Hi, long time member of the Mr Landlord boards, I got my start here 18 years ago - can't thank you all enough for the help in the early days.

CA is a disaster as a landlord and a tenant. We have super long term tenants and rarely rent a unit. After several years of no vacancy, I have two at once, a studio and a 1br. They are astronomical in price, I don't know how people do it. As a LL under rent control you can't give discounts because you'll never be able to get to market. And low rents lead to low quality tenants and I love a good low maintenance tenant. So we're on the low-mid end of market rent for what it is.

Both properties have been on the market SIX WEEKS with nothing but losers applying. Have 1-2 good showings a week, yesterday a 20 year old kid with his mom, he had no credit and she had no SSN (and spoke no English). He couldn't put together a sentence either on the phone or in person. She seemed to have her stuff together a little more.

From you guys I learned, no gut checks, always credit reports. And that wasn't possible so I sent them off.

This is probably my third situation like this in a month, and they are my only serious candidates.

At the same time, I am on month 2 (entering 3) missing two rents and I'm getting hungry.

What are we doing about illegals who want to move in? CA government hates success and loves a good deadbeat, I'm afraid to get an eviction with someone with unlimited free legal resources.

Hi Mike! I remember you well, of course.

I thought the federal gov was going to make it illegal for people to rent to illegals? Did that not go thru?

I am guessing that Ca doesn't have online public records. In Ohio, we do and have had for a long time.

That is the first site I go when I start vetting potential tenants.

Of course, if the person inquiring has a common name, it gets a little dicey whether you are looking at the right "John Smith", but its a start. You'd be surprised at the weird stuff people get charged with!

If you want to look at my county's online records , the addy is starkcjisdotgov.