If they can qualify for a mortgage, they will buy it.. But, if they don't, they will move out and we already know that the house is trashed inside, not to mention the outside hasn't been taken care of at all, (weeds everywhere). There are stains all over the carpet, would have to be repainted and mold in the basement. And these are things that we know of right now, I'm sure there is more damage that we don't know of yet. When they signed the lease, the house was immaculate. Fixing it up and trying to sell it would be difficult in Michigan's economy. They have been behind in payments during their lease and have a large amount of late fees that they want us to just take out of the security deposit. The deposit doesn't even begin to cover the damages that we would need to repair. What can we do if they don't buy it?
2007-09-14 07:56:18 · 9 answers · asked by luvmykiddies 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
Fully document the damage with video and digital camera (High pixel) photos, bring witnesses and have the write affidavits to the damage and notarize them. Gather all of this up with your lease documents and visit an attorney. He will help you on two fronts (or just one if you want to save money). First he will need to total all of the monies owed and send a demand for payment letter. Next (if they are not already gone) he will draw up eviction papers. Next he can formulate a contract (If you still wish them to purchase) outlining them agreeing to purchase, the amount and terms including that they MUST obtain and maintain insurance on the property and giving a specific date by which the funding and sale will be complete. This will also be a binding document between you and your tenant to go along with the current lease document. The next issue he may be able to help you with, or you may wish to handle yourself, is filing a claim with your insurance company to cover the damage already done. You will have had to let your insurance company know the property was a rental, and if you had then some or all of the damage will be covered. There is a particular phrase for this sort of damage and it eludes me now....s s s....I can't think of it but it should cover your damage in any case.
At the very least document the damage and get estimates to fix the damage and keep receipts for all of the actual work to fix it including your personal time off work (wages lost) attorney's fees and all so you can begin recovering the money if you don't make the sale.
If you screened your tenant and he has employment wages, or you know where he banks, then recovering your money after judgement is as easy as gaining the judgement, if not easier. File a writ of garnishment, serve it, and wait for the answer from the court. It will either contain money or not, and the info as to the amount enclosed or info on the lack there of. You may need to wait for it, but if your tenant was screened for suitable steady income it shouldn't take too long before he is working again even if not now. The judgement should be good for 10 years and renewable for another 10 after that. You'll just need to keep on top of his credit report to gain the info if he isn't currently employed or depositing.
2007-09-14 08:21:13 · answer #1 · answered by Morgan M 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hotdogseeksbun said it all.
It's a good idea to document the damage with high-pixel video, but all that wil do is allow you to keep the sec dep from them. You may get a big judgment in court, but collecting it is another matter (although there are books on this.)
Evict them and fix it up. And learn how to screen for next time. You can learn a lot of this from www.mrlandlord.com including the judgment collecting stuff.
You should have run credit reports on them (That they paid for) before you rented to them, and you should have started eviction proceedings the moment you saw they were trashing the house or paying the rent late. Your lease should have been written specifically for this.
Don't trust real estate agents to find tenants for you either. You have to do it yourself, because you learn more from the face-to-face interview process than you do from a credit report.
Rent your unit $100 less than what a real estate agent says you could get. This will give you a decent sized pool of applicants, from which you can pick the one with the best credit report, etc. Because the extra $100 isn't worth the risk of getting non-paying house-trashers.
2007-09-15 08:35:20 · answer #2 · answered by Durian 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the following is for entertainment purposes only. Please only read this for a laugh.
1. Call the power company posing as them and tell them you will be moving out next week. Have them turn the power off. Also, change the account information so they can't call back and turn it back on.
2. File a change of address at the post office and have all of their mail forwarded to some random place.
3. Take all their mail and write all of their bill holders, especially their car lenders and tell them their intent to stop making payments and to come pick up their cars because they don't want to pay for them anymore.
4. Send fraud notices to all of their bank account holders so they freeze their accounts.
5. Pay an actor to go to the door looking for drugs. Then have the actor say that if he can't get drugs, he's going to have his boss visit the house to get 'the drugs'.
6. Hire another actor to visit the house and warn the family of the fact that the previous owner was killed brutally there and found 5 weeks after he died in between the walls.
The key is to make their life miserable. Again, I hope you got a good laugh from this. Please don't take these as real suggestions as they are all against the law.
2007-09-15 17:32:44 · answer #3 · answered by The Smart One 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Welcome to real estate investing, I can relate, this has happened to me a few times over the years. You have no choice but to make the needed repairs and get the home back in shape if you intend to rent or sell it. It doesn't sound like they intend to really buy it, I would get them out as soon as possible and get to work. You can sue them but a judgement is not payment and as the above poster said about the turnip...
2007-09-14 15:55:30 · answer #4 · answered by MaryAnn Mc 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They have no intentions of buying your house.That is why they trashed it.You need to evict them and sue for damages.You won't get any money from them but the next land lord will see it on the credit report.Fix the property up and be more careful next time.
2007-09-15 05:32:27 · answer #5 · answered by hotdogseeksbun 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a lawyer for your state, renters are a nitemare there's no way to make money, and if you don't do great back ground
checks then och !
Sounds like your short on funds as well, get them out if you can and start fixing or put it up for sale.
And now it's a buyers market. RENTERS !
2007-09-14 08:07:55 · answer #6 · answered by DR DEAL 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not a problem if u were working for the mob ha ha !!!!
you cant get blood ought of a turnip
2007-09-14 08:08:08 · answer #7 · answered by muddywater 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Evict, get judgement, file judgement
2007-09-14 08:06:02 · answer #8 · answered by Craig T 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Sue.
2007-09-14 08:00:06 · answer #9 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋