All Forum Posts by: Shaun Patterson

I would have to agree with both sides. First and foremost find out what happened.  This can be found by speaking to the officers that handled the location. Next if it is an intentional murder that the victim caused on himself, then I would have to agree and set up arraignments after a grieving time to have them move out.  If this is a situation where he was randomly gunned down (IE getting robbed, or mistaken identity, or him ending up being collateral damage from a gang shoot out) Then I would have a sit down and find out what the tenants want to do immediately. Remember that it will be bad publicity for the property either way you choose so go with the least damaging to the properties leasability. I also have zero tolerance for guns, drugs and violence in properties I manage but I understand bystanders and collateral damage caused by the same bad apples.  This is one of the hard times where you have to get through with a calm and collected mind. You can't have everyone in this situation running off emotions. 

 It's something that has been happing a lot recently so I would definitely advise that to be done. I also never fall back on what the current landlord says about a tenant unless they are a big management firm. As has been said previously and also brought to light with previous comments. Things can happen after the tenant moves out the property. 

The PM should be giving you a PL at the end of the year outlining all of the incoming rent the outgoing expenses (including their PM fees) . This is what you would give to your tax guys to deducts what you need to. The only thing I would verify is how good the books are for your PM. You can ask if the PM doesn't already do this for a monthly report so that you can keep up with your expenses. 

@Brooklyn A.   it's a simple process to check a court house for all cases that a tenant has been in. Common sense will tell you something even if you don't see the details of the case but notice that the defendants are previous landlords. These parts are also not outsourced and done in house. Which brings me back to the screening process used to vet tenants. 

@Brooklyn A.  you point out a great point in regards to screening. Especially the fact that most landlords don't check for tenant lawsuits against other landlords they only check to see if they have been evicted. Even though you cannot deny for most of the things that you find out about a tenant it still gives you a great overall picture of what kind of tenant you will be dealing with.  In your situation regarding sueing the last three landlords would be something to think about while going over applicants. 

@Joe Splitrock its true that some landlords are hard to get a hold of. I have had to spam a landlord's phone using different numbers after faxing and emailing the rental verification form to them to get an update. I let them know exactly what you say its me asking for information now but in the future when you call you will be requesting the same from me. 

Hello  Oliver is this property still for sale or do you have like kind properties?  Shoot me a PM thanks.

@Vitaliy Merkulov I do not know the ins and outs of your company so I cannot speak on it. You company is basically doing the hard work that most landlords should be doing them self during the screening process. It is a great help to landlords to have a database that can be checked, I think it is still a few years till we get a full working one for the whole usa. The only questions I would ask is the amount of verification that is done on the information that is received. Also what ways are there to stop people from messing with their information or adding fraudulent information on the database. As that can be currently done now with your credit reports. 

Now in regards to the databases that have alot of information on you then lexusnexis would be a big player. But for the smaller landlords it would be overly expensive. 

The Pm's that follow the thought process of collateral damage end up getting a bad rep for the damage they caused and dont last. For a good PM each tenant that they place their name is behind that tenant. The funny thing about the real estate community is that its not as big as it looks on TV . That is the main reason we take the time to fully vet any tenant we put our name behind. Its also the same reason that alot of landlords hate PM's because of that "its not my property" mentality that has run rampant. Now we cant put the same preconceptions for all PMs just like to cant base the same on all landlords being slumlords.  

 This is all very correct there is no full proof system to find out if a tenant will pay on time or not. Without going into our systems that much we get banks statements, tax returns, W2's look at credit reports just to name a few and gauge based on this information.  all of the metrics are the same for each tenant. I know its a little overboard but for our clients we want to take the extra time in the beginning to find out what type of tenant they will be. You also have to keep up to date with what is going on with your tenants. every year is the same process again. 

Make sure you dont tell them no before getting the application just explain to them the screening standards and if they want to apply that is what you have to follow.