Posted by Hal Roark on December 17, 2002 at 06:29:28:
I’ve had to sit in waiting rooms to get the info. I hate it, but when that info is making me a lot of money, I grin and bear it…
Hal
whew! what a December, evictions, late pays - Posted by Dee-Texas
Posted by Dee-Texas on December 12, 2002 at 07:29:51:
I’ve had more late pays and people that just left the property than any other time in my RE career. We are in the process of cleaning up, putting down new carpet, paint, etc on a large duplex and SFH. I’m not having good tenants calling as of yet, just tire kickers or low lifes (people that I KNOW have been evicted)
No money coming in from these properties and now another late pay. AND now my question.
I have a house that have new TB’er of 6 months, they have been late one time and paid. I have issued a 3 day quit, they have until this Friday (12-13-02 before eviction starts). I haven’t heard a word except when we hand delivered the 3-day quit the TB’er said he would take care of it. Still haven’t heard a word that was two days ago. He’s a painter and I KNOW how slim the work is in December and he’s not working much…Sooo… My question is this…have any of you helped someone in this position? how did you work it out? I want my money but don’t want to force them to move if I can come up with a win-win for all of us.
Any ideas?
Dee-Texas
The meaning of landlording headaches… - Posted by Hal Roark
Posted by Hal Roark on December 13, 2002 at 08:01:41:
Dee,
You are an experienced landlady, so these comments are aimed less at you than a casual reader of your post…
Before I hit the panic button on what my vacancies may mean, I like to review the basics, because I usually find the fault is mine:
-
Is the apartment ready to show? Does it show well? Is it clean? Shiny? Fresh? Staged?
-
Is it priced appropriately? How do I know? Am I asking what I want (usual) or what the market is willing to pay?
-
Am I marketing it right? Have I put out the full marketing effort, or just a halfa$$ed job (as I am sometimes wont to do)?
I find that my vacancies are usually due to one of the three above (usually #3).
Hal
Re: whew! what a December, evictions, late pays - Posted by MoniqueUSA
Posted by MoniqueUSA on December 12, 2002 at 21:34:32:
Dee-Texas,
We’ve used a Consent Judgment in cases like this.
You proceed with the dispo filing. After the tenant is served, you then work out a payment plan with the tenant for the rent owed that is acceptable to you, and write this up in the Consent Judgment. Get the judge to sign.
If the tenant does not pay as per the properly worded Consent Judgment, you can continue with the dispo and eviction where you left off – you don’t have to start all over from having accepted partial payments.
Louis Brown’s Property Management course has the Consent Judgment. It’s very, very sweet.
MoniqueUSA
Re: whew! what a December, evictions, late pays - Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA)
Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA) on December 12, 2002 at 15:29:52:
Dee–(TX)-------------
I agree, if you can have him do some painting for you it may well work well. I had a renter die. Her no-account son was living there when I came to see why no rent was received. I let him paint for a months rent. Still didn’t pay and had to evict him.
However, the paint job was satisfactory, and allowed me to rerent without hiring painters.
You might also recommend him to some of your friends and other investors.
Maybe you could give presents of paint jobs to the people you want to give big presents too. Or a gift certificate from you to friends for $200 off his paint job if they hire him.
Good InvestingRon Starr****
Why are auto bank withdrawls not in the pic…?? - Posted by royland
Posted by royland on December 12, 2002 at 13:20:35:
…this seems like a sensible solution. The money is automatically sweeped from target account. You could possibly set up a variable debit account with the owners permission. I am new to this game so their may be a good reason why more experienced investors are not following this route…would be great to hear it!
Make him work - Posted by ken in sc
Posted by ken in sc on December 12, 2002 at 08:07:56:
I had a guy who owed me rent do some painting to “work off” what he owed me. Another time, I had a guy who worked at a pressure washing business pressure wash one of my houses. He did not do it when he said he would, and then later did a horrible rush job after I filed the writ of eviction. So, the one who did a good job painting and was anxious to do what was necessary to catch up did not get evicted. The one who was a slackard and did not jump at the chance to work off his debt got evicted. Kind of shows you who you are dealing with.
Good luck, I am having a terrible 2nd half of 2002 as well. Over $10,000 in rent/late fees owed to me right now!
Ken
Welfare to Workfare! Great Idea!! (nt) - Posted by Eddy (CT)
Posted by Eddy (CT) on December 12, 2002 at 17:41:05:
nt
Autodrafting is good, but … - Posted by jr
Posted by jr on December 12, 2002 at 13:35:09:
The funds need to be in the account. If the tenant has cash flow problems, they still won’t be able to pay their rent.
Not such a hot idea . . . - Posted by JoeKaiser
Posted by JoeKaiser on December 12, 2002 at 18:52:32:
Professional tenants not only DON’T pay rent, they collect damages from their landlords in the process.
You’re lucky your pressure washing tenant decided NOT to slip and fall while working on your job, because had he done so, you’d be out more than the back rent.
I would not consider this arrangement.
Joe
Re: Make him work - Posted by Nate(DC)
Posted by Nate(DC) on December 12, 2002 at 09:20:57:
Welcome to the recession 
That’s why I’m going to rent my next property Section 8. Even now, the government has money.
Good luck…hope things pick up!
NT
HI KEN! - Posted by Dee-Texas
Posted by Dee-Texas on December 12, 2002 at 08:24:02:
Hi Ken,
OH MY!! and I’m whinning. I always read your posts (and enjoying talking to you at CREO). Thanks for the insight.
Here’s to a great $uccessful 2003!
Dee-Texas
Early warning system - y/n? - Posted by royland
Posted by royland on December 12, 2002 at 13:44:26:
Ok - makes sense. But, at least you have an early warning system - No?
Good advice… - Posted by Hal Roark
Posted by Hal Roark on December 13, 2002 at 07:27:07:
Sounds like the lament from someone who has been there, eh Joe?
Hal
Section 8 & recessions… - Posted by Hal Roark
Posted by Hal Roark on December 13, 2002 at 07:49:45:
Hi Nate,
These points are made in general, not to any of your comments in particular. Hope it’s ok to park this post here…
Section 8 is not an automatic guarantee against recessionary pressures. For instance, just because you have the federal government paying for your tenant’s rent (and in my case, paying 100% of it), this doesn’t mean you won’t have potential problems in a recession.
You will just have different problems, potentially.
Here in the oil patch in the 80s, section 8 had plenty of money to continue paying the rents, and they did; a funny thing happened, though: the regional depression here created new landlording opportunities. Middle class apartments, who coulden’t fill their vacancies, started renting to lower income folks just to pay their bills. It was a huge buyer’s market, and many folks traded up for greater value.
Thus, section 8 still existed, and the tenants remained tenants, they just decided to live somewhere else.
Don’t get me wrong. I think if you know how to play this section 8 game well, you can do some things to manage this risk and virtually create a recession-proof apartment and tenant. But it won’t happen automatically, imho, just because one is on the section 8 program.
Just my (informed) opinion,
Hal
2 are sect 8 - Posted by ken in sc
Posted by ken in sc on December 12, 2002 at 11:35:55:
Not all of my section 8 houses have the gov’t paying 100% of the rent. We have several where the actual tenant pays a portion. If they are late on their portion, we can file eviction even though the gov’t has paid their part. Have two of those going on right now. But some is better than none, and all in all I find section 8 a good program for the landlord.
I have so much money owed now because we have a lot of houses and I do try and work with pople. Between unpaid rent for Dec, people on payment plans, and a few evictions going on - it adds up quick! If all the payment plan people wind up getting through the hard times I will make money on late fees and look like a landlord that will work with people. If they don’t, it could get bad.
Wishing you luck - Ken
Yep, good warning system - Posted by jr
Posted by jr on December 12, 2002 at 21:28:24:
Yes, if they do not pay on time. You will know within 3 days vs. get a check and waiting for the funds to clear the bank within 3-5 days and then waiting for the bank to send you notice in the mail 3 days later. This helps with convenience and getting your money alot faster and you will be able to have the money in your account, even if you are on vacation. You can login to your account and see which tenants paid you on time.
Re: Section 8 & recessions… - Posted by Nate(DC)
Posted by Nate(DC) on December 13, 2002 at 11:40:55:
Hal,
No, that makes perfect sense…as a veteran of housing market analysis, I have to consider those types of scenarios (frequently on a larger scale than a unit or two, but nonetheless similar considerations).
I was being delibrately vague, but really all I meant by my comment was that if your tenant is on Section 8, a job loss wouldn’t necessarily result in no rent. Or, more likely, your Section 8 tenant didn’t have a job in the first place, so they had no job to lose and were unaffected by the recession.
Certainly a larger market disruption would impact everybody, including Section 8 - but hey, if that happens, we all got bigger problems to worry about 
NT
Re: 2 are sect 8 Question?? - Posted by Eddy (CT)
Posted by Eddy (CT) on December 12, 2002 at 17:46:29:
ken sc,
I thought that sect 8 tenants who didn’t pay their small share could lose their sect 8 entitlement. What kind of people would risk a great deal like government subsidized rent? Were they on medication and stopped taking it (or something like that) ??
Thanks and good luck
Re: 2 are sect 8 - Posted by Nate(DC)
Posted by Nate(DC) on December 12, 2002 at 13:20:33:
You too.
At times like these I take to heart Hal’s comment about strongly preferring Section 8 families with no income where the gov’t pays 100% of the rent…
NT