Any land lords ever had the pleasure of evicting tenants?

[comingdown]

Man, we had to evict a lady. Lock out went smoothly, until we opened the door and realized she didn't even pack her underwear, just left it all for us to move and store. Needless to say the last few days have been a nightmare. Just curious if anyone else has ever had this much fun. Also, we are trying to decide what to do after the time passes. Anyone need shooting targets? Lol

 

[jeeper]

Oh man. My last 2 move outs have been very nasty evictions. The first one never used a vacuum or mop. There was food debris all along the baseboards. The mud and dirt had to be scraped off the kitchen floor, I could barely breathe. It was the worste by far.. Until this last one... Every door kicked in, including front door. Door jambs broken, doors broken, Windows busted out, cabinets broken, tile broken, cigarettes everywhere, etc. its been 4 months, and I still haven't finished it.
I have another that is pretty bad. I want to kick them out, but it'll cost me too much to repair it all.. So I just continue to get screwed slowly instead of all at once.

 

[BCGPER]

Yup, went through the exact same situation. I'm not sure on the laws now, but I was required to store her stuff for 90 days. I placed her clothes, furniture, and kids toys carefully in the pasture behind my house, then brought in a dumpster to haul it off. Sold the place, and I'll never rent again.

 

[comingdown]

Holy moly. This one didn't do any major damage aside from destroying the lawn and breaking a window. I thought boxing her belongings up and keeping them in my garage was bad. That sounds awful. Coco is always willing to bring the AR over and throw their ass out renegade style. I am curious as to how you find such specimens and why you rent to them? Any signs I should look for? Our application process is a much more like a homeland security or security Clarence process

 

[comingdown]

Yup, went through the exact same situation. I'm not sure on the laws now, but I was required to store her stuff for 90 days. I placed her clothes, furniture, and kids toys carefully in the pasture behind my house, then brought in a dumpster to haul it off. Sold the place, and I'll never rent again.

Yeah, now the law is 15 days plus 5 to account for weekends. So yeah, we shall see what happens. 90 days sounds rough.

 

[rholbrook]

My FIL had one that was bad. They left everything too. It was soooo dirty. Crack pipe, bong, sex tapes and a great big purple vibrating dong about the size of your arm below the elbow. I helped him clean it up. The funny thing is his wife had found the dong and came in when we were talking to an electrician. She didn't realize what it was and had it in her hand while we were all talking to the electrician. He kept going cross eyed looking at it. When the electrician finally left my wife told her what she had in her hand. We were dying and if course, we haven't let her forget it

 

[jeeper]

I am waaaay to relaxed on my application process.. And unusually pay for it in the end. Having to pay the mortgage an extra month to wait for the right person is better than having to pay it multiple times while cleaning up after the wrong person. I knew going into the last few that it was going to end bad, but I ignored my gut, and did it anyway. Both were on section 8. I have had some good experiences and some nasty ones with section 8.
However, it's a good time to be a landlord. Homes are not affordable for many people. We are becoming a more mobile people who don't want to be tied to a 30 year mortgage, and utahs population is expected to double in the next 25 years (I think).
For self employed guys like me, rentals should make a handsome retirement.

 

[comingdown]

I am waaaay to relaxed on my application process.. And unusually pay for it in the end. Having to pay the mortgage an extra month to wait for the right person is better than having to pay it multiple times while cleaning up after the wrong person. I knew going into the last few that it was going to end bad, but I ignored my gut, and did it anyway. Both were on section 8. I have had some good experiences and some nasty ones with section 8.
However, it's a good time to be a landlord. Homes are not affordable for many people. We are becoming a more mobile people who don't want to be tied to a 30 year mortgage, and utahs population is expected to double in the next 25 years (I think).
For self employed guys like me, rentals should make a handsome retirement.

Yeah, that's my thoughts too. My parents, grandparents and great grandma have all done rental properties. I grew up turning over apartments and houses to be re rented. My father was self employed and I work with just my bro and me. Hopefully long term I will have more good then bad, but it is frustrating in the moment. As bad as it is, I'd still take 5 more.

 

[Pike2350]

I'm very lucky apparently. So far, in the 10 years I've had my duplex, I've had great tenants. The worst one I had was one that broke her lease after 6 months....but she had to. She had damaged the carpet because of her dog.....when I went over to check it out, she had the carpet already replaced...and the place was spotless. I kept her deposit for the broken lease...but rented it in a week. That tenant lasted 7 years and was awesome. She weeded, gardened, cleaned, etc. She moved out with it clean. I finally had to paint it after having it 8 years without touching it. Next tenant I was worried about. The guy did some ghetto car work in the driveway, and they have dogs that dug up some of the yard. When they moved out, other then some spray paint on the driveway (asphalt so no big deal) it was clean. They replaced carpet in a bedroom they had accidentally stained, filled the holes in the backyard and put new sod over....even replaced a panel of the fence that was broken by their dogs.

So far, I'm lucky....I hope my luck continues as I expand my rental portfolio.

 

[comingdown]

I'm very lucky apparently. So far, in the 10 years I've had my duplex, I've had great tenants. The worst one I had was one that broke her lease after 6 months....but she had to. She had damaged the carpet because of her dog.....when I went over to check it out, she had the carpet already replaced...and the place was spotless. I kept her deposit for the broken lease...but rented it in a week. That tenant lasted 7 years and was awesome. She weeded, gardened, cleaned, etc. She moved out with it clean. I finally had to paint it after having it 8 years without touching it. Next tenant I was worried about. The guy did some ghetto car work in the driveway, and they have dogs that dug up some of the yard. When they moved out, other then some spray paint on the driveway (asphalt so no big deal) it was clean. They replaced carpet in a bedroom they had accidentally stained, filled the holes in the backyard and put new sod over....even replaced a panel of the fence that was broken by their dogs.

So far, I'm lucky....I hope my luck continues as I expand my rental portfolio.

Yeah, that sounds great. The sad part was this was a friend of my moms moving up here from San Diego so I didn't really do my proper due diligence. It was a learning experience. But so far have had really good luck.

 

[Unimog]

I've had good and bad experience. One set of tenants was great - they left the place better than they found it. Every time they wanted to improve, I would pay for the materials and they would do the labor. Our next tenants had pretty good references, but their marriage fell apart, they went on welfare. The county paid the rent for a while, but by the time I got them out, they had broken every door in the place and trashed walls and tile. We got rid of it to the next good tenant and haven't had rental property since. Kindof jaded...

 

[Tonkaman]

I can't speak as a landlord but I have plenty of input as a renter. Over the last 11 years I've moved 9 times.

One thing I learned along the way is if the house has been available to rent for more than a couple days, something is wrong. As a renter the competition for a good place is crazy! Why should a house sit waiting for a renter when other houses have 12 people come look at it on day 1.

I think the only safe place to rent is $1200/month and higher. Anything lower and your opening yourself up to risk. It may be discrimination to low income, but the reality is they are more likely to wreck the place and slip on paying rent.

 

[Kevin B.]

If I ever start to thinking that investment properties are a good idea, somebody smack me in the face with this thread.

 

[Cody]

Until this last one... Every door kicked in, including front door. Door jambs broken, doors broken, Windows busted out, cabinets broken, tile broken, cigarettes everywhere, etc. its been 4 months, and I still haven't finished it.
.

So, I had a pretty bad one...very similar to this. Doors broken in, holes punched through walls, door jams etc. Cost me like 10-15k to redo everything and that's with hundreds of hours of free labor from friends and family. I rented it out for a couple more years and had substantially better luck...until I sold it.....

As it turns out, all of that damage is basically the calling card of meth use. When I sold my house, the loaning bank came through with a meth test and it got dinged. The levels were super low (like 5 or something, and meth production is usually over 200 and you have to be below like 4 to pass) but I had to go through and deep clean the carpets, bleach the walls and ceilings, and clean/sanitize the HVAC system. The shitty part is that it cost me the sale and then I had to disclose that meth situation to future buyers. I got it cleaned up and it passed, but it cost me another $1200 plus another month of mortgage plus the next buyer was a $2500 worse deal.

Moral of the story is, maybe go and pick up one of those test kits, or pay $50 to have it tested before you put more people in it. Mine was never a health risk at the levels it was at (a dog that had entered a meth house could have even potentially contaminated at the levels mine tested at, so I don't know for sure that my really destructive tenants were the cause, I just have a sneaking suspicion), but if they happened to be producing in your place that could create a health risk for tenants that you don't want coming back on you.

As for kicking someone out, I don't know the legal requirements, but when I had to formally remove the asshats that destroyed my place, I had to legally hold their belongings for 90 days unless I believed they were "contaminated" by something. Seeing as they broke the front door jams out somehow, a couple field mice had made it into the house so I deemed everything to be contaminated and stored it in a 20 yard dumpster in the driveway. I gave her a week to pick any of it up, and then had the dumpster removed. I did keep a box of her kids important paperwork...birth certificates, family pictures, etc. because I'm not a total monster. She never came for any of that so I ended up tossing it a few years later.

 

[comingdown]

Yeah, my wife worked at the prison in the men's drug addiction program as a therapist. She is pretty well aware of addict behavior and there are certain tell tale signs to be aware of for sure. Also, trusting your gut. I think having rental houses are fantastic. We are just choosy. I'd rather keep showing it and showing it rather then just throw the first person in with the first mo the rent and deposit. It is definitely not for everyone but I think long term there is not really anything better.

 

[Coco]

Yeah, my wife worked at the prison in the men's drug addiction program as a therapist. She is pretty well aware of addict behavior and there are certain tell tale signs to be aware of for sure. Also, trusting your gut. I think having rental houses are fantastic. We are just choosy. I'd rather keep showing it and showing it rather then just throw the first person in with the first mo the rent and deposit. It is definitely not for everyone but I think long term there is not really anything better.

Storage Units.

 

[jeeper]

Storage Units.

Do you own storage? That's been one of my goals for a looong time.

 

[comingdown]

Do you own storage? That's been one of my goals for a looong time.

No, he is an arm chair expert. Although he was throwing down some work for me this weekend. He thinks if he owns storage units the magical storage unit fairy will come visit him at night and he will never have any problems.

 

[Coco]

Do you own storage? That's been one of my goals for a looong time.

I dont, but I just think they would be much simpler to deal with. In theory they should be right? I have a couple friends that do storage units, and it seems like a MUCH nicer/easier route. I mean, fixing damage alone seems like it would be enough to make it better than housing. The most you fix is, what, a door? Everything is in one spot, not multiple housing spread across the valley, or state. No need to find a place to store tenants belongings when they default, just go out and throw your own lock on it. Security cameras all along the facility (if desired) just seems a lot easier to deal with.

No, he is an arm chair expert. Although he was throwing down some work for me this weekend. He thinks if he owns storage units the magical storage unit fairy will come visit him at night and he will never have any problems.

 

[thefirstzukman]

Vacation rentals... Hands down. More profit less risk, as soon as I can I'll buy another. I get a week what I would get a month. I have spent $300 this year in repairs.