Sun 5 Nov 2006
So it seems we have a little eviction brewing at one of my units. Over the weekend I got an update on one of my tenants who still has not paid his rent for October, let alone November.
In October he managed to land himself in jail. Not that he did anything wrong, mind you, he was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Whatever that means. Anyway he had to use his rent money for bail or a citation or something. His dad co-signed the lease but he didn’t want his dad to know what happened so he refused to go to him for money.
Well a whole month later he hasn’t been able to pay the rent, with or without dad’s help. So this weekend a letter went to the dad and on the tenant’s door - 5 days to pay or get out.
Why wasn’t this done earlier, you ask? Good point. This is the property manager that is being let go this week. Lately I have found myself completely without energy to monitor or deal with anything he is responsible for. I haven’t been able to invest anything more into the relationship. I guess I’ve been operating in the mode of cutting my losses and moving on. We may just be adding a little more loss to the pile now.
Having a vacancy in November is less than ideal to say the least. Maybe dad will save his son from being out on the street and hold up his co-signer end of the bargain. If he pays now we’ll collect buku late fees, so all is not lost just yet.
2 Responses to “An Eviction In The Dead Of Winter”
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November 14th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Well, don’t beat yourself up (doesn’t really sound like you are) about not mailing the pay-or-quit letter earlier. I know how hard it is to stay on top of everything when you have many properties–even when there’s a property manager involved. And, with your property manager problems, it’s completely understandable. It’s tough for somebody who hasn’t been there to understand why a person in your position would put anything off for any amount of time. But, I’ve learned two things–sometimes your time really is more valuable than the small losses you have occasionally. And, I’ve also learned that I’m personally uncomfortable keeping more than a dozen properties at once at this phase of our business. It’s just too much to deal with, even with a PM! Our biz can’t afford the type of staff we’d need as management for the time being. One day, we will be able to hire the workers we’ll need to get past that point. For now, though, I’d like to turn those dozen single-family properties into half a dozen commercial deals and see how well I can handle that.
November 17th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Trisha, if you buy some multi-units you’re in for a real treat by comparison. I just recently bought some homes, can’t complain a stitch about them, however for the same amount of effort multis pay way better!
Update: My ready-to-be-evicted tenant paid up. His dad paid for him I should say. Everybody’s happy again.