Several clients with properties have phoned to get my opinion on the status of prices and rental rates?  I am hunkered in the bunker for the last 4 weeks, but am watching the real estate markets.
My answer to current market conditions is …. Too soon to tell.
I do not know why?
Several owners have asked how to handle  tenants who do not pay rent due to Covid virus challenges.  I have promulgated forms to negotiate future payment of current rent of both commercial and residential tenants.
Phone me to send it to you.
You might let the tenant spread the one month rent over the next 4 months payments. Put it in writing on the form.

Some landlord will be effected by Ghosting. Some tenants do not send the rent payment and The tenant will not return phone calls. This is true of commercial and residential mortgages.
The county does not allow evictions until May 1^st. There may be line at the court house civil courts office window. Get there early and take a folding chair.  But first you must prove you have delivered notice of demand for payment.  Send a certified letter or post the notice on the door with a witness or take a photo of the notice on the door.

 

I expect tenant musical chairs. There will be more demand for rental spaces, both commercial and residential.
Tenants who did not pay rent will move to another space.
Some will move before eviction and owe a month or two of back rent, thus on a lease application they can truthfully say they have not been evicted.
However, if you phone the previous landlord, you may find that the tenant owes back rent for several months.
So how should you handle prospective tenants who skipped out of the last lease without paying for several months.
It depends on how much you need the tenant.
I suspect that there are many good tenants who are normally reliable, who had unexpected challenges this year. They may be a good risk, whether they skipped rent or whether they left before eviction.

We have added a new service feature to help you lease your empty space ….. both commercial and residential.
We can fill your space for a fee which is a small fraction of the fee which another broker would charge you.
We handle the advertising cost and inquiries … but let the owner  meet and  interview prospective tenants.
Then we ask the prospective tenant to complete an online lease application and sign an authorization to a background and criminal and credit check. The tenant pays the credit check fee.
This can all happen online and we send the application and background check to the owner by email.
With owner approval and review, we write the lease and send for digital electric signatures and give you a copy.
Owner collects the lease deposit when the tenant get the key or whenever the lease directs.

 

To start, we meet the owner at the property and sign a marketing agreement, then take interior and exterior photos.
What else is new
February 14^th, approximately 3 weeks before I went into seclusion in the bunker, My buyer signed contract to purchase a small new multifamily built last year.
We were going to close the deal on March 20.
Seller had built 3 buildings and two were purchased by other buyers. Fortunately, my client inserted language which required seller to provide copy of City Multifamily Certificate of Occupancy …. That seller did not have. The State of Texas law says that the penalty to Not register your property with the City list of multifamily properties …..  is $500 per day…. But the city has not ever implemented the penalty in past 5 years …. Probably because it may not be a legal law.

 

I think the other two properties were purchased without such city inspections which are required to get the Certificate of Occupancy. I guess the buyer broker did not know.
It will cost approximately $2,000 to make electrical changes to satisfy the city inspector to get the Certificate of Occupancy.
It has been very difficult for the buyer to get a loan with the current depressed economic situation during the virus expansion. But buyer found a very good mortgage loan officer.
We had several amendments to extend the closing date because it takes time for several inspections by the City Dept of Multifamily Occupancy.
We hope to close the deal within 3 weeks.

Stay tuned and go to Houstonius.com