Renters Beware!

OK, there is not much talk about this issue in the news, so I would like to address it here on my Blog. Renters, you need to be careful who you are renting from. I am finding new clients who are being evicted from their rental homes, due to the fact that the landlord is not paying the mortgage. I had one client paid 6 months rent in advance, the landlord disappeared and it looks like the home is going to be foreclosed on.

If you are not finding a rental through a real estate professional, there are some things you can do to make sure you are not going to be evicted by the bank. When working with clients as prospective tenants, and we find a home they want to rent. I go to the county's public records and in the records division I call up the mortgage. You will search for this information by the owners name, so you can see if they ever had an issue with the home, as far as liens, or prior foreclosures. I recently did this for a client and we saw the owner did a loan modification at one point, but now had a adjustable rate mortgage. We where than able to question the homeowner, as far as, the status of their mortgage payments. I will go as far as to ask for proof that the mortgage is up to date, if I am uncomfortable with the owners answers. They are not always happy about this, but better that the landlord is mad, then my client losing their money. So here are some basic things you should watch out for when renting by owner.

1) The rental rate is low for the area.
2) Deferred maintenance.
3) The landlord does not require 1st, 2ND, and security deposit. They make it easy to get into the property
4) The purchase price of the home is higher than 1% of the rental rate.

Now you may come across some of the above situations, but it does not mean the landlord is having an issue. I would be careful if I saw one or more of the above warnings.

You can always go to the public appraiser's office to see when some one purchased the home, and that they are actually the owners. You can also go to the records division and call up the recording of the mortgage. This will tell you what type of mortgage they have and for how much. If some one has a $350,000 mortgage and the rental rate is $1,800 per month. I would investigate this further. I hope this helps, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

John Palmisano
Keller Williams Properties
Weston, Fl 33326
www.myfloridaagentonline.com