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The craziest rental car situation:I knew I wanted to explore America, and the world, at a very young age. Through decades of relentless road trips, I finally made it to every U.S. county. This was probably the most difficult of all my bizarre travel goals!The road trip rulesPurchasing the DeLorme software changed everything. The most efficient digital atlas I’ve ever seen provides every single road, no matter how remote or unpaved, in the entire United States. The GPS is so efficient it will track your vehicle in the most remote regions, and even worked when I sailed to Antarctica!Along the way, scouring every corner of America on my travels, I developed some rules to make it more interesting.Rental cars: I have to accept whatever rental car the company gives me, even when it’s not what I reserved.The loop: If I’m not embarking on a road trip from my hometown, I fly to an airport somewhere in America, rent a car, and drive in a minimum 3,000-mile loop, zigzagging throughout as many checkpoints as possible.Shortest path: I must set the DeLorme software path to “shortest” rather than “fastest” so that we’re forced to use some crazy backroads on the most direct route and really explore America with the element of a little danger.The storyIt was road trip #435 for me during the spring of 2006 when I flew with a friend to Salt Lake City, planning on an exhaustive search of everything relevant in Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and the southeast corner of Oregon. These extraordinary itineraries are the only way to see as much as I’ve seen in a lifetime, and it is absolutely thrilling.This region has some magnificent mountains, and even in spring you’ll find snow and ice, plenty of mud, and some crazy off-roading for sure! I intentionally rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle to navigate the impending craziness, a full-size SUV advertised by Budget Rent a Car as a Chevy Tahoe or similar (below).When we landed at Salt Lake City and proceeded to the Budget counter, they informed me that the only car left was a Ford Mustang (below). I explained the types of roads we were going to be navigating and suggested they might not want me driving a convertible sports car on a dirt road in the ice and snow. I mentioned that I intentionally rented an SUV. They replied, “There’s nothing we can do about it. Just take the Mustang.” In the mountains? In the snow? You’ve got to be kidding me.I’ve had a lot of rental cars that weren’t what was promised on the Internet, but this was ridiculous! So, we drove that Mustang all over that part of America, even on a road for logging trucks where we slowly crept over boulders fit for a Jeep. And yes, we eventually got stuck on a muddy, snowy forest road many hours from civilization. Remarkably, it’s the only time I’ve ever been stuck on an American road trip, despite other close calls.But we made it out and lived to tell the tale.

Strictly speaking, that would never be in a landlord’s interest.The purpose of investment property is to achieve the maximum market rental value at all times. Therefore, intentionally renting for “well under” market value is against an investor’s self-interest no matter the reason.In fact, if the landlord is a manager or owner through a partnership with others, the landlord could potentially be liable to those parties for “favoring” tenants who pay “well under” market rent.There would have to be a very compelling benefit for this to be in the landlord’s interest.

What happens when the previous owner fails to evict tenants after handover of keys?My parents have just purchased a condominium unit in Singapore. The agreed date for handover was today, but the owner was relunctant to handover the keys. When my parents went over to the unit, it was still occupied (possibly because it is still rented out). What should we do now?It sounds like there are at least two possibilities, although I have never been to Singapore.The landlord (owner?) may have made an error, or possibly intentionally, rented the unit to two parties at the same time.The landlord (owner?) may have been unable to get the previous tenant to move out.Your parents may be the victims of a common scam with rental properties. The scenario is that a fraudster claims to own a property when they do not own it. Then they “rent” it out to people, being sure to collect some money upfront, and then they disappear. So the prospective tenant is out the money they paid, and also without a unit to live in.Those are just three possibilities. I suggest that you/ your parents obtain legal counsel, and I hope that things will be resolved with your parents not suffering any loss.