Comments on: It Can Happen: 3/4 of Tenants late

By: Gerard

Gerard — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:19:38 +0000

Hmmm… It sounds good on paper… you know that’s what they said about RMBS as well!! Sometimes risk isn’t about the numbers… Good luck and hope it all works out

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:38:40 +0000

I feel your pain. We only have one rental property. Our tenant, who is otherwise fantastic (single woman, no pets, takes immaculate care of the house) is a real estate agent. As you can imagine, things are rough for her financially. I’ve decided that I’m willing to let her pay late (so far the latest she’s been is nearly 45 days) because it is worth it to me to have someone I trust in my house. In addition, she keeps in constant contact with my property manager, and my property manager keeps in touch with her broker.

My choice wouldn’t work for everyone, but it works for us. Fortunately, we have the reserves to deal with it. If this situation had occurred when we first became landlords, we would have been big trouble because we didn’t keep sufficient cash reserves on hand. We now keep no less than three month’s expenses on hand, just in case.

By: SimplyForties

SimplyForties — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:49:01 +0000

I’m sorry you are going through this. I have a small building next to my house with an apartment in it. My tenant seldom pays exactly on time but she’s never been a month late. I don’t worry about it, I know she’ll turn up with the money at some point. She’s a blessing. She takes of my house when I’m gone, feeding my dog, watering my plants and bringing in the mail. My water heater sprung a leak once when I was on a two-week vacation and she dealt with it. I have no idea why she always pays late and I don’t care. I’d much rather have her, paying when she can, than have someone pay exactly on time and not be such a big help to me.

By: dogatemyfinances

dogatemyfinances — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:29:45 +0000

Wow, I hope you got a large security deposit.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:48:06 +0000

I don’t understand don’t you make sure to get a security deposit? I had to give two months worth of rent before being able to sign on.

By: John

John — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:53:39 +0000

I am a multi-unit landlord in Michigan. By sad experience, I’ve learned to send a 7-day notice after the tenant is late (end-of-day on the 3rd). The notice is “pay rent or quit”, and it is the informal beginning of the eviction process. That way I have my bases covered if they don’t pay when promised. I am not heartless, I am working with some slow-payers right now, but if 1) they don’t contact me to let me know what’s up and/or 2) pay SOMETHING, then it’s off to court we go. I am not sure why anyone would let someone slide for 30 days before filing, but state laws obviously differ, so “your mileage may vary” !

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:55:53 +0000

@ Tina – my tenants are definitely not dishonest people. I don’t know if it’s the economy or not, but 2 of my tenants have been laid off and the other delinquent one I haven’t heard from yet. Of course they all have jobs like “bartender” and “furniture mover” which is part of it. Those jobs come and go quickly in many economies. But I do agree with you on charging a stiff late fee and requiring a month of rent as a deposit – I do the same thing.

PS – last night I collected $1000 from one of the tenants (the woman whose husband was laid off but is now apparently working as a furniture mover in some capacity). That brings her current through mid December, so I’m happy with that for now. I’m confident they’ll be up to date by mid-January. They are really trying, and she says they really like living there.

I’m posting a notice to vacate to the one who won’t call me back as soon as I get back from Vegas on Friday. Looks like I’ll get to learn all about small claims court in 2009! Stay tuned.

By: Tina

Tina — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:11:23 +0000

by the way, I disagree with bankerbryan (sorry bryan). I think this is not a sign of our economic times. It’s a sign of dishonest people. Housing and food should be priority payments for people in financial trouble. Not cars and toys.

By: Tina

Tina — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:09:03 +0000

So, maybe I’m a hard nose. But, we have 8 rental units and we don’t mess around with late payers. If they are late, they get charged a stiff penalty. We stay on top of it every month tightly so they don’t go unnoticed. If they don’t pay within two weeks, we call and remind them of the lease agreement.
If they miss a month, they’re out. we begin the process of eviction. We have only had to do this one time. And that was before we got smart.
Now, we really don’t have the problem. We have the rent at a fair rate and the units are kept nice. They are brand new when we build them and we keep them well maintained. So, we usually have plenty of people that want to live there. We’re really strict. But, I couldn’t handle it if we had to deal with people who didn’t pay.
We also require a month or a month and a half for deposit, so if they do skip, we aren’t out a huge amount unless they rip us off or damage severly, which has again, only happened once.
The units are in our town, which is very small. And we have my dad living in one of them, who tells all when people are skippin out.
It works well for us. But, I have heard stories like this. Unfortunately, we live in a world of dishonest people.

By: No Debt Plan

No Debt Plan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:54:49 +0000

Wow. Definitely not for the light hearted. I’d definitely want to own something very close to me so I could harass/encourage them to pay.