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  • October 17, 2021 at 9:34 PM #23134
    Coronita
    Participant

    So I got a call from one of my tenants today, who said that in December they are going overseas for 2 months and wanted to inform me he won’t be here.

    I’m like ok have fun, I’ll deal with any issues that might arise with the property while you are gone. But it gets better.

    Tenant proceeds to ask me “well yeah, while I’m gone, can I not pay rent since I’m not using the place”….

    I’m not even kidding.

    So I’m very polite and explain.. dude, if you rent a car for a week, and it rains and you can’t use it for 2 days, does the car rental company say “gee Mr. X, you don’t need to pay for the car the 2 days you didn’t use it while you had it in possession…” Or more appropriately… If I buy a house with a mortgage, and go on vacation for 2 months, will the bank say “Gee Mr. Flu, since you aren’t using it, you don’t need to pay for mortgage during those 2 montns”… And while you are on vacation for 2 months, can I call up the HOA and say, gee my tenant is on vacation and isn’t using the place, and since he’s not using it, can I not pay for HOA during those 2 months…

    Oh it gets better.

    He then proceeds on a mini rant about how covid made things cost more. The plane ticket overseas is now $5000, and it’s a lot more than he expected to pay, and that can he get a covid relief… Yup.. I was like Dude, you make $100k/year, you never had your pay cut, there are people starving and who lost your job. You are CHOOSING VOLUNTARILY to go overseas and pay those high cost plane tickets. I said, you can try to claim economic hardship from covid, but you know dude, I don’t think it will work for you. But if you are interested, you can try to apply and so can I and keep in mind it’s a payment deferral and not a payment forgiveness.

    Oh and it gets even better.

    He then asks if his brother can come here and sublet. I’m like hell no, read your freaking rental contract about no subletting. And if you do it behind my back, that’s a breach of contract and subject to lease termination and eviction.

    Oh and it gets even better than that.
    He ends up asking me what his options are and I said. Well frankly, your two options are either you pay the two months rent while you aren’t here or you can take a chance and terminate your lease by giving me notice by Oct 30 and then try to find a new place at the same price when you come back 2 months later….(I said it sort of as a sarcastic joke)…

    But guess what. He’s seriously considering terminating the lease and said he will think about it and probably do that…. Yeah, I know.

    I sort of chuckled and said. Dude, I like you, up to now you haven’t really given me a hard time but I’m going to give you some advice. Yes, by all means, if you want to terminate the lease over 2 months of rent you don’t want to pay while you are not here, that is certainly a decision for you.. But keep in mind…

    *You currently pay $1550/month for a 1/1 condo in MM for the past almost 3 years and I have never raised your rent nor did I plan to.
    *If you terminate your lease, I’m not waiting for you to come back. And I’m planning on either re-renting the place out at $1700-1750/month or selling it for close to $400k.
    *You need to move all your shit out before 12/1 and you’ll need to put it in storage. I think that will cost you about $400-500/month
    *When you come back, good luck finding a 1/1. It’s not even a question of price, it’s a question of availability.
    *You might end up needing to rent a 1 bedroom in a SFH in Mira Mesa. But you’ll probably end up spending $1500-1550 for that too.

    And yet, he said. He’ll think about it and let me know by 10/31. I told him. Sure, go ask your friends and peers what they would do….

    Mind boggling. Simply mind boggling…
    First time for everything I guess. LOL…

    See, i don’t even need to be an evil landlord by constantly jacking up prices… Even when I try to be nice and explain things with reason and logic, people end up shooting themselves in the foot, and I end raising rent prices anyway….

    October 17, 2021 at 10:06 PM #823365
    Coronita
    Participant

    I mean, the dude literally said how he had to pay a lot more for his plane tickets for his family due to covid and that it’s unfair.

    I’m like, I’m sorry to hear that, but why are you asking me to subsidize your airfare. Do you think I caused covid or something?

    (I felt like asking him “it’s because I’m chinese, isn’t it”? lol)

    October 17, 2021 at 10:17 PM #823366
    sdrealtor
    Participant

    Simple answer

    Dude, that’s not my problem

    October 17, 2021 at 10:52 PM #823367
    utcsox
    Participant

    I am sorry; I don’t believe this is a true story :).

    October 18, 2021 at 5:54 AM #823368
    flyer
    Participant

    Sounds like you went out of your way to be understanding, considering his ridiculous requests. Unbelievable.

    October 18, 2021 at 7:26 AM #823369
    Coronita
    Participant

    I just think this entire request was hysterically funny. I would never jack up rents for the sake of jacking up rents to squeeze every penny out of a tenant but what do people think, that I run a charity or something here?

    I mean, I really don’t mind if he moves out. It would be funny, because there’s moving cost out for him, there’s storage costs while he’s gone for 2 months, and then there’s moving cost back into a new place. Not to mention time wasted, which I guess for him isn’t very valuable.

    I bet when he comes back he is going to ask for a rental price decrease, his argument being that his wife and kid is going to stay overseas for 6 months and he’s living alone so he doesn’t need the full 1/1 and can move into a single room in a house. I’m already prepared for that. Fine, go for it. You do that and pay… $1550 these days for a 1 bedroom in someone’s single family house and explain to your wife when she comes back in 6 months why you did that…

    How cheap can one try to get?

    Dude, please move out in that case. Like Quickly so I can rent the damn place for $200-250/month more to the next person that will stay for 4-5 years… Works out way better for me in the long run.

    October 18, 2021 at 10:46 AM #823374
    Rich Toscano
    Keymaster

    Wow…. just wow. Coronita you’re lucky the guy keeps paying rent for those times when he’s at work or out running errands!

    October 18, 2021 at 11:19 AM #823375
    Coronita
    Participant

    [quote=Rich Toscano]Wow…. just wow. Coronita you’re lucky the guy keeps paying rent for those times when he’s at work or out running errands![/quote]

    He’s working from home. So that argument won’t fly. In fact I brought this up…

    “Dude, you’re plane ticket might have gone up. But you’re saved a boatload on gas by not having to drive to work everyday!!!”

    I forgot to include how he responded to that too…
    I’m not even making this shit up…

    His response to what I original said “I can come over to shutoff the water while he’s away so minimize the risk of a pipe burst and damage..” before we went down the rathole of asking for a rent reduction was… he then asked: “well, if that’s the case, can you give me a discount for not using the water for 2 months”… I’m like dude, are you serious. You aren’t paying for water anyway the HOA is.. I AM!!!

    God, please just make the decision to move out… I don’t have the heart to kick him out and otherwise he’s trouble free. But like I said, I don’t mind collecting an extra $200-250/month with a new tenant and/or selling the place for close to $400k and getting 2.75x return on my initial cash investment…

    Especially if they do decide to get rid of the 1031 exchange, now’s probably a good time to do it for one last time.

    In fact, maybe I’ll send him text message saying i need a decision by the end of this week on whether he is going to terminate lease because I want to re rent and/or sell. Is that legal? I don’t see why not. He’s on month-to-month anyway. So I don’t even need to wait past 30days i think. And it’s not like I’m saying I’m going to raise rent on him, even though I think technically I could….I just want him to make up his freaking mind.

    October 19, 2021 at 3:33 PM #823396
    gzz
    Participant

    Yikes, that someone would even ask this is a huge red flag. I’d want him out ASAP.

    Send him notice of a rent increase and tell him you’re happy to prorate rent so he can quit the place mid-month right before he leaves for his trip.

    October 20, 2021 at 12:55 AM #823405
    Coronita
    Participant

    [quote=gzz]Yikes, that someone would even ask this is a huge red flag. I’d want him out ASAP.

    Send him notice of a rent increase and tell him you’re happy to prorate rent so he can quit the place mid-month right before he leaves for his trip.[/quote]

    LOL.

    This guy is far from being a non-payment risk. His credit checks out fine, he makes over $100k/year his rent is $1550, and he lives very frugally. I know he has the money, he’s just. Well, cheap. But he’s not going to try to game the system, mainly because he’s still on an H1-B with years to go before a greencard. So I know he’s not going to try to pull a fast one on me.

    I’m pretty sure when the dust settles, he’s not going anywhere. And like I said, if he decides to move out on his own, financially it’s better for me in the long run since the market rent is way higher.

    I just don’t really need the money right now and if raising prices means dealing with him squak more, I’d rather not. I mentioned that a few times to him that you know the current rent price is around $1700-1750…. He was pretty quiet after that.

    Doesn’t really matter. I’m pretty well paid at my current job, and now that I officially hate my job, I’m not really putting that much effort into it. The company just recently doubled it’s 401k match for the remainder of the year, and I’m expecting another round of retention bonuses since they are having a tough time keeping people. Oh, and my stock accounts total just crossed over the all time high yesterday…again…So I no longer need to chase after the maximum return of everything.

    I just want him to make a decision one way or the other. I’ll ping him again next week.

    October 25, 2021 at 12:16 PM #823428
    Coronita
    Participant

    HAHAHAHA…Tenant is moving out. He says he wants last day to be 11/30

    Awesome!!! Cha-ching!

    October 25, 2021 at 3:56 PM #823431
    an
    Participant

    [quote=Coronita]HAHAHAHA…Tenant is moving out. He says he wants last day to be 11/30

    Awesome!!! Cha-ching![/quote]
    That’s awesome… 1031 into a SFR 🙂

    October 25, 2021 at 6:22 PM #823433
    flyer
    Participant

    That’s great.

    With the lack of availability, we have waiting lists a mile long, especially for our SFR’s, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding other tenants. Good deal!

    October 26, 2021 at 3:13 AM #823435
    Coronita
    Participant

    [quote=an][quote=Coronita]HAHAHAHA…Tenant is moving out. He says he wants last day to be 11/30

    Awesome!!! Cha-ching![/quote]
    That’s awesome… 1031 into a SFR :-)[/quote]

    Yessir. I can sell this 1-1 570sqft POS condo and do a 1031 exchange into a SFH in Utah!!!

    Never thought during a pandemic economy it would have been possible to make a shitload of money,but I guess it’s possible if there are supply constraints

    BINGO!

    October 26, 2021 at 4:20 PM #823442
    gzz
    Participant

    Flyer, how does a waitlist work for a SFH rental? You keep an ad up permanently and people can just add their name?

    I’ve only heard of this in the context of large complexes.

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