All Forum Posts by: Shiva Bhaskar

 Agree with you - very tacky behavior. Have worked in food services, eaten at low end but delicious places, and $300 a plate restaurants, and in every context, doing this is just rude. Could just meet up with your friends later and avoid embarrassing everyone! 

Studied abroad in Italy and LOVED the beautiful environment, great food (you haven't had Italian food until you eat it over there), and hospitable people. With that said, Italy has a different approach when it comes to the rights of business owners and corporations and employers, vs. the average person. That's their right to do as they please, and we can debate if it makes sense or not, but we need to focus on the real issues for landlords here at home. 

We have some politicians here who want to make evictions much harder, and force private landlords to face greater risks . I say this as a member of neither party, and someone who has "liberal" and "conservative" views, depending on the issue (I am strongly against getting too much into politics on BP and other productive public forums, so will leave it at that). While everyone should meet basic standard of habitability and follow the laws (slumlords are not a myth sadly, neither are horrible tenants), beyond that, it is important that property owners, large and small, organize and lobby local, state and national legislators.

Here in CA, one of the most liberal states in the nation, Proposition 10 (allowing local cities to impose new rent control laws) was rejected soundly by voters at the ballot box, even though Democrats gained more dominance here than they've ever had before. This means lots of folks voted for left-leaning candidates, and against allowing more rent control, at the same time. This was accomplished in no small part due to efforts by landlord organizations (including mom and pop landlords working together). Folks nationally should stay focused on similar issues, and not just leave the big property owners and institutional investors to fight this battle. 

Talk to several investors who are local to the area. You can make some here on BP, and you could also look into taking a flight down, to meet with realtors, fellow investors, property managers, and so on. Ask for recommendations, take time to get to know people, and so on. David Greene, who co-hosts the BP podcast, wrote a great book about this - he lives in CA and invests in FL actually. I recently started investing out of state, and have found that getting to know people, and building trust, takes time, but is 100% worth it. 

 I've done this - did not lower the rent below market per se, but agreed to sign a longer lease with no rent increases. This was in southern California, a market with lower cash flow but strong appreciation (I see you're in San Jose, so pretty similar). Since the mortgage and property taxes eat up a LOT of the rent in a market of this type, even one month of vacancy can set you back more than a steady rent increase might have made up for. Assuming you have a good tenant, strong credit profile and income (as the tenant in my case did), this can be a great idea. 

If you're investing in a high cash flow market (think places like Cleveland or St. Louis) vacancy may be less damaging in that your mortgage and property tax expenses, relative to rent, are considerably lower, so maybe you can gamble more on rent increases and afford a bit more vacancy. Still, reducing vacancy as much as possible was something I learned from a mentor, and it's proved quite valuable thus far. 

Talk to your attorney, prepare pay or quite notice, and get this resolved. The guy is either lying about the phone (most likely) or he cannot pay for it to be fixed, in which case he can't pay the rent. I would get a local landlord attorney involved, and take care of this ASAP. Maybe you get lucky and he pays, but if not, cut losses and move on. 

Tell her you derive emotional support from eating chickens, also have an online doctor's note, and have a nice bbq this spring for your friends and family. I'm kidding  - but seriously, I"d let the lease run it's course, and hope for the best, we're just a few months out from April 30. It's super annoying that she pulled this, but as I've learned, you have to think with the bottom line in mind. 

Great comments so far. I have a few perspectives on this (and full disclosure, I am a relatively newer landlord, so I have not dealt with this situation a ton). For what it's worth, I worked for the federal prosecutor's office during law school, but also support the Innocence Project, and in general think we sometimes overdo punishment, esp for non violent convictions.

With that said, 1994 conviction and then a 2014 conviction is a big red flag. Yes, 2014 could be something minor, but it still isn't good that he got in trouble again. If it were just 1994, maybe, but not with something so recent. I have to believe you can find a better tenant. Pass. 

Jeez, "Mike" put some serious effort into this scam. Glad you didn't give him a deposit etc. Honestly, as much respect as I have for good contractors and tradespeople, finding a good one in this business is not easy. It can be done, but for sure it takes time and effort. 

 You're correct re the requirements. I used to live in NYC and they did the same thing, required monthly income of 3.5x the rent, and a 700 FICO in most of Manhattan, and now a lot of Brooklyn and Queens is the same. In LA, I think even if you put a requirement of 650, most voucher holders would fall short.

Believe it or not, as south LA and areas like Compton and Watts have improved, you see more and more landlords not accepting Section 8 and still getting good rents with market tenants who have well over 600 FICO and decent income - I would say over half of the rental listings I see in those areas won't accept it at this point. There's just so much demand here, I think voucher holders have been pushed more to outlying counties (San Bernardino especially, Riverside too) over the past 15 years or so. 

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LA-County...

Something that LA County landlords should keep in mind, as I see many listings on Zillow, in south LA especially, which explicitly state "no Section 8." Might make sense to talk to a housing attorney about strategies here, but I know in places like NYC, landlords created and stuck by clear income and credit score guidelines, which in most cases tenants on vouchers will not meet. For the record, I think Section 8 can work for some folks, but I don't like the idea of forcing it on landlords, especially given the fact that payments to landlords might be missed due to government shutdown etc.