Rental property

[GGGG]

PM me and I will share my personal experiences.

Eeewww....

[reinko]

Speaking as someone who has worked for property management companies, it's a toss-up.  The kids are probably going to leave your property a mess, but there are far fewer collection headaches. Mom and Dad are usually paying the rent. 

And if you think you are going to avoid eviction and property damage hassles by owning in a "nicer" neighborhood, think again.  My brother had to sue a former player for the Tennessee Titans because he caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the house he rented to them, as well as several months of unpaid rent.

Vince Young, gotta be Vince Young...maybe Pacman

[JD]

Thank you everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

I understand what Benny is sayin'.

The unit I found has 6 bedrooms, 4 baths.  I wasn't sure if it would be more beneficial to rent it per room like a 2040/The Marq has done, or find a group of bros and rent it to them similar to what my friends and I did once.

[mu-rara]

Anybody rent from Brenda Star?

She owned a lot of property around where I rented. 

How about Leo Wisniewski?  He loved renting to students and almost demanded rent up front.  He also loved renting to those on the gubmint assistance.  Gov't rent check went directly to him.

[warriorchick]

Thank you everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

I understand what Benny is sayin'.

The unit I found has 6 bedrooms, 4 baths.  I wasn't sure if it would be more beneficial to rent it per room like a 2040/The Marq has done, or find a group of bros and rent it to them similar to what my friends and I did once.

From talking to my kids' friends, it appears that "houses" are in very high demand, and that kids start looking for them a year ahead of time.  I would rent it as one lease.  Why hassle with having six separate units to rent? The only reason 2040 does it the way they do it is that they were having trouble renting entire apartments.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

From talking to my kids' friends, it appears that "houses" are in very high demand, and that kids start looking for them a year ahead of time.  I would rent it as one lease.  Why hassle with having six separate units to rent? The only reason 2040 does it the way they do it is that they were having trouble renting entire apartments.

6 different parents with homeowners insurance to go after when Timmy, Jimmy and Doug hit a sprinkler head with a football, or when Chad microwaves a bird and starts a fire.

[warriorchick]

6 different parents with homeowners insurance to go after when Timmy, Jimmy and Doug hit a sprinkler head with a football, or when Chad microwaves a bird and starts a fire.

You would have that anyway if all six kids were on the same lease. Plus you could word the single  lease so that there is joint and several liability, which is better than having a separate lease with each tenant.

[Benny B]

6 different parents with homeowners insurance to go after when Timmy, Jimmy and Doug hit a sprinkler head with a football, or when Chad microwaves a bird and starts a fire.

This is a classic example of landlord folly... sure, you've got six guys to go after, but do you even want to?  While suing six guys doesn't cost 6x what it would cost to sue a single person, it can make things up to six times more complicated unless someone fesses up and makes good.  Alluding to what I said before, having to chase down one deadbeat renter, let alone six, can be a tremendous time sink, not to mention if you're not collecting rent during that time (e.g. the damage is too costly to fix, the lessees haven't been evicted, personal property hasn't been removed, etc.) it can quickly become a money drain for a landlord who owns a single rental property (i.e. owners of multiple properties don't have all of their eggs in one basket in case something goes south).

Maximizing your chance of winning a lawsuit has the unfortunate side effect of maximizing your chance of going to court.  Absolutely you need to protect yourself as a landlord, but you also want to protect your own time by making good decisions on the front end, which begins with the proper screenings, payment structure, and administrative strategy. 

Unfortunately, there aren't any hard and fast rules, but I will give one example of what I mean by admin strategy... a landlord I know owns several duplexes and spends every Saturday morning spring to fall mowing the lawns at each of the properties... when I asked him why he didn't hire a landscaping service to do it for him, his response was that he used to, but he noticed that tenants took much better care of the property when they saw him every week.  He figured that spending the 125-150 hours a year mowing lawns was probably saving him 40-50 hours/year in small claims court.... to him, that trade-off was well worth it.

[jficke13]

This is a classic example of landlord folly... sure, you've got six guys to go after, but do you even want to?  While suing six guys doesn't cost 6x what it would cost to sue a single person, it can make things up to six times more complicated unless someone fesses up and makes good.  Alluding to what I said before, having to chase down one deadbeat renter, let alone six, can be a tremendous time sink, not to mention if you're not collecting rent during that time (e.g. the damage is too costly to fix, the lessees haven't been evicted, personal property hasn't been removed, etc.) it can quickly become a money drain for a landlord who owns a single rental property (i.e. owners of multiple properties don't have all of their eggs in one basket in case something goes south).[...]

Chick mentioned joint and several liability, and it's a magical thing. I don't care if Chad, Steve, and Jerry are pointing at each other to explain the microwaved bird, the bird is microwaved and the kitchen smells like guilty badger, so I'll take my judgment and figure out which pocket to collect from later thank you very much.

Doing the litigation thing isn't too tough if you hire a lawyer to do it for you.

[Benny B]

Chick mentioned joint and several liability, and it's a magical thing. I don't care if Chad, Steve, and Jerry are pointing at each other to explain the microwaved bird, the bird is microwaved and the kitchen smells like guilty badger, so I'll take my judgment and figure out which pocket to collect from later thank you very much.

Doing the litigation thing isn't too tough if you hire a lawyer to do it for you.

You're completely missing the point.  It's not about being about to pin someone with liability... that's easy; collecting on a judgement (potentially from a penniless, recent college drop-out who lives out of state) and/or avoiding downtime is completely different story.

If you own multiple properties... sure, it's helpful to have a good lawyer.  But any landlord's #1 goal - especially a single-property landlord - is to stay out of court to begin with.

[jficke13]

You're completely missing the point.  It's not about being about to pin someone with liability... that's easy; collecting on a judgement (potentially from a penniless, recent college drop-out who lives out of state) and/or avoiding downtime is completely different story.

If you own multiple properties... sure, it's helpful to have a good lawyer.  But any landlord's #1 goal - especially a single-property landlord - is to stay out of court to begin with.

Given the number of repeat offenders I see in court every afternoon, slumlording and ending up in Milwaukee County small claims isn't that big of a drawback to their business. Granted, you as a landlord don't want to pay me, the scum-sucking lawyer, but my fee is no different if I handle 1 property or 40. It's a cost per eviction and a cut of the collection if you want me to collect on the money judgment I get as part of the eviction. It's a purely linear equation. You're not better off from a fee perspective if you have lots of units compared to just one or two (caveat if you have LOTS of units... maybe).

And collecting from MU students is a pretty decent proposition. Most don't drop out. I can keep a judgment active in Wisconsin for 40 years, and transfer it to other jurisdictions if necessary too. The population of MU students are *significantly* more collectible than my typical defendant. I'd take the average MU drop out as "collectible in the next 40 years" vs. the population of evictees if I had to.

[Skitch]

She owned a lot of property around where I rented. 

How about Leo Wisniewski?  He loved renting to students and almost demanded rent up front.  He also loved renting to those on the gubmint assistance.  Gov't rent check went directly to him.

That guy was scummy. Found him once walking out of our empty apartment when I came home and woke up once to him showing it to prospective renters. It wasn't even our unit they would be renting but the one they were going to get was being repaired.

[augoman]

Eeewww....

not those, Sultan, only relative to investment property.

[Benny B]

Given the number of repeat offenders I see in court every afternoon, slumlording and ending up in Milwaukee County small claims isn't that big of a drawback to their business. Granted, you as a landlord don't want to pay me, the scum-sucking lawyer, but my fee is no different if I handle 1 property or 40. It's a cost per eviction and a cut of the collection if you want me to collect on the money judgment I get as part of the eviction. It's a purely linear equation. You're not better off from a fee perspective if you have lots of units compared to just one or two (caveat if you have LOTS of units... maybe).

And collecting from MU students is a pretty decent proposition. Most don't drop out. I can keep a judgment active in Wisconsin for 40 years, and transfer it to other jurisdictions if necessary too. The population of MU students are *significantly* more collectible than my typical defendant. I'd take the average MU drop out as "collectible in the next 40 years" vs. the population of evictees if I had to.

Ugh.  This is why I laugh at universities that offer joint JD/MBA degree programs... at some point between the LSAT and the bar exam, every container of business acumen in a law student's brain is emptied, burned and the ashes encased in concrete.

Again... if I have one rental property, I can't afford to be engaging an attorney; it's not so much because an attorney doesn't provide value (most do), but rather, it's because whatever situation necessitated my having to engage an attorney is likely cutting into my only source of revenue.

IOW, it's correlation, not causal.

[mu-rara]

That guy was scummy. Found him once walking out of our empty apartment when I came home and woke up once to him showing it to prospective renters. It wasn't even our unit they would be renting but the one they were going to get was being repaired.

I would describe him as a character.  We didn't have any of the issues you had.   

When were you renting from him?   We were 80-82.

[Skitch]

I would describe him as a character.  We didn't have any of the issues you had.   

When were you renting from him?   We were 80-82.

95-96

[jsglow]

Given the number of repeat offenders I see in court every afternoon, slumlording and ending up in Milwaukee County small claims isn't that big of a drawback to their business. Granted, you as a landlord don't want to pay me, the scum-sucking lawyer, but my fee is no different if I handle 1 property or 40. It's a cost per eviction and a cut of the collection if you want me to collect on the money judgment I get as part of the eviction. It's a purely linear equation. You're not better off from a fee perspective if you have lots of units compared to just one or two (caveat if you have LOTS of units... maybe).

And collecting from MU students is a pretty decent proposition. Most don't drop out. I can keep a judgment active in Wisconsin for 40 years, and transfer it to other jurisdictions if necessary too. The population of MU students are *significantly* more collectible than my typical defendant. I'd take the average MU drop out as "collectible in the next 40 years" vs. the population of evictees if I had to.

[jficke13]

Everyone needs a hero.

[jsglow]

Everyone needs a hero.

You need to do student T shirts like Gruber.  That is unless you ARE Gruber.

[jficke13]

You need to do student T shirts like Gruber.  That is unless you ARE Gruber.

Gruber is yesterday's news. Gotta get on board with TDLS - the If You're In Pain, We Make It Rain guy.

[jsglow]

That's AWESOME.  That dude absolutely has to sponsor MU hoops with our 3 ball shooters.

[jficke13]

He was in my law school class, he's got more advertising hits:

[jficke13]

He's got another one that says "Just because you did it doesn't mean you're guilty" that didn't come up when I googled. That's my personal favorite.