Ethics & Discrimination…. A question of Right vs Right!!

Ok so I was having this debate with a local landlord and I’d like to hear your opinion…. You charge $25 for your application fee. You show the house to a nice couple and they want to apply but they don’t speak, read or write English. They have an interpreter there to help them fill out the application and the interpreter would also be there to help them understand and sign your lease agreement if they’re granted the rental. And of course you don’t speak their language. Would you automatically disqualify them? If so, would you still take their $25 application fee knowing that they’re not going to get the rental? Let’s keep in mind that we’re all ETHICAL investors AND we don’t want to be sued for DISCRIMINATION.

I posted this question on the BiggerPockets Forums and got a HUGE response. Please chime in on here or on the forums if you have an opinion. I love a good debate!

Here's the link to the BP debate: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/154214-ethics-and-discrimination-a-question-of-right-vs-right

National Private Real Estate Lender to Host Real Estate Investor Forum

A national private lender based in South Windsor announced that Daren Blomquist, Vice President of RealtyTrac www.RealtyTrac.com, a recognized authority on residential real estate foreclosure data and trends across the United States, will present the keynote address at its semi-annual Northeast Real Estate Investors' Networking Forum on October 23.

The event is the second of its kind to be hosted by RCN Capital; its May 8th forum attracted over 170 attendees, and the October 23rd event is expected to bring together as many as 300 real estate professionals, including investors, mortgage professionals, realtors, developers and contractors.
RealtyTrac® is a leading provider of housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, publishing a variety of reports, including its monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, data. Wielding this data, RealtyTrac has been quoted on The CBS Evening News, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, FOX News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Denver Post and dozens of other print and online news outlets.

Mr. Jeffrey Tesch, the Managing Director of RCN Capital, states that "we are very excited to have Daren Blomquist as our keynote speaker as I am sure that many of our attendees have seen him on such national shows such as CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg, and he is quoted frequently in business publications such as WSJ, USA Today, and Bloomberg News."

RCN Capital is a nationwide, direct private lender providing short-term commercial loans from $50k to $2.5M+ to real estate investors, developers, and small business owners. RCN Capital is affiliated with TicketNetwork® through common ownership. Since 2010 RCN Capital has made over 800 loans totaling in excess of $180 million throughout 40 states, and financing the purchase and renovation of non-owner occupied residential and commercial properties. RCN estimates that approximately $100M of its loans have been made to borrowers in the Northeast.

The Northeast Real Estate Investors' Networking Forum will be held at RCN Capital's 9,000 square foot dining complex at 75 Gerber Road East, South Windsor, CT, and is free to attendees. Attendance is limited, go to www.RealEstateForum.ezevent.com to learn more and register.

4 Ideas To Fill Your Rental Vacancies During The Winter Months

It’s that time of year again and landlords are franticly trying to place tenants in their vacancies before the cold weather hits. We all know that the pool of prospects looking for rentals drastically diminishes during the cold weather months. This is the time when many landlords start making catastrophic mistakes in tenant screening.

During the spring, summer and early fall months, most good landlords are experts at tenant screening. We do credit checks, criminal background checks, eviction history checks, call former landlords, employment references and personal references. Well usually around the month of November all of that stops because landlords are so afraid of carrying a vacancy for a few months. Well let’s think about what you’re risking here. If you’re not properly screening your tenants, you may have the property rented, but you open yourself up to much more risk including nonpayment of rent, property damage and expensive legal fees trying to evict a bad tenant.

Here are 4 alternative options to conceding on tenant screening:

Reduce the rent: Many landlords don’t want to reduce their rent because of course this takes away from their bottom line. But think about it, would you rather lose $1,000 a month by having a vacancy during the entire cold weather season ($5,000 / 5 months) or discount the rental by $50 ($600 / 1 year).

Offer a Step-Up Lease: A step-up lease would have a tenant paying a certain amount for a period of time and then the rent would increase at a certain point. So you could have the tenant paying $900 a month from November until April, then in May the rent shoots up to $1,000. You could even include a provision that the tenant can opt out of the lease (and leave the unit without penalty) at the end of the April if they don’t want to pay the rent increase. If they do decide to leave in April it would actually be a benefit to you because from then on, all of your leases on that unit will end in the spring time instead of the winter.

Offer An Early Payment Discount: I actually do this all year-round.  I’ll have the tenant sign a rental agreement saying that the rent is $1,000 a month, but they will receive a $25-$50 discount if the rent is paid BEFORE the 1^st of the month. This way, I can advertise the apartment at $975-$950 as long as I disclose that this includes the discount. And yes…. If they pay between the 1^st  and the 10^th, they have to pay $1,000. Oh yeah, and if they pay after the 10^th, they’ll have to pay my $5 per day late fee until it’s paid in full.

 Be Flexible: If you’re one that doesn’t want pets or smokers in your rental. Now might be the time to be a little flexible. I would definitely suggest getting a one time or monthly pet fee or simply asking smokers to not smoke in the house. But turning these people away might just be the difference between keeping your building fully occupied and running vacancies throughout the winter.

These are just a few options that I consider when placing a tenant during these Connecticut winter months. But the one thing that you DO NOT want to do is to relax your standards in tenant screening.

New Britain Looking For Landlords To Volunteer Their Properties As Shelters

NEW BRITAIN, Connecticut — New Britain's mayor is looking for space to serve as an emergency homeless shelter this winter.

Mayor Erin Stewart is asking that a local property owner step forward and donate a building. She says the city has volunteers, cots and other equipment, but no space.

Last winter, two landlords donated space that housed between 27 and 32 homeless people each night. The space has since been rented.

Stewart has met with representatives of social services agencies and religious groups to consider ideas.

The cost to staff the overflow shelter was $36,000 and $2,000 was donated for utilities.

The city needs a heated space from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. to accommodate about 30 people from early December through the end of March.

I'm not sure of the city's compensation plan but if you're interested you can contact the city of New Britain at 860-826-0000

October Foreclosure Auction List

The following is a list of foreclosure auctions taking place in my primary area of business during the month of October. If you'd like more information on any of these properties, or if you'd like a list for any other towns, simply click here to email me and I'll send you the property information sheets.

South Central Connecticut Foreclosure Auction List

Cheshire
None

Hamden
Oct 11, 2014
22-24 THIRD STREET, HAMDEN, CT No Photo

Oct 18, 2014
30 GILBERT AVENUE, HAMDEN, CT No Photo
19 Dudley Street, Unit B, Hamden, CT No Photo

1644 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, CT 


Oct 25, 2014
55-57 Collins Street, Hamden, CT No Photo

Meriden
Oct 11, 2014
26-5 Guiel Place Morsetown Condominiums Meriden, CT No Photo
1274 East Main Street, Unit #D-15, Meriden, CT No Photo

Oct 18, 2014
195 Coe Avenue, aka 69 Peacock Drive, Meriden, CT No Photo

Oct 25, 2014
39-03 Meetinghouse Village #1, Meriden, CT


Oct 25, 2014
129 Newton Street, Meriden, Connecticut No Photo

71 Nancy Lane, Meriden, CT


New Haven
Oct 11, 2014
79 William St, New Haven, CT No Photo
320 Shelton Avenue, New Haven, CT No Photo
24 Arthur Street, New Haven, CT No Photo


27 Elliott Street, New Haven, CT


Oct 18, 2014
25 Winthrop Avenue New Haven, CT No Photo

Oct 25, 2014
1423 QUINNIPIAC AVENUE, UNIT #502, NEW HAVEN, CT No Photo
100 SHEFFIELD AVENUE NEW HAVEN, CT No Photo
23-25 Earl Street, New Haven, CT No Photo

135 Cleveland Road, New Haven, CT


North Haven
Oct 25, 2014
5 Skiff Parkway, North Haven, CT


Wallingford
Oct 11, 2014
22 George Street, Wallingford, CT No Photo

Oct 18, 2014
44 South Cherry Street, Unit 502, Wallingford, CT No Photo

Click Here to learn more about investing in foreclosures

 

If you're interested in purchasing Short Sale or Bank Owned properties in Connecticut, please click here to let me know exactly what you're looking for.

An Aerial Digital Video Camera For Real Estate?

I'm thinking about investing in one of these to show aerial shots of my property listings. I could also rent it out to other agents, photographers and videographers. Hmmmm

UPDATE... Rebranding The Blog

If any of my loyal readers out there have been wondering why I haven't been posting much lately, it's because I've decided to rebrand the blog.

I believe that real estate is local, so I've decide to bring in my topics from general 'Connecticut' Real Estate Investing to just the markets that I personally invest in and do much of my Brokerage & Property Management business in.

As such, this will become a much more personal blog to my business and personal experiences in the towns of Meriden, Cheshire, Wallingford, North Haven, Hamden & New Haven with occasional topics in Waterbury since I was born & raised there and do a little business there as well.