Posted by Joe on January 09, 2003 at 02:12:34:
Hi Joe-
If you had read some of the responses to my prior post, you’d have seen a lot of replies stating that I should have evicted two months prior, no exceptions. It was a tough call to let them go so long, on gut instinct. Maybe you normally let your tenants get this far behind before you decide to evict?
No, the tough call wasn’t to let them stay after they had the money in hand.
Landlords, it’s a people business, too - Posted by Joe
Posted by Joe on January 08, 2003 at 16:22:59:
I posted a rant a couple of weeks ago about evicting tenants (the fact that I hate it). The replies were all very good, and all were helpful. You can see the original post and all replies here:
http://www.creonline.com/wwwboard/messages/41923.html
But, I’d like to follow-up with what actually happened after my post. Maybe we can all learn from the results. By the way, just to be clear, I’ve been a landlord for years. Evictions are not new to me.
I contacted the tenant/buyers (who were about to be three months behind) via an email letter. The letter was not meant to be an official notice of eviction, but a last ditch effort to get them on board. It basically stated
I still hadn’t heard anything by late December, so I contacted my eviction attorney in preparation for booting them. They would get a 5-day notice on their door Jan 2 if all money wasn’t in my hands by then.
On Dec 29th, I had still not heard from them. I needed to know what was going on, so I called them. I left a message on their machine that asked how they planned to pay me by Jan 1, or if not, what their plans were to move out of the house.
That same day, the husband called me a total of six times and left four messages, and sent an email. He had the money and wanted to get it to me. January 1st I received certified funds for nearly $5000, bringing him current.
He called me today and asked if the option to buy was still valid. The reason is because he owes a $2,500 installment towards option consideration on February 1st, and doesn’t want to pay it for nothing if the option is no longer valid. I told him that I would still honor the option if all his remaining payments under our agreement are on time for the remainder of the 12 month lease and option period. And I stessed again, he must make all future payments on time.
So, beyond the frustration of the whole ordeal, what was the result? I lost $660 worth of late fees, which is not money technically a true loss in cash flow. What could I have lost if I hadn’t worked with him? In this case, three-months of mortgage payments, the cost of preparing the house for resale, the cost of the eviction, mortgage payments during the holding period until I got it resold, and other holding costs. By giving up $660 and working with him as long as I could, I saved several thousand dollars.
Before you jump-in, let me say I already know that many of these situations don’t work out this well. I easily could have been burned. I had to go on my instincts on this one. I truly felt that giving these tenants a chance could work-out for the better. There are other tenants I would never consider giving an inch.
On the other side, I want you to know I’m not tooting my own horn. I learn from each bump in the road, as I did with this tenant. I have some things I will be doing differently to try to diminish my landlording risks. But, in this case, if I would have played hard ball, I’d have been worse off. Each case is a judgement call in this people business.
Re: Landlords, it’s a people business, too - Posted by Joe Kaiser
Posted by Joe Kaiser on January 09, 2003 at 24:08:45:
Hey Joe . . .
It’s not everyday tenants who are three months behind call and ask where to send the $5k. I’m not so sure this was that tough of a call.
Joe