Do you think you are ready to be a homeowner? Are you prepared to buy and hold property and rent it out to take advantage of one of the greatest wealth creation opportunities of all time? History shows us that homeowners end up with all the money, using their property as a springboard to get a big cash flow through rents, lease options or to roll over mortgages. I’m teaching my new class, “No Vacant Days, No Lost Rents: Property Management Anybody Can Do.”
As an owner, I have been reviled, exhorted, cursed, and praised. Gangsters have threatened me because I raised her grandmother’s rent because she was going to move. I just bought the house where the rents were woefully below market; she couldn’t pay so she moved. She called me a bitch so I called the police.
Some tenants yelled at me on the phone when I lowered the rent because they didn’t have to move 45 miles out of town. She said that I was sent by God. Some tenants call me Mr. Dexter, out of respect because they know the role I play in their lives.
Mr. Dexter, you have rats in your house, I hear them rustling at night, a resident complained. I am afraid that my children will be bitten. What are you gonna do about it? I taught him how to be proactive and fix the problem at no cost to me.
I’ve had applicants lie to my face (well at least put on their best face) when they desperately wanted my house that was in a coveted school district. She said that she would have pitched a tent on a vacant lot so that her children would have an award-winning education. Reviewing her history revealed the instability of her job stability, but guess what? I rented from him anyway. His motivation to live in that neighborhood was strong, his finances were good enough. The rent is deposited into my account like clockwork.
A home improvement contractor illegally moved some of their ex-employees into one of my vacant houses, so I couldn’t even show it. I was angry that I didn’t get the full security deposit back from him; It took three months to get those tattooed trespassers out. Now that was a lesson learned.
Another resident had her son’s toys stolen from her front porch a month after she moved out. She didn’t move because my house was close to her work. Her prime location kept her tied up there.
A boarded up and demolished house in foreclosure desecrated the neighborhood where he was trying to rent a house. This monstrosity was covered in graffiti and littered with rubble. All my interested applicants had to go through there. But it was rented in just two weeks, just before I left for Mexico. Puerto Vallarta did not have to wait.
In Orange County, my tenant reconcreted a driveway, put up a new wood fence, and installed new hardwood floors, all with his own money. I thanked him for improving my property. A week later in Los Angeles, a new resident was in tears when she called to thank me for renting to her because she loved the house so much. I felt like crying with her.
I’ve had three evictions, some contested, but not one house was vandalized. Most tenants never went to court, but when they did, they lost. I have never lost in eviction court, but I consider being there a failure on my part. An eviction is a failed landlord-tenant relationship. I work on that connection; I’ll do anything to stay out of court.
No bad renters, just lazy landlords in my book.
I have raised rents and lowered them as the market dictated. I have never lost a tenant. As a property owner, I have had to endure through difficult times. I have seen entire neighborhoods deteriorate as economic times deteriorate.
I’ve also seen it go the other way. I have benefited from buying houses in cities where jobs are pouring in; my properties become more valuable as the economic prospects of the cities improve.
And that will happen again. Economic cycles are immutable.
