Tenant evicted with 5+ months rents due

[Bhavik A.]

Hi Experts,

Need some guidance. Property is in Mckinney (Dallas) Texas. Tenant is evicted after following all the legal procedures by my property manager. They haven't paid 5+ months of rent and on top of it they trashed the house. Few questions.

1. 1. Can I (landlord) legally contact the tenant and negotiate? I am sensing that my property manager is not doing the excellent there.  Are there any pit-holes that i should be aware of?
2. 2. My property manager is going to send it to collections agency but she is convinced that they will NOT make any payments. Is there anything that I / landlord can do to get paid? Do we have any other routes? 
3. 3. Given point #2, should i offer discount on the balance and get paid reasonable amount? Share your experience
4. 4. Once filled to collection agency, do i get any update on the case? Or only my property manager will get the updates? What happens if i decide to change the property manager in near future and collection case is still ongoing? 

This is my first eviction experience so appreciate your insights / tips / suggestions here.

Thanks//

[Bruce Lynn]

Not what you want to hear, but I'd say move on.  Get it fixed up and get it rented....and do your best to get it rented to better tenants.  You may want to change PM.  Five months is a long time.  Act quickly if you are not getting paid.  It never gets better in my experience...if the tenants can't pay $1500 this month, they can't pay $3000 in month 2 or $4500 in month 3...just impossible or improbable.   Of course with the craziness this year and eviction mortarium's and Covid issues it might not be your PMs fault.  However so many people I see also use super cheap PMs and this can make a difference when things get out of control.  Cheap PM can't afford to get aggressive....kind of like cheap insurance....it works until you have a claim.

Sorry to hear about your issues....good news is that rents are up so chances are you can rent for way more money than you had charged these deadbeats.  Maybe you can make it all up with the new tenants.