Kicking out a tenant

[Ben Shipley]

Hey guys! I need a bit of advice. I bought two houses right next to each other in Springdale Arkansas. Immediately got two tenants in the houses and everything was fine until I never received first months rent from one of the tenants. I reached out to her and she gave me the usual excuses then started ignoring me. After about 3 weeks i had to formally evict her. Did I mention I live in Dallas? So having to evict someone from 5 hours away hasn't been the easiest. Anyways we formally served her a notice of eviction yesterday.. She has 5 days to move out. I am worried about here trashing the place. Is there anything that I can do to make sure she doesn't ruin the place?

[Jon Holdman]

First, at lease signing the tenant hands over one full months rent plus the full security deposit in cash and you hand over the keys.  No checks.  No "I'll work with you".  No proration for mid-month move in.  One full month and the full security deposit in cash.  Prorate the next month if they move in mid-month.

There is nothing you can do to prevent them trashing the place.  Assume they will leave a mess, since they will assume they're getting nothing back from their deposit.

If you've just posted notice you're just getting started on the process.  Are you using a local attorney?  If not, I recommend you do.  Any errors in the process often result in you staring from scratch.