What I learnt from my first eviction

During my one year as a Cleveland landlord I've learnt many things, some good some bad and ugly. Lets be honest you hardly remember about the good, the bad always outweigh them.

In the month of December I had to file for my first eviction, against a young lady who I will admit had luck on her side or was much clever than me. I did the screening process, ran credit, collected a higher deposit and full months worth of rent in Nov. I thought hey this girls got the money, she understands the lease..happy days now.

WRONG. Dec 1st rolled around and the rent never came. I've tried to stay clear of having a buddy landlord relationship with my tenants. Some will argue this but I am running a business at the end of the day. My tenants all know if there are issues they get taken care in a timely manner but non-payment of rent will not be tolerated. 

I filed the eviction after 10days, but I had to leave the country and go to Australia for Christmas family time. Attorney has got this all taken care off. One tiny issue came about which no one saw, when the court date came around my case was thrown out instantly, there had been a technical issue by the USPS unable to deliver the eviction papers via certified mail, WHY YOU ASK? Smart tenant never put her name on the mail box, or knew the eviction papers were coming so USPS never delivered. LESSON: PUT TENANTS NAMES ON LETTER BOXES. Ensure they can't be removed as well.

Such a simple and what gets overseen many times resulted in two extra weeks of her beating the system. 

I hope for other landlords that my pain/stress/error intros situation can be a lesson to others. Evictions happen investors and its the price you pay for the property. If the cap rate is great, just have a second look, you may have to budget lose of income for a couple of months and the cost of an eviction.