First eviction complete

[Luke Harrison]

I am a new investor with 4 units, and have completed my first eviction. We made a common mistake that many new investors make, and let the tenants get away with too much. With these particular tenants it wasn't uncommon for them to pay their rent late. We imposed late fees, yet they couldn't seem to catch up and make payment on the 1st most months.

The tenant was a nurse, and this property is nearby to a hospital. She lost her job, and I figured there are plenty of nursing jobs around, and there was an excuse for everything, after a full month went by and still no payment, I threatened eviction, and served a 3 day notice to pay or quit. She took this notice to local charities, and social services, and kept telling me that a check for rent relief was coming soon. Well I had an upcoming vacation, and didnt think much about it, and spent 3 weeks away working on my 5th unit that I am planning to run as a short term rental. The entire time I recieved no money from tenant, and being across country didnt have the time or abili6to go through with the eviction.

Long story short we ended up hiring a lawyer, and had the tenants evicted early this month. They waited till hours before the eviction was to take place to finally get the social services check to take care of the back rent. But at that point I was ready to cut ties, and the rent was due for the next month 3 days after that, so we decided to not take the money because social services would only take care of the rent if we let the tenants stay, and I did not want to take the money just to have them be late again, and have to pay the lawyer to re do the entire process just a few days later.

I am now in the process of cleaning, painting, and updating the unit in order to re rent, and hopefully find a new and better tenant. What a headache, but I suppose it is all part of the game, and another lesson learned.