[Music] Hello everyone and Welcome once again to another episode of the Selling Greenville podcast I am your host as always Stan McCune realtor here in Greenville South Carolina and as always you can find all of my contact information in the show notes reach out to me at anytime if you have any real estate needs or any questions or just want to shoot the I'm always available and as always I always mention this but please give us a rating or a review please make sure that you subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss any future episodes I want to make sure that we get this out to as many people as possible so please go ahead and give us a little bit of feedback go ahead and subscribe download the episode if you want to any of these things help to get it out there to to the other people that are out there and I'm having people from all over the place reach me because of the podcast is pretty exciting and I'm hoping that I can expand this hopefully we get some guests on the show and the more that you guys help with with doing things like subscribing rating reviewing the more opportunity we have to do those types of things today I want to talk to you guys about what's going on with covid-19 with the Corona virus and the rental markets there is a lot of concern right now among landlords about what is going to happen here moving forward are they going to be put in in a position where their tenants don't have to make rent payments now if you remember we didn't really discuss this very much I think I alluded to it in a previous podcast but early on in the covid-19 period the South Carolina put a ban on evictions for people that had financial hardship that were renting that had financial hardship due to covid-19 now that ban ended several months ago and then in the meantime the CDC has issued their own ban basically on evictions for certain groups of people that that meet certain criteria the the way I understand the criteria and I'm not a an expert in law but basically the way I understand them is that you have to have put forth your best efforts to try to get financial assistance financial assistance you can't earn more than $999,000 or not expect to earn more than 999,000 in 2020 or $198,000 if you're filing jointly with a spouse you can't pay your full rent amount because of lost income or significant or extraordinary medical expenses youve tried Tred to pay as much of your rent in a timely a manner as you can and lastly if evicted you would likely become homeless and have to live in a shelter or some other crowded space so that's the CDC guidelines that go through the end of the year and so there's a lot of concern right now among landlords that they're going to lose rents and and perhaps some of them have as a result of tenants that are trying to G the system as much as possible and so we're starting to see some landlords start to sell off some properties here and there I I think there's also maybe some angst about the possibility for a new Administration what would a Biden Harris Administration do would they really double down on this and make it even more difficult for landlords so I want to talk about that for just a few minutes we're not going to make this a long episode but I have some thoughts on this right now I have several rental properties myself and so I can share some insight I've got a lot of clients that have rental properties as well and let me start by saying this in South Carolina we are one of the most landlord friendly states in the US if you're looking to buy rental properties South Carolina is a is a really great place to purchase them because of just the way it's structured legally it really gives a lot of rights to landlords now some people might feel like there's not enough rights given to tenants I think that there are some some Fair points to be made on that front but the reality of the situation is from a landlord perspective it's it's a great place to own rental properties I always recommend to landlords to be fair to not take advantage of your of your tenants but the reality of the situation is that a lot of them don't and quite frankly they have a lot more legal protection than you would expect and there are a lot of kind of Unwritten rules down here because of how loose it is where there will be situations where landlords will kind of have an Unwritten rule with the tenant that if the tenant doesn't ask for repairs and doesn't ask for things to be done they kind of tend to themselves that the landlord won't increase rent and so we see this a lot a lot of times the properties that come on the market that are rental properties they have oftentimes two things that are frequently in common among all these rental properties that come on the market one of them is that the tenants are not paying Market rent probably because they haven't had their rent increased in 10 or 15 years and they've been in the property that entire time and the second thing is that the property needs a ton of work done it has a ton of deferred maintenance and the Deferred maintenance these these two things are related because there's this Unwritten handshake agreement that if the tenant doesn't bug the landlord with a with a bunch of you know requests for maintenance that the landlord isn't going to do the maintenance but they're also not going to increase the rent and so I always tell my clients that are looking for rentals just so that you know the properties that come on the market that seem like a really good deal there's something wrong with them they probably have deferred maintenance they probably have tenants that are paying way below Market rent there's something wrong with them you have to project what what this property needs in terms of repairs you have to project what type of rent this property can bring in you have to do all of those different things now as I mentioned before I'm starting to hear some chatter among and and we've heard this for a while but I I feel I'm hearing it more now than before that landlords are really starting to get nervous I think a lot of people thought you know Co would be over by now and that we wouldn't still be talking about this I I think that the CDC dropping their guidelines like they did and and and putting forth this moratorium on evictions is something that is concerning people it does the federal government have this type of authority I'm involved in local politics around here and I'll tell you this I do not believe that the federal government has that type of authority not not at the moment and I and I really do not believe personally that Biden Harris Administration that they're going to come in and supersede the states and give an eviction moratorito landlords it's very possible that they do I'm not saying that they won't do that assuming that they are elected in it just to me seems unlikely given that that would really ultimately be determined by States and and this is what it comes down to right if there is an eviction that happens that happens on a state level that doesn't happen on a state and local level that doesn't happen on a federal level you don't go to a federal court in order to appeal an eviction or to make an eviction this all happens on a local and state level so ultimately the enforcement for all of this happens on a local and state level and guess what I've already mentioned that in South Carolina and in Greenville it tends to be very landlord friendly now I have never personally run into this situation but my understanding is that if a landlord evicts a tenant and claims that the tenant hasn't paid you know say 3 months of rent or whatever the case may be that there are frequent instances of the tenants in order to appeal that eviction they have to front that money to the courts so they would have to front the three months of rent which could be thousands of dollars in order to appeal the eviction well guess what most tenants they don't have that money what if the landlord made that up what if they were paying their rent and the landlord you know evicted them wrongly and said they hadn't paid for months what's the tenant going to do in that instance the tenant probably doesn't have that money to be able to front in order to appeal the eviction most likely the tenant is just going to move on to another property and just find a hopefully a better landlord hopefully one that is actually honest but that is at the end of the day what's what's going to happen let's say that you have a situation where a tenant just stops paying their rent and they don't have good reason they don't fit this the covid-19 requirements or whatever the case may be they're just trying to you know use a system trying to skirt skirt the laws trying to get free housing most often the landlord is going to be able to evict them and not have any issues with my rental properties I have not had any issues with anyone not paying their rent and if I did I I would just try to get them on a payment plan this is the thing none of these laws South Carolina CDC statement or guidelines whatever you want to call what the CDC did none of these require the landlord to forgive the rent and that's a really important distinction so if the tenant can prove that they've been they've had their financial situation disrupted by 19 they fit these other qualifications that the CDC put forward that doesn't mean that their rent just gets forgiven at that point that just means that they can't be evicted or at least again according to the CDC but we know in South Carolina they probably can still be evicted but let's just tease it out let's just say that the landlord says you know what I don't want to mess with the CDC I won't evict them I want to you know go ahead and keep them here and work with them what what can the landlord do now I'm not a lawyer so I don't know exactly you know from a law standpoint but my understanding as a real estate person as a realtor as a landlord myself is that you can at that point start imposing penalties for late payments or for incomplete payments you can at that point set up that person on a payment plan so maybe maybe they had to miss a month but they're willing to make that up in future months or maybe you say listen I'll let you go three months rent free but after that you need to your your rent has to make up for that in the three months subsequent to that or the six month subsequent to that or whatever the case may be get them on some type of a payment plan CDC doesn't apparently forbid that in the guidelines that they put forward I know that South Carolina when we had the the eviction moratoriSouth Carolina did not forbid that either and so the landlord even in the worst case scenario here and and again I don't think if if Biden Harris come into office I don't think that they will be any stricter than what the CDC has put forward ultimately landlords still have a lot of of power to to do what needs to be done in order to get paid it just might take a little bit longer and there might be a little bit more working with the tenants trying to work out an arrangement with the tenants trying to make sure that the tenants are okay that their situation is okay that there is a a plan forward for how they will get caught up on their rents but at the end of the day we're in in a market here where there's a lot of demand for renting on on all spectrums I mean there's there's demand for lowend rentals there's demand for you know middle class rentals there's demand for short-term rentals there's demand for long-term rentals at the end of the day that gives that puts the landlord in the seat of power at the end of the day there's a reason why the word Lord is in landlord I know some people don't like that I'm not woke enough to to stop using the term landlord I'm sorry I'm sorry if that's offensive to anyone but the landlord is that he is the Lord over that land that he or she owns the property on and at the end of the day South Carolina really does tend to side with landlords over tenants regardless of whether that's right regardless whether that's wrong that's just the way it is and so I'm encouraging my clients hey if you have rental properties don't I don't think that we need to freak out not yet at least nothing that has been passed has really been a major disruptor I know that some people have had tenants that tried to game the system I think that that's a a a scenario where you need to screen your tenants a little bit better try to try to weed out tenants that have that seem you know that have something in their history indications that they do try to game the system that those are not the types of tenants that you want to have to begin with and and make sure that you get good tenants on the front end that have good job security that have good income history and all of that those are things that you can help yourself on the front end avoid a potential disaster like this when it when it strikes but even with me I have renters all across the Spectrin terms of income in term some on on government housing and and all kinds of things I have not personally run into any issues now I have a property manager and she you know obviously it's her job to collect rents I'm I'm not good I'm probably too compassionate I'd probably be giving everyone you know months off of rent so that's why I have a a property manager so that she can be the bulldog and she can take care of these things I don't want to take care of but there's also plenty of assistance out there as well if you Google South Carolina rental assistance there are options for tenants out there make sure that if you have a tenant that comes to you that says that they're having issues make sure that you Avail them of of those resources and that you let them know hey there are options out there and and understand your rights as well again it's not very clear these CDC guidelines and whatnot as far as what constitutes a false eviction during covid or not are pretty vague and and this is part of the problem is that ultimately South Carolina courts are going to have to interpret what what the CDC put forward my understanding is that mag rates in South Carolina don't have to have formal legal training now that might sound crazy but that's my understanding I'm not exactly sure how that works that's probably why we have issues with our magistrates from time to time but my understanding is that they they don't have to have formal legal training at least not in the way that that is in other states so you're having these people potentially having to interpret the law and that's not what the Magistrate are set up to do they're having to interpret the law and they don't have training to do that so I don't think that that is a scenario that ultimately at the end of the day is going to benefit tenants I think that this is still a situation where rental properties are still going to do quite quite well and landlords don't have don't have much to fear particularly if they did their job screening their tenants on the front end that said there are going to be some landlords that are freaking out and that are putting their properties on the market there are some rental properties that are just sitting right now and there might be some opportunities for them as well you know particularly if you're someone that is a cash buyer can move quickly can maybe we can you know potentially negotiate the price down there are some opportun ities that are out there and that are becoming available as people decide you know what I don't really want to do this anymore I'm I'm worried that this could get worse I just want to go ahead and recoup My Equity move on and and take that money and do something else with it we're seeing that happening and so if you're in a position to buy even though it is a sellers market for sure I anticipate that increasingly some more landlords are going to start getting nervous we're we're starting to get notified about property taxes as well people are are going to be thinking about that not wanting to pay their property taxes and so here we go we have an opportunity now that some properties might be coming on the market there are some off-market deals I just bought a c couple of duplexes off Market there are some opportunities that are coming up on and off Market with people that are looking to to sell properties rental properties that they have and if you're in that market don't don't wait don't wait to enter be aggressive be aggressive right now this is the time to be aggressive because people are uncertain and uncertain times opportunities arise and and I believe at the end of the day that South Carolina will stay the way it has been it will be a con continual landlord friendly State until things dramatically shift and I don't see them dramatically shifting anytime soon if you have any questions about that let me know but that is it we have a short one today just wanted to share that little bit with you guys to keep you apprised of what's going on in the market reach out to me all my contact information is in the show notes as always go ahead and subscribe review rate the podcast as I always ask you guys to do and until next time stay safe and enjoy the nice weather outside [Music]