Crestview, FL · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 3 votes
So I tried dipping my toe into the real estate investing niche. My husband was never on board with any of it. I bought my 1st deal from an investor who bought my house several years ago. Two years ago I bought the investment property. My husband helped fix it up and we got a tenant with a 2 year lease. it is now 18 months into the lease. I am barely breaking even and my tenant has trashed brand new carpet and acquired 2 cats so the house reeks of cat urine. I have a cash buyer and will profit from selling. So I have given my tenant a 30 day notice of termination of tenancy. I offered to give her $500 in exchange for her keys. Here's where it gets icky.... she's a friend. So the new owners want the place vacant at closing. I notified the tenants, now she is very upset and googling tenant rights. I'm trying not to evict her, but she has trashed my place and I really want to get rid of it. Investors dream right? She has no place to go until Jan 1. What can I do short of evicting her? I don't want anymore damage to be done before she is out.
Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2013 · 741 posts · 845 votes
7y
@Kim Masek, first let me say I am sorry that you are going through this situation. I know that as a investment property owner I have experienced similar situations with unruly tenants! Have the tenants defaulted on their lease? If the tenant has paid their rent, unless they are in some other violation of the lease you can not legally give them notice to vacate. It would depend on how your lease is structured but if they now have pets and that was not part of the lease agreement they maybe in breach of contract.
You can always try giving her more cash for the keys to get her to vacate but if that fails, then eviction will have to be your next course of action. You really do need to get with an attorney who can read your lease agreement and give you the best legal option forward.
If the tenant absolutely destroys the property when you try to evict then you can always pursue her criminally, file an insurance claim and then reduce the price on the as is sale and still sell at a lower price and keep the insurance pay out as well.
I am not a lawyer so it is best to consult with a legal professional!
Rental Property Investor · Phoenix, AZ and Rehoboth Beach DE · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
Don't feel guilty about evicting her. She's not your friend if she has trashed your new carpet and let her unauthorized cats urinate all over your house.
Real Estate Broker · Santa Ana CA [South Coast Metro] · Member since 2016 · 459 posts · 202 votes
7y
Here is where you are investing and deciding with emotion, never works out. You just want to get rid of it puts you at a disadvantage - thus the cash buyer senses this. What is the Market value and what is the offer price, herein lies the solution.
Damage is done to carpet and underneath. What kind of security deposit do you have. If she is on time with rent you have to see what other breaches were done to evict. Does the tenant agree to the damage is it just the carpet. Most the time you have to amortize the cost of new carpet over x amount of years, typically 5 years so the tenant would be responsible for the remaining 3 years of useful life of the carpet. Many times the carpet can be cleaned but the condition is subjective unless its obvious.
The investor is asking you to breach your tenants rights for profit might get messy and if you lose it gets worse. She might make you buy her out of the lease or what not. [I am not up on FL rental laws but I dealt alot with Los Angeles and rent control so I am a bit jaded. I always took the over and above approach, cash talks, tenants walk.
Maybe the investor will take the tenant in place and you can give him a credit or something. When the lease is up he can do what he wants.
Typically if you have a cash buyer today then you will have another buyer in 6 months[How did he find your or vice versa]. Might be best to wait it out, when vacant - fix it up again and put it on the market - you might get more. Typically cash buyers are buying for a discount you might be leaving too much on the table and the headache you dealt with and low cash flow yields some equity. This turns lemons into lemonade.
Also if you owned less than 2 years you might as well wait till the 2 year mark and do a 1031 tax free. Selling at 18 months or so you are going to get hit with long term gains.
You're in an ugly situation and just making it worse. Clearly, you had no business buying this place. You and your tenant signed a two-year lease and now you're trying to kick her out after 18 months because you have a cash buyer making an offer.
How are you getting around the lease? Oh, she's been a bad tenant, a horrible tenant, got cats, trashed your beautiful carpet, made your life miserable, and worst of all, you couldn't help noting, exposed your inability to run a rental profitably.
Do you have a documented record of consistency enforcing what I assume are the particulars of the lease that you're relying on to get her out legally? Of course not. You've just decided to do this now because now is when it profits you. So you ginned up a 30-day termination of tenancy. You handed it to her and when she squealed, you offered her $500 to pay for first month's rent and a security deposit elsewhere. Because that's reasonable, sure.
When you bring this mess in and tell your little sob story to whatever mediating body handles evictions in Florida, s/he's going to laugh at you. You signed a 24-month lease. You don't get to walk away from it when it doesn't suit you.
Now go to your friend and up the offer to $2500 if she's still speaking to you.
She is not your friend if she trashed the place and got two cats without asking your permission. You have a 2 year lease, so unless you are willing to compensate her to get out of it, you may be stuck waiting. As soon as you saw the damage, you needed to discuss it with her.
Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
7y
Hi Kim,
They make pet proof carpet padding, and rental carpet typically only has a 5 year life span.
Your CAPEX for the carpet should recover some of the cost of replacement if cleaning (and ozone treatment) don't fix it.
Given the unlikelihood (in many cases) of actually collecting damages in excess of the damage deposit, renting anyplace to anyone (pets or not) without pet proof padding under the carpet is just asking to lose money.
And the Carpet CAPEX should be built into your rent.
Pet damage can be expensive and not always recoverable from the tenant, so it's best to assume pets will be in the rental even if the lease says no pets, and install pet proof padding.
Some cats (unfixed) spray walls, sometimes just the litter box makes the smell and when that's gone, the smell is gone, but with dogs they all tend to have "Accidents" on the floor. I think dogs do more expensive damage than cats, but that's another topic.
It's good business sense to harden your rentals against pet damage, even if the lease says no pets, and not to use $$$$per square yard carpeting in them. You have to run it like a business and invest money in it wisely because some renters will have "Secret Pets" from time to time.
Crestview, FL · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 3 votes
7y
Thank you all for your honest take on this. I have definitely learned some hard lessons from all of this. I would have considered keeping this after the lease, but my husband is not coming around to the possibilities. The buyer is going to let her stay for the rest of her lease.