Is "Cash for Keys" ethical? Thoughts?

[Jj Horst]

I'm curious on others thoughts. I attempted to do a "Cash for Keys" deal with a non-paying tenant. He ended up not following through so now he is being evicted, but going through that process did make me think about the whole thing.

Is there some moral obligation to follow through with an eviction for a tenant who won't pay and won't leave? Isn't using cash for keys just passing the problem on to our fellow real estate investors who may now take on a tenant with no eviction record who otherwise would have a record thus alerting the criminal nature of these tenants to the home owners due to an eviction now being on their record?

Is offering cash for keys just allowing a wolf to continue to roam around amongst the sheep?

Thoughts?

[Peter Sanchez]

The Romans had an empire that lasted about 2000 years, that's a very long time when you compare it to the 200 years of the U.S.  In Roman law the judges didn't ask "does this make sense?" they only asked "does this work"?  

In Rome, they would make the architect stand under the arch he built so that if it was faulty, it would kill him.  It doesn't make sense because it could be that he did everything right, but the builder made a mistake. It also prevents you from learning from mistakes because one mistake and your dead, so you are extra cautious and use far more stone than is necessary to build a bridge.  So it doesn't make sense, but it still works.  The aqueducts at Segovia are 2000 years old and still standing and were still in use until recently. 

 Cash for keys doesn't make sense because you are rewarding someone for bad behavior and passing the problem along to society.  But it does work.  I don't know any big investor in a tenant friendly jurisdiction like California that doesn't use it.  It doesn't make sense, but it works.  Do you want to make money, or do you want to pick this hill to fight and die on?