Saturday, December 01, 2007

Renter Worries

I'd be a bit careful about renting from "amateur" landlords (or, perhaps, anyone at this point), people with just a couple of rental properties who appear to have gotten into the game recently.

Then in July, Mills got a rude surprise when she came home from a hospital stay to find a sheriff's notice on the door, saying the house had been foreclosed and she must call about being evicted.

Mills says her landlord told her not to worry because he would "take care of it," so she ignored other letters and notices that came to the apartment. Not until a sheriff's deputy showed up on November 13 did Mills take the eviction notices seriously. He told her she had to be out of the house the next day.

Mills is one of a growing number of renters who are being caught up in the nation's foreclosure crisis. According to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosures across the country, 1,785,596 foreclosures have been filed nationwide so far this year, a dramatic increase over a year ago. RealtyTrac say October foreclosures this year were up 94 percent over last October.


In many areas, mortgage payments for anyone who got into the property game in the last five years or so are way above market rental rates. Rent does not come close to covering the mortgage payment, especially those "exotic" mortgages. Landlords didn't get into the property game for the rental income, they got into the game because God and Nature have determined that home prices will go up 20% per year until the end of time and they were planning to cash out.

Rent from one of them, and you may get evicted.