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The Reality of Real Estate Voucher Programs for Landlords · The Academy Presents podcast

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  dreamed of all through real estate investing.
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  You're already taking the first step. just by
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  joining us here today and then he said it's also
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  about finding a phone like going in person and
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  seeing people and meeting people in person and
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  like developing that relationship and getting
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  like a direct phone number from somebody instead
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  of just trying to call the numbers that are online
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  because you'll never get through to anybody which
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  has been my case i did go and i found someone
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  i found the right location i found the director
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  of you know the the um the what is it case management
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  it's not snow it's um the name of it is um like
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  something with the home because they help with
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  the the homeless i'm having such a brain fart
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  right now but in any case so of that building
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  and that department is the main the main place
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  to go to for the safer voucher so i met the director
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  of that one and so all the stuff so i got i have
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  the contacts i have you know urban housing no
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  it is called home base home base okay okay So
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  that's just how it's called in New York City.
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  I don't know if that's in other places too. So
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  this, the end of July would have been the first
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  year, the end of the full first year that all
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  three tenants had been in the property. Yes,
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  the checks have been coming regularly. There
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  had been one tenant that I feel like they were
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  missing a check from a certain department they
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  were supposed to be having, but at the end of
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  the year, that was getting figured out, still
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  not figured out, but I know it's in the process.
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  But then Greg got this letter dated, it was like
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  August 6th or August 7th when I opened the letter.
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  And it was dated for July 31st. to say that as
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  of August 1st, which if everyone else is not
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  paying attention, that's one day later, right
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  from the date printed on the letter the next
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  day, my tenant who had zero tenant contribution
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  was no longer going to be receiving assistance
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  from CityFabs, was not in the program, and would
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  have to continue now pay rent from August 1st
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  on pay rent on her own. Like what? and I get
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  this a week later in snail mail not even like
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  the courtesy of a call an email nothing like
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  some notification something the whole point is
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  that's the one tenant who doesn't have a job
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  She spends her full days, like she goes every
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  morning to her grandmother's house to take care
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  of her for the day because her grandmother's
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  an amputee. And she has two kids. And like, she
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  stopped even going to the training for it to
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  be a home health aid because she just had too
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  much taking care of her grandmother. As of August
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  1st, when you have no notice, the tenant has
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  no notice, and they're supposed to all of a sudden
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  be able to pay a $2 ,000 monthly rent. They can't
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  do that. And they can't even afford to move because
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  they have no extra money. Like every money, all
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  the money she has for living is from subsidies.
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  Like I know I have not, like I'm not confirmed
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  100%, but like there's no other way for her to
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  get the money for like food and for electricity
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  bills and all these other things. It's all programs
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  that are helping her pay for her living expenses
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  100%. and it's not here or there whether or not
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  like that's correct or you know people have different
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  you know philosophies on being on government
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  assistance and blah blah blah but regardless
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  of that you cannot give someone negative days
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  notice like literally me getting the letter in
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  the mail in August August 6th August 7th this
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  negative notice like you told me oh a week ago
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  your rent stopped like I didn't get any so that
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  I don't know it's all this is a vent session
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  for me but it's also just to let people out there
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  who are considering vouchers um there's pros
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  and cons so the pro is because my my building
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  is 100 electric so I don't have gas heat like
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  I don't have those expenses that other landlords
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  will have. But I know the tenants' electricity
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  bills are extremely high because they pay to
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  heat their own. I pay for water supply, but they
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  pay for the hot water heater because it's electric.
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  They pay for electric stove. They pay for all
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  the electric. We have those wall units for heat
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  and air conditions, so they pay for that. Those
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  things are a monster energy drain. I used to
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  live there. So I know how high electricity bills
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  can get. So I never pushed rent that much. I
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  always was like reasonable with rent increases.
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  I increased it every year, but not like to keep
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  up with market. I was just like, just being reasonable
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  because I had the same tenants and they were
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  paying, you know, very, you know, they pay on
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  time. They were good tenants. So I didn't want
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  to push it. Vacancy is worse than, you know,
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  anything else. So I ended up having a whole other
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  situation where I had to have the building vacated
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  to sell it, the sale fell through. And then when
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  I re -tenanted it is when I got the vouchers.
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  So when I got the vouchers, I was getting like
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  $3 ,000 more per month than what I was getting
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  with the tenants that I had previously. So I
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  had no clue that was gonna happen. Like I would
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  not have had the heart to kick my other tenants
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  out. just to get $3 ,000 more of rent. Like it's
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  one of the things that like even when on the
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  cell, I was trying to fight for my tenants, my
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  previous tenants to stay. So this was like a
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  blessing in disguise that I got a vacant building
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  was able to fill it with these, the voucher tenants
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  because now the city can pay full market rent
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  and I don't have to worry about the electricity
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  bill because then they also can get a subsidy
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  to help pay for their utilities. So there it's
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  not like they're coming out of pocket for that.
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  So now this is really just like I'm just getting
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  the money from the city. The problem is now the
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  city just they don't care about Landlord tenant
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  rules that we have to follow because they have
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  to follow those same rules when it comes to us
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  Like we have to give a tenant, you know 30 days
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  60 90 days notice before we You know can kick
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  them out or tell them that they can't renew,
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  you know But they can just give me a negative
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  days notice that say that I'm not gonna pay you
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  no more Like and it's not even it's not the tenant
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  the tenant is a great tenant program. So sometimes
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  it's you just trying to make sure you dig in,
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  make sure you have contacts, you have someone
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  to call, you're ready to take the good and the
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  bad, you have reserves, because even though you're
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  on this government program for your income, and
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  the good thing is that it's stated to be recession
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  resistant, because the government's always going
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  to pay for people's housing and stuff, and they
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  will if it's If they're government, the program
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  is like lined up and organized correctly. So
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  I have not used section eight as of yet. This
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  experience is making me really want to like switch
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  to section eight, but I'm not kicking anybody
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  out. So we'll wait and see, you know, who doesn't,
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  if anyone ends up not ever renewing, then I'll
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  look for a section eight tenant instead, because
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  then you actually get direct deposit. And I think
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  there's actually numbers you can call that people
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  will answer the phone. Um, the problem with the
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  CityFeps program and the reason that these, the
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  rent stopped and that's, and I actually didn't
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  get rent payment from another tenant, but I got
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  no letter for her. So she's not kicked out. They're
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  just slow with doing the rent for this month
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  because it's like a new lease now, a lease year.
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  But any case, so CityFeps is very manual. They
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  still send you checks in the mail that you have
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  to go like deposit in a bank, right? They still
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  make you come in physically to submit new paperwork
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  for case renewals or for updates or any kind
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  of changes. Like there's nothing to do in the
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  computer. There's no system that you computerize
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  that you can log in, put in your new information,
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  upload documents, do all that stuff so it's more
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  trackable. They don't have any of those kind
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  of systems. So they are manually going through
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  all of these, however many thousands of case
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  paperwork that they have to go through for this
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  spring summer when cases are due or case renewals
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  are due, they're manually going through it. The
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  only thing they have automated is that cancellation
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  letter. It's like they manually going through
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  all the paperwork, but the system automatically
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  sent that letter out to every landlord and every
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  tenant that had a case. because they weren't
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  updated in the system yet manually so it's it's
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  like there's no I don't know and the lady was
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  very nonchalant when I talked I stayed on hold
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  for two hours to talk to somebody on the phone
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  and she was very nonchalant oh that letter just
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  went out to everybody it was just done by the
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  system the tenant needs to go in and do this
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  they got to go physically into the office and
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  it's like, okay, but no one can tell me the address
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  of the office. They're just supposed to go into
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  their office. So if I didn't already know, which
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  I happen to know what her office was, then it's
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  like they didn't really have any kind of help
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  or assistance for that. So basically right now,
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  I am still in the midst of not having payment
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  for two out of three units. But they are both
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  of these cases are in the works. And I should
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  be getting back pay that I'm owed for one tenant
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  from the whole last year, which I'm probably
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  like three or 4000. That was payments were short.
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  Then for the other unit, I should be getting
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  August and September's rent like at the same
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  time. But I don't know 100 % like I moved some
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  money around to be able to help float. property
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  for this month and for next month just in case
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  the money doesn't come next month. And then after
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  that it's kind of like all right I got to float
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  some more money around but then some other accounts
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  start looking real thin and that starts to worry
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  me. And I'm like okay I need to do something
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  else to get some more income in like save a lot
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  more from my W -2 paycheck which is good sometimes
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  that you have you still have a job to lean back
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  on because then otherwise I'd be a little bit
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  more screwed and I mean my husband and I have
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  some savings that I can just say hey I need to
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  borrow some of this you know this is for our
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  personal house future house but I'm gonna borrow
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  some for this and then I'll pay it back when
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  I get everything situated so I have I have resources
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  so that's another thing for people looking to
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  get involved in um some type of voucher just
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  make sure you have your backup and your resources
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  and oh financially are secure in case for whatever
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  reason something happens with the the system
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  or the computer like the processes the tenant
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  doesn't fill out sign one line or dot one t dot
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  one t dot one i cross one t you know whatever
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  it is because they could come up with whatever
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  reason they can to just stop payments and leave
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  you hanging high and dry but yet i live in new
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  york city which is a very tenant friendly area
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  and So the landlords have no recourse really
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  because it's not like you can evict quickly like
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  because even if I was to pay now money to an
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  attorney to file um non -payment how long is
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  it going to take for that to actually get processed
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  and then when the court says oh well this person's
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  on the voucher and the voucher didn't think that
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  they're going to side with the tenant anyway
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  so no matter how long it takes the voucher to
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  reinstall or reinstate itself, you know what
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  I mean? So things, I'm still in limbo. I think
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  it's gonna work out. I'm very optimistic because
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  I like to be optimistic. And so I'm thinking
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  next month, actually I have a couple of weeks
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  to see what kind of check I get in the mail,
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  but cross my fingers.