Evictions with Attorney Silverstein on Zoom @ OCREIN Dec 2020

Okay, let's, uh, let's go ahead and get started. Thank you for, uh, coming this evening, uh, on short notice. I usually don't hold a meeting in December because of the holidays and stuff, uh, but this topic is so timely and so important if you're an investor that I asked Steve, um, if he could be so gracious as to speak with us about it, and he agreed. Um, so anyway, without further ado, Steve is an attorney here in Orange County, has been for a while. I won't say how long, but has been for a while. And I have had the pleasure a couple of times of being in a courtroom with him, and he was attempting to evict some tenants that I had issues with, and obviously that was accomplished. So without further ado, Steve, take it away.

Thank you very much. How many people we got here, 4 or 5?

Now we've got 15 so far, and they're still rolling in.

Okay, 15. Okay, anyways, I'd like to talk to you people about The COVID situation in California and how it affects unlawful detainers. Now, evictions— that's the common term for, you know, unlawful detainer is a common term for evictions. You have a little bit of history here. Up until March, everything was going smooth. There was 3-day notices to pay rent or quit. And you could do your eviction, and there was no problems. However, we have a situation where the governor declared a stay-at-home order approximately March sixth to eighth, and at that point he ordered everybody in. The courts started closing. They were still issuing summonses and complaints, and that. Stopped around April 6th when the Judicial Council, which the governor spearheads and has the Supreme Court justice, took away the summons of the unlawful detainer, thereby denying access to the courts to all the landlords and everybody else because you could not get a summons to evict anybody. He denied access. It was a unilateral situation. And I feel an abuse of power denying people the right to the court system. And all of a sudden, the landlords became the supporters of all the tenants who decided to game the system, not pay the rent. And then the governor's orders expired in 2 months. However, we still did not have summonses. It was like doing evictions, trying to bluff people out. I could file a complaint. In Orange County and Los Angeles County, San Bernardino and Riverside closed completely and wouldn't take anything. So it was like trying to bluff people out. We were successful in some of the instances. Some of the instances, people knew what was going on. They would not file an answer, and we were at status quo. However, then the judicial council came down and said, "We're taking away the." Or executive order on September 2nd, and we're giving the legislature, which is controlled two-thirds by the Democrats, so they have a supermajority, so they can do what they want. So what they did was they passed this legislation. It's called AB 3088, which really hits hard on the landlords. It really guts the unlawful detainer process. Instead of the people of the state of California shouldering the problem of the rentals, it's only the landlords. The legislature did not care that the landlords have mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and upkeep on the property, and some— and in some cases utilities. They just said if the tenant signs this form, it's called a COVID form, under penalty of perjury with no documentation, it's just self-authenticating, then at that point they get to stay in your property. Now they broke it up and the legislature did throw the landlords a bone. And what they did was from March, and they made this retroactive to all the way back to March, so any lawsuits that we had filed From March 1st to August 31st were in fact no good because they changed the laws. It used to be you could give a 3-day notice, pay rent or quit. Now it's a 15-day notice to pay rent or quit. And here's the kicker with the 15-day notice to pay rent or quit. You don't add weekends and holidays. So most of the time it turns out to be 22 or 23 days that you can, that the tenant Can sit there and not pay the rent. Now, if the tenant did not return the COVID form, because now you had to serve 2 notices, one from March to August 31st was one set of laws. And that set of laws is this, that if you serve the March through August 31st 15-day notice, then at that point, they return the COVID form. You cannot support an unlawful detainer. So that rent, it's not lost, but it's, it's deferred. And the landlord can sue in small claims court. They blew the jurisdictional limit off, but they have to wait till March 1st of next year to sue for that period of time. The only advantage you have with a 3-day notice to pay rent or quit, or even a 15-day notice, Is the threat of eviction. A lot of times you get judgments against these people, and these people are judgment-proof, meaning they don't have a job, they don't have a bank account, they work under, under the table, and you will never be able to see that unless your client works— unless your tenant works for Boeing or some other great job that they have a good paycheck that punches the clock. You would never be able to see that money. If you rent to some illegal aliens and they go back over the border, you lose that money. You, in essence, have to shoulder the burden. And the legislatures— the legislators, they knew that. They just said— gave you lip service by saying, yes, you can go ahead and sue your tenants. You're not— you're not excused from the money. You still have an obligation to pay it. But you really don't have a vehicle to get that money back if they go over the border or they disappear, move out of state. That money's gone forever. Most of the people, I would say 90% of the people, are paying their rent. I've just heard something about $7.2 billion countrywide is owed for rent, and that money probably will never be seen again. So back to what I was talking about, they broke it up into 2 areas: August— March 1st, August 31st, and then September 1st to January 31st. There's good news, bad news on this, is that the law is supposed to sunset January 31st. The bad news is we've had a big spike in coronavirus and it's in the news every day. And the author of the rent control law and the author of the AB 3088, David Liu from San Francisco, has indicated— he was on the news yesterday and it was in the Register yesterday— that he's going to introduce legislation prohibiting evictions all the way through 2021. So even though this law is supposed to sunset, I don't think I've ever seen a law sunset that's supposed to. They're going to extend this bad boy, and that means it's— you're going to have to really think outside the box to get people out. Now, the other part of the law is from September 1st to January 31st. As I said, the legislature threw the landlords a bone, and that bone is that if you give them a 15-day notice and they return the COVID form, they're obligated to pay 25% of the rent. And that rent isn't due until January 31st. If they don't pay that 25% of the rent by January 31st, on February 1st you can start an eviction based on the 25%. The other 75% becomes consumer debt, and you get to go to small claims court on that. And good luck trying to collect that money. So that is the way the law is Written, and it's a, it's a bad law. However, there are, there are some carve-outs in this thing. They didn't address tenancies at will. That's where you, like, a family member moves into a property, or you, you invite somebody into a unit and they don't pay rent. That's a tenancy at will. It's our position that you can go ahead and give them a 30-day notice because they are not really a tenant. The second thing is where your lease expires on its own terms. I've started a— we had a bunch of evictions that we started that were based on nonpayment of rent, and all of a sudden, lo and behold, the lease has expired. So we dismissed the original cases and filed on the expiration of lease. That seems to be working well. We've got one judge— there's 2 judges here on unlawful detainers in Orange County. And one judge is adamant in regards to that, that that is a good reason to evict the tenant. That is not a no-fault eviction. That is a fault eviction because under a lease, the tenant is saying, I promise to vacate at the expiration of my term. And the landlord has agreed that they are going to accept that property back at the expiration of the term unless you accept money. To go on. So that's a, that's a, that's a great, great device that I'm using to get people out. Now, if they don't return the COVID form after the 15 days plus the other days, you can start an eviction, and it's eviction as normal. However, the tenants— David Liu, our good friend up in San Francisco, the assemblyman who authored all these bills, Through another backdoor into against the landlords, and that is they have the right to file a— it's like a motion to vacate because I forgot— they have to show good cause why they forgot to give you the COVID form. And so that is working in some situations. We've had a couple cases dismissed. And you have to have— they can ask for a hearing. So you're not out of the woods yet. They don't ask for a hearing, you're in good shape. So that's up to the judge to determine whether or not they're going to accept their explanation. If they do accept their explanations, they'll dismiss your case and you get to wait till February. So this law is not in the landlord's favor. The pendulum is not swinging towards the landlord anymore. Back in 2018, there was a referendum, a proposition on the ballot initiative, which was rent control, and it went down to defeat 62 to 37%. And what did the Democrats do after that went down? They went ahead and enacted rent control for the state. So the pendulum is going towards the tenant, and it is getting harder and harder to evict people. Landlords don't understand that. They're frustrated, which is understandably so. They have to support people that really don't have any money or people that are gaming the system. Remember, this is self-authenticating, meaning all they have to do And sign this form under penalty of perjury that COVID has affected them. And it doesn't really— you don't have to show any proof. So that is, that's just a terrible, terrible law. We are doing evictions. I get people calling me up, even landlords, property management companies saying, can you do evictions? We are doing evictions. I have been so busy. The The bottleneck just opened up and my practice has quadrupled. I am so busy, the day goes by so quick. We're filing lots and lots of evictions. Riverside and San Bernardino were the last counties to open up and we're doing trials now just like this. It's Zoom trials. Orange County is not allowing people into the courthouse and it is now everything done by Zoom trials. It's harder to settle cases, but cases are being settled. And it's a whole new world. I'm sure things are going to change after we get back to normal, if we ever get back to normal. Riverside and San Bernardino, they're allowing some— some of the courts are allowing people in. Los Angeles is allowing people in. However, we've had this new lockdown, so they're not setting cases for trial. I've heard in Los Angeles now, so it is it's a tough tough area for landlords. My heart goes out to them, and it's it's really tough. I've had to learn more law in the last two years than I have in the past thirty-five years. The law is changing. The judges are interpreting it differently. It it is so fluid. It's It's unbelievable. You know, we're probably gonna have another change here within a month and a half with this sunset law. And depending on what this David Liu is gonna do, it's going to possibly extend this and make it more stringent on landlords. I'm not sure how landlords are gonna pay their mortgage. I mean, it's pretty tough investing in, Rental property in California if you have this. I've got rental property and I've had a couple clients' tenants lose their job and they're still paying the rent, but it's only a matter of time when they stop paying the rent and it's going to affect me in the pocketbook also. Fortunately, I'm in a position where I can absorb some of this, but you know what, it just galls me that, uh, you know, the, the, the state of California, the governor, Comrade Gruesome as I call him, and his band of socialists, the Democrats— and I'm a Democrat, and, uh, but you know, this is not my Democratic Party. This is so far left, it's unbelievable. They don't care about the landlord's mortgage. They don't care about the landlord's problem. And instead of putting this on the people's Shoulder of the state of California, it only goes onto the shoulders of just a few people, and that's the landlords. So it's it's an unfortunate situation. This whole COVID thing is an unfortunate situation, and you know it's really really tough. I think I've touched upon AB 3088, which is that rush. Law that got run into effect on August 31st and signed by the governor on the 2nd— on the 1st, which was effective on the 2nd. So, uh, basically I think that's what you wanted me to talk about, Joe, was this new law and how it affects unlawful detainers. And, uh, I, I think I've talked, uh, quite a bit about the law, and, uh, I'm sure like The 15 people out there have some questions.

Absolutely, yeah. And I'll open up for questions. Um, if I could start with my question first. So you said you are proceeding with unlawful detainers, but what, what it is specifically, what does that do? Does that go all the way to the point where the sheriff is going to come out and actually evict somebody?

Yes, the sheriff does is doing evictions now. In fact, during the yeah, they're doing evictions now. They won't do evictions, and they traditionally won't do evictions the last two weeks of December, Christmas, and New Year's. That's their policy. But they are doing evictions. I just took over eight evictions to the sheriff to be posted today. And one of my clients called me up today and said they got posted, but they're really far behind. So instead of taking— and when the post— when they're posted, they have 5 days to vacate. It's usually taken about 3 to 4 weeks now because the sheriff is so impacted because the floodgates have opened up since September when they— when the summonses started being issued again. And by the way, that didn't happen right away because the courts had to digest this new law. All the clerks had to digest this law, and they didn't start issuing the losses for about 2 weeks after they started issuing the summonses. So it is now starting to really multiply, and there's a lot of evictions out there. I'm just so swamped. You know, I work late, I work Saturdays. I'm working 6 days a week now. And I'm not the young whippersnapper that I used to be because I'm dyeing my hair gray. And so it's, it's, it's interesting.

Okay, so I'll open it up for questions. Does anybody have any questions? Please go ahead.

I got one. Is, is the price of the eviction process going up with this as well?

Or No, the filing fee, the process server, the writ, and the sheriff, they went up. The writ went up a little bit because we have to pay e-filing fees. So my fee is still the same. That goes up at the beginning of the year because doing an eviction now, you have to do twice as much paperwork as you did before. They changed all the forms and it's a lot of work. My secretary's had to learn how to Retype all these lawsuits on the computer. It's a big thing. You gotta tell them the date your building was built. You gotta tell them if it's Tenant Protection Act of 2019. There's a lot of things you've gotta go ahead and put in there. Prices, my price is going up the beginning of the year from $200 to $250 per case. So, but yeah, it's, uh, the price is about the same, but it's, it's, uh, a lot of work for the same amount of, uh, result.

Okay.

Um, when I first started off, it was really easy. Yeah, yeah.

Now it's a fight.

It's a fight. Every case is a fight. You got, you got, you got Public Law Center, you got Legal Aid, and And they're all asking for jury trials. Up in LA, you got Boston Inner City, Inner City Group, and you've got Eviction Defense Network. And it's jury trial, jury trial, jury trial up there. And those get expensive and they try to extort money out of the landlords. So, it can get expensive, it can get pricey depending on who's on the other side.

Gotcha. One other quick one. If a tenant's on month-to-month lease, Um, is there, is there an expiration of lease every month basically?

No.

Okay, good question. Uh, one thing I didn't touch upon, and I'm glad you brought this up, is they took away the landlord's rights to give a 60-day or 30-day notices. There's only 3 reasons to give a 60 or 30-day notice. Number 1, your property is in escrow or you have a contract for sale. If you do that, you can give a 30-day notice if you're on a month-to-month. If you're on a lease, tough, tough luck. You have to sell the property pursuant to the lease. Number 2, you, the landlord, or the landlord's member of the family is moving into the property. Number 3, you're going to do a major rehab on the property that affects habitability, and that means plumbing, electrical, Heating, roof, and you got to pull permits. Those are the 3 reasons you can give a 30 or 60-day notice. And it's a 60-day notice if the tenant's been there over a year. It's a 30-day notice if it's been there less than a year. And I might also add, I was talking about the expiration of the leases. That only, that only applies to single-family dwellings or condos. If it's apartment, You can't start an eviction unless you offer the tenant a similar-term lease with all the same terms and conditions except for the rent, which you can go ahead and increase 5% plus the CPI. Those are the only reasons you can do it on a triplex, duplex, triplex, fourplex, fiveplex, and/or an apartment complex. So you still have the Tenant Protection Act, and you've got to— on that minefield, you've got to wade through.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Anybody else, uh, have any questions, or are we all done? Joe?

Tori, I think you have to unmute.

Okay. Okay, can I go?

Yes, go ahead.

Okay. All right. I'm not so good with technology. So I have a question with regard to my situation. We're signing a contract, there's a tenant in there. We had a conversation in this regard with the seller. And he seems to indicate— well, he told us that the tenant is still paying. But the reason he's selling may be that the tenant is not— there's 2 different— there's, there's a little granny flat and then there's a main building. So 2 different tenants, either one of them could be not paying and that's the reason for him to sell. It's a $1.2 million property out in Riverside County. So you mentioned that all the courts are closed in Riverside. Suppose we sign the contract, we find out one of the tenants or neither of them Are paying. What would be your suggestion for a walk around when we sign a new lease? Is there something we can put in there that would put the onus on them to vacate if they're not paying?

No, nothing you can put in there. You get to do an eviction. And then you— if they're not paying, if they're on a month-to-month, is the owner going to move into this property? No, is it an investment property?

Well, the owner bought it, they were using it, now they're out of state, so he's selling it. So—

No, no, I'm talking about the buyer.

Oh, we're the buyer. Yeah, it's an investment property.

It's an investment property. So what you're basically doing is you're buying an eviction, maybe even 2 evictions, because if he's not paying, uh, They have to, they have to sign the rental agreement to you in escrow. And when they do that, I'm sure they'll credit you the first month's rent. Usually that's what happens. If they don't, then they don't. And then you have to tell the tenant, if you get a security deposit, you have to notify the tenant in writing. And is your buyer a corporation, individual, or LLC?

Individual.

Okay, so he's an individual, so you have to give him your name, address, phone number, and where to send the rent. And you have to tell him, uh, also, uh, if you've got a security deposit. And all this has to be by certified mail. That's, that's one thing you need to do.

Right.

Then if your tenant doesn't pay, then you go ahead and you give them a 15-day notice to pay rent or quit because you're buying You're buying a pig in a poke here, meaning you're not knowing what you're getting. You're getting a tenant that is not paying rent. Now, the granny flat, is that a permitted unit or is that— Yes, it is. It's got heating.

Everything.

Okay.

So, a lot of times if they don't have— if it's not an occupancy permit, you can't do— you can't get any money off of it. because you have to have it— it has to be a legal unit.

Right.

I'm not sure if the law's changing on ADU units on January 1st, but there might be that. So, but you would— you're gonna end up giving 15-day notices to pay rent or quit. So, and you're gonna have to wait to see what's gonna happen, but you might end up getting stuck with an eviction. So, you might wanna talk to the buyer about, If they're not paying, why not? They're— why they're not paying. You might want to check out the history. You want to take a look at the rental application. You want to take a look at the rental agreement. Don't be just satisfied with the, um, the estoppel agreement. Make sure you get an estoppel agreement so that you know what all the agreements are, uh, because otherwise you're buying yourself 2 unlawful detainers, 2 evictions.

Wow.

He's giving us a really good price. Maybe that's the reason.

That's why. There's no free lunch, my dear.

Yeah, I would be very cautious what you're doing. Um, Steve brings up lots of good points. There are, there are ways to find out if they're paying or not. I've simply knocked on people's doors and said, hey, are you paying rent? And you have a receipt for last month's rent that you paid it? Uh, you know, so hopefully try to give you some proof that that's happening.

Right.

It's, it's a good negotiating tool. It sounds like you've got a good price. You might even be able to negotiate a little bit lower knowing that, uh, you know, this situation might come up. Um, you know, we've, we've been getting a lot of calls, um, uh, people wanting to just basically get rid of their places because their family members are living there, they're not paying. or it's just regular tenants that are not paying. And so what they're trying to do is they're trying to give you their headache. And obviously everybody right now wants, you know, $1 million for the property, uh, but I can't buy the property for $1 million if I have to absorb this headache, so to speak. So yeah, I would do a lot more due diligence. Every, every, everything you were saying is like red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. So yeah, be careful, be careful what you're doing, and If you want to go through the deal, that's great. That's fine. You know, maybe negotiate a little bit more on your end to protect yourself in case you have to call Steve in a month or so when you close.

Right. Well, thank you.

You're welcome.

Anybody else? Questions? Come on. There's got to be some questions out there.

I got— I have another one. Um, you mentioned, uh, thinking out of the box for getting some people out. What suggestions or examples maybe?

Well, uh, the one example I gave you was the expiration of the lease, because this under new Code Section 1179.03.5 Gives like 3 reasons you can do an eviction: 30-day, 60-day, and/or nonpayment of rent. You can do one for perform covenant or quit. Let's say you're selling a piece of property and the tenant— you're not— you don't have a sale yet, but the tenant's not cooperative. So what I do is I tell my client who is the seller, Get a date, time, and place that you're going to show the property. If the tenant doesn't allow you to go in, because under the law they have to allow the landlord to show for prospective buyers, mortgagees, appraisers, they have to do that. And it's a code section, I think it's 1954. And items— it's instances when the landlord has the right to go into the property. And to show a buyer, if let's say for instance they say, I, oh, I have you, I'm afraid of COVID I'm not going to allow anybody in. So you give them a perform covenant to quit. We're going to show the property at 5 o'clock or 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon. Please allow the buyer in, the prospective buyer in, and the agent. So, but you got to put in the perform covenant to quit, the paragraph. That shows that they have to do it, or state law because it's a state law. So you have to do that, and then you have to inform them date, time, and place that you're coming. So you then have your buyer and you as the selling agent, or you have the buyer's agent, somebody that's willing to go to court and say, yeah, I was there at that time. They wouldn't let me in to show the unit, and we gave them a perform covenant to quit. Here's a copy of the perform covenant to quit. We posted it on the door, we mailed a copy, or we handed it to them, and they wouldn't let us in. That's a violation, and that's thinking outside the box. That's one way to go ahead and get them out, because a lot of times they're going to game the system. They're going to think of anything they can do to annoy you, to make it hard on you. And because they think they— I get these tenants all the time calling me up saying, you can't evict me, there's a moratorium. But they don't know the actual law. There is a moratorium, but they don't follow through. I had a lady hasn't paid rent since March. Her rent's $1,775. It's been 10 months. I served her the 15-day notice, pay rent or quit, and she didn't return the COVID form. So we hit her up, she defaulted, and now she got posted by the sheriff and she's calling me up, oh, you can't do this, there's a moratorium.

I'm entitled.

I said, lady, you owe $17,750. My client, you've been sitting in there for free for 10 months. If you want some time, pay some money. And she hung up on me. It's that mentality. So you have to think what's— how you can get these people out. And you have to be aggressive with them. I mean, you can't be a pansy sitting in my seat here. You gotta sit there, you know, I sometimes go, I can't believe what I just said. I'm a heartless son of a bitch. But yeah, that's that's my job. That's that's my job. So you gotta you gotta be tough. I don't care. I don't care if you got COVID and they gotta drag you out in the hospital bed and roll you out. You know, that's my job. I'm trying to get people out of the property because the landlord, man, they a lot of them. I had one case where the landlord calls me up and says, "I gotta I can't pay the utilities anymore," so they're going to shut them off. And I said, you can't do that. She goes, I have no money. So, the landlords, some landlords are really, really hurting. These are like investments for mom-and-pops that retired and said, okay, I'm gonna live off the rent. But they can't do it now because some, some of these tenants are gaming the system. That's thinking outside the box.

Thank you kindly.

Any other questions?

Yes, here's my situation. I have a tenant who stopped paying the rent since April.

Can you put your camera on?

I'm sorry?

Can you put your camera on?

Actually, I'm dialing in using my phone. Sorry.

Okay.

Go ahead.

He hasn't paid rent since April. So he stopped paying the rent since April. Yeah. And the lease ended 10 days ago, end of November. And I want to sell, and I want to sell the house and he's unresponsive. That's fine.

Start an eviction, sir.

How long it takes?

What city is the property in?

Anaheim, Orange County.

Uh, pre-COVID, it was 4 to 6 weeks from the time we served them with the lawsuit. Now it's probably pretty close to that. Can't tell you now because it's up to the sheriff. And, you know, the sheriff sometimes locks them out quick, sometimes they don't lock them out quick. So it's, it's pretty similar to that. You're in that golden opportunity that I talked about. The lease has expired. And yeah, they haven't paid since April, but your, your main object now, because we're fighting with one arm tied behind our back with this new COVID law, which favors the tenant, start your eviction based on the expiration. They're not giving rent out on trials until after March. So they're bifurcating the cases. Bifurcating means they're separating them into 2. One is possession, and then in March or April, they're setting up, uh, Case management conferences, allowing the landlord to amend their complaint and sue for all the back rent or whatever else they want. So yes, you're in a great situation where you can start your eviction tomorrow morning if you wanted. Uh, all you need is the lease and a check and we can start your eviction. I wouldn't waste any time.

And, and regarding the small, uh, claims court, he said we can Started in, in March. Um, I'm currently out of state and I heard that I need to be physically, um, in state to submit the claim at the small claims court.

You can file claims, yes, but if you start an eviction, there's 2 prongs to the eviction. One is possession, one is money. So you can use this as a vehicle To go ahead and sue for this. Right now everything is done by Zoom, just like this. That's how I do my trials now. So you could be out of state and it really doesn't, it doesn't hurt you.

Cool, great, thanks.

You're welcome.

Anybody else? What's that?

You got a shy crowd.

I do. I'm surprised.

I'll tell you, it's a tough crowd. The hat check girl's name is Dominic, you know.

I'm surprised. I get so many calls about, you know, uh, can I evict, uh, just like, uh, the, the previous person, uh, Zaid.

It's—

I, I get those calls all the time. Can I evict? And Here's my situation. And, um, yeah, it's, it's tough. Uh, now a quick question. So is, is there also a federal moratorium, and does that end when?

There is a federal— the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, uh, instituted a, uh, moratorium on evictions, and that was, uh, it expires December 31st. So basically that has no more force in effect And hopefully they're not going to renew that. But yeah, that was hurting us back in September. It hurt several of my clients. We had a trial back in October, and the judge put the trial off until January 4th or 5th. So yeah, it hurt. I've got a guy gaming the system that hasn't paid rent for almost a year. So yeah, that hurt quite a bit. That hurt the CDC. But right now, that order doesn't apply anymore because even if they file it, I can't get anybody out for 3 to 4 weeks anyways, and that's going to be into the new year.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think that— I think I was personally confused because I thought everything ended at the end of December, but now you're saying it actually ends January unless they extend it.

Yeah, the the AB 3088 goes through January 31st unless it's an extension. And if I'm a betting man, which I am, it will be extended.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Any other questions?

I don't know what form. I don't know what form and what they're gonna do if they're gonna beat the landlord up more. But it's gonna. I'm almost here. I almost can guarantee you it will be extended.

Okay, any other questions before we let Steve go?

No?

Going once, going twice, gone. Well, Steve, thank you very much for doing this. I appreciate it. Sorry to make it another late night for you, but I appreciate it very much. And you Definitely know you have my business and, and any of my clients are headed your way. So I'll try to keep you busy and I'll try to keep you working late.

Okay, I thank you very much for having me on. Um, and, uh, everybody stay safe and, uh, you know, go to a restaurant, support, support the protest zones because they're, they're now calling themselves protest zones, the outside dining. So, go support them.

Yeah, I was at one today.

Okay, good, good.

Does anybody else have any questions or comments that they want to make?

No?

I just wanted to make a comment that, um, yeah, thank you for your time. I'm just getting ready for, uh, managing my rental. I just bought a— I'm closing on a fourplex. It's my first fourplex and I've done all the due diligence and I've got the estoppel statements. It looks like the tenants are in good shape. They've been paying the rent, but I don't know what's coming down the line in the future. So, it's good to have Mr. Silverstein as a contact. And I hope I don't have to look you up in the future, but if I do—

Let me give you a couple bits of advice since you're managing your units for the first time. Never take a personal check for a move-in. Always get a cashier's check on move-in.

Yeah.

You'd be surprised how many dumb landlords I get say, well, he gave me a personal check and it bounced. And all of a sudden they have your property and they have paid no money. There's a lot of con people out there. And, you know, if somebody comes up to you and has their own application filled out, that's a big warning sign.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and you need to check it because a lot of times they, they will put false information on. You'd be surprised how many people don't check the, the sources and how much— what people lie on their rental applications. The rental application is the most important tool you have. That's your— that's— you're assuming your tenant is going to go south on you. When they move in. How can I collect my money if they move in? Do they work? Do they have a bank account? Do they have a car? I make the tenants— my tenants show me a copy of their last bank statement so I can tell them, oh, I want to make sure you don't have a dollar in there. So, because that's one way you can go after them. Photocopy your client, your tenant's checks, so you know where their bank account is. If they don't have a bank account, Be careful because if they work under the table, if they go south on you, you'll never see your money. And if they have a 1978 Ford Maverick, you'll never— Pinto, you're not going to ever see your money because there's— that's the other asset you have to go after is a car. But it's— you might want to go and check out where they say they work.

Yeah.

If you're that diligent, you want to be careful. Also, be careful now renting to people because they might be saying, oh yeah, here's, here's the money, and then all of a sudden they say, I got COVID, or I, I, I can't pay the rent because I lost my job. I had it 2 weeks ago, but I lost my job. So, you might want to check out the employer, go over there, talk to the last, last landlord. If If they're doing really bad, a lot of the landlords will say, oh yeah, he's a great tenant, just to get rid of them. So you might want to go over and see how they live, where they live, if they do live there, because a lot of times they'll put down their friend's name and where they're living, or friend's name as an employer. So you got to be careful if this is your first management.

Yeah.

It's not, it's not all easy. They're not all wonderful people out there. There are some people that will game the system.

Thank you for the tips. Appreciate it.

You got it. And don't bet on any gray mirrors at the horse track. That's my other tip.

Anybody else?

I just want to, to thank Steve, uh, that— I mean, because of him, he saved my marriage 16 years ago. And I started investing in real estate because before that I was trying to evict a professional tenant myself. And me and my wife were like pulling each other's hair until she said, why don't we hire a lawyer? And after that we hired Steve and everything went perfect. The best $800 I've ever spent in my life.

Thanks, Dad.

After that went No, no problem. Because of that, I decided like 4 years later to start investing in real estate, and I said, if we have a problem, we can have Steve. And that was it. My wife was okay with it. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Now I have like, what, 35 units because of you. Thank you.

You're welcome. You're welcome. You make it worthwhile.

Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's very nice.

You can put that on my Yelp review if you want. There you go.

Anybody else?

Good Yelp review. Uh, I'm— I, I gotta tell your people, I'm not a hand holder. You know, I only make a couple hundred bucks on this, and I get clients sometimes calling me up trying to monopolize my time. I won't, I won't have that part. You know, but, you know, I'm pretty straightforward. I'm pretty blunt. And some people I irritate. I get some bad Yelp reviews because I'm sometimes rude on the phone because they want to hear what they want to hear, and I don't want to tell them what they want to hear. So, you know, I get good Yelp reviews and I got some bad ones. And, you know, you can't please everybody all the time. But I, I do all right.

Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. Anybody else have any questions? No? Okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and sign off then. Um, I did record this and I will send it out as soon as, uh, the recording's done. Uh, again, Steve, thank you for, um, joining us and giving us all that valuable information.

Well, thank you very much for having me. Uh, everybody stay safe and, uh, don't drive too far and drive home safely. Yeah, in the comfort of your own home.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.