Cash For Keys – A Better Option

Any time you own rental property you are dealing with people and the ups and downs in their lives as well as your own. Sometimes the evaluation process does not catch problem tenants and sometimes good people with good histories run into financial or health problems no one could foresee.

Many years ago we rented a house to a nice family with a special needs child. They were good tenants for well over a year and they took good care of the property. However, eventually their problems became our problems and rents started coming in later and later. We were fortunate that they were reasonable people. After we discussed the situation with them, we decided to tear up the lease and part company as friends... yes, we kept the deposit.

Other Options

We could have tried to hold them to the letter of the agreement. We could have gone to court to try to get money they didn't have. We could have had the Sheriff dump all their belongings on the front yard. We could have developed such a toxic relationship that they would have trashed the house and cost us thousand to repair it. Fortunately, none of this was not necessary or even considered.

An Expanding Problem

Missing rent checks are always a problem, even in the best of times. However, during this period of enforced economic shutdown, more people who have regularly been making timely rent payments are finding themselves in the awkward situation they did not plan on. Their problems are becoming the property owners problems.

Adding to the property owners problems is the moratorium on evictions. While this is not universal and doesn't cover every situation, it is a way of shifting some of the pain to the property owners. Tenants must qualify for this protection it does not cover every situation. Even for those covered, it will not go on forever, nor should it be necessary, unless we, as a society, makes some grave errors this November.

A Necessary Accounting

Sooner or later, there must come a day of reckoning. Either the bills for the property cannot be paid or a paying tenant must be put in place. No fancy economic theory from an ivory tower academic can come to any other conclusion.

This is not saying the landlord should not work with the delinquent tenant, nor that they should be treated as an enemy. But what do you do?

The Normal Procedure

I know of some property owners who begin initial procedures when the rent in a few days late. It may be necessary, depending on the nature of the property and renters, but for regular, hard working people who just had a big car repair bill it may be overkill and begin an adversarial relationship.

It could also be an expensive one. Depending on the state, it could cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars and take from a few weeks to many weeks. It may create such animosity that results in a lot of destruction in your empty house. I've seen holes in walls, appliances taken, cement dumped in toilets, and cabinets destroyed or stolen by angry people forced from their homes,

Another Approach

Many landlords have found a Cash for Keys approach works well in some cases where they give the tenant three to five hundred dollars when have vacated the home – if they place is not damaged and littered with trash. It gives them and incentive not to take their frustration out on your property.

Some will say “Wait a minute, these people have lived rent free for several months and now you want me to give them money when they leave?” It seems like you are rewarding bad behavior. But who is the real winner here? If you go through the eviction process, it will cost you money. If they trash your place, that could cost you lots of money. And you can bypass this for five hundred dollars? That makes you the winner. Forget that they come out OK. We are not in business to punish anyone. As a straight business decision it is the best outcome to a bad situation.

The practice is not really something new. Banksters have been doing it for years with short sales and foreclosures. If the house is left in good condition, the borrower is given something like three thousand dollars moving money to make the process go smoothly and not damage the property.

Some Cautions

Do not give them the money until everything is out and you have confirmed it. Unfortunately, not everyone is as honest and reputable as you are. Once this is confirmed, change the locks immediately! You don't know how many keys are floating around. Then take whatever other steps are necessary to secure the property. You may want to only leave one operating access point to the building. Neighborhood kids like to explore vacant houses if they can get in. The recently removed tenant may try to come back and do damage or take something. I've had an unsecured lawn mower taken. Lesson learned.

You never know how much hostility there is in the mind of the exiting tenant. You may not want to be alone when you confirm this exit. Or go through after they are gone and meet them at a public place to give them the money. Just keep your personal safety in mind as these days too many people see violence as a way to settle their issues. You are not the bad guy, but the person leaving their home may see things differently.

Listen to the tenant. Do what you can to help with a smooth transition. Be safe, some people can be very emotional, but this can often be diffused if you are a good listener.

 

Extended Eviction Moratorium – All Is Not Lost For The Landlord

There is an ancient Chinese curse that says “may you live in interesting times”. Interesting is a good term for the days we live in, made moreso by the fact that the cause of hyperventilation these days comes from China.

Numbers don't look like we are approaching a dip in the real estate market, however some people are experiencing financial distress, putting them in a position similar to the last major real estate crash, During that time, many people found themselves owing much more than their property was worth. The banks weren't in a bargaining mood, or people didn't try, so more than a few homeowners simply walked away from their property after living there many months while pocketing the mortgage payment.

This may happen this time around for those who bought with no, or almost no, money down and they have no equity to speak of and not much income. Fortunately, much of the economy is coming back and, barring a catastrophic event in November, may well continue and iron out many of these issues.

Commercial Owners Have Learned

Owners of some commercial properties that have been particularly hard hit by the Chinese flu inspired personal isolationism have adopted a similar strategy. Not to mention any names, they are available to those who seek them, some large hotel and mall organizations have stopped making payments on the troublesome locations... while they are gathering funds for investments better suited for today's world.

The economic slowdown is hitting the banksters as well. It will also be hitting local governments unless these same banksters will kick in the property tax payments. Some of these same commercial property owners, and others, have found a way to make lemonade out of these lemons. The ones with decent cash positions that help them weather this financial storm have bought back the notes at significant discounts.

Their actions, if nothing else, show us that when bad things are happening, don't hide under the bed in a fetal position, but look around. There ARE opportunities. You may have to understand leverage to make them work. I mean, what is a bankster going to do with and empty mall or hotel?

Bringing It Down To The Individual Investor

Will this strategy work for the individual investor with his rental properties? The banksters really don't want to take back massive numbers of properties. With banking regulations what they are, they cannot have too large a percentage of non-performing loans on their books.

Many investors buy properties with private loans from individuals – sometimes friends, sometimes sellers taking back paper on their properties. In these cases, it is not a faceless, heartless institution that gives money to causes you don't like, it is personal – real people getting hurt.

In either case it can be damaging to the property owner. With the banks, unless you had a good relationship that they did not require a personal guarantee on the loan, personal credit is trashed. Even if there was no guarantee, there will probably not be another similar loan in the near future. With inidividual lenders, your personal integrity, and possibly friendship, is gone, along with the potential for future profitable deals.

Considering Eviction

Whether you want to do it or not, sometimes evicting the tenant is a matter of your own survival. How many rent payments on how many units can you miss before the financial crisis sets in? I know of some landlords who start the process if the rent check is five or ten days late. I try not to rent to that type of tenant and don't like being put into that position. However, it is a fact of life when you provide housing.

Particularly if you have few units and know the tenants personally, you might even consider them to be friends. However if you have expenses and are running it as a business instead of a charity, sometimes you will find that their problems become your problems.

Years ago, I was offered a property that was rented to an older gentleman and his daughter. They were having trouble making the rent that was way below market, and the owner felt he would rather sell the place and let someone else deal with it. I looked at the place and talked with the man and came to the conclusion I was not the one to get the owner off the hook. For some of us this is not just a dollars and cents business... even though it IS a business.

Along Comes the Eviction Moratorium

Recently there has been heard in the back room of real estate investors offices a weeping and wailing about the CDC ban on evictions. That is nice for the renter but what about the property owner who still has mortgage payments and property taxes, and is still expected to maintain the property in livable condition. This ruling only takes care of half the problem.

Will the banksters forego payments? Maybe. Will the tax collector be sympathetic? Here you may have a little leeway if you aren't far behind already. How about the electric company if you have been handling the utilities?

No Need To Panic

Things are not as dire as you might think from listening to the talking heads on TV. Tenants can't just use this as an excuse to stiff the landlord. They have to apply for this protection and show that they have lost their income and that they have paid as much as they could toward their rent. If run properly, it will not be a haven for deadbeats.

As is usually the case, if there are tenants who have been hurt financially by thie panic-induced shutdown, and you are generally happy with them, working out some kind of deal is usually better than kicking them out. If you have a bank loan, now may be the time to revisit the terms of the loan. The same may apply to private lenders, but keep in mind most banksters do have the resources to carry you (and your tenants) as BoA, if they chose to do so. Just keep in mind they can only carry so many non-performing loans.

All we can do is what we have been doing. Taking things one day at a time, looking for opportunities that may be lying just below the surface, and not being overcome by the gloom and doom served up to us on most news channels.