Archive for the ‘tenants move our’ Category

Funniest Tenant Screening Stories

Monday, June 4th, 2012

This guest post is from Endre Rex-Kiss, an online marketing, social media and human resource enthusiast. He currently represents FidelisAM, a US based agency providing employment and resident screening services. Follow his occasional guest blogging activities on Twitter.

Tenant screenings is the way to go if you want quality tenants and most landlords come across potential tenants who are either not what they claim to be or have serious behavioral problems. This article takes a look at the funniest screening stories landlords have had and their aftermaths. So sit down, relax or better still grab a cold bottle of beer to nurse while you go through the experiences below.

The Estranged Wife

A couple with no kids moved into a 4 bedroom duplex in the suburbs, the house and environment provided the perfect scenery for the couple but there was only one problem and it was that of meeting up with their mortgage payments. So they decided to put a room up for rent. The necessary adverts were created and finally a prospective client came knocking, he was the perfect tenant for he claimed to be single, had no pets, did not smoke, drink, do drugs and had a well-paying job. This obviously was too good to be true so the couple decided to hire an agent to conduct a little screening on him. After two days, the agent returned to tell the couple that they had been invited to have dinner with the previous landlord of their prospective tenant. On getting there, they were told that the tenant usually preys on sympathetic landlords and if you fall into his trap by renting a room to him, he would move in, behave for some days but a week later a woman who would claim to be his estranged wife would come visiting for some time and then finally move in with a cat. They would then proceed to co-habit like pigs, steal your property and when rent is due, disappear like thieves in the middle of the night.

Ghost Tenants

A couple responded to a landlord’s accommodation advert, they came to see the Landlord and professed that they loved the apartment and would be willing to rent it for the long term. The landlord was convinced that they were the perfect tenants so when the wife came calling the next day without her husband (due to the supposed fact that he works late) to ask for the keys to the apartment so she could look through it, the landlord duly obliged. A day passed, the lady did not return, two passed and she was still missing. The landlord quickly called his agent who conducted a quick search only to find out that the woman and her husband had already moved into the apartment. The police was called and the couple quickly evicted.

Dead beat Prospective Tenant

An agent once recommended a tenant who had the best recommendations ever; he had a good job, perfect credit and good relationships with his previous landlords. A meeting day was fixed and the prospective client shows up with a dead beat car and the attitude of someone who was one step ahead of the law. The landlord who needed to rent his facility out as soon as possible, overlooked this tell-tale signs and had agreed to lease the apartment to the tenant. The recommended signatures had already been traded and an upfront deposit had been made but as luck would have it, a police officer who was driving randomly through the neighborhood spotted the prospective tenant, felt his face was familiar and got down to trade some questions. Suddenly, the tenant bolted and a foot race began. The tenant was finally apprehended and the landlord discovered that the name, details and personal information given by his perfect tenant had nothing in common with the tenant.

The Thief

A couple came with an agent to view a landlords property, after going through it, they decided it was perfect and would be signing the necessary papers the following day but there was just one issue, they needed the house repainted. The landlord obliged, carried the necessary equipment to the house and started painting. He painted into the night and decided to spend the night there instead of returning home late. In the middle of the night, he began to hear strange noises at the side of the house, quickly he got up to investigate and on getting there, he found his prospective tenant trying to detach an A/C unit.

These stories show that conducting an in-depth screening which should include: former landlord credit checks, recommendations and past criminal activities are highly recommended.

Upcoming Speaking Engagement – Terry Sprouse (author of Fix em Up Rent em Out)

I will be making a presentation to the Arizona Network of Real Estate Investors. Mark your calendars.

Where:
Fidelity National Title, 6760 N. Oracle Road, Suite 100, Tucson, AZ

When:
June 7th, 2012

Time:
Meeting begins at 5:30 pm, presentation at 6:00 pm

Title: The 5 Rules on How to Lose Money & Get Your Rental Property Trashed by Tenants

How to Prepare a New Rental House for Tenants (video)

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

Get your rental house ready for tenants by following my 5 steps.

I also recommend four of my favorite repair books for your real estate library to guide you through the process of repairing appliances, sinks, electrical outlets, and almost any other repair issue that you may encounter.

 

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Remove that Garbarge Disposal Now!

Dealing With Tenants Who Suddenly Move Out and Leave the House a Mess

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Sometimes in our fix em up rent em out real estate business we have tenants do unexpected things.

Last week I had some tenants suddenly move out of a house they were renting from me. They left behind unpaid rent, a messy house full of clothes, magazines, food, and a lot of other things for me to haul off. They were having marital problems and money problems, so it was not totally unexpected. But what, I asked myself, could I have done to stop this hasty exit, which left me with a lot of extra cleanup work? Not much, was the answer I came back with, it just goes with the territory. We ran background checks and called references at the beginning, and they came up clean.

My wife and I use the deposit to cover clean up costs, but since we do all the clean-up and repair ourselves, its a matter of us spending more time than normal getting the property ready to go again. A change that I am going to make to the basic contract, for the next tenants, is to charge an extra $25 per month for any pets. Formerly, I had it as a $100 deposit for dogs. One thing that tenants rarely do, in addition to never changing the air filter, is to never completely clean up after their dogs. Another thing that I am getting tired of cleaning up is oil spills in the carport. So, I’m going to state in the contract that any oil spills that we have to clean will result in an automatic $100 charge taken off their deposit.

Beyond the extra time spent to clean up, I do always get a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction in cleaning up and repairing a property between tenants. I have the sense that anything they can break, we can repair. My wife and I have done it frequently enough, these are the third tenants for this property, that its become routine for us to do the repairs. It just took a little longer this time.

On a lighter side, below are five rules NOT to follow to run a successful house rental operation that I have found useful. They are adapted from Andrew Stefanczyk’s posting on Investalist.co.uk.

The Five Rules on How to Lose Money and Get Your Rental Property Trashed by Your Tenants

Rule 1
Choose the worst possible area. The location of your investment property will determine the kinds of tenants you will attract, and how much rent you can fairly charge.

Rule 2
Put the very best of everything in when fixing up an investment property. Luxury bathrooms, thick pile carpets, plasma TVs. Never shop at stores that recycle construction supplies. Spare no expense.

Rule 3
Make sure you have absolutely no experience in making basic repairs. Not knowing how to change electrical outlets, unclog drains and toilets, and replace broken windows will cost you quite a bit of money down the road.

Rule 4
Do not screen your tenants. This may be the most important step to making sure you lose money as a landlord. Do not ask for or check references. Do not call previous landlords and ask questions like, did they pay rent on time? How was the condition of the house or apartment when they left? Did they ever disturb neighbors with loud music or shouting matches? How often would you have to make special trips for repairs? Being as uninformed as possible about whom you rent to will make a huge difference and will increase the chances that you will get tenants that will trash your property and refuse to pay rent.

Rule 5
Make sure you have not learned about your rights as a landlord. Be completely unfamiliar with the eviction process to guarantee long, drawn out disputes with tenants. Don’t keep up to date financial records or copies of correspondence with your tenants. Most states provide online information about tenant and landlord rights so avoid reading these.

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