The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Mystery Tenants. Scenario 41.

Here’s something to look out for with your land lording empire:

What are mystery tenants?

1. The brother of the person you said could live in your place 3 weeks ago that just doesn’t have anywhere to go since he got evicted from his place.
2. The mother-in-law that chain smokes and is dying of emphysema, and doesn’t do anything all day, but look like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
3. The a$$hole son of the lady that’s been renting from you successfully for 2 years.
4. The parents of the guy you let in last week, but now since his parent’s place burned down they gotta live over at your place for “a while.”

Depending on your municipality, you might not be able to do jack shtt about these mystery guests. In one regard, the mystery tenants can be a blessing as they increase the likelihood that you’ll get paid by sheer fact of more money coming into you place. The reality, however, is that most mystery tenants are living with your legitimate tenants because of some foul up on their part.

In short, mystery tenants are scrubs. They’re scrubs and they probably didn’t qualify to rent your place at the onset, but now they’re stuck with you, because of association.

Have fun with it. The mystery tenants drag your land lording business over to the craps table every time. You don’t know what’s going to happen!

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, money, mystery, no, rent, deadbeats

The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Tenants Don't Have Money, But They Have All New Electronics. Scenario 40.

So, if you’re new to land lording, here’s something for you to get used to: Your tenants don’t have money for their bills or their rent, but then you go over to their place and you see they have a new stereo or a new computer.

This is a part of land lording life. You are the very last priority for them to pay up.

What can you do about it? Zip. Well, not really zip, you can try screen people out. You can try to do the research. Make sure you have a great rental app that gives you numbers to call for other people that your prospects are supposed to pay. Make lots of inquires!!!

At the end of the day, however, the attitude of most tenants is that they only live once and they want what they want when they want it and most of what they want has zero to do with you or your residence—so why shouldn’t they get the new iPhone as soon as it’s released.

Think about it. What the heck would you do? You might be screwed.


Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, money, toys, electronics, no, rent

The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Burn, baby. Burn!!!!. Scenario 39.

We can’t express enough the strategy behind having unlimited access to a burn pit, incinerator, or at least someone that has such things . . .

Two reasons:

1. Anyway you shake it, most trash is burnable. It’s capable of being burned and therefore not a headache or expense for you to dispose of in your already pressed time.
2. If you’re an environmentalist, or if you believe in burning everything on earth, you’ll still have plenty to burn as a landlord: paper, cardboard, wood (the worst), etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.

If you can’t incinerate, then you’ve got to get dumpsters or 30 gallon cans and haul them to other people’s dumpsters in the middle of the night probably spilling garbage juice all over your clothes, shoes and vehicle in the process.

Now, this might not sound too bad. Imagine, however, fixing a water heater at 9PM. Imagine replacing one at 9PM, then having to haul all sorts of garbage, because the tenant left before breaking the water tank. Think of all that weight on your back and feet.

You have pay someone for a dumpster for all the trash! Enough is enough. Burn it all! Burn it all!

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, trash, burn, junk, environment

The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Your Tenant’s Kids. Scenario 38.

You could spend a ton of time focusing on screening tenants for this flaw or that flaw. Here are some reasons why you ALSO need to take a strong look at their kids (we’re talking little kids this time, ankle biters, the shoulder biters are another topic for another day) as a window to the future:

1. Destruction: Some children are so destructive that they’ll immediately start jumping around screaming and writing on your walls DURING the initial showing with your prospective tenant. If they’re behaving this way now, what do you think the future will hold?
2. Mystery Kids: This one is a good one. The prospect will ask you about the section on the application requiring them to list all of their children. They’ll look at you and say, “You want to know about ALL of my kids, or just the ones that live with me.” Think about this for a moment . . . ALL of his/her kids. How much you want to bet that the ones he/she THINKS will be living with her/him now will increase over time? You agree to two kids and in a year you have six!
3. Kids’ Friends: So you’re there with your prospect. They prospect brings a “friend” along with her kids. The prospect’s kids and the friend’s kids are also friends. The prospect’s kids are quiet little angels. The friend’s kids are the destructive devils. Then the prospect winds up babysitting the devil kids in YOUR unit. Surprise! The destruction meets your unit and its from a kid you never expected to even live there. Keep your eyes open.
4. Hidden Pregnancy: We’re not lying folks. Prospects will lie on their apps about their pregnancy status. We’ve had people wear baggy clothes while they’re eight months pregnant and look us straight in the face and tell us they’re not pregnant. We’ve had prospects tell us that they’re not having anymore kids, because they’ve had their tubes tied. We don’t ask these questions, but it’s a fact of land lording. For some reason, some people feel like hiding their pregnancies or making up stores surrounding them, etc., etc.

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, lies, kids, friends, destruction

The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Don’t Lose Your Minibike. Scenario 37.

There are actually two lessons here. But, we’ll start with a story about one of our old tenants. We’ll call him “Larry.”

Larry lived by himself with us for about 2 years. He had a large dog. He wound up renting one our properties located in a not-so-great neighborhood. The neighborhood was sort of a ghetto, but more accurately: depressed. People there weren’t particularly violent or anything. They were the most unmotivated people we’ve ever run across. Larry lived among them due to the fact that his wife died suddenly leaving him a lot of debt. He lost his house. He filed for bankruptcy. In all cases of the word, the “system” really worked for Larry. He went from well-off to poor and wound up needing government assistance to live in the ghetto. He was honest and extremely hardworking. In fact, when he finally moved out, he wound up buying a new house while being self-employed.

The one probably Larry had was that he might have been a little too trusting and honest. This resulted in him losing is minibike.

Before he moved, he showed us a garage full of items he planned on selling at a garage sale. He had the typical horde of crap that most people seem to not be able to get rid of during these modern times. He also had a nice looking minibike running off a little Briggs and Stratton engine.

While we were all outside in the garage on a hot summer day we asked Larry about his bike and what he planned to sell it for . . . in those ensuing minutes, one of the many ghetto thugs that tended to peruse the alley next to Larry’s garage spotted the bike.

Ghetto Thug: “Hey man. Is dat bike fo sale?”
Larry: “Yeah.”
Ghetto Thug: “Can I try it out.”
Larry: “Sure.”

After this short exchange, Ghetto Thug, put down his own pedal bike, got on Larry’s bike and rode away. To this, Larry said, “I guess I’m never going to see that bike again.”

Here’s are Money King’s tips:

Tenants: Know your neighborhood, and beware of your surroundings. Larry lived in a highly-concentrated of area of depressed rental units. Theft was rife. Theft was so rife, in fact, that obviously someone wasn’t afraid to steal Larry’s bike right in front of him in broad day light. Tenants, if you’re shopping for rental properties, do a little analysis of crime in the areas in which you desire to live. Commonly, local police departments will have crime stats that can be very informative. Many “ghettos” are NON-violent. You’ll have areas filled not with gangs and guns, but rather, thieves, con-artists and schemers—all out to get your stuff.

Landlords: Same lesson. Know your area, because guess what, you and your vacant units are targets too!

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, theft, ghetto, thugs, honest, people, neighborhoods

The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Top 5 Times To Hire It Out! Scenario 36.

Lots of people ask us about this . . .

When you’re running properties and such, you KNOW that independent contractors have a knack for stripping you of your cash like a pick pocket on the subway. Lots of landlords do their own work, and they’re proud of it!

We tend to do as much of our own work as possible. There are times, however, when you simply need to hire your work out. Here’s the top five:

1. When you’re injured: This one is an easy one, but it’s tough to own up to sometimes. We know of a landlord that insisted on doing his own roofing work himself so much that he wound up hospitalized from sun stroke. When he was in the hospital, he told the nurse, “How about I go finish up a couple more squares, and then I’ll come back!?
2. When you’re out of your depth: This one seems easy. Some people buy property, and they don’t even know how to change out a light switch! Paying an electrician 80 and hour to do this kind of work is a total waste of money. Replacing knob and tube wiring when you don’t know how to change a light bulb . . . Well, you better call and electrician.
3. When you’re short on time: This sort of thing is a common problem. You budget 9 weeks for a project and at week 7 you realize that you’re going to need another 9 weeks! Hiring that contractor can get you where you need to be in the time you need. It’s a tough nut to swallow, but hey, $hit happens.
4. When two is better than one: Sometimes, the work you need done takes two people. There’s just no way around it. You NEED a separate pair of hands. Gotta hire ‘em.
5. When the law requires it: Believe it or not, some areas of the country forbid you from doing your own work—depending on what work it is. Depending on the profile of the job, The Money Kings definitely don’t recommend trying to slide by the authorities when it comes to municipal codes, etc. Remember when that porch in Chicago collapsed and all those college kids got hurt and killed? The city required owners to replace porches with licensed contractors. A boom for contractors, for sure . . . But the city wasn’t playing around with this issue. Sometimes, you shouldn’t either.

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, repair, contractor, money, hire, help, work