Jeff Lund

When it comes to tenant screening, the 'net is a great thing... I just had a prospective tenant call me, and when asked 'why is he moving', his answers were not consistent. BTW, I like to ask 3 times when the first response to that question is anything with the word 'landlord' in it. He went on to tell me that he 'told' the landlord that he was moving, and he wasn't getting evicted... well, he got half of it right. While on the phone, I asked his name and current address, logged onto our local District Court website and did a search on him. Yep, you guessed it... his 10 day eviction notice to move was expiring today (no wonder he needed a place asap). He acted surprised that I found this out so fast, and argued about the fact that I found his prior eviction from June on there also, even though 'he didn't really get evicted'.

Now, normally I don't do this, but I kindly told him that 'you gotta love the internet', and that he needs to find some other sucker landlord out there to let you rent from him and then kick you out', and then hung up. Sorry, it must have been a bad day today, but I hate getting lied to. Had I not checked him out, I would have taken my time to show him the place across town, just to find that he's a 'professional tenant' later.

Also, be weary of the ones who state 'I can pay you cash today'... flags shoud pop up all around. Cash now means even more court costs tomorrow.

Hope this helps,

Jeff Lund

Investment Property Specialist

Five Star Real Estate

jefflund@grar.com

Posted by Jim Harger | The Grand Rapids Press April 26, 2008 00:25AM

GRAND RAPIDS -- In today's crowded real estate market, the house at 936 McReynolds Ave. NW doesn't show very well.

The front porch could use some TLC. There are holes in the plaster and the addition out back is rough, with its plywood flooring and broken storm door. Graffiti scars the garage door.

The 123-year-old house, which hasn't seen a nibble from buyers in more than six months, has company. Next door, there's a boarded-up duplex. Across the street and a few doors down are two other vacant victims of the foreclosure epidemic.

City officials and nonprofit housing developers have a rescue plan for this and about 125 other houses that have been foreclosed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The plan calls for HUD to sell them to the city for $1 each. The city then would offer the houses to nonprofit developers, such as Lighthouse Communities or the Inner City Christian Federation, to fix up and re-sell at market prices.

"This is a very creative approach to an intractable problem," Mayor George Heartwell said.

Though details of the plan still are being worked out, local HUD officials are on board with it.

"The objective is to stabilize neighborhoods," said Louis Berra, head of the local HUD office.

Berra's office is holding the titles to about 125 homes whose federally backed mortgages went into foreclosure. All of them failed to sell after at least six months on the market.

Selling them to the city and getting them into the hands of non-profit developers is the best way to get families back in them as soon as possible, Berra said.

"We could hold the properties, but that's not going to help the neighborhood, either," he said.

Eric Soucey, a city economic development official, said city leaders want to get the houses back into the marketplace at a price that won't harm the market for other homes in the neighborhood.

"Our goal is to protect the value of the other private properties in the neighborhoods," he said.

Soucey also wants to make sure developers don't cherry-pick the best houses and stick the city with the worst ones. The houses will be divided into four categories and developers will be required to take from each, he said.

While some of the $1 homes will generate a profit for the developers, other homes in poor condition will require significant investment before they can be sold.

David Allen, executive director of Lighthouse Communities, said his agency is willing to take between 50 to 100 of the houses. He wants to get them into the hands of families who have lost their previous homes to foreclosure.

Allen hopes to develop a lease-to-purchase program that will allow the families to live in the homes for up to three years while they restore their credit.

ICCF President Jonathan Bradford said his group can repair up to 10 houses a month and get them into the hands of low-to-moderate income families. ICCF may not completely remodel the homes, but they will install high-efficiency furnaces and make certain all parts of the home are in good condition, he said.

Bradford said the opportunity to acquire and fix up the foreclosed homes is a risk worth taking to protect the $13 million the ICCF already has invested in the city's housing.

"This is pretty big stuff," he said. "It requires a certain amount of guts on the city's part to be responsible for this amount of houses.

"It also requires a certain amount of optimism and fortitude on the part of the non-profits," he said. "But if you look at the alternatives, you just have to do it."