Considering the fact that a $1m single family home is almost the new normal in Seattle, your plans aren’t crazy. And if you owner occupy, self managing makes perfect sense. You’ll just need a good contractor and someone you can call for advice with tenant issues when they come up. Initial setup is equally important- screening criteria and process, rent collection, move-in / out procedures and checklists, etc etc etc.

Are you already prequalified? Started the search?

I am an investor and a licensed real estate broker. Also currently looking for a four plex as well. Can help you with all of the above.

Pay a title company to run the title. Be aware of other things that may not show up on title (environmental?). I am sure if I were to walk into the assessors office today and write a check for the unpaid taxes, they would take it without checking my ID and making sure the name on my ID matched the recorded owner name. One may not be “able” to happen before the other but they can certainly happen simultaneously. In a traditional sense, you can’t buy a house free and clear without paying off the mortgage and you don’t want to pay off the mortgage until you are the owner. That is the very nature of the closing process