June 4, 2020 • 40 mins
Courts are starting to open for some and not for others, what happens next? Can landlords go to court now? What will it be like when we do go to court? Everything is different now.
Recorded:
June 4, 2020
Host:
Kassandra Taggart
Dave Stohr
Links:
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Show notes:
[00:00:00] [00:00:00] David Strohr: Good Morning and Welcome. Kassandra Taggart is the president of Real Property Management Last Frontier, a property management company here in Anchorage. She is also the president of The Landlords Almanac. One of the largest landlord clubs in the country dedicated to networking, supporting, and training professional landlords.
[00:00:15] And she is the author of the popular book, Pain or Profit secrets. profitable rental property investors. Good morning, Kassandra. Well, in about two months, many Alaskans who rent will have to come up with thousands of dollars. It will be money that has to be repaid and back rent that could not be paid at the time.
[00:00:34] It was due because of conditions created by the effects of the Coronavirus. But what happens to those renters in two months, if they are unable to come up with the necessary funds. To stay in their homes. That question is the topic of our first conversation this morning with Kassandra is the process of eviction, a real possibility for those unable to pay.
[00:00:53] As we head towards July, August, and September,
[00:00:58] Kassandra Taggart: It is a real concern and it is a [00:01:00] real possibility that eviction could happen to them. It really, um, all depends on the relationship between the landlord and the tenant because landlords have the opportunity to do a payment arrangement.
[00:01:12]And, uh, my recommendation to tenants is to pay something rather than nothing to show that you're trying really hard, which may make it where the landlord will be more willing to give you time on the back amounts. Uh, to make it all good again.
[00:01:28] David Strohr: Has it been the SB 241 law that has given renders the grace period?
[00:01:32] They need to acquire the funds to pay their rent.
[00:01:35]Kassandra Taggart: The regulations have come in waves for various properties because we've got the court was closed until May 31st. They're open now, and cases are going forward. Then you've got the SB 241 law, which is the state law. And that one's enforced until June 30th, but that's only for particular tenants.
[00:01:55] That's not for all tenants. Um, a lot of people have that kind of confusing cause you [00:02:00] can get your court date right now. And then of course you've go
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
David Strohr (00:00):
Good Morning and Welcome.
Kassandra Taggart is thepresident of Real Property
Management Last Frontier, aproperty management company here
in Anchorage.
She is also the president of TheLandlords Almanac.
One of the largest landlordclubs in the country dedicated
to networking, supporting, andtraining professional landlords.
And she is the author of thepopular book, Pain or Profit
secrets.
profitable rental propertyinvestors.
(00:21):
Good morning, Kassandra.
Well, in about two months, manyAlaskans who rent will have to
come up with thousands ofdollars.
It will be money that has to berepaid and back rent rent that
could not be paid at the time.
It was due because of conditionscreated by effects of the Corona
virus.
But what happens to thoserenters in two months, if they
are unable to come up with thenecessary funds.
(00:43):
To stay in their homes.
That question is the topic ofour first conversation this
morning with Kassandra is theprocess of eviction, a real
possibility for those unable topay.
As we head towards July, August,and September,
Kassandra Taggart (00:58):
It is a real concern and it is a real
possibility that eviction couldhappen to them.
It really, all depends on therelationship between the
landlord and the tenant becauselandlords have the opportunity
to do a payment arrangement.
And, my recommendation totenants is pay something rather
than nothing to show that you'retrying really hard, which may
(01:20):
make it where the landlord willbe more willing to give you time
on the back amounts.
to make it all good again.
David Strohr (01:28):
Has it been the SB 241 law that has given renders
the grace period?
They need to acquire the fundsto pay their rent.
Kassandra Taggart (01:35):
The regulations have come in waves
for various properties becausewe've got the court was closed
until May 31st.
They're open now, and cases aregoing forward.
Then you've got the SB 241 law,which is the state law.
And that one's enforced untilJune 30th, but that's only for
particular tenants.
That's not for all tenants.
(01:57):
a lot of people have that kindof confused cause you can get
your court date right now.
And then of course you've gotthe cares act, which has a whole
nother set of rules of whenevictions can happen.
David Strohr (02:07):
You know, I was going to ask you about that.
What is the difference, betweenSB 241 and the federal cares
act?
Are they closely related?
Kassandra Taggart (02:15):
They're close, but they're not close.
Okay.
the, the SB 241 basically gavetenants the ability to raise up
their hands, say I'm directlyimpacted by COVID and they sign
a form under perjury.
Meaning if they lie, they can goto jail or they can get, you
know, charges, misdemeanorcharges for lying.
(02:37):
Anyways, they can raise theirhand and say, That I am directly
impacted by COVID and I, and Ineed time, which gives them
until the end of June.
Cares act has a couple differentlayers, but the majority of it
gives them until July 25th to beable to make everything good.
And if the owner has requestedhelp as well, they get an
(03:00):
extension on top of July 25th.
So it is possible that sometenants.
Don't even have to worry aboutevictions all the way up till
December, maybe March next year,depending on what the owner did
with their mortgage.
David Strohr (03:13):
I see it has been reported that the state of
evictions moratorium is, inplace until June 30th.
And Cares Act moratorium willlast until July 25th.
You may know, or not know ifthose dates have been adjusted,
but what happens to those unableto pay the rent?
After those two dates have comeand gone.
Kassandra Taggart (03:31):
So what will happen is the landlords have the
right to post a notice of servefor non-payment.
and then they will say balanceneeds to be paid in full, and
then they can start goingthrough the eviction process,
which then would mean after thenotice was served, then they
would get a notice to serve forthe court date.
And then they would go forwarddepending on how many cases are
(03:55):
in July versus June versus,August, it's going to come in
waves.
So it's a possibility thatcourts might be backed up a bit.
but they are hearing cases nowand trial dates have been set
for many people now,
David Strohr (04:08):
you know, regardless of the two
moratoriums, have you had toexplain to renters that they
still must pay their rentregardless of what
happens?
Kassandra Taggart (04:17):
Yeah, there's surprisingly, there's a lot of
things, confusion, going around,especially with, certain
advocate, people, they, theygave the assumption, that
tenants don't have to pay at alluntil that deadline.
When in reality rent still dorent is still charged and
landlords still need that moneyin order to pay bills like
(04:38):
utilities mortgage tax, andinsurance.
If they don't pay their rent,the landlord will have a harder
time paying their bills.
Yes, landlords have some savingsjust like tenants should have
some savings, but not for monthsand months on it.
So if the tenant doesn't Pay bythese deadlines based on the
type of property and based onthe circumstance, you will be up
(05:00):
for eviction.
Two
David Strohr (05:01):
weeks ago.
You mentioned here that the cityof Anchorage has a rent relief
fund.
Is that available to both locallandlords and their tenants?
Kassandra Taggart (05:10):
So what that program is, that came out of the
assembly and governor's office,where they allocated a million
dollars towards rentalassistance.
And it sentence can call 211, orlandlord can call 211 and they
can apply with presenting theirlease and presenting all their
details to try to get some moneyfrom that fund for them case.
(05:32):
So if the if the tenantqualifies the money, then it is
suppose to be given directly tothe landlord, that's based on
the lease.
so that way it'll give someassistance in helping pay that
back balance to avoid theeviction in the first place.
Everyone needs to still becalling, different programs like
211 because they know which oneis the best one.
They know about a lot ofprograms and you can get food
(05:55):
assistance, daycare assistance,cause those are starting to open
back up, housing assistance, andutility assistance.
There's all kinds of assistanceby calling 211 that can help pay
for some of the bills.
So you have more money to payfor your rent.
David Strohr (06:07):
You know, those who are offering assistance,
those nonprofits nonprofits inthis time, I think we talked
about this two weeks ago.
They have been tapped.
Are they, are they struggling?
Kassandra Taggart (06:19):
some are taps, some are still available
because, what's happened is someof the funds, other people have
contributed to it saying, Oh mygoodness, you're gonna have a
hard time.
We're going to give you money tohelp fund you again.
So some people have had morefunds, like pick, click, give
for example, which is coming offof the PFD funds.
People can donate to that.
(06:40):
Well, if they released the moneyearly for the PFD that click
pick, click give program isgoing to get some more or funds,
which can probably assist.
Basically, some of these fundsare getting restocked.
Some of these funds are gettingadditional funds because people
are reaching out and donating.
so keep calling, don't give upand keep in mind.
There's all kinds of programs.
(07:01):
When our office put together theprogram list, we're talking two,
three pages long, and it's justname phone number, name, phone
numbers.
So it tells you how many thereare out there that can help you.
And it's pretty easy to get lostbecause you don't realize there
is a lot of resources.
So just keep calling, keepcalling
David Strohr (07:20):
good advice.
Good advice.
If we are standing on the cuspof what could be a huge number
of potential evictions, what aresome of the preemptive actions a
landlord can take to protect hisor her investment?
Kassandra Taggart (07:33):
right now, what I can say is what a lot of
the larger property managercompanies are doing, in us
included on some cases, is welook at how many people are
behind.
Are they really behind cause theCOVID or are they behind because
they just normally aren't payingand they just took advantage of
a situation.
Anyways, you take it, look atthat situation and you try to
(07:55):
say, can we negotiate thisopportunity now for us, it's not
up to us.
It's up to our landlord.
Our landlords will decide ifthey want to negotiate or not.
And we just honored what theywish us to do.
as a tenant, if you can paysomething, then that shows that
the tenant is trying, their bestto make good efforts.
And that is a tenant that youprobably really need to consider
working with because they areworking their booty right now,
(08:18):
trying to find a way to makesomething good for you.
And some of those tenants thatare slow paying do have the
money sitting in savings.
They're just holding it causethey're scared still, and
they're not releasing all of ituntil they know everything back
to calm.
So they probably might have it.
And when we hit the deadline, sothey may just give us the cash
(08:40):
and then.
The other tenants that are nottrying at all, or non-responsive
at all, those guys are probablygoing to end up getting their
eviction.
And that's probably where youneed to start serving first.
David Strohr (08:52):
You know, it seems like there are two problems here
that have been, have been made,apparent, trying to help people
stay in their homes.
And somehow find the funds forinvestors to repay their loans.
Have you ever in your businesslife ever seen circumstances
like this?
Kassandra Taggart (09:06):
No.
This is, definitely uncertaintimes and times.
We've never seen it in times.
We'll never see again.
I hope, what I can say that,some positive news that a lot of
people may not realize is.
Several of us, larger officescame together and shared some of
our numbers and some of ourstrategies.
(09:27):
And we found out that thenumbers could have been a lot
worse and they're not.
I mean they're bad.
We normally have around 2% to 5%of slow payers non-payers and
then by the time, and we get tothe end of the month, we'll have
like one person that needs to beevicted.
For example, with the COVIDsituation, we're now having
(09:49):
about double that.
So we're only having about maybefive, 10%.
That's not paying right now orslow pay.
Whereas a lot of us we'reentering this thinking.
We were going to experiencesomewhere around 25 to 40% not
paying, and that's actually notthe case.
So it's actually much better ofa picture today than when we
entered.
(10:10):
It's still bad.
it's not as bad as it could havebeen.
And I think the reason why isbecause the nonprofits and the
assistant funds and the federalmoney did come out and they came
out pretty quickly, not as fastas what everybody wanted,
obviously, but it did come outand a lot of people started
making up grounds.
(10:30):
there are people out there thatare still experiencing the 25,
45% not paying because they'rein that bracket where, or their
type of property is in thatbracket where most of the
tenants had those kinds of jobswith the retail And they're
probably still struggling Butoverall, it's not as bad as we
thought it would be.
David Strohr (11:22):
has the state of Alaska talked about, or has yet
to create any kind of subsidythat would help people stay in
their homes and find the fundsfor investors to repay those
loans
Kassandra Taggart (11:32):
for the state of Alaska?
I have not heard of anything atthis time.
What I can say is that some ofthe senators and.
and house members have reachedout to me asking for some stats
and for some information to tryto assist them in navigating,
how big is this?
And based on, just for example,the Anchorage bowl, if you do
(11:54):
all the math of how many rentalsthere are, which is about 44,000
rental units in, the Anchoragebowl.
And if you do the math backwardsabout, let's say.
10% not paying rent.
And the average rent is around$1275.
That makes it to where we'reabout$5 million short a month on
rent.
(12:15):
But that's like I said, I said,that's only about 10% of the
total number, which is betterthan it could have been, but
it's still, you know, notamazing.
David Strohr (12:25):
You know, if there are a sudden surge in evictions
throughout our city and Southcentral Alaska in July, August,
and September, and people aresuddenly homeless.
I'm going to ask you to be a bitof a futurist here.
One in your opinion will be someof the consequences throughout
the state or for our local area.
Kassandra Taggart (12:42):
I'm nervous about a couple of things
happening.
For example, I'm nervous that.
lawsuits will get filed with thestate to try to assist either
landlords or tenants, and thatwill delay court proceedings for
I'm nervous.
That that'll happen.
I understand wanting to stopevictions to stop this bleed, to
(13:05):
stop homeless.
I get that.
But the problem is that we'renot talking about or thinking
about is landlords are facedwith squatters right now.
We were faced with tenants,actively destroying our property
and we can't do anything aboutit.
and that's not right.
That's their property.
It's a private contract.
You should let us have our dayin court.
I think if, lawsuites do getfiled, which hold up everything,
(13:29):
it would be very nice if theyfound a way to still protect
those emergency cases whilethey're still trying to figure
out how to handle them.
As far as the homelesssituation, here here's, what I
do know is that there are a lotof do it yourself, landlords,
that don't do a full backgroundcheck.
And because the court that isbacked up, in the records
(13:50):
department will probably bebacked up as well.
A tenant will probably get maybean eviction and then hop to the
next, do it yourself, landlordthat doesn't do a full
background check and they'llhave housing again.
And, I'm not saying that they'llprobably be able to hop around
with the professionals,landlords and property managers,
because we do do full backgroundchecks, but the reality is, is
they They get housing andthey'll probably get housing
(14:12):
with just a different person.
And they'll probably this wholetime was not paying their
current landlord, holding themoney and they'll use that to
move.
For them, it's easy to move withjust a pickup truck.
David Strohr (14:24):
And I want to address every issue you just
mentioned.
Let's put it out there.
The E word eviction, how we'vesaid it.
Now, how involved is the processof beginning to evict a tenant
for nonpayment?
Kassandra Taggart (14:37):
It's not as easy as a lot of people think.
so especially right now, becauseright now we have additional
form that we have to fill outand disclose to the judge before
we even get our day in trial.
So for those that are wanting todo an eviction right now, and
you need to be.
Be understanding that not onlydo you need to file for the
court case and prove your you'reallowed to go to court, you also
(15:01):
now have additional forms ofdocuments that will probably be
in place all the way through theend of the year to confirm the
status of the mortgage in orderto even see if we can go to
trial.
And, so there's that issue.
So there's more paperwork thatyou have to do.
There's more notary documentsthat you have to do before you
can get your day in trial.
Then the day in trial now isbacked up already because
(15:23):
they're hearing cases from Marchforward right now.
And so like, for example, wehave one right now that finally
got filed and pushed through andour court dates, not till the
end of the month.
David Strohr (15:34):
can renders who are facing eviction, stay in the
home until a judgment isrendered for let's say another
month or two,
Kassandra Taggart (15:42):
they could.
so that's the other unknown iswhen we finally get our day in
court, is the judge going towarrant the normal 24 48 hours?
Or is the judge going to getthem more time based on the
circumstances of COVID we arenot for sure what the judges are
warning giving out right now.
But it's possible that a tenantwill get, their cases or their
(16:03):
seven day served right now,because then the courts are now
open.
And then they get their day incourt, which is another month
out.
And then they finally get thejudge and the judge gives them
maybe another week or so.
And then if they don't leave,we've got the troopers and the
troopers are, might be backedup.
And that might be another two,three weeks.
So it is possible.
Well, that attendant won't getanother 60 days out of this
easy.
(16:24):
Just because o
David Strohr (16:25):
timming f Yeah.
It also brings up another goodpoint.
Does the law either local policeor troopers get involved in
these situation and is thatcommon in eviction?
Up in the eviction process?
Kassandra Taggart (16:36):
Yeah.
So in the eviction process, thepolice doesn't actually help the
people who do help us troopersand they will only help once you
have a writ of execution forpossession of the property.
So you have to get all the waythrough the court and get that
stamp and then walk over to thetrooper's office and give them a
copy and pay for them again.
So you got to pay for thetroopers to, in order to get the
(16:59):
assistance, you can't call thepolice and say, Oh my gosh,
they're in my place taking mystuff out.
Like there's one landlord rightnow in the forum where, the
tenant is actively selling her,Cabinetry and her toilets and
everything.
That's in the house right now.
And there's nothing she could doabout it.
Cause the police will notinterfere.
David Strohr (17:19):
So when one is evicted, does it become a blight
on their credit report?
Kassandra Taggart (17:24):
It can, if you're using a property manager
that does report to credit, the.
So there's two ways to getdeigned on your background.
It's either through the courtproceeding or through the credit
bureaus, real propertymanagement.
What's cool about us is weactually will hit on both sides.
So that way, whichever way weneed to try to collect on we
(17:46):
can.
And we're also signaling toeveryone in the world, what this
tenant has done in theirhistory.
But if you're doing it yourself,landlord, you might probably not
have access to be actually beable to report collections or
report payment behaviors, whichmakes it to where tenants can
take advantage of you a loteasier.
David Strohr (18:07):
So when you've been evicted, is it hard for a
renter to find another placehere in Anchorage?
Kassandra Taggart (18:13):
Yes and no.
So if you're a tenant with aneviction background, it is
harder to get funds from Alaskahousing.
it could potentially be almostimpossible for you to get the
funds from our Alaska housing.
It just depends on thecircumstances then that makes it
harder to find funds to moveinto another place.
If you have an eviction on yourbackground, let's say that's
(18:33):
been missed several years ago.
some landlords will ignore thatand go ahead and let you proceed
and just raise the deposit.
Cause you're in your you'rehigher risk.
Which makes sense.
but through people who just hadan eviction, if the courthouse
is slow at posting those online,most of them, landlords, aren't
going to notice that it'ssitting there and they will go
(18:55):
ahead and rent to those tenants.
So you'll get what we calltenant hoppers, where tenants
will hop from one landlord tothe next landlord by not paying
the first landlord and try topay the next one.
to, move the startup cost we'lllet them move in.
Even though there's a pendingeviction or eviction already
happened and the records justhaven't been updated.
David Strohr (19:14):
is the rental market industry here in South
central, able to track would berenters who have been evicted
and are working against thesystem.
Kassandra Taggart (19:23):
there is a way to track how many fed cases
there are fed means the evictioncases.
There is a way to track those.
and I'm sure that the courtsystem is going to be tracking
those because they're going tobe wanting to know what their,
their risk level is as a statein, and the judges are gonna
want to know, did they screennot to try to create time and
(19:44):
fair enough time for allparties?
So I know that they're trackingit and I know they're going to
really watch it.
And they have the stats fromprior years to where they can
see if it's increased or notover the prior years, but it's
going to be kind of skewedbecause we haven't been able to
go to court in March April andmay.
So those three months will bebacked up into one month.
(20:05):
So they're going to have to kindof.
Understand the stats are skewedbefore they try to compare it
and report on it with the news.
but yeah, it's, it's possiblethat they can see what the
increase is.
as a company, we can see whatour increases and so far it
looks like we're going to bewithin our normal numbers
David Strohr (20:25):
when a landlord or investor, is prepared to evict a
tenant is the price is the costof this process, roughly the
same.
On each person being evicted?
Kassandra Taggart (20:37):
No, actually that's a really good point.
A lot of people don't realizethat you'll hear landlords say
that the cost of evictions, it'sonly 500 bucks and your done.
Well, that's not really onlycost.
and in it, it gives a fake.
Idea what the cost is becausethe cost of eviction is your
(20:58):
cost of time.
A lot of landlords will do theeviction themselves or try.
And when they try to do itthemselves, they don't charge
for their time.
Whereas in the professionalworld, we do charge for our time
and then you've got the cost ofthe serving.
Then you've got the cost of thetroopers, attorney.
a writ of execution paperwork.
(21:19):
you're going to go back to courtand do your job judgment process
and the judgment, all it doesonce you go through that trial
is another round of papers.
Cause you have to serve againfor the judgment trial date gets
the trial date.
And then finally, if you areawarded your rent of X, your
writ of judgment, then you'regoing to go back and keep doing
re executions for the collectionside of things.
(21:41):
So this isn't a, I go to courtand are done in the next two
weeks, right.
This costs a lot.
Yeah.
So to answer your question, itcould be as cheap as 500, cause
you don't charge for your time.
All the way up to usually around1500,$2,000, depending on how
hard And that's just theeviction, not the judgment in
collections.
David Strohr (22:56):
You know, as the first week of June is almost
over, is every day crucial toboth renders and landlords to
come up with some sort ofsolution.
Before eviction notices areserved, lawyers began litigating
and law enforcement is called.
Kassandra Taggart (23:10):
It's vital for everyone to open up
communications and do everythingthat they can possibly can right
now, the reason why it's sovital is because everyone's
sitting here watching the statsand they want to use the stat as
a way to potentially createsuits with the state.
so the more everyone can try towork it out.
The more everyone can try to payand make arrangements for paying
(23:32):
and try their best in such adifficult time.
The less likely, claims willstart taking place and bogging
the system down even further.
David Strohr (23:45):
even the best landlords have questions.
And we are asking them thismorning.
For Kassandra's best advice andinsights.
Here's your first question,Kassandra, should I have tenant
screening questions preparedbefore I show a unit to
eliminate time-wasting?
Kassandra Taggart (24:02):
Yes, you should.
And there's pros and cons to it.
Just be aware of it for yourpersonal style.
So.
If I was to ask a whole bunch ofquestions on the phone before I
do a showing that's one way ofdoing tenant screening.
So I can ask questions, like, isthere a dog just letting me know
that there's no dog policy inthis property, so you're not
(24:23):
wasting your time and findingout later that there's a dog,
when it's a no dog policy, youhave to be careful in your
tenant screening questionsbecause you can't up and.
Approve or deny someone at thatphase in the process, because
it's a fair housing violation,potentially because you're
asking without actually doingtheir background check.
(24:45):
So you have to be careful whatkind of questions you're asking,
in this particular situation,this landlord wanted to go to
the depth of making it a Googledoc survey form and making
people fill it all the way outbefore they do it.
So you gotta make sure youremail can email to them right
away, which can add time.
To being able to screen people.
And the more challenges you addto a tenant, trying to see an
(25:10):
apply to a place, the lowernumber of people will apply
because you're giving the wrongimpression or making it too hard
to where they don't thinkthere's even a chance at trying
to get your place.
So it's okay to do it just don'tthat you're screening very,
very, very heavily, which willreduce the number of applicants
that you're going to have.
David Strohr (25:31):
One of our landlords wants to know are
landlords legally responsiblefor removing wasp nest from a
property?
Kassandra Taggart (25:40):
So it depends on if you're in Anchorage or the
Valley, and it depends on ifit's a health and safety issue
or not.
it also depends on what you haveon your lease.
So there's various variables tothat answer.
what I can say is the cost ofgetting that remote.
We're talking like less than ahundred bucks.
(26:00):
Versus the cost of battling itout in court or pissing off the
tenant to where he won't renew.
And then you've got to turn overcosts and so on.
Sometimes it's best just to payfor it as on landlord and move
forward.
but there is a time and place todo back-filling of taking care
of pests and it depends on thecircumstance.
So in this one, I would say Iwould take care of it myself and
(26:22):
push it and then pay for itmyself.
And not put it on the tenants.
And, hopefully that will, willmake the tenant happy and want
to stay and renew and not usethat as a reason to try to
leave.
David Strohr (26:34):
Here's a timely question.
Do I need to get a notarizedCOVID docu a document for a
pending eviction.
Kassandra Taggart (26:41):
Yes.
There is a document that youhave to fill out.
It's about two pages long.
It talks about your mortgage.
It talks about.
If you're a later night, ittalks about, why you're doing
your eviction.
There's a lot of things to it.
And then you also have tonotarize it.
banks are starting to, to openup to where you can go to a bank
too.
You get it notarized, but youmay have to find somebody who
(27:03):
does notary for a living.
And there are traveling notary.
I can travel to you to notarizeit because electronic notary is
not allowed yet.
David Strohr (27:13):
In a recent webinar, the topic was cats.
Cat pee smells like money.
How so?
Kassandra Taggart (27:22):
What happens a lot of time is when landlords
are looking for properties topurchase, they're not quite
understanding what they shouldaccept or should not accept.
And a great example is when youwalk into a property, And the
tenants had kept the dogs andthey peed everywhere, making it
smell so bad.
You have to have a mask just toenter.
(27:44):
And, both sometimes are the bestproperties because the people
who are buying places to moveinto don't want to move into
something with spells and theydon't know how to take care of
it and get rid of it and so on.
but properties that have like afoundation problem.
Or a structural problem.
Those would not be a goodproperty.
So anytime you see a propertythat has an odor issue or a
(28:07):
tenant problem, those are greatones to look at trying to
potentially purchase because youcan get them at a discount and
you're not competing with mostbuyers out there.
So that's basically the conceptis look for those kinds of deals
and you'll probably score somemoney.
David Strohr (28:22):
Is that recent webinars still up on the
landlords club?
Facebook page?
Kassandra Taggart (28:27):
Yes, it is.
We did record that webinar andwe're starting to learn how to
do all the technology forrecording our webinars and
making it available foreverybody.
And that one was recorded and itis posted it's posted on our
YouTube.
So that way you guys can go toour YouTube page and watch it
from there.
We have other webinars recorded.
(28:47):
I that may be of assistance foryou.
David Strohr (28:50):
Here's our next question.
Can I deduct money from adeposit for excessive wear and
tear, even if I don't makerepairs at this time?
Kassandra Taggart (28:59):
So that one depends on how well are you at
documenting what was the wearingtear, excessive wear and tear.
And is it something that you canargue and potentially win in
front of a judge?
A good example of.
How you can do a wear and tearclaim or beyond wear and tear
(29:20):
claim is let's say you put inthe carpet, right?
When the tenant moved in, thetenant lived there for three
years, but the carpet shouldhave last seven years.
But because they were so hard onthat carpet, you had to replace
it in three years and didn't getthe full seven year benefit.
So you can buy new carpet,install it, and then charge the
(29:41):
tenant for five years of thecarpet that you had to purchase.
And that's what you calldepreciating an item through the
security deposit.
Cause you don't say, Oh, theydamaged the carpet.
I'm going to charge them thewhole carpet bill.
You can only charge them for thelights that they took from you
and caused harm to you as alandlord.
Now, if you go home and say, Oh,they were hard on the carpet,
(30:03):
it's going to make it where thecarpet doesn't last, the full
seven.
It's only going to last five,but not replace it.
That's a very hard, difficultargument to have in court
because you're not replacing it.
You don't have an invoice, butyet you still want to charge a
tenant.
couple of the landlords saidthat they've won in court with
that.
I personally would never go tocourt for something like that.
(30:24):
because I don't think thechances of winning are strong
and I don't think it's fair tocharge a tenant for something I
haven't had an expense for.
because in my head that'sconsidered normal business and
normal, cost of doing business.
So I wouldn't do it.
David Strohr (30:42):
Here's a question directed at your industry should
a property management companycollect management fees.
When a unit is empty,
Kassandra Taggart (30:52):
they can, it depends on the contracts.
at real property management, wedon't charge for.
If the property is vacant and Idon't charge my management fee
because the management fee isfor when we collect rent.
So if we have a tenant that'snot producing, you're not
getting paid, I'm not gettingpaid.
And we all have a commoninterest to get that tenants
(31:12):
pay, right.
So we can all get paid if aproperty, if, if the property
manager is charging while theproperty is vacant, then there's
no real incentive to be inalignment on goals of trying to
get it rented and trying to getrent collected.
because you're getting paid,whether it's, they confirm that
I get why the industry has beenmoving towards it, because the
(31:36):
cost of the operations and thecost of the system, and we're
still servicing you as a client,even though it's not rented.
So we want to get paid for thosebasic costs so we can keep
surviving during times.
so I get why the market has beentrending towards it.
David Strohr (31:52):
Here's an interesting question.
Can a landlord discriminateagainst the kind of dog breed I
will let or not let into myunits?
Kassandra Taggart (32:01):
I don't know if you would want to say that
the word discrimination isappropriate for this.
Okay.
what I can say is that.
You can say that there are breedrestrictions because of your
insurance policies.
So if your insurance policy onyour, on your rental, which is
called a, landlord, firedwelling insurance policy, if
(32:22):
they came down and said in theirpolicy, we don't let.
A Doberman pinschers forexample, then you have to do
your best as a landlord to notaccept Doberman pinschers
because it's not allowed in thatproperty.
Now, if it's an accident you didtenant said no dogs.
And you said no dogs.
(32:43):
And then all of a sudden, twoyears later, you find out
there's a Doberman pincher atit.
Okay.
that would be, yeah, you didn'tmean to, you didn't know about
it.
You weren't aware of it.
So the insurance might assistyou, but the insurance clips
still reject you.
That's why having renter'sinsurance is so vital and
important.
So, yes, you can do restriction.
I don't think it's calleddiscrimination.
(33:04):
cause it's not a protectedclass, unless it deals with
servicing animal.
That's a protected class ofanimals and they're not pets.
They're animals and they're,they're just service a
particular disability.
Those guys are protected.
You can't charge for them.
but they still have to followthe same rules.
David Strohr (33:23):
What's the best platform for my tenants to use,
to pay their rent with just thetouch of a button.
Kassandra Taggart (33:31):
So, if I was speaking to a do it yourself,
landlord that needs assistancefor tenants to have a variety of
ways to pay the recommendationwould be to go to Experian and
Experian has on their website, alist of program that do make it
where tenants can pay online.
(33:52):
At the same time, it reports thecredit to the credit Bureau.
So that way you're getting acouple of benefits out of it.
Not just the tenant can pay, butalso that is reporting their
payment behavior to the creditBureau, which could potentially
raise or lower the credit reportfor that tenant.
David Strohr (34:11):
And our final question can noise made by the
tenants on and around thegrounds of a unit being
enforced, including large motorengines and loud sound systems.
Kassandra Taggart (34:22):
So in Anchorage, we have what they
call, municipal quiet hours.
And they also have what'sacceptable noise during the day.
That's why when the concerthappens, sometimes you have to
have a permit for a noise permitin order to have the concert,
for example.
so.
In the, or certain locations Ishould say anyways, for houses
(34:46):
or apartments.
Yes, they can be regularly, canbe enforced and that's actually
a police matter.
So if you tell all your tenantsand you that when there is a
noise complaint during the dayor the evening, they are welcome
to report it to the police.
If the police have time, theywill come to the situation and
they will file a report.
(35:06):
And then that report can be usedto build up a file.
For doing an eviction based onthe noise complaints.
Now keep in mind.
Police's very backed up rightnow.
Right?
In fact, we had a police reportsituation over the last weekend
and it they're coming outtelling me that it's 12 months
before we'll even get our handson the report and our court
(35:28):
cases here in about two weeks onit.
So, we're going to have to dosome sort of thing with the
judge under.
A testimony to vouch that thisdid happen here is the case
number.
I just don't have a copy of theoutcome of the report with the
police.
So we have to leave that unknownin the court case.
David Strohr (35:48):
Kassandra, thank you so much for your spontaneity
in answering these questions.
I'm Dave stroh.
Well, the coronavirus is stillamongst us and with every
indication it probably will befor awhile.
We wanted to get Kassandra'sperspective and insights on its
effect throughout South central,Alaska.
Kassandra, as you go backoutside, how you feeling about
mixing it up with the populationagain?
Kassandra Taggart (36:10):
Oh, the population of how many rentals?
David Strohr (36:12):
No, just about you in general, as you mix it up
with the, with the population,your, constituents, your
citizens of the Matsi Valley, asyou moving about through a
business,
Kassandra Taggart (36:23):
the, gosh, it's, it's really interesting.
I was actually talking tosomebody the other day, how you
would go into one hardware storeand everyone has math.
And then you walk into the nexthardware store and nobody has an
app.
So it's very interesting walkingaround trying to get things done
because you're wanting to followall the rules and not get sick
yourself, but some arecompletely following and some
(36:45):
are not.
David Strohr (36:47):
If you had to predict, what would you say is
going to happen to the state'seconomy in the next six months?
Is it going to get better?
Is it going to stabilize?
Are we in for the worst comingup?
Kassandra Taggart (36:57):
I was actually sitting on a group
session call with, severalleaders in the housing industry
and all the signs do pointtowards the economy, slowing
down all the signs, do pointtowards potential house pricing,
dropping rental prices,potentially dropping and more.
(37:20):
so I do believe hard times areabout to come.
If you're a person that wasthinking of selling, today's the
best day to sell?
Not tomorrow, because I thinkit's going to go down.
what I can say is that thosethat choose to live in Alaska,
those that like this lifestylewill stay and will weather it
out just like we did in theeighties.
David Strohr (37:40):
Right.
Have you ever been, have youbeen able to see any
opportunities as a result of thepandemic in the last three
months?
Kassandra Taggart (37:47):
Opportunity four grade deals to buy.
I have not seen that yet.
I don't think I'm going to seethat until about quarter one of
next year, based on the timelineof how foreclosures can happen
based on the timeline of howlawyers can get the paperwork
together and the courthouse toapprove and dah, dah, dah, dah.
So I'm not seeing some of thosestills until about quarter one.
(38:09):
So I've been adjusting mypersonal investments accordingly
to be able to do those bigdeals.
Come quarter one.
David Strohr (38:18):
Are you satisfied with the job or elected
officials are doing in the faceof a sustained attack by the
virus?
Kassandra Taggart (38:25):
You know, it's.
It's a position I would havenever want because it's a
position where it's donedifficult, difficult.
I w I, Darren Hardy is anamazing person and he's a, I
like to call him a mentor ofmine.
He said one day, he said, thinkabout it.
If you're the president of theUnited States and every in,
(38:45):
based on elections, right.
50% of people like you and 50%do not like you.
And, and I would assume the sameall the way down to, you know,
dun lovey and the assembly andthe governor and so forth.
And you know, you're going tohave so many that like you and
tell me, me personally, justspeaking from the communication
(39:06):
side of things, I'm very gladthat they up stood up and just
started talking, that, thathelped everybody else make
decisions day to day.
So I'm going to give a hugeshout out to Alex for taking the
time to talk.
sometimes two times a day.
Just to say, here's where we'reat.
Here's our update.
Here's our resources.
And just being more transparent,I think that builds more trust
(39:28):
and more confidence in themarket.
And I think it helps make us notbe as bad as it could be.
David Strohr (39:33):
You know, incidentally, I just finished
mr.
Hardy's book, the compoundeffect.
It's very good.
If you have an opportunity, youprobably already read it.
But a one last question you'vebeen able to spend a lot of time
working from home in the MatsuValley.
What has been the vibe of the,of that area for the last couple
of months in the Valley?
Kassandra Taggart (39:49):
Valley is, much more positive and much
more, but you gotta rememberValley.
We only have like 22 cases ofbeing played this whole time.
So yeah, I'll hear, we're kindof like on our own doing our own
thing, much more positive, youknow, a little more skip in our
walk.
whereas when I come to theValley to get some business
done, At times, it's, it's, muchmore people with math, much
(40:13):
more, you can, you can kind ofsee the stress.
You can kind of see the eager onpeople wanting to be outside,
wanting to be around people.
So you can see that as apatient, a little bit more.
but that's kind of thedifference between the two at
the moment.
David Strohr (40:25):
Well, Kassandra, we want to thank you for your
knowledge, your passion and yourguidance over this last hour.
You are, as I'm sure ourlisteners now know an invaluable
resource and experienced advisorfor those who are investing in
real estate and taking theirfirst step towards success,
Kassandra will join us again intwo weeks for another
conversation unlimited I'm Davestrohr, have a good day.
Good Morning and Welcome.
Kassandra Taggart is thepresident of Real Property
Management Last Frontier, aproperty management company here
in Anchorage.
She is also the president of TheLandlords Almanac.
One of the largest landlordclubs in the country dedicated
to networking, supporting, andtraining professional landlords.
And she is the author of thepopular book, Pain or Profit
secrets.
profitable rental propertyinvestors.
(00:21):
Good morning, Kassandra.
Well, in about two months, manyAlaskans who rent will have to
come up with thousands ofdollars.
It will be money that has to berepaid and back rent rent that
could not be paid at the time.
It was due because of conditionscreated by effects of the Corona
virus.
But what happens to thoserenters in two months, if they
are unable to come up with thenecessary funds.
(00:43):
To stay in their homes.
That question is the topic ofour first conversation this
morning with Kassandra is theprocess of eviction, a real
possibility for those unable topay.
As we head towards July, August,and September,
Kassandra Taggart (00:58):
It is a real concern and it is a real
possibility that eviction couldhappen to them.
It really, all depends on therelationship between the
landlord and the tenant becauselandlords have the opportunity
to do a payment arrangement.
And, my recommendation totenants is pay something rather
than nothing to show that you'retrying really hard, which may
(01:20):
make it where the landlord willbe more willing to give you time
on the back amounts.
to make it all good again.
David Strohr (01:28):
Has it been the SB 241 law that has given renders
the grace period?
They need to acquire the fundsto pay their rent.
Kassandra Taggart (01:35):
The regulations have come in waves
for various properties becausewe've got the court was closed
until May 31st.
They're open now, and cases aregoing forward.
Then you've got the SB 241 law,which is the state law.
And that one's enforced untilJune 30th, but that's only for
particular tenants.
That's not for all tenants.
(01:57):
a lot of people have that kindof confused cause you can get
your court date right now.
And then of course you've gotthe cares act, which has a whole
nother set of rules of whenevictions can happen.
David Strohr (02:07):
You know, I was going to ask you about that.
What is the difference, betweenSB 241 and the federal cares
act?
Are they closely related?
Kassandra Taggart (02:15):
They're close, but they're not close.
Okay.
the, the SB 241 basically gavetenants the ability to raise up
their hands, say I'm directlyimpacted by COVID and they sign
a form under perjury.
Meaning if they lie, they can goto jail or they can get, you
know, charges, misdemeanorcharges for lying.
(02:37):
Anyways, they can raise theirhand and say, That I am directly
impacted by COVID and I, and Ineed time, which gives them
until the end of June.
Cares act has a couple differentlayers, but the majority of it
gives them until July 25th to beable to make everything good.
And if the owner has requestedhelp as well, they get an
(03:00):
extension on top of July 25th.
So it is possible that sometenants.
Don't even have to worry aboutevictions all the way up till
December, maybe March next year,depending on what the owner did
with their mortgage.
David Strohr (03:13):
I see it has been reported that the state of
evictions moratorium is, inplace until June 30th.
And Cares Act moratorium willlast until July 25th.
You may know, or not know ifthose dates have been adjusted,
but what happens to those unableto pay the rent?
After those two dates have comeand gone.
Kassandra Taggart (03:31):
So what will happen is the landlords have the
right to post a notice of servefor non-payment.
and then they will say balanceneeds to be paid in full, and
then they can start goingthrough the eviction process,
which then would mean after thenotice was served, then they
would get a notice to serve forthe court date.
And then they would go forwarddepending on how many cases are
(03:55):
in July versus June versus,August, it's going to come in
waves.
So it's a possibility thatcourts might be backed up a bit.
but they are hearing cases nowand trial dates have been set
for many people now,
David Strohr (04:08):
you know, regardless of the two
moratoriums, have you had toexplain to renters that they
still must pay their rentregardless of what
happens?
Kassandra Taggart (04:17):
Yeah, there's surprisingly, there's a lot of
things, confusion, going around,especially with, certain
advocate, people, they, theygave the assumption, that
tenants don't have to pay at alluntil that deadline.
When in reality rent still dorent is still charged and
landlords still need that moneyin order to pay bills like
(04:38):
utilities mortgage tax, andinsurance.
If they don't pay their rent,the landlord will have a harder
time paying their bills.
Yes, landlords have some savingsjust like tenants should have
some savings, but not for monthsand months on it.
So if the tenant doesn't Pay bythese deadlines based on the
type of property and based onthe circumstance, you will be up
(05:00):
for eviction.
Two
David Strohr (05:01):
weeks ago.
You mentioned here that the cityof Anchorage has a rent relief
fund.
Is that available to both locallandlords and their tenants?
Kassandra Taggart (05:10):
So what that program is, that came out of the
assembly and governor's office,where they allocated a million
dollars towards rentalassistance.
And it sentence can call 211, orlandlord can call 211 and they
can apply with presenting theirlease and presenting all their
details to try to get some moneyfrom that fund for them case.
(05:32):
So if the if the tenantqualifies the money, then it is
suppose to be given directly tothe landlord, that's based on
the lease.
so that way it'll give someassistance in helping pay that
back balance to avoid theeviction in the first place.
Everyone needs to still becalling, different programs like
211 because they know which oneis the best one.
They know about a lot ofprograms and you can get food
(05:55):
assistance, daycare assistance,cause those are starting to open
back up, housing assistance, andutility assistance.
There's all kinds of assistanceby calling 211 that can help pay
for some of the bills.
So you have more money to payfor your rent.
David Strohr (06:07):
You know, those who are offering assistance,
those nonprofits nonprofits inthis time, I think we talked
about this two weeks ago.
They have been tapped.
Are they, are they struggling?
Kassandra Taggart (06:19):
some are taps, some are still available
because, what's happened is someof the funds, other people have
contributed to it saying, Oh mygoodness, you're gonna have a
hard time.
We're going to give you money tohelp fund you again.
So some people have had morefunds, like pick, click, give
for example, which is coming offof the PFD funds.
People can donate to that.
(06:40):
Well, if they released the moneyearly for the PFD that click
pick, click give program isgoing to get some more or funds,
which can probably assist.
Basically, some of these fundsare getting restocked.
Some of these funds are gettingadditional funds because people
are reaching out and donating.
so keep calling, don't give upand keep in mind.
There's all kinds of programs.
(07:01):
When our office put together theprogram list, we're talking two,
three pages long, and it's justname phone number, name, phone
numbers.
So it tells you how many thereare out there that can help you.
And it's pretty easy to get lostbecause you don't realize there
is a lot of resources.
So just keep calling, keepcalling
David Strohr (07:20):
good advice.
Good advice.
If we are standing on the cuspof what could be a huge number
of potential evictions, what aresome of the preemptive actions a
landlord can take to protect hisor her investment?
Kassandra Taggart (07:33):
right now, what I can say is what a lot of
the larger property managercompanies are doing, in us
included on some cases, is welook at how many people are
behind.
Are they really behind cause theCOVID or are they behind because
they just normally aren't payingand they just took advantage of
a situation.
Anyways, you take it, look atthat situation and you try to
(07:55):
say, can we negotiate thisopportunity now for us, it's not
up to us.
It's up to our landlord.
Our landlords will decide ifthey want to negotiate or not.
And we just honored what theywish us to do.
as a tenant, if you can paysomething, then that shows that
the tenant is trying, their bestto make good efforts.
And that is a tenant that youprobably really need to consider
working with because they areworking their booty right now,
(08:18):
trying to find a way to makesomething good for you.
And some of those tenants thatare slow paying do have the
money sitting in savings.
They're just holding it causethey're scared still, and
they're not releasing all of ituntil they know everything back
to calm.
So they probably might have it.
And when we hit the deadline, sothey may just give us the cash
(08:40):
and then.
The other tenants that are nottrying at all, or non-responsive
at all, those guys are probablygoing to end up getting their
eviction.
And that's probably where youneed to start serving first.
David Strohr (08:52):
You know, it seems like there are two problems here
that have been, have been made,apparent, trying to help people
stay in their homes.
And somehow find the funds forinvestors to repay their loans.
Have you ever in your businesslife ever seen circumstances
like this?
Kassandra Taggart (09:06):
No.
This is, definitely uncertaintimes and times.
We've never seen it in times.
We'll never see again.
I hope, what I can say that,some positive news that a lot of
people may not realize is.
Several of us, larger officescame together and shared some of
our numbers and some of ourstrategies.
(09:27):
And we found out that thenumbers could have been a lot
worse and they're not.
I mean they're bad.
We normally have around 2% to 5%of slow payers non-payers and
then by the time, and we get tothe end of the month, we'll have
like one person that needs to beevicted.
For example, with the COVIDsituation, we're now having
(09:49):
about double that.
So we're only having about maybefive, 10%.
That's not paying right now orslow pay.
Whereas a lot of us we'reentering this thinking.
We were going to experiencesomewhere around 25 to 40% not
paying, and that's actually notthe case.
So it's actually much better ofa picture today than when we
entered.
(10:10):
It's still bad.
it's not as bad as it could havebeen.
And I think the reason why isbecause the nonprofits and the
assistant funds and the federalmoney did come out and they came
out pretty quickly, not as fastas what everybody wanted,
obviously, but it did come outand a lot of people started
making up grounds.
(10:30):
there are people out there thatare still experiencing the 25,
45% not paying because they'rein that bracket where, or their
type of property is in thatbracket where most of the
tenants had those kinds of jobswith the retail And they're
probably still struggling Butoverall, it's not as bad as we
thought it would be.
David Strohr (11:22):
has the state of Alaska talked about, or has yet
to create any kind of subsidythat would help people stay in
their homes and find the fundsfor investors to repay those
loans
Kassandra Taggart (11:32):
for the state of Alaska?
I have not heard of anything atthis time.
What I can say is that some ofthe senators and.
and house members have reachedout to me asking for some stats
and for some information to tryto assist them in navigating,
how big is this?
And based on, just for example,the Anchorage bowl, if you do
(11:54):
all the math of how many rentalsthere are, which is about 44,000
rental units in, the Anchoragebowl.
And if you do the math backwardsabout, let's say.
10% not paying rent.
And the average rent is around$1275.
That makes it to where we'reabout$5 million short a month on
rent.
(12:15):
But that's like I said, I said,that's only about 10% of the
total number, which is betterthan it could have been, but
it's still, you know, notamazing.
David Strohr (12:25):
You know, if there are a sudden surge in evictions
throughout our city and Southcentral Alaska in July, August,
and September, and people aresuddenly homeless.
I'm going to ask you to be a bitof a futurist here.
One in your opinion will be someof the consequences throughout
the state or for our local area.
Kassandra Taggart (12:42):
I'm nervous about a couple of things
happening.
For example, I'm nervous that.
lawsuits will get filed with thestate to try to assist either
landlords or tenants, and thatwill delay court proceedings for
I'm nervous.
That that'll happen.
I understand wanting to stopevictions to stop this bleed, to
(13:05):
stop homeless.
I get that.
But the problem is that we'renot talking about or thinking
about is landlords are facedwith squatters right now.
We were faced with tenants,actively destroying our property
and we can't do anything aboutit.
and that's not right.
That's their property.
It's a private contract.
You should let us have our dayin court.
I think if, lawsuites do getfiled, which hold up everything,
(13:29):
it would be very nice if theyfound a way to still protect
those emergency cases whilethey're still trying to figure
out how to handle them.
As far as the homelesssituation, here here's, what I
do know is that there are a lotof do it yourself, landlords,
that don't do a full backgroundcheck.
And because the court that isbacked up, in the records
(13:50):
department will probably bebacked up as well.
A tenant will probably get maybean eviction and then hop to the
next, do it yourself, landlordthat doesn't do a full
background check and they'llhave housing again.
And, I'm not saying that they'llprobably be able to hop around
with the professionals,landlords and property managers,
because we do do full backgroundchecks, but the reality is, is
they They get housing andthey'll probably get housing
(14:12):
with just a different person.
And they'll probably this wholetime was not paying their
current landlord, holding themoney and they'll use that to
move.
For them, it's easy to move withjust a pickup truck.
David Strohr (14:24):
And I want to address every issue you just
mentioned.
Let's put it out there.
The E word eviction, how we'vesaid it.
Now, how involved is the processof beginning to evict a tenant
for nonpayment?
Kassandra Taggart (14:37):
It's not as easy as a lot of people think.
so especially right now, becauseright now we have additional
form that we have to fill outand disclose to the judge before
we even get our day in trial.
So for those that are wanting todo an eviction right now, and
you need to be.
Be understanding that not onlydo you need to file for the
court case and prove your you'reallowed to go to court, you also
(15:01):
now have additional forms ofdocuments that will probably be
in place all the way through theend of the year to confirm the
status of the mortgage in orderto even see if we can go to
trial.
And, so there's that issue.
So there's more paperwork thatyou have to do.
There's more notary documentsthat you have to do before you
can get your day in trial.
Then the day in trial now isbacked up already because
(15:23):
they're hearing cases from Marchforward right now.
And so like, for example, wehave one right now that finally
got filed and pushed through andour court dates, not till the
end of the month.
David Strohr (15:34):
can renders who are facing eviction, stay in the
home until a judgment isrendered for let's say another
month or two,
Kassandra Taggart (15:42):
they could.
so that's the other unknown iswhen we finally get our day in
court, is the judge going towarrant the normal 24 48 hours?
Or is the judge going to getthem more time based on the
circumstances of COVID we arenot for sure what the judges are
warning giving out right now.
But it's possible that a tenantwill get, their cases or their
(16:03):
seven day served right now,because then the courts are now
open.
And then they get their day incourt, which is another month
out.
And then they finally get thejudge and the judge gives them
maybe another week or so.
And then if they don't leave,we've got the troopers and the
troopers are, might be backedup.
And that might be another two,three weeks.
So it is possible.
Well, that attendant won't getanother 60 days out of this
easy.
(16:24):
Just because o
David Strohr (16:25):
timming f Yeah.
It also brings up another goodpoint.
Does the law either local policeor troopers get involved in
these situation and is thatcommon in eviction?
Up in the eviction process?
Kassandra Taggart (16:36):
Yeah.
So in the eviction process, thepolice doesn't actually help the
people who do help us troopersand they will only help once you
have a writ of execution forpossession of the property.
So you have to get all the waythrough the court and get that
stamp and then walk over to thetrooper's office and give them a
copy and pay for them again.
So you got to pay for thetroopers to, in order to get the
(16:59):
assistance, you can't call thepolice and say, Oh my gosh,
they're in my place taking mystuff out.
Like there's one landlord rightnow in the forum where, the
tenant is actively selling her,Cabinetry and her toilets and
everything.
That's in the house right now.
And there's nothing she could doabout it.
Cause the police will notinterfere.
David Strohr (17:19):
So when one is evicted, does it become a blight
on their credit report?
Kassandra Taggart (17:24):
It can, if you're using a property manager
that does report to credit, the.
So there's two ways to getdeigned on your background.
It's either through the courtproceeding or through the credit
bureaus, real propertymanagement.
What's cool about us is weactually will hit on both sides.
So that way, whichever way weneed to try to collect on we
(17:46):
can.
And we're also signaling toeveryone in the world, what this
tenant has done in theirhistory.
But if you're doing it yourself,landlord, you might probably not
have access to be actually beable to report collections or
report payment behaviors, whichmakes it to where tenants can
take advantage of you a loteasier.
David Strohr (18:07):
So when you've been evicted, is it hard for a
renter to find another placehere in Anchorage?
Kassandra Taggart (18:13):
Yes and no.
So if you're a tenant with aneviction background, it is
harder to get funds from Alaskahousing.
it could potentially be almostimpossible for you to get the
funds from our Alaska housing.
It just depends on thecircumstances then that makes it
harder to find funds to moveinto another place.
If you have an eviction on yourbackground, let's say that's
(18:33):
been missed several years ago.
some landlords will ignore thatand go ahead and let you proceed
and just raise the deposit.
Cause you're in your you'rehigher risk.
Which makes sense.
but through people who just hadan eviction, if the courthouse
is slow at posting those online,most of them, landlords, aren't
going to notice that it'ssitting there and they will go
(18:55):
ahead and rent to those tenants.
So you'll get what we calltenant hoppers, where tenants
will hop from one landlord tothe next landlord by not paying
the first landlord and try topay the next one.
to, move the startup cost we'lllet them move in.
Even though there's a pendingeviction or eviction already
happened and the records justhaven't been updated.
David Strohr (19:14):
is the rental market industry here in South
central, able to track would berenters who have been evicted
and are working against thesystem.
Kassandra Taggart (19:23):
there is a way to track how many fed cases
there are fed means the evictioncases.
There is a way to track those.
and I'm sure that the courtsystem is going to be tracking
those because they're going tobe wanting to know what their,
their risk level is as a statein, and the judges are gonna
want to know, did they screennot to try to create time and
(19:44):
fair enough time for allparties?
So I know that they're trackingit and I know they're going to
really watch it.
And they have the stats fromprior years to where they can
see if it's increased or notover the prior years, but it's
going to be kind of skewedbecause we haven't been able to
go to court in March April andmay.
So those three months will bebacked up into one month.
(20:05):
So they're going to have to kindof.
Understand the stats are skewedbefore they try to compare it
and report on it with the news.
but yeah, it's, it's possiblethat they can see what the
increase is.
as a company, we can see whatour increases and so far it
looks like we're going to bewithin our normal numbers
David Strohr (20:25):
when a landlord or investor, is prepared to evict a
tenant is the price is the costof this process, roughly the
same.
On each person being evicted?
Kassandra Taggart (20:37):
No, actually that's a really good point.
A lot of people don't realizethat you'll hear landlords say
that the cost of evictions, it'sonly 500 bucks and your done.
Well, that's not really onlycost.
and in it, it gives a fake.
Idea what the cost is becausethe cost of eviction is your
(20:58):
cost of time.
A lot of landlords will do theeviction themselves or try.
And when they try to do itthemselves, they don't charge
for their time.
Whereas in the professionalworld, we do charge for our time
and then you've got the cost ofthe serving.
Then you've got the cost of thetroopers, attorney.
a writ of execution paperwork.
(21:19):
you're going to go back to courtand do your job judgment process
and the judgment, all it doesonce you go through that trial
is another round of papers.
Cause you have to serve againfor the judgment trial date gets
the trial date.
And then finally, if you areawarded your rent of X, your
writ of judgment, then you'regoing to go back and keep doing
re executions for the collectionside of things.
(21:41):
So this isn't a, I go to courtand are done in the next two
weeks, right.
This costs a lot.
Yeah.
So to answer your question, itcould be as cheap as 500, cause
you don't charge for your time.
All the way up to usually around1500,$2,000, depending on how
hard And that's just theeviction, not the judgment in
collections.
David Strohr (22:56):
You know, as the first week of June is almost
over, is every day crucial toboth renders and landlords to
come up with some sort ofsolution.
Before eviction notices areserved, lawyers began litigating
and law enforcement is called.
Kassandra Taggart (23:10):
It's vital for everyone to open up
communications and do everythingthat they can possibly can right
now, the reason why it's sovital is because everyone's
sitting here watching the statsand they want to use the stat as
a way to potentially createsuits with the state.
so the more everyone can try towork it out.
The more everyone can try to payand make arrangements for paying
(23:32):
and try their best in such adifficult time.
The less likely, claims willstart taking place and bogging
the system down even further.
David Strohr (23:45):
even the best landlords have questions.
And we are asking them thismorning.
For Kassandra's best advice andinsights.
Here's your first question,Kassandra, should I have tenant
screening questions preparedbefore I show a unit to
eliminate time-wasting?
Kassandra Taggart (24:02):
Yes, you should.
And there's pros and cons to it.
Just be aware of it for yourpersonal style.
So.
If I was to ask a whole bunch ofquestions on the phone before I
do a showing that's one way ofdoing tenant screening.
So I can ask questions, like, isthere a dog just letting me know
that there's no dog policy inthis property, so you're not
(24:23):
wasting your time and findingout later that there's a dog,
when it's a no dog policy, youhave to be careful in your
tenant screening questionsbecause you can't up and.
Approve or deny someone at thatphase in the process, because
it's a fair housing violation,potentially because you're
asking without actually doingtheir background check.
(24:45):
So you have to be careful whatkind of questions you're asking,
in this particular situation,this landlord wanted to go to
the depth of making it a Googledoc survey form and making
people fill it all the way outbefore they do it.
So you gotta make sure youremail can email to them right
away, which can add time.
To being able to screen people.
And the more challenges you addto a tenant, trying to see an
(25:10):
apply to a place, the lowernumber of people will apply
because you're giving the wrongimpression or making it too hard
to where they don't thinkthere's even a chance at trying
to get your place.
So it's okay to do it just don'tthat you're screening very,
very, very heavily, which willreduce the number of applicants
that you're going to have.
David Strohr (25:31):
One of our landlords wants to know are
landlords legally responsiblefor removing wasp nest from a
property?
Kassandra Taggart (25:40):
So it depends on if you're in Anchorage or the
Valley, and it depends on ifit's a health and safety issue
or not.
it also depends on what you haveon your lease.
So there's various variables tothat answer.
what I can say is the cost ofgetting that remote.
We're talking like less than ahundred bucks.
(26:00):
Versus the cost of battling itout in court or pissing off the
tenant to where he won't renew.
And then you've got to turn overcosts and so on.
Sometimes it's best just to payfor it as on landlord and move
forward.
but there is a time and place todo back-filling of taking care
of pests and it depends on thecircumstance.
So in this one, I would say Iwould take care of it myself and
(26:22):
push it and then pay for itmyself.
And not put it on the tenants.
And, hopefully that will, willmake the tenant happy and want
to stay and renew and not usethat as a reason to try to
leave.
David Strohr (26:34):
Here's a timely question.
Do I need to get a notarizedCOVID docu a document for a
pending eviction.
Kassandra Taggart (26:41):
Yes.
There is a document that youhave to fill out.
It's about two pages long.
It talks about your mortgage.
It talks about.
If you're a later night, ittalks about, why you're doing
your eviction.
There's a lot of things to it.
And then you also have tonotarize it.
banks are starting to, to openup to where you can go to a bank
too.
You get it notarized, but youmay have to find somebody who
(27:03):
does notary for a living.
And there are traveling notary.
I can travel to you to notarizeit because electronic notary is
not allowed yet.
David Strohr (27:13):
In a recent webinar, the topic was cats.
Cat pee smells like money.
How so?
Kassandra Taggart (27:22):
What happens a lot of time is when landlords
are looking for properties topurchase, they're not quite
understanding what they shouldaccept or should not accept.
And a great example is when youwalk into a property, And the
tenants had kept the dogs andthey peed everywhere, making it
smell so bad.
You have to have a mask just toenter.
(27:44):
And, both sometimes are the bestproperties because the people
who are buying places to moveinto don't want to move into
something with spells and theydon't know how to take care of
it and get rid of it and so on.
but properties that have like afoundation problem.
Or a structural problem.
Those would not be a goodproperty.
So anytime you see a propertythat has an odor issue or a
(28:07):
tenant problem, those are greatones to look at trying to
potentially purchase because youcan get them at a discount and
you're not competing with mostbuyers out there.
So that's basically the conceptis look for those kinds of deals
and you'll probably score somemoney.
David Strohr (28:22):
Is that recent webinars still up on the
landlords club?
Facebook page?
Kassandra Taggart (28:27):
Yes, it is.
We did record that webinar andwe're starting to learn how to
do all the technology forrecording our webinars and
making it available foreverybody.
And that one was recorded and itis posted it's posted on our
YouTube.
So that way you guys can go toour YouTube page and watch it
from there.
We have other webinars recorded.
(28:47):
I that may be of assistance foryou.
David Strohr (28:50):
Here's our next question.
Can I deduct money from adeposit for excessive wear and
tear, even if I don't makerepairs at this time?
Kassandra Taggart (28:59):
So that one depends on how well are you at
documenting what was the wearingtear, excessive wear and tear.
And is it something that you canargue and potentially win in
front of a judge?
A good example of.
How you can do a wear and tearclaim or beyond wear and tear
(29:20):
claim is let's say you put inthe carpet, right?
When the tenant moved in, thetenant lived there for three
years, but the carpet shouldhave last seven years.
But because they were so hard onthat carpet, you had to replace
it in three years and didn't getthe full seven year benefit.
So you can buy new carpet,install it, and then charge the
(29:41):
tenant for five years of thecarpet that you had to purchase.
And that's what you calldepreciating an item through the
security deposit.
Cause you don't say, Oh, theydamaged the carpet.
I'm going to charge them thewhole carpet bill.
You can only charge them for thelights that they took from you
and caused harm to you as alandlord.
Now, if you go home and say, Oh,they were hard on the carpet,
(30:03):
it's going to make it where thecarpet doesn't last, the full
seven.
It's only going to last five,but not replace it.
That's a very hard, difficultargument to have in court
because you're not replacing it.
You don't have an invoice, butyet you still want to charge a
tenant.
couple of the landlords saidthat they've won in court with
that.
I personally would never go tocourt for something like that.
(30:24):
because I don't think thechances of winning are strong
and I don't think it's fair tocharge a tenant for something I
haven't had an expense for.
because in my head that'sconsidered normal business and
normal, cost of doing business.
So I wouldn't do it.
David Strohr (30:42):
Here's a question directed at your industry should
a property management companycollect management fees.
When a unit is empty,
Kassandra Taggart (30:52):
they can, it depends on the contracts.
at real property management, wedon't charge for.
If the property is vacant and Idon't charge my management fee
because the management fee isfor when we collect rent.
So if we have a tenant that'snot producing, you're not
getting paid, I'm not gettingpaid.
And we all have a commoninterest to get that tenants
(31:12):
pay, right.
So we can all get paid if aproperty, if, if the property
manager is charging while theproperty is vacant, then there's
no real incentive to be inalignment on goals of trying to
get it rented and trying to getrent collected.
because you're getting paid,whether it's, they confirm that
I get why the industry has beenmoving towards it, because the
(31:36):
cost of the operations and thecost of the system, and we're
still servicing you as a client,even though it's not rented.
So we want to get paid for thosebasic costs so we can keep
surviving during times.
so I get why the market has beentrending towards it.
David Strohr (31:52):
Here's an interesting question.
Can a landlord discriminateagainst the kind of dog breed I
will let or not let into myunits?
Kassandra Taggart (32:01):
I don't know if you would want to say that
the word discrimination isappropriate for this.
Okay.
what I can say is that.
You can say that there are breedrestrictions because of your
insurance policies.
So if your insurance policy onyour, on your rental, which is
called a, landlord, firedwelling insurance policy, if
(32:22):
they came down and said in theirpolicy, we don't let.
A Doberman pinschers forexample, then you have to do
your best as a landlord to notaccept Doberman pinschers
because it's not allowed in thatproperty.
Now, if it's an accident you didtenant said no dogs.
And you said no dogs.
(32:43):
And then all of a sudden, twoyears later, you find out
there's a Doberman pincher atit.
Okay.
that would be, yeah, you didn'tmean to, you didn't know about
it.
You weren't aware of it.
So the insurance might assistyou, but the insurance clips
still reject you.
That's why having renter'sinsurance is so vital and
important.
So, yes, you can do restriction.
I don't think it's calleddiscrimination.
(33:04):
cause it's not a protectedclass, unless it deals with
servicing animal.
That's a protected class ofanimals and they're not pets.
They're animals and they're,they're just service a
particular disability.
Those guys are protected.
You can't charge for them.
but they still have to followthe same rules.
David Strohr (33:23):
What's the best platform for my tenants to use,
to pay their rent with just thetouch of a button.
Kassandra Taggart (33:31):
So, if I was speaking to a do it yourself,
landlord that needs assistancefor tenants to have a variety of
ways to pay the recommendationwould be to go to Experian and
Experian has on their website, alist of program that do make it
where tenants can pay online.
(33:52):
At the same time, it reports thecredit to the credit Bureau.
So that way you're getting acouple of benefits out of it.
Not just the tenant can pay, butalso that is reporting their
payment behavior to the creditBureau, which could potentially
raise or lower the credit reportfor that tenant.
David Strohr (34:11):
And our final question can noise made by the
tenants on and around thegrounds of a unit being
enforced, including large motorengines and loud sound systems.
Kassandra Taggart (34:22):
So in Anchorage, we have what they
call, municipal quiet hours.
And they also have what'sacceptable noise during the day.
That's why when the concerthappens, sometimes you have to
have a permit for a noise permitin order to have the concert,
for example.
so.
In the, or certain locations Ishould say anyways, for houses
(34:46):
or apartments.
Yes, they can be regularly, canbe enforced and that's actually
a police matter.
So if you tell all your tenantsand you that when there is a
noise complaint during the dayor the evening, they are welcome
to report it to the police.
If the police have time, theywill come to the situation and
they will file a report.
(35:06):
And then that report can be usedto build up a file.
For doing an eviction based onthe noise complaints.
Now keep in mind.
Police's very backed up rightnow.
Right?
In fact, we had a police reportsituation over the last weekend
and it they're coming outtelling me that it's 12 months
before we'll even get our handson the report and our court
(35:28):
cases here in about two weeks onit.
So, we're going to have to dosome sort of thing with the
judge under.
A testimony to vouch that thisdid happen here is the case
number.
I just don't have a copy of theoutcome of the report with the
police.
So we have to leave that unknownin the court case.
David Strohr (35:48):
Kassandra, thank you so much for your spontaneity
in answering these questions.
I'm Dave stroh.
Well, the coronavirus is stillamongst us and with every
indication it probably will befor awhile.
We wanted to get Kassandra'sperspective and insights on its
effect throughout South central,Alaska.
Kassandra, as you go backoutside, how you feeling about
mixing it up with the populationagain?
Kassandra Taggart (36:10):
Oh, the population of how many rentals?
David Strohr (36:12):
No, just about you in general, as you mix it up
with the, with the population,your, constituents, your
citizens of the Matsi Valley, asyou moving about through a
business,
Kassandra Taggart (36:23):
the, gosh, it's, it's really interesting.
I was actually talking tosomebody the other day, how you
would go into one hardware storeand everyone has math.
And then you walk into the nexthardware store and nobody has an
app.
So it's very interesting walkingaround trying to get things done
because you're wanting to followall the rules and not get sick
yourself, but some arecompletely following and some
(36:45):
are not.
David Strohr (36:47):
If you had to predict, what would you say is
going to happen to the state'seconomy in the next six months?
Is it going to get better?
Is it going to stabilize?
Are we in for the worst comingup?
Kassandra Taggart (36:57):
I was actually sitting on a group
session call with, severalleaders in the housing industry
and all the signs do pointtowards the economy, slowing
down all the signs, do pointtowards potential house pricing,
dropping rental prices,potentially dropping and more.
(37:20):
so I do believe hard times areabout to come.
If you're a person that wasthinking of selling, today's the
best day to sell?
Not tomorrow, because I thinkit's going to go down.
what I can say is that thosethat choose to live in Alaska,
those that like this lifestylewill stay and will weather it
out just like we did in theeighties.
David Strohr (37:40):
Right.
Have you ever been, have youbeen able to see any
opportunities as a result of thepandemic in the last three
months?
Kassandra Taggart (37:47):
Opportunity four grade deals to buy.
I have not seen that yet.
I don't think I'm going to seethat until about quarter one of
next year, based on the timelineof how foreclosures can happen
based on the timeline of howlawyers can get the paperwork
together and the courthouse toapprove and dah, dah, dah, dah.
So I'm not seeing some of thosestills until about quarter one.
(38:09):
So I've been adjusting mypersonal investments accordingly
to be able to do those bigdeals.
Come quarter one.
David Strohr (38:18):
Are you satisfied with the job or elected
officials are doing in the faceof a sustained attack by the
virus?
Kassandra Taggart (38:25):
You know, it's.
It's a position I would havenever want because it's a
position where it's donedifficult, difficult.
I w I, Darren Hardy is anamazing person and he's a, I
like to call him a mentor ofmine.
He said one day, he said, thinkabout it.
If you're the president of theUnited States and every in,
(38:45):
based on elections, right.
50% of people like you and 50%do not like you.
And, and I would assume the sameall the way down to, you know,
dun lovey and the assembly andthe governor and so forth.
And you know, you're going tohave so many that like you and
tell me, me personally, justspeaking from the communication
(39:06):
side of things, I'm very gladthat they up stood up and just
started talking, that, thathelped everybody else make
decisions day to day.
So I'm going to give a hugeshout out to Alex for taking the
time to talk.
sometimes two times a day.
Just to say, here's where we'reat.
Here's our update.
Here's our resources.
And just being more transparent,I think that builds more trust
(39:28):
and more confidence in themarket.
And I think it helps make us notbe as bad as it could be.
David Strohr (39:33):
You know, incidentally, I just finished
mr.
Hardy's book, the compoundeffect.
It's very good.
If you have an opportunity, youprobably already read it.
But a one last question you'vebeen able to spend a lot of time
working from home in the MatsuValley.
What has been the vibe of the,of that area for the last couple
of months in the Valley?
Kassandra Taggart (39:49):
Valley is, much more positive and much
more, but you gotta rememberValley.
We only have like 22 cases ofbeing played this whole time.
So yeah, I'll hear, we're kindof like on our own doing our own
thing, much more positive, youknow, a little more skip in our
walk.
whereas when I come to theValley to get some business
done, At times, it's, it's, muchmore people with math, much
(40:13):
more, you can, you can kind ofsee the stress.
You can kind of see the eager onpeople wanting to be outside,
wanting to be around people.
So you can see that as apatient, a little bit more.
but that's kind of thedifference between the two at
the moment.
David Strohr (40:25):
Well, Kassandra, we want to thank you for your
knowledge, your passion and yourguidance over this last hour.
You are, as I'm sure ourlisteners now know an invaluable
resource and experienced advisorfor those who are investing in
real estate and taking theirfirst step towards success,
Kassandra will join us again intwo weeks for another
conversation unlimited I'm Davestrohr, have a good day.
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