welcome to Deerwood Realty YouTube channel I'm John Schink founder and managing broker of Deerwood Realty in St Louis Missouri you know I get I get people that come through my office that say you know hey I want to be an investor right I want I'm going to own a lot of property and I'm going to have tenants pay my mortgage and it's all going to go wonderful and I think these people are naive I just I just from from the time I spent in Property Management I just feel like they're naive and I and I feel bad and I and you can't convince people that there could be issues right you can't like people are hellbent on you know buying this investment property and making all this money and it's or the perception of that they're going to make all this money and it's it's shocking to watch um but it's this idea that everybody makes money in real estate and so therefore you never make a mistake and you never lose money so obviously you should just get more uh more tenants more houses everything will be fine um people have built you know channels based on on YouTube I mean you know just just all over the place I'm not going to mention any names but it's fascinating to watch because I think it sucks in a lot of people that otherwise uh should not be landlords that being said you know I came across a story today that I thought we could we could go over and I could kind of show you like here's some things that you might have not wanted to deal with here's some things that you might not want to do um and here's some ways that you might be able to protect yourself if you are a landlord and you do something like get a tenant from Hell uh I saw this on Twitter today um and let's just get into it here it is it says you think the eviction for the Airbnb tenant from hell was bad and says all information in this post is 100% real public information and posted with client consent and encouragement I have a link to the tweet in the description and you're welcome to uh you know read for yourself what what goes on with in the life of a real estate attorney it says this is a story about the worst case of a professional tenant I came across worked on over 100,000 in unpaid rent over 9 months of litigation jury trial appeal countless motions and a lot of bad faith and let me just start off by saying this I am not pro landlord or Pro tenant I i' I think both have their problems I would say that when I did Property Management of all the units that we managed um there was I think maybe 98 97% of the tenants were good people I think that many of the times that tenants weren't able to pay their rent wasn't because they didn't want to but because they didn't have the money it wasn't an issue issue if they had the money they would have paid the rent they were all that good of people so I don't want you to think that I'm I'm I'm beating up on tenants and as far as landlords I think that landlords are um fine naive some of them some of them are terrible people uh like sharks would I say there are more terrible landlords than there are terrible tenants no both equally bad at the extremes okay so that being said let's continue it says late 2021 my client visits her property after the tenants notified her they were moving out it's an apartment in Santa Monica three bedrooms with hardwood floors 10 blocks to the beach rent at the time was about 3,700 a month and the market rate was about $5,500 so some of the things you have to ask yourself just getting started why why are we not leasing to tenants at the market rate like what is it about these particular tenants that they deserve some sort of Break um and then as we get into it you know was that was that really the right thing to do so then it goes on to say she opens the door and is greeted by an unknown occupant a middle-aged woman who says she is living here that's my house she won't leave police are called but they can't do anything civil matter you have to evict her so this is where I come in now this let's just let's just start out here a lot of people think that just because someone doesn't pay rent the police automatically show or you know the police will automatically come and evict the tenant right oh you're not paying rent just come and work on your behalf and take care of it it doesn't work that way you get to go through the courts this also comes into play with squatters squatters know this okay and they will pretend that they live in their this house it's they'll break in live in it and then say you have to evict me it's really really not great turns out that one of the former tenants subleased one of the rooms for extra cash and did not notify my client the occupant was so obnoxious and rude all the rest of the tenants fled elsewhere shortly after she moved in they found her on Craigslist so what do we have here we have a serious problem one you always want to vet all of your tenants if you're a landlord right you always want to know who's staying at the house and you know who are these people and can they pay the rent right that's number one that's key if you want to be a successful landlord where did they go wrong here where did the owner go wrong here not really anything she could have done because she didn't know that somebody else was living there that's a problem and can you imagine being such a horrible person as a tenant that the people that uh let you suas all left because you were that bad that's pretty impressive says we had to wait until the moratorium was over to file an eviction that was March of 2023 the moratorium restricted evictions not just on unpaid rent it also protected unauthorized occupants it also protected denial of access to the unit so we could not inspect the unit for over two years right so I'm not I I was never very comfortable with this idea that you go inspect the unit all the time I I felt like tenants have their rights and have you know peaceful enjoyment of the property that they're leasing but to not have anybody go over there or anything for two years definitely a red flag uh and then even if in this case even if you would have known someone was living there uh unlawfully you still couldn't do anything about it now some of you may say oh well they subleased it so it's okay well a suas isn't in in the in the lease okay the original lease it's not in there and if it is in there it normally requires landlord consent which which you know this obviously didn't happen after we filed the eviction the tenant got free help from a local nonprofit which represented her zealously and aggressively and this is the problem that I have with um the tenants wres nonprofits when they get a a lead okay what are they going to do turn it down I mean that's their whole that's their whole business model is that they have to defend these tenants whether or not the tenants are in the right or in the wrong so I mean that's questionable the nonprofits in in my opinion the nonprofits across the world have gotten out of hand but this particular situation where you know who's who are you who are you helping here you know you're not helping the you're not helping the landlord you're kind of helping yourself says every single motion answer appearance response and opposition was filed at the very last minute on the very last day every single one of them four different requests to delay the trial date one emergency request to delay a defendant can attend inv voluntary math boot camp at a local community college 9 months of litigation and litigation is not free and there she's not paying the rent this entire time it's just it's just massively bad jury trial the defense initially requested 5 days for the trial luckily the judge pushed through and we did it in less than 1.5 days now look or one and a half that to me is interesting when whenever I used to be and have to go for uh evictions uh it was like you show up and you present your case before the judge and the judge makes a ruling and you're and you're and you're good to go a lot of times when when we went the the defendant never showed up even so we would get a default judgment um probably because they knew they were uh not paying rent uh so that's one thing the other thing is it was easier just to to ditch you know just to go rent something else before the eviction came up I mean I hate to say it but that's that's definitely a strategy every offer to settle and gain possession was rejected by the lawyers for the defendant in mediation the only offer she would consider is full waiver of the rent and a new lease for $1,300 a month with veto power on who will be your roommates my client rejected that offer and went to trial and you know $1,300 a month for uh you know one room in a three room place that no one's going to want to live with this woman it's it's not a good not a good deal on the day of the scheduled jury trial after confirming with opposing councel and writing of defendants availability and trial Readiness turns out she couldn't make it since she was vacationing in Mexico and her return flight delayed so trial got delayed again despite pleading the judge to move forward at trial the defendant perjured herself repeatedly on the stand defamed my name defamed my client admitted to committing fraud and testified for several hours in a 1 and a half day trial so just a wonderful human being here defendant had two lawyers representing her in the trial and they objected to every plth verdict formed every subject every suggestion to move things forward and push through the defense even objected to introduce their own exhibits into evidence once it was clear that it was hurting their case so here the defense the the defense has two lawyers okay from this nonprofit and then the landlord has has has to pay their attorney the whole time so it's obviously in the best interest of the uh the tenant to just drag this thing out as long as possible because it's just going to cost the landlord even more money the defendant uh the defendant's lawyer removed each and every property owner juror from the panel we ended up having we ended up having was 100% renters as jury so to me uh that's a little bit interesting like I don't understand the there like how come like on the on the jury why couldn't you help like why couldn't you choose some some of the jurors I I just don't understand that I'm not a lawyer so I'm not I'm not so good on that it says on the stand the defendant admitted to taking close to $9,000 in covid-19 rent Aid pocketing the check forging the paperwork and not giving it to the landlord she still has the money to this day now because I said Co my video is going to be shadowbanned and that's really great so thanks YouTube it says jury gave a unanimous verdict for the plaintiff possession and damages now look he the the guy said hey it's all it's all nobody owns property on the on the jury they're kind of against us but no a unanimous verdict for him so I mean so that's that's one of the things I mean you know people know what's right and what's wrong I mean the vast majority of people do says tenant then continue to file or attempt to file multiple emergency motions to reverse the Judgment I received 13 different post-trial exp parte notices of motions to delay or cancel the lockout 13 due to a severe shortage of Manpower in the county sheriff's office it took nine weeks from the moment we submitted the rid of possession until we got the sheriff to show up two and a half months after the jury verdict honestly like there are so many evictions just on a normal on a normal time that it's not like you're you know just assume and this is what I'm worried about going forward I mean some of these landlords are going to have property taxes and insurance rates go Skyhigh in addition to higher higher uh if I didn't say property taxes higher property taxes as well if I did I apologize for repeating myself um and then they may not be making any money at all right they may be basically paying for the tenant to live there on their you know uh for free basically or at least with the owner paying basically the mor and not even getting it covered by the rent and then you're going to have a situation where on these evictions it's not like the owner is going to get the property the first month or the second month of the third month and so that could lead to a bankruptcy from the landlord which is fantastic because that's going to cause more Supply to come to the market but not in the way people had intended or wanted anyway it says uh they the lockout Sheriff officers show up we have a locksmith ready despite her being in the unit she refused to let the sheriff officers inside they had to break the door with a ram for absolutely no reason just another way to cost landlord more money she continued to stay in the unit arguing for about 45 minutes on why she should stay it didn't help she was evicted and now out of the

unit she's a Plucky woman the defendant attempted to break back into the unit 3 weeks after the lockout luckily there were workers there to block her path police showed up again and we had to bring paperwork to prove she was trespassing this professional tenant is well versed in the eviction legal system based on our research we found out she went through four different evictions in the past 12 years all followed the same pattern jury trial lies fraud appeal violence and trespassing I mean this is this is the professional tenant and these people exist and they're they're miserable horrible people says after one of these evictions she called a locksmith to break back into the unit police got involved in arrested her for trespassing after the landlord presented evidence that was 10 years ago and many of you will say well why didn't you do vetting on the tenant well how could you vetted the tenant when it was a sublease and you had no idea the tenant was even there last Friday I got an email from the city attorney's office inquiring about how my office violated a court order and my client was harassing the now evicted tenant the lawyer from the city wanted to get on call and discuss I asked the City attorney what evidence he had to initiate the call and making those allegations he said none I'm just checking since the tenant called us a lot we have to verify those claims and yes you do have to verify the claims and I hate that it's that way okay but but you just you never know who's going to be you know who's going to be right about these things and who's who's not so that's it's a nuisance problem but it is it is a problem and that just kind of goes with the territory it says the nonprofit that represented the tenant dropped her after the jury trial in one of the Motions the tenant filed on her own to reverse the Judgment she then had the ultimate hutzpah to to blame her past lawyers for the results in trial for

malpractice she went as far as attaching email communication she had with her lawyers waving her attorney client privilege her lawyers begged her to settle before trial the tenant just refused now look I don't know about a legal I don't know about legal ethics okay lawyers and ethics dicey dicey proposition um but it's it seems to me you're working for a nonprofit you have someone who is clearly abusing the legal system okay and you're still going to go represent them like that's not really that great that's not ethical in my opinion other reason she asked a c to RSE the Judgment her disabilities she had at listed a dozen all mental health related covid-19 the war in Israel her part-time status of 55-year-old Community College student and the pro business City Council of Santa Monica the court rejected all for motions you know it's it's just it's just the tenant will not face any consequences she has no assets no income no family and no career prospects there is zero chance to collect any of the $25,000 judgment against her remember most of the rent owed was during Co so we had to sue for that amount separately I've said it before there are zero consequences for not paying rent in La and I mean that literally you cannot pay rent delay proceedings for month and it would still make sense for the landlord to settle with you before trial wave the rent seal the record and even offer you move out costs zero consequences it goes on to say tenants deserve protections but when we we have to ask ourselves at what point these legal burdens or costs are pushing mom and pop landlords out of the business if Los Angeles wants only ruthless private Equity landlords this is a sure fireway to get there and and and I and I do Wonder like on a cause and effect basis you know if if if the if the professional Senate keeps um keeps keeps this up and uses the law as a shield you will get you will get private Equity involved and they will come and they will they will do what they have to do to make a profit and I don't know that you want that um in my career I had one professional tenant and um it starts off uh it starts off like this you have you know you have these setups as you go on as a as a landlord you have number one fill out an application right so she filled out the application there was an eviction on the application I said there's an eviction on the application I said that to the owner and since we were a third party management company the owner had the ultimate decision of letting this person in they said sure let them in she bounced the earnest money check the deposit check I mean the red flag started immediately and the minute that you let someone move in the house now you're at least 30 days out first month no rent paid second month no rent paid third month go to the the court and say you know we're out three months rent and that's just how it was and you know we we it ended up had to get the sheriff involved and do the eviction all this other stuff and it really wasn't great it really wasn't great and you know you I mean they they just know the system there are certain people that just know the system and can get and can get really far so this is all I I just want you to understand um from my perspective look I'm not saying you shouldn't you shouldn't be an investor right I'm not saying you shouldn't you shouldn't buy a place and rent it out I'm saying don't do it and be na naive about it okay nine times out of 10 somebody will come to you with a story about you know terrible situation obviously there's going to be a medical problem or a family member or something's something's wrong or they lost their job or something you want to open your hearts to these people you want to be the kindest and most wonderful person you can be these are these are the people that will absolutely take advantage of you absolutely as quickly as possible they they see that you are a sucker they know it ahead of time uh and so you know we'll go over more landlord stories over time um and we'll go over time stories of of horrible landlords I don't have a problem going either way on that I I mean it's it's it's there should be some balance but I thought you'd enjoy that story um you know I can't say uh I can't say that the best thing would have been to be to screen the tenant because there wasn't an ability to do so and if those records in in uh California or under seal you wouldn't even see the eviction on their record so it's it's really something with that I'm going to head on out thank you for watching thank you for listening and I will catch you on the next one