The Cost of Eviction

The coast of evictions vary widely by area, but here is our experience:

Some of the info leading up to this post:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4445/48448-mixed-up-move-ins

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4445/49465-this-week-eviction-security-systems-and-notice

Eviction by the dates:

November 2015 was the last time we got full rent, with prior tenants.

New tenants moved in in November sometime, no move in money or December rent.

Jan & Feb collected 50% of rent.

No rent collected for March or April.

Went to court mid April.

PM got possession 4/19, had it re-rented 4/25.

Mid June before got all costs invoiced.

Eviction by the costs:

It was almost $1,200 paid to the lawyer. This included court filing fees ($227), serving the tenants ($65), court fees ($20), and assistance from the sheriff's office ($80). Leaving roughly $800 in actual lawyer fees.

Our property manager split the lawyer fees 50/50 since she was responsible for the mix up.

The PM also invested $1,364 of own funds into re-renting. They cleaned the carpets ($110), locks ($32), light bulbs ($25), replace smoke detectors ($56), house cleaning (23 hours, $12/hour, $276).

Our lost rent, after meager deposits were applied (from prior tenant, the sister), was over 4 months, 129 days, or $2,640. The occupancy rate for this init has dropped from 93% average over the years to 88% cumulative and 24% for the year.

Painful? Yes. Devastating? No. Do we think we could have reduced the loss if we had self managed? Absolutely!