Investment Property – Profitable Investment Alternatives

Posts Tagged ‘evict’

Most landlords would probably agree that the most difficult part of owning rental properties is not the investment property, but the tenant management.  When you have great tenants, it seems easy.  When you have bad ones, you job of managing them can be miserable.  Unfortunately, bad tenants are difficult, but not impossible to avoid.  Show what can you do to avoid them?

• The number one prevention method is to screen your tenants thoroughly.  So often I see landlords that meet a tenant for 15 minutes to show them the apartment and then hand them the keys.  You have no idea who this person is or what they will be like.  You should use a tenant screening service to give you information on criminal, credit and rental history.  Examine this information closely.  Notice if they have anything in collection or how often they have late payments.  These can be clear signs they will be problems in the future.
• Call the previous two landlords that this tenant has had.  Ask them many questions and see if they would rent to this person again.  If you can’t get in touch with the landlords, don’t rent to the tenant.  They may be purposefully giving your bad phone numbers so you can’t reach the landlord.  Did their previous landlord file an eviction to get them out?
• Meet the tenant a couple times.  In fact, if you can, go to their existing home and see what that looks like.  Are there extra people hanging around there that will probably be moving into your property, but not on the lease?  Bad tenants seem to attract problem friends.
• When you do have a bad tenant, do a postmortem.  Go back to their application and think about how they acted and what they said when you first met them.  What could you have done differently?  Looking back, were their any signs of the problems?

Avoiding bad tenants is a key piece of having an enjoyable rental property business.

Tenant eviction can be a difficult decision at times, and at others the actions of a tenant simply do the decision making. Regardless of why a landlord chooses to evict their tenants, there are specific processes that must be followed and laws that must be obeyed.

When making the decision to evict a tenant, a landlord will have to state the specific reason that he or she is evicting a tenant. That decision will effect the type of eviction notice that a landlord will be able serve the tenant. Typically landlords evict their tenants due to non-payment of rent, for creating an unsafe and unhealthy dwelling, or for another reason such as violating the terms set forth in the lease. Each of these reasons has a specific, corresponding form, including those who rent mobile home lots, that must be completed. The notice must then be served to the tenant. Sending an eviction notice to the tenant via certified mail is the best option. A notice to evict may also be served in person or to a member of the tenant’s household who is of suitable age. Once served, a tenant will either adhere to the request, try to speak with the landlord about the issue, or disregard the matter. The time range that a tenant has to adhere to the request will depend upon the reason that the landlord is evicting the tenant, as well as the terms of the lease. This typically ranges from three to thirty days. If the tenant does not adhere to the notice, a landlord must then proceed to file a court order to have the tenant evicted.

In court, a judge will collect and hear information from both parties, and the judge will decide in either favor of the landlord or the tenant. If the judge orders judgment for the landlord, an eviction notice will be served. A monetary judgment may be issued for the tenant to pay damages.