How can I rent a house and not get tossed out?

C

CTNative

New member
We need to move from an IAC apartment to a house or condo. We both work in Irvine and we are scouring Craig's List ads for homes and condo's for rent.

But of course, I have heard the horror stories of renters moving into someone's foreclosure or about-to-be-foreclosed-on property and being forced out by the banks as they take it over and losing the deposit the home-debtor ran away with. Or the property is a short-sale and the renter gets whacked out by the new buyer, all of which the renter was oblivious to, two months ago when he moved in.

Does anyone know a safe or safe-er way to go about this?
 
Use a realtor.

They can usually check on that background data for you to see if the landlord is okay.

But that doesn't mean things can't happen later... or that your landlord will be the kind that dings your deposit for more than he should have when you move out.
 
Be very careful with craigslist.  I just had a very odd experience that I can relate later.

A couple of things I can suggest if you want to pursue it on your own:
1. Get proof that the person you are paying is the actual owner.
2. Be very wary of anyone who asks you to pay deposit by mail.
3. Have your terms in writing. This includes move-in, mid-term, and move-out.
4. Take pictures upon moving in, just in case you have to stand in front of the man in black upon moving out.

Also note that if you have a bona fide lease agreement, even if the seller loses the home to foreclosure or to another purchaser, you have the right to stay if you're meeting your obligations.

Thanks and good luck.
-IrvineRealtor
 
Thanks! This is the kind of information I was looking for. I had a feeling it was pretty sketchy to pull it off and that I need to be careful. The confirmation is good to hear.

And thanks for that link. That is "some" protection and I'm glad I know it now.
 
If you suspect it is a short sale or a FC house make sure you don't give much or anything down.  If the house does FC or short sale, I recall there was a law passed where the bank has to honor the lease.  Because of this, the bank may be willing to give you an incentive for you to get out early if they want to move the property quickly.
My mother accidentally walked into that situation where she put no deposit on the lease for a condo she rented and it foreclosed on the owner eight months later.  The bank then proposed an incentive for her to move out before the lease was up that was very generous.
 
We did this last year. I researched on realtor.com to see what our owners had paid and when. I also moved into a very stable neighborhood. Nothing is certain, but the house has had the same owner since it was new 30 years ago. Good luck!
 
Use IR2, he's great at finding rentals.

He squired us around, and had all the loan info on each property we looked at.  Not to say that the owner can't stop paying after you move in, but if they haven't been hitting the HELOC bong up to now, there is a good chance that they won't in the  future.
 
I recently helped someone lease a property in Anaheim Hills:
This was the title of craigslist ad that I published:
"4 bed/2 bath/3-car garage in Anaheim Hills" for $2500/month.
We found a good match for a tenant and they moved in just recently, but I continued to get some strange calls/emails about the home.

Thinking that I might have neglected to "turn off" my ad, I double-checked and made sure it had been shut down. But in checking for other listings in Anaheim Hills, I saw a familiar headline, and found a fake ad with this title:
"4 bed/2 bath/3-car garage in Anaheim Hills" for $2000/month!

The person setting up the spoof site had gone so far as to set up a false email account that contains my real name in the domain (since my signage was on the property). He/she was encouraging people to do a "drive-by" of the property and if they were interested to either meet with someone to sign a fake lease and hand over a check, or to mail the deposit to a PO Box.

I notified the homeowner and the new tenant, to make sure that they were aware and alert for any strange visitors/viewings, and flagged the spoof ad. 

I'd welcome any other suggestions on how to report this in the future. I'm not often surprised at scams, but this one was very disheartening...

_IR2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top