Evicting tenant out of state

[Ben Kirchner]

I have a property in St. Louis, Missouri.  It looks like I will need to evict one of the tenants.  Has anyone gone through the eviction process out of state?  If so, please share what actions you took.  I'm interested in the process of doing this remotely, or potentially paying a property management company for.  

Thank you

[Karl B.]

I've evicted tenants while out of state. Your best bet is to gather all the paperwork and evidence and to hand it off to a lawyer. When you submit all the evidence to a lawyer (lease/texts/photos/etc.) that will keep the costs down. Also, there are some lawyers who will give you a set fee up front so you don't get an inflated hourly bill. 

For me I have a buddy who's a lawyer and I mailed him the evidence/paperwork and he didn't charge me (it took an hour of his time as the defendant didn't even show up to the proceeding).

My dad had submitted the initial paperwork to the court on my behalf so my friend didn't have to spend any time doing that. 

On another eviction (my first) I had my dad submit the paperwork for me and I came into town to present the case myself. It literally lasted five minutes and I won with ease. 

So if you have family there and you wouldn't mind visiting you could always have a family member submit the eviction paperwork on your behalf and then you could fly in to argue the case yourself (in my experience it's both simple and satisfying) though if that's not an option definitely do the legwork and hire a lawyer at a set price (also - any type of lawyer can do an eviction - from family law to ambulance chasers - it does not have to be one who specializes in evictions; plus eviction lawyers tend to charge a lot more).