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Do I have to be a licensed realtor to manage a residential rental property?

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lizchance

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? TEXAS

For the last 3 years we have suffered at the hands of unbelievable white trash neighbors who are renters. The times that we reported their activities to the police (ie: excessive noise, throwing trash next to the alley dumpster that wouldn't fit & much more), these people broke out all the windows of our car, tore down our alley gate & fence, and left a plate of "poop" on our doorstep. So, needless to say, we became frightened of them & quit complaining to the police (who never seemed to be willing to pursue this in the first place). We live in a very nice, well-groomed, upper middle class neighborhood where we all own our homes & work very hard to keep them in excellent condition. However, our former neighbors across the alley, sold their home to an individual investor who lives more than 700 miles away & apparently rents the home out through a local (unknown to us) real estate management company. Since this person began renting out the property, all of us in the neighborhood have suffered at the hands of these renters in one or more ways or another. The loud (yelling & screaming) fights & parties, the constant flow of people entering through their alley gate, blocking the alley driveway, and the incredible amount of trash they seem to generate (including poop filled diapers up & down the alley), stealing food from my garden by climbing over my fence, and much more. Not to mention the malicious retaliations we have all incurred by these people. We have owned our home (fully paid for) for 19 years and now that our children are grown & off living their own lives, we thought we had finally found peace. We were WRONG. The year our youngest child left for college was the year these miserable renters moved in behind us. Our house is on a double size lot which allows me to grow an organic vegetable garden in a 20' by 20' fenced area behind our large backyard, which of course places me closer to these people than I care to be. However, as I quietly work my garden, I have heard much of what goes on over there & it isn't nice or good in any way. Eventually, I began writing down the numbers of the license plates freqenting this rental property and joined PublicData.com to find out whatever I could about these neanderthals. Not surprisingly, I discovered that, every car was owned by someone who had a criminal record, ranging from multiple DWI arrests, credit card abuse, child molesting, carrying concealed weapons, and the list goes on. My husband & I even considered the idea of selling our home & moving, but we love this place, as do our children, and we worked hard to pay it off & live in peace. What a joke! My neighbors on both sides, along with us, have frequently been in the alley trying to (unsuccessfully) empty our garbage, only to find that these people have filled every single dumpster to the point of overflowing (and blowing about), leaving us scratching our heads in trying to come up with a solution.

So, after all the fretting & worrying & the vandalism we have suffered at the hands of these people, I discovered some new information about them today. After visiting for a few moments with our postal carrier, I found out that there are 3 families living there. It is a single-family dwelling. Then, later in the day, a neighbor called me to tell me that these people were evidently 4 months behind in their rent, and that they were secretly moving out of the house during the dark of night in order to skip out on what they owed their landlord. Which is why I witnessed them moving major appliances & furniture out through the alley night before last @ midnight. Needless to say, I did a big time *happy dance*, even though I feel bad that they are basically screwing the owner/landlord.

Here is where my question (finally) comes in. I thought I might try to contact the owner and offer to be her property manager, securing a nice family in the dwelling while keeping an eye on them as well. Frankly, I cannot even imagine how this last motley crew was ever rented the dwelling, but it happened & it appears that no one cares to check up on the property. If I were the owner, I would certainly want to protect my investment for future incomes, not allowing unsavory types to wreck my property or the property belonging to my neighbors. So, I told my husband of my idea and he says that you have to be a realtor in order to be the go-between for a landlord & a renter. I disagree, although I'm probably wrong, but thought I would put the question to you, the experts who so generously offer your time & knowledge to this site. Please tell me if I'm wrong or right, so that I can either pursue my idea or lay it to rest. I await your reply(ies) with great anticipation, but due patience. Again, thanks so much for even reading my post and all replies will be highly appreciated, whether I'm wrong or right.

Kind regards,

Liz C. - Texas
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
Liz contact your city to learn what its ordinances are regarding property managers of property where the owner lives out of town .SOME citys have rental licensing requirements that dictate that if a owner lives out side of a specific area that they must have property manangers who meet certain criteria to be the contact person . Also you mentioned about the trash . you were saying that the neighbor dumped in to other peoples trash cans? .Have you learned what your citys ordinances are for trash collections ? If the nieghbor was supposed to have hired a trash hauler and didnt then perhaps you need to contact the city next time this occurs and send written complaint to the owner in a certified letter so the owner is aware that the tenant may be illegally dumping trash and violating the lease by not having required trash services . Last too if your city doesnt do city wide contract and requires every house hold to hire its own trash hauler and the next tenant doesnt do it complain to the city as well . Once you learn what you can regarding any rules for so called property managers and the trash hauling rules then using your city ordinances and having them go after the LL would be your best approach to get the LL to take action .
 

lizchance

Junior Member
Thank you so much for taking the time to post a reply. We have tried complaining to the City Sanitation Dept. who handles garbage removal for everyone within the city limits and they say that there is nothing they can do aside from sending out the citations (which was sent to us & several other neighbors who use the dumpster as well, lol.) for an unsightly alley. However, I consider dirty diapers w/ poop blowing all around the alley, piles of nasty old carpet, discarded furniture, amazing amounts of trash, and many articles of unidentifiable debris, more than just unsightly, if you get my drift. It's a health hazard as well. I've even flagged down & talked to the man who drives the Sanitation Dept. truck, who empties our dumpsters every week. Even though he was disgusted by such filth in a neighborhood like ours, he admitted that all he could do was report the address & they would send out citations. Woo hoo! Our city & county tax dollars at work.

So, I then marched down to the County Court House & checked the records of ownership and made note of the woman's name & address. I tried to find her phone number but it's unlisted, so now I've written her a letter explaining the same circumstances that I've explained here. Now, I suppose we play the waiting game. If I don't hear back from her in two weeks, I'm taking my case to the City Council and make some kind of plea, for lack of a better idea. Like I said before, we have lived here for 19 years and have never had this or any similar problem before. It's a very upper end neighborhood and the homes are not cheap. Obviously, that's why there were 3 families living in one dwelling. Otherwise, they undoubtedly couldn't afford to live around here.

Anyway, thanks so much for the tips and your time. I'm going to find out tomorrow about city ordinances and will then move onward. (My husband still says he's probably right, lol.)

Cheers! Liz C.
 

WhiteMidnight

Junior Member
Contact the Health Department

Try contacting your local health department. If they won't do anything locally, contact the state health department.
Here's a link to the health codes for Texas. You'll have to scroll down to "Title 5" for what you're looking for.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/hs.toc.htm

Good Luck

It doesn't give you an answer to your original question, but in case the answer is no, now you have something else to work with.
 
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