Squatting is getting out of hand on Southern California

[cksmithy]

25. We have a few rental houses in

California. We have a management company take care of everything. Evictions, repairs, etc. with our approval. We tried to do it ourselves, but couldn't, too time consuming. One of our renters was a section 8 renter, subsidized rent, was there for 10+ years, died, one of his kids just stayed at the house, late with their portion of rent. So management went to check on things, found out the father had died, told them they were going to notify the proper authorities or he could pay all the back rent, and start paying the entire amount because he wasn't on the section 8 contract. Thankfully he said no problem, (so no court issues) and left the building. Lost 3 months rent, had to pay back the entire amount back, 6 weeks or so for remodeling, landscaping, then got a new renter who is paying us a higher rental amount. We could never of done it ourselves. We had to go through 2 companies to find this one, who does a great job. They have lots of vendors for plumbing, dry walling, cleaning, you name it, at very reasonable prices. The houses pay for themselves, they still are beneficial to our taxes. We'll probably still keep them as inheritance for the grand kids. I could tell some horror stories before we got a good management company.