Do you track your evictions?

Question

I’m in the midst of my first eviction. It got me wondering what to expect in the future. Does anyone track the % of tenants in eviction status at any given time? Also, what type and class are your properties? I own 6 SFR rentals in B and B+ areas, all under PM. This puts me currently evicting 16.6% of my tenants.

Connie Chan · Answer

I use a free app called Tellus. It handles rent collection, expense tracking (just gotta take a photo), and gives me all kinds of reports on each property. I like it, especially because my mom and husband, the three of us co-manage the homes together and Tellus supports multi-user. If I'm out of town, my husband or mom can just reply to the tenant chat for me and vice versa.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Nathan G. and maybe that already gets pulled up in the credit report or background check.. so it could be redundant. but if lets say a simple eviction search was 5 or 10 dollars.. maybe you do that before anything else. since what I see here on BP is that eviction in the past is a hard NO to rent to anyone.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

my thought is its public information once its a filed eviction.. so you start with the Big MSA's and scrub the courthouse data..??just like foreclosure listing services do.. for sure you don't want to go on hersay.. so you wont get that cash for keys or other dead beat.

Connie Chan · Answer

@Jordan Little sorry to hear. What was the reason for the eviction? I think it’s a terrific idea to track them. I track how many months has the tenant been late on rent (well the app I use for rent collection does it for me) and this way end of year I have a sense of if I should renew with this tenant or not. If they’re late the vast majority of time (and they know it’s visible in the app), they’re less annoyed at rent increases and also less likely to try and negotiate existing lease terms. In general I think it’s great to track data.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

brie and I went through this when we created turnkey - reviews.com its the same as yelp or any other site there are attorneys that specialize in that.. and rip off report does that on steroids.. the question is would it be monetarily worth it.. no question it would save some landlords some major distress.. we all know the professional tenant and the havoc they can do especially to a first time landlord who does not really know any better.. there was that thread a few weeks ago.. it was a perfect example couple in NY moving had just renovated a really nice house want to rent it while its for sale.. couple sweet talks there way in.. and now its a disaster. I suspect its not the first time that tenant has done this..

Nathan Gesner · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs I was thinking if something along the lines if www.ripoffreport.com where landlords could report a bad tenant and attach supporting documentation, pictures or video, etc. the tenant would have the opportunity to respond and submit their own version of the story with supporting documentation. Other landlords could hop on and add their own two cents to a particular tenant. this would enable the viewer to see a running history of that individual even if it's separated by years. The best benefit would be the ability to look at actual evidence rather than tenants and landlords arguing back and forth over the definition of "clean." Even if a tenant has an eviction or collection, I'm unable to verify the circumstances or validity of those actions. I'm sure we all know situations where a bad landlord has wrongly evicted someone so it would be nice to see documented evidence to support either side of the claim. The big issue is liability. If a landlord slams a tenant on my website and another landlord refuses to rent to them, does that expose my website to claims of slander or other violations of the law? How would this be impacted by Fair Housing and disparate impact? If someone used my website to discriminate against a protected class, would that open my website up to liability or just a liability remain with the individual making the claim? I know review sites like ripoffreport.com or Yelp are able to navigate this so I imagine it's possible.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs it's been on my mind for years to create a national registry. However, there's a lot of liability involved with reporting someone as a bad tenant and it still requires Landlords to report them.

Dahrian Barrett · Answer

@Connie Chan I use Cozy to collect rent, it’s great so far but just curious on what you use?

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

seems to me that there could be a niche for some tech types to create a national data base that can be accessed for a small fee.. kind of like back ground checks.. ???? and maybe there is one.. but I would think that would help the industry.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Yes, I keep track of them. I manage over 300 rentals and my last eviction was in 2014. It cost the owner $1,700 only because he chose to hire an attorney instead of letting me handle it. I've never lost an eviction case and I don't charge my owners for the work involved. I kind of enjoy it.I have done many evictions for owners that placed their own tenant, failed to manage properly, and then they come to me crying to be rescued. Those almost always lost a lot because their tenants are typically 3-6 months behind on rent and utilities while trashing the property.