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Sun Jul 28, 2019 7:32 pm

Anyone renting out their house heard of a company called Loftium? I got the obligatory unsolicited text from someone from this company asking about the house I just listed on CL this afternoon. From what I could learn online, Loftium will sign a 2-3 year lease, find and fully vet the tenant, pay you "more than the market rate", garuntee on time rent payment, and in return the renter gets to sublet the crap out of your house like an Airbnb type situation.
The renter, in return, gets charged a rent far below the market and has added cash incentives for referrals and prompt resolution of issues with sublessee.

Or that's at least as far as I understand it.

I'm still waiting to learn the specifics of what "more than the market rate" would entail. I'm somewhat concerned about the added wear and tear that the revolving door of sublessees would cause on my 72 year old polished turd of a house, but I'm willing to at least listen with a skeptical ear.

Anyone done this with their house? Specifically with regard to letting a tenant sublet rooms in your house/townhouse/apartment.
Anyone heard of this company before? I've looked up reviews, and they don't look at all unpleasant from the Landlord perspective.

Sun Jul 28, 2019 7:51 pm

Oh hell no!

Those places “subdivide” the house in a rent-a-room type deal, pack section 8 crack whores in there, let them destroy the place & then you have no recourse because they’re not the tenant on the lease. You get 10-20% more than market rate, they sublet EACH room for about the same as your monthly (usually to a person subsidized by the government.) and you have no control of who’s in there.

The next scam is the “buy houses with other people’s money” crap, where they get you to accept a deposit, which ties up the property, then they “sell” your home to some worthless person who gives them more money every month than they’re paying you, if they do pay you. If the second party doesn’t pay, you can’t evict the third party because they’re not on the contract.

The “reviews” are probably written by their in-house team of scammers.

Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:06 pm

TDCTDI wrote: Oh hell no!

Those places “subdivide” the house in a rent-a-room type deal, pack section 8 crack whores in there, let them destroy the place & then you have no recourse because they’re not the tenant on the lease. You get 10-20% more than market rate, they sublet EACH room for about the same as your monthly (usually to a person subsidized by the government.) and you have no control of who’s in there.

The next scam is the “buy houses with other people’s money” crap, where they get you to accept a deposit, which ties up the property, then they “sell” your home to some worthless person who gives them more money every month than they’re paying you, if they do pay you. If they don’t pay, you can’t evict the third party because they’re not on the contract.

The “reviews” are probably written by their in-house team of scammers.
^^^this. Loftium will make money off ur house and you’ll be left with a pile. The only upside is if one of the meth cookers burn the place down.

Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:31 pm

Those are good points, which lead to my concern about what kind of person would willingly rent a large 3 bedroom house knowing that they would then be subletting two of the rooms? A single person? Why not rent a small apartment that they would not have to share with strangers? This whole thing seems really fishy to me.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 2:38 am

The people renting from you will never be in the property, they will just pack as many people as they can in it. Your three bedroom will become five or six, a den or family room will become another bedroom.

Because they will be subletting to the scum that can’t get housing any other way.

They tie your house up legally with the long term lease, and then they will sublet on a day to day rental. There is no tenant protection on a day to day rental, if they don’t pay, they get kicked out.

The city/county pays the going day to day rent, much like a hotel ($60-80 in my area).

The government likes it because they don’t have to pay for the upkeep on the property like they did with “the projects”.

Onceler wrote: The only upside is if one of the meth cookers burn the place down.
If they cook meth in the house, you’re going to effectively have a radioactive, biohazardous waste site on your hands.
You’ll be left with having to clean up & repair, or demolish the house.

I have seen lots of older houses fall prey to these scams (In fact, older hotels will do this also because it’s guaranteed money from the government.). You see them with a bunch of degenerates hanging out outside (because they don’t want everyone hanging out in their room.) & after a year or two, probably when the lease expires, the house gets a cute little “condemned” notice on it & then, to avoid fines, the owner has it bulldozed. And then, you’ll notice the same flock of nasty bastards hanging outside of another house a few doors down.

Then, the company scamming you disappears & repeats the process under a different name.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:01 am

you need to read some of the airbnb horror stories. no way you want to do this.

best case is get a realtor involved to find a good tenant. a good friend of mine got into bed with an insurance company that would rent homes for those displaced by a tragedy (fire, water damage, tree fell on the house etc)

he had very good luck. the ins.co was on the hook for anything the people did to the house. they did a pre and post walkthrough with a video. they also paid a shit ton of $$, and more if you allowed a pet. nice thing was the people were in/out in a year or 2, then a new family would move in. he did this for about 5 years. made a lot of $$ and it didn't cost him anything

I couldn't be a landlord. I would burn the place to the ground if they didn't pay.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:47 am

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: you need to read some of the airbnb horror stories. no way you want to do this.

The company used AirBnB as an example that has at least some positive recognition, what they're doing is far less scrupulous. I've had several of them contact me about place that I've had listed & when they walked me through their "Sales pitch", I realized exactly what they were doing.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:02 am

Yep. Yep yep yep. In my 20-odd years of landlording I had relatively little trouble because I had good long-term tenants.

Kept the rent reasonable and worked with them when things were tight and overall it was not a horrific experience because the folks felt invested in the place- which is key when your rent house is 1200 miles away.

Only time the place got busted up was from renting to a family member. Go figure.

That said, it was a terrific day when I sold the place- to one of my tenants.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:05 am

Screw that. It's hard enough to find a good long term tenant that will take care of the place. Last thing you want is a bunch of college kids throwing a spring break party. I found out being a landlord that the easy money coming in wasn't so easy when the tenant moved out and I had to drop a mighty dime repairing everything.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:45 am

babysnakes wrote: Last thing you want is a bunch of college kids throwing a spring break party.

There again, a bunch of college kids would be MUCH better than what these sublet companies are going to pack in there.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 5:13 pm

TDCTDI wrote: babysnakes wrote: Last thing you want is a bunch of college kids throwing a spring break party.

There again, a bunch of college kids would be MUCH better than what these sublet companies are going to pack in there.

Okee dokee, pick your poison. Get a realtor to vet candidates, get background checks. Unless you like to gamble.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 5:32 pm

Well, it's a moot point now. The guy from Loftium texted me back and agreed that, in hindsight, my house won't be conducive to their business model since all the bedrooms are on the upper floors. :-s

The sublet company deemed my house inadequate as a potential flop house. A little depressing. I think it's a nice house.

Mon Jul 29, 2019 6:06 pm

awreed wrote: Well, it's a moot point now. The guy from Loftium texted me back and agreed that, in hindsight, my house won't be conducive to their business model since all the bedrooms are on the upper floors. :-s

The sublet company deemed my house inadequate as a potential flop house. A little depressing. I think it's a nice house.

A liability for their potential liabilities.

Tue Jul 30, 2019 9:10 am

Just to be fair there are many people with ruined credit who are gainfully employed where the barriers to rental are overwhelming. Renting a room is often the only option. I personally know 2 couples that ended up with medical bills they could never pay due to car accidents and crooked lawyers. I have rented rooms in the past and there is more turnover as they transition into better situations. More damage or grief? Not that I noticed. I've been a landlord for 30 years .

Fri Aug 02, 2019 5:29 pm

Rentals. Good University town (nothing to do with their sports team) and female graduate students.

They leave the house better than you give it to them.

Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:44 pm

Abscate wrote: Rentals. Good University town (nothing to do with their sports team) and female graduate students.

They leave the house better than you give it to them.

What about Jehovah's Witnesses? They're so busy spreading the word that they don't have time to destroy your house. No pets, no drinking, no drugs, no friends, no sex, no fun...... full damage deposit refund!