Rental War Stories – Part 1: Who’s Living There?

Rental War Stories – Part 1: Who’s Living There?  Loretto Properties, LLC founder Lamar Hunt Jr. has seen all kinds of problems when buying homes and talking to other landlords.  Here’s another war story.  A real estate investor received a phone call from a woman who wanted to sell a house.  The woman didn’t have a price in mind nor seemed to know a lot about the property. In fact, she lived out-of-town about 150 miles away. The investor looked at the real estate tax information and found the taxes were paid up to date and the woman appeared to be the owner. Then he asked her it was rented. She said they had rented it to a man but after four months of paying rent, he was arrested and went to jail.  He stopped paying rent when he was in jail but all his stuff was left at the house.  She and her husband did not know what to do after they drove by a week later and saw someone else living in the house.  Hopeful that they would start paying rent the woman sent a letter to the new occupants telling them where to pay the rent.  Unfortunately, they had not paid anything so they were at a loss on what to do next. The real estate investor then asked the million dollar question, “How long have they been in there and not paying rent?”  The woman drew a deep breath, hesitated and replied, “Just over seven years.”  The real estate investor asked, “Who’s been paying the property taxes?” She said, “We have.” For the rest of the story, stayed tuned.  And for more real estate tips on rental real estate property or other subjects, see our blog stories often.  You can also call us at 913-236-2902 if you have a property to sell.