I have someone that already bought a home (long story) and now has applied to live in the park. They both were evicted in 2008 and this showed on the screening. Would you allow them to move into the park? If not, what would you do? Tell them they either need to sell the home or try to buy it yourself?
Thanks,
Tony
Assuming everything else checks out with them I would give them a chance - you might look to get a larger deposit for the risk.
I follow basic business survival standards and never accept anyone that has been evicted. My thinking is they have stolen money from a landlord by the landlord being forced to evict. They are common criminals and will repeat their behaviour. The reason why they were evicted is irrelevant.
They were stupid, or smart, to buy the home before being accepted knowing the risk they were taking. They expect you will take pity on them and fall for there lame excuse as to why they were evicted in the past. If you accept them you will end up evicting them and it will cost you a load of lost income.
I would fight them at this stage and force them to sell, if in fact they have completed the purchase, and save yourself the trouble down the road. You should also keep in mind the type of people that get evicted will be a negative element in your community as they are likely very anti landlord in their thinking. They probably have a entitlement attitude and resent everyone that is in any position of authority. They are all the same and not worth taking any chances on.
Why bother screening applicants in the first place if it is not to be used to reject high risk applicants. Let someone else fall for their poor me story.
I would absolutely let them move in. Their eviction was from 6 years ago. It’s completely irrelevant now. We only screen for evictions over the past two years, and only then for renting (or RTO-ing) our homes.
Any tenant who owns their own house has distinguished themselves as being a ‘cut above’ those that are renting. Home owners are the most valuable tenant you can have in a community. They are financially stable enough to be an owner, which is terrific. Also, remember, you have the house as your collateral. If they don’t pay, you evict and put a lien on the house.
Further, it is (nearly) impossible for a homeowner to do damage to the only skin you have in that game - the land. It would be a completely different story if you were renting a house to them; that they could damage in addition to not paying rent. But your only real downside with a homeowner is a couple hundred in lot rent (vs., say, $600 in home rent), and very little downside for ‘damage.’
So absolutely let them move in. Of course enforce strict no-pay, no-stay, lien their house if you have to. But I don’t think it will come to that because they’ve obviously had their life together for the past 6 years.
Your mileage may vary.
If you really don’t want them, tell them to move into one of my communities with their large security deposit, er, I mean ‘house.’
-jl-
Tony, I agree with Dave & Jefferson.
I would allow them to move in.
Since they own the house, the can only destroy/tear up your ground/dirt.
Also, their Eviction was in 2008 (which was 6 years ago). We all make mistakes and hopefully learn from those mistakes.
Now, I do understand Greg’s point:
‘they have stolen money from a landlord by the landlord being forced to evict’.
I like Jefferson’s screening of ‘evictions over the past two years’.
We had Potential Tenants who applied to live in one of our Park Owned Homes. Their Eviction Report showed that they were evicted the previous month. We called the Previous Landlord and confirmed that they did in fact owe them money. We did not approve them. Being evicted the month before applying to our Park was a bit too soon.
I agree that if they own the home they are likely to not want to lose it. But I’ve had more than one home abandoned, and if you have to evict someone, they can do one he** of a lot of damage on the way out, their home or not. That’s why I pay folks to leave the home in decent condition.
No doubt about it, let them move in. If you don’t want them, we’ll take them.