webLOGfor.US

Being a landlord gives an initial aura of being different than other businesses.  I believe this is because your product is an intangible.  You’re not selling an item like a store.  You’re selling a service, but even that is different than most services.  It’s not like you are an electrician or plumber where you come in, perform a service and get paid.  As landlords the service we provide is a properly maintained housing unit. 

The service we provide forces us to have a different relationship with our customers than a plumber would have with their customers.  Our business relationship with our customers can last for multiple years.  We can see marriages happen, children being born, growing up, etc.  We have a view into intimate happenings.

On a personal note, I will say that I believe that if you are a good person, and treat people well, you will be treated well and have a good life.  You can call it living by the golden rule, karma, whatever you want.  My point is that it is how I live my life and it flows through to my business practices.

As a landlord, especially a new landlord, it can be hard to realize that there needs to be a line drawn between the tenant and you.  This is a business and it nes to be treated as such.  This isn’t charity, it isn’t a helping hand, it is a business.

When it comes to landlording it may seem that those two points conflict but I don’t believe so.  I give everyone a fair shake when i deal with them.  I don’t take advantage of anyone and I don’t expect to be taken advantage of.  If a tenant doesn’t pay me I see it as being taken advantage of.  I live up to my end of the deal by taking care of any issues that arise and providing good, sound housing.  They need to live up to their end by paying on time and taking care of the property.

What goes around comes around.

This article is a very good reason why you should not mix relationships.

Business is business.  Personal is personal.  Listen to the godfather on this one, “It’s nothing personal Sonny, it’s all business.”

Obviously this situation ended as poorly as it could have but there were so many chances taken here.  First, legally, if she was his tenant and he was giving her a rent reduction for a relationship I can smell harassment, prostitution, etc all over the place.  The landlord would have been in a pickle if she decided to take some type of legal action. 

Landlording is a business people.  We need to treat it as such.  Landlord, tenant and girlfriend/boyfriend should not be in the same sentence.

Woman held in stabbing death of boyfriend

Chicago police this morning were investigating a stabbing death on the Far Northwest Side that resulted from a dispute between a 54-year-old landlord and a tenant of his building who also was his girlfriend.

Officers were called to the apartment building in the 6400 block of West Touhy Avenue at about 12:30 a.m., police said.

Police arrived to find Fred Khoshaba, the owner of the building, dead on the floor of his girlfriend’s apartment there, bleeding from a stab wound to the neck. A 49-year-old woman was arrested and charges are pending, said Police Officer Laura Kubiak.

According to Kubiak, the woman pulled a knife during a possibly domestic-related argument in which she ordered her boyfriend to leave her residence. When he refused, a struggle ensued, with the victim reportedly grabbing the woman’s arms and shaking them, apparently causing the knife to plunge into Koshaba neck, according to Kubiak.
A cousin of the dead man said the woman called police and told them Khoshaba had stabbed himself in the neck as they argued.

"I will never believe that," Wissan Zala told WGN-TV Ch. 9. "He would never hurt himself."

Zala said his cousin had four children, was in the process of a divorce and was having financial problems due to the difficult real estate market.

     Having rental properties is having a business and dealing with customers is something you cannot avoid if you want to have a business.  Landlords who don’t take the time to learn how to deal with tenants properly can get into some unwanted trouble pretty quickly.  You have to be able to keep a cool head no matter how the tenant approaches you.  There are too many things that are open to interpretation when it comes to landlording.  For example if the water needs to be shut off or the heat goes out in the winter, a landlords "reasonable" time.  For example, reasonable to me would be to talk to one or two repair-men and have them come out as soon as possible.  If it seems that all technicians will take 3 days to repair, 3 days seems to be a reasonable timeframe.  However to someone living without heat or running water, 3 days could easily be too long.  This is where good customer service skills can come into play.

     One key way to ensure you keep good tenants for a long time is to not forget they are your customers.  Taking care of issues quickly and to their satisfaction is important.  Give them good customer service and they will stay longer and refer you to friends who may be looking for a place to live.

     If you peruse the blog you know that from time to time I jump on to Yahoo! Answers to pass around some knowledge.  I’ll say that most of what gets posted there is a load of junk.  It’s a shame because for some people who don’t know how to use the Internet or search engines real well it is their only place online to find answers.

     I once got into a heated discussion with someone on the site who gave bad information.  This woman was touting herself as a real estate expert and was giving landlord/tenant advice in absolutes with no knowledge of the area of the questioner.  Personally I think everyone who gets into landlording or real estate investment learns early on that all real estate is locally driven.  This is true in prices and this is true in landlord/tenant law.  The only absolutes you can quote about landlord tenant law are federally mandated items such as the equal housing laws, lead paint disclosures, etc.  Items such as what rights a tenant has if the landlord goes into foreclosure are all locally driven at the state and municipal level.  You cannot speak in absolutes on this unless you know the location.

     OK, off my rant about the ignorant posting as experts.  There have been a lot of questions lately about what rights a tenant has when a landlord goes into foreclosure.  A lot of the questions have to do with can the tenant stop paying rent.  My general answer is that the tenant can do whatever they want.  It’s a free country.  What can they do legally is a whole different ball game.  In most jurisdictions the legal answer is that you must continue to pay rent.  You have a legal binding contract.  You never know what the outcome of a foreclosure filing is going to be.  There are three possible situations in this:

1. Property has a short sale completed.   
   • In this scenario a lack pf payment by the tenant could cause an eviction.  If the new owner is an investor they may not want a tenant who stops paying, for any reason.
2. Landlord makes arrangement with the bank to keep the property.     
   • Again, an eviction is likely here.  The landlord isn’t going to want you in the property when you stopped paying rent.
3. Bank takes the property back.     
   • Your lease used to be voided but the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 changed all that.  Some states have stricter laws than what the federally mandated minimums require.  There is a PDF at the end of this post listing each states laws.  If the state has stricter laws than the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 then they stay in effect.   

     One sure fire thing is that if a tenant does get an eviction on their record other landlords will treat then as a pariah.  No one will want to rent to them anymore.  Play it safe and know your rights. 

     I found a listing of tenant rights by state.  Check it out, it has a lot of good information on your rights if you are a tenant facing foreclosure.   Tenant Rights in Foreclosure

     I’ll be posting on the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 and my views on it shortly.

     Interesting and timely.  That’s all I can say about this news article from WPTV in West Palm Beach Florida.  In my article last week I spoke of landlord and tenant scams.  Here is an apparent scam where 30 people were bilked by a fake landlord.  The alleged fake landlord is a former police officer.

     I’m not sure of the details of each scam but I am sure there were red flags that would have tipped off the potential tenants of what was happening. 

     Strange part is, he is being charged with submitting fake warranty claims on the properties.  I’ll bet if he just stuck to ripping off people he would have been in "business" much longer.

Article and video below.

Fake landlord suspected of scamming 30 renters
Reported by: Jesse Chavez

WEST PALM BEACH, FL — NewsChannel 5 cameras rolled when a would-be tenant confronted her alleged scammers.

Now, the suspected mastermind of a huge rental rip-off is behind bars.

The former officer is now facing 30 criminal charges.

NewsChannel 5′s Jesse Chavez was the first reporter to investigate what authorities now call one of the largest mortgage fraud schemes in Palm Beach County history.

"Who owns this property right here?" asked multi-media journalist Jesse Chavez.

"Who are you?" asked a man who claimed to be a homeowner.

"It don’t make no difference," said an associate.

"How about we just call the sheriff’s department and I’m telling you, get that camera out of my face," said another man who was confronted by us.

Our cameras were rolling two weeks ago, when a group agreed to meet a woman at a home on Wabasso and Oswego.

She had offered to give them $800 to rent it.

"Are you really the landlord then?" asked multi-media journalist Jesse Chavez.

"I own this property," said one man.

"No, we’re property managers," said the woman.

"No, I own it," replied the man. "I could do what I choose to do with it."

It turns out, the group works for former West Palm Beach police officer, Carl Heflin.

None of them own the house in question or any others involved in the alleged scheme.

Heflin was arrested this morning and charged with submitting 20 fake warranty deed forms claiming he owned homes in the Westgate and Belvedere areas of West Palm Beach.

"All the properties are in some sort of foreclosure," said Detective Michael Antinoro of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. "Some of the people are still trying to work it out to pay the payments and some of people just walked away from the property. They’re still technically owned by the person."

Leslie Walker is one of the renters looking for justice.

After paying rent, she even moved into this home before the real owner called the sheriff’s office and had her removed.

"It’s not right, what he’s done," said alleged victim Leslie Walker. "He’s hurt a lot of people and he doesn’t care. He didn’t care what he did."

Walker says she’s now homeless, broke and embarrassed about what happened.

"I’m snake bitten by it, the whole thing. Shocked, angry, victimized is what I am," said Walker.

Heflin is charged with 30 counts of fraud, burglary and grand theft.

Detectives have not charge his associates, but that may change in light of what we caught on camera.

"Listen carefully, back the hell up with your cameras and move on," said the man who claimed to own the house.

"Well if you’ve got nothing to hide, then what’s the problem?" replied multi-media journalist Jesse Chavez.

"This is mine and if you don’t like it, that’s too bad," said the man.

Detectives say the investigation is not complete and others may be charged in the future.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.