First time in 10 years--tenant not paying! Need advice

[Shari Posey]

We have a young family renting a condo from us. They have been there since 2013. They were late in April and May and we charged them the late fee. They were late again in June and my husband talked to them and it was supposedly an issue about pay days so he gave them until the 10th of the month to pay without penalty. July 10th--no rent. We emailed them. No answer. We called them--their phones are disconnected. On July 15, I went to the unit and wife was there. I told her they need to communicate with us--I was fairly nice but firm and served her a 3-day notice to pay or quit. Her excuse was that her husband was supposed to put the money in the bank that morning. She also gave me her new cell phone numbers. Today (July 18) I texted both saying we did not want to file eviction on Monday so please contact us. So far no response.

Since they are not communicating in any way, I don't know if it makes sense to go there and offer a cash for keys deal. I've talked to an attorney and it's $899 to get the judgement and another $250 for a court appearance. My question is...when I pay the attorney to file, is that when the eviction actually goes on the tenants' credit or after the court date? The last thing I want to do is pay for filing and then they pay rent. I really want to get rid of them now. If they pay and I have to give them a 60-day notice I'm sure they will not pay again and I'll be filing again. Also, we have our tenants pay through Dwolla so after I file, I do not want them to be able to send payment or partial payment via Dwolla.

Yuck...my first eviction in 10 years of being a landlord.