My Eviction Process and Experience so Far and Questions

[Brandon V.]

Hi Guys,

I posted about a month ago about one of my tenants who I was ready to evict and just thought I'd share my experience so far and what I learned being in Milwaukee county in West Allis, WI.

Things I have learned:

1.  Never give out keys without being fully paid a security deposit. 
This was ultimately my first and biggest mistake that I learned the day after I gave them the keys.  They said they would pay the next day, and I didn't end up getting it until three weeks later, the 23rd of that month after literally staying outside of the place and confronting the tenant who had not been responding to texts.

2.  Screen better and be more patient.
I had just bought this place and remodeled it, everything looked good and I was over excited to get a new tenant in right away.  The remodeling actually took a little longer than expected (surprise surprise) and finished around the 15th of the month.  I should've put up the ads earlier and waited a little longer to get more qualified applicants rather than just choosing the best one out of the six that I received. 

3.  Evictions hurt your profit by a lot.
So here's the list so far:

Filing Fee - $98.00
Serving Fee - $155.00
Moving Fee - $300.00
Eviction Fee - $175.00
Other Fees - $30.00
Total so far: $758.00 
Now I might recoup this in court eventually but it still hurts knowing that I won't even get the full amount in collections.  In addition, now I have lost rent for October and November and most likely December.

4.  The Process itself isn't too difficult.
There is a handy checklist for Milwaukee county and it was pretty straightforward, serve the 5 day notice properly after the 5th of the month, wait the full five days, file, appear in court.  My tenants of course didn't appear in court and I was granted a writ right away.  Now I have the sheriff coming in with the movers and hopefully I can cancel this and get refunded some of the money if they move out before then. 

I do have some questions though:

I have filed the Writ with the sheriff's office as of today and they say that the eviction will happen within ten days and I'll get 24 hours notice of when it will happen.  My last conversation with the tenant was on 10/13/2017, saying that he was going to pay rent. 
Should I attempt to contact him at all now or just let it happen? 
If he moves out early, I can get a refund.  Can I legally go into the place now since I was awarded the writ? 
What if he tries to pay rent now after judgment? 

Thanks,

Brandon