Just a reminder that being 60+ does not grant you absolution from past sins.

Inquiry today about a little studio from a woman who is 64 I think. She was shocked when I turned her away for a past eviction WHICH DOES NOT SHOW ON HER CREDIT REPORT (she said - I haven't run credit yet. It shows in public records, though. That surprised her.)

I didn't bother to reply, but using her maiden name and birthdate, I was also able to see that she has been kiting checks since 1993. And actually served time for multiple forgeries. She is now working for one of our larger local PMs - imagine the financial data she has access to!

W,

I hear ya!

Just got a reply from a guy who stiffed us for a several thousand$$$ court judgment of rent and damage.

He was at the hearing.

"You know I'm broke so why are you also hitting me for money? "

Ummm cuz you stopped paying rent and left a bunch of junk and cleaning!

We go back 5 years on evictions. Any longer and we'd never fill a rental.

In Indiana judgments drop off after 10 years unless renewed by the Plaintiff.

AND recent evictions and paid off judgments are SEALED, invisible to you, me, attys, credit reports...

Brad, I'd rather the place go empty than rent to anyone who has EVER had an eviction.

I'm getting the same old deadbeat/baby mama drama tenants who apply each and every time I have a vacancy. They are nomadic, low performing deceptive, deadbeat, destructive tenants with sob stories that want to subvert the process and move every single year or even more often than that.

So true.

I will take someone with an eviction - providing there is not a balance due to any landlord.

It is not automatic for an eviction with damages paid off to be sealed.

The tenant must go thru some hoop jumping, according to what I have found.

Also it is not an expungement so someone somewhere can still see it.

I just need to find out who that is.

Not sure if it will show up on our case search and then be shown as no info available.

I don't accept evictions, regardless of how long ago, unless there is only ONE and it is PAID IN FULL and they have had at least one successful tenancy lasting 2 years since that eviction.

With 54 units, I'm full as of Monday. I've found that people who have been evicted often continue to have other bad habits: poor credit, unpaid bills, accounts in collection. This tells me they haven't learned how to earn a sufficient, stable income and manage the money properly. I'll let other LLs deal with their shenanigans and excuses. "The check's in the mail..." "My bank messed up my account..." "My job didn't pay me this week..."

Anyway...

Yes, WMH, you're 100% on the money. The "little old lady" or "elderly gentleman" trope has thoroughly debunked itself with me. As a landlord for 20 years, I've seen MANY people who are older than me and should know better. At age 29 when I was getting started, I was shocked to see 60-year-olds who were still needing to live in my humble $450/month units because they'd had 2-3 bankruptcies, at least one eviction, and were bouncing around from job to job or were "looking for a job."

Whaaaaaat?!?! Are these the vaunted "senior citizens" I'd always been told had "paid their dues to society?" No, I'm not sure what their game plan was, but when screening I saw bad credit, accounts in collections, bad rentals history, unstable income, and usually recent criminal activity.

Life is hard and some folks never adjust well to it.

At any age,

behaviors have patterns.

Figure out a persons priorities

don, I tried a little to get a DB like that started just in my area. Most of the slumlords just don't care. They get the upfront money, lose a month, sue and go on with life.

I wanted to be able to get something done that was private, not easily hackable like FB. I thought that we could use the names, addresses they lived at and maybe last four of the SS to verify.

The few that showed interest were worried about being sued because of the info stored and shared.

So true!

I heard through the grapevine that one of my tenants had been smoking pot. Her first three months of rent were paid by a local agency for victims of domestic violence.

Apparently she didn't appreciate the free rent. When I went by, there was a sign on her door that said,

Roll, roll, roll your joint

Twist it at the end

Light it up, take a puff

And pass it to a friend.