What to do with unresponsive tenant?

[Cheza M.]

Hey BP community. I’m looking for some suggestions and advice in regards to what’s the best course action to take when the tenant is not paying and responding to you. I know eviction is one option, but I was looking for other alternatives such as Cash for Keys…

I bought my first turkey property from out of state 5 months ago and it was already tenant occupied. The tenant was always late on her payments but was at least still trying to pay. Then, my property manager told me that the tenant decided to just refuse to pay anymore for this month so the he went ahead and filed for an eviction.

I was actually trying to avoid the eviction route because I’m not sure how long it’s all going to take from waiting for the court to give us a date to getting the property rent-ready again, and plus, eviction may cost me a lot more money. So, I was thinking cash for keys and I told my PM about it, but he told me that the tenant isn’t answering them when they called her phone or even by going to the property and knocking on the door.

Is there any property manager or out of state investor out there that could give me suggestions or advice on how I should go about handling this situation? Did you do a different approach other than eviction or cash for keys? Thanks a lot in advance!

[Nathan Gesner]

Cash for keys will cost you money AND it rewards the Tenant's bad behavior and encourages them to do it again.

Your PM is correct. The tenant is non-responsive, which demonstrates they have no interest in negotiating with you. They stopped paying and will continue playing this game until someone forces them to stop.

Evict. Thank your PM for doing the right thing.