Michael Rossi's Landlording Blog

Today was yet another day in court. The purpose of today's court appearance was to evict another deadbeat. The deadbeat in question is a 21 year old girl who only moved in one month ago. At the time of her move-in, she had no history of evictions and no criminal record. Now, she has both. Almost immediately after she moved in, she began hanging around with a convicted felon, who is out on parole and who lives down the street. In that short month, she's been arrested for disorderly conduct and has been involved in numerous thefts and fights. I did everything right on the screening and yet I still got this scumbag! UGH!

The eviction hearing was at 9am this morning and predictably, the scumbag didn't appear. It is almost impossible for scumbags to drag their butts out of bed to be in court by 9am! So, she was evicted and I immediately filed for the writ of possession. My guess is that I'll be throwing her stuff out by next Tuesday!

In addition to the eviction, I layed another room of carpet in one of my 3 bedroom houses and replaced a broken bathtub drain. All in all, not a bad day!

If you are wondering what happened to yesterday's blog, my wife and I went out with friends for an afternoon and evening of fun and I didn't get home until late - too late to post my blog. So, let's catch up now!

Yesterday started at about 9 am with the posting of an eviction notice for a tenant at the Pink Elephant. My next stop was in municipal court at 9:30. This was my "second cause of action" (lawsuit) against the tenant I evicted last month. She really pissed me off, so I sued her for everything I could possibly think of! All together, I am claiming about $2,000 in damages which includes lost rent, late fees, physical damage, etc. In reality, I have already won the lawsuit via a default judgment because the tenant didn't respond to my lawsuit in the designated time (idiot). However, a hearing before the magistrate is still required to justify the amount of the judgment. The tenant didn't show up at this hearing, which was all the better for me!

You may recall from my original post on this eviction, that I have a new lawyer. She is inexperienced in evictions, but did a very nice job at the original eviction hearing. Unfortunately, there was a little paperwork snafu at the hearing yesterday, when my lawyer hadn't filed the proper amendment to the complaint, which should have included the final amount of damages we are seeking. This amendment required a proper service on the tenant and obviously that hadn't happened. The result of this mistake was that the magistrate could only award me a little over $700 in damages yesterday. So, we elected to continue the case for another 30 days so that my lawyer could amend the paperwork. When we go back to court, I can be awarded the entire amount of the damages. No big deal!

Next on the agenda were two Section 8 inspections. The first one was at about 11:30 and I passed it with flying colors. The next one happened at about 1:30 and it also easily passed! It doesn't get better than that!

As soon as the second inspection was complete, I was ready to quit for the day and I headed home. My wife and I decided to have some fun and we met another couple for an afternoon and evening out on the town!

My projects today included repairing the ceiling in an apartment and replacing a defective ceiling light. That took about 3 hours and that was enough for today. I had a few things I wanted to do around my home today, so I spent most of the day doing personal (non-work) stuff. I'll be mowing grass tomorrow and am thinking about going shooting.

I finally got back my final two units today - the ones that were potential evictions. It's been a roller coaster ride as I started the month thinking I would have 3 evictions this month. Two said that they were voluntarily leaving and actually started moving. I wrote about the 3rd one in Wednesday's blog. The first of the 3 moved out immediately and left the apartment clean, although there were still a couple of pieces of furniture in the apartment. The second started moving out immediately, but were slow in getting everything out. I could have filed the eviction in court yesterday, but gave them until this morning to be completely out. When I arrived at the building this morning, they had indeed completely moved out and the apartment was relatively clean.

I had a water heater to fix this morning and as I was working on that, I got a call from the grandmother of the 3rd tenant's pregnant shack-up girlfriend. She said that they were completely out and wanted me to come pick-up the keys. I suggested that she leave the keys on the counter and lock the door. She wasn't having any part of that and wanted me to come inspect the apartment and pick up the keys. I told her that I was busy but that I would come over in a little while, when I was done with the job I was working on.

When I arrived, the deadbeat tenant and his deadbeat girlfriend were sitting on the front step. The grandmother was nowhere to be found. The tenant said his uncle had gone to the hardware store and had the keys to the apartment. He would be back shortly. The "uncle", who wasn't his uncle at all, had repaired about 20 holes that the tenant put in the walls during fits of rage. The grandmother of the girlfriend and the "uncle" had cleaned the apartment and done a pretty good job. The uncle also left a new bathroom mirror for me to install - the tenant destroyed the mirror.

The reason that they did all this - repaired all the holes; cleaned the apartment; and removed their junk - is that they expected to get their deposit back. WRONG! I've lost rent for this month; I'll still have to paint the patched walls; and they broke the commode (actually broke it during one of their violent rages). So, they won't get a penny. When I told the tenant that, he wanted to fight. Obviously, I can't be in a fist fight while I'm carrying a handgun, so I simply didn't participate in his childish nonsense. Fortunately, within a few minutes, the "uncle" returned; gave me the keys; and hauled the deadbeats away. Before he left, I briefly talked with the uncle and discovered that the deadbeats had been living with the grandmother and had destroyed her house. He wasn't very happy with them! I don't recall the grandmother mentioning that when she brought the little angels to rent my apartment!

The good news is that I got all my property back without an eviction this month and without any significant damage.

In addition to this nonsense, I replaced four glass panes in an apartment and did a little work on my security camera systems.

Note:  this is actually yesterday's blog post.  I was unable to upload it to BP because the site was temporarily down,

It was a great run while it lasted. I had 9 months without a single eviction. It was quite a streak! That all ended in June when I evicted a tenant, who told the magistrate that the eviction was just a misunderstanding. The setout for this tenant is tomorrow at 10 am!

I was hoping to start a new eviction free streak beginning with July, but that dream appeared to be shot down before it even started when it looked like I might have THREE evictions this month. I got lucky and two of the tenants decided to move out voluntarily instead of being evicted. That left me with one set of idiot tenants that looked like a certain eviction. One of my first projects this morning was to take the paperwork for this eviction to my new lawyer. I decided to drive by the apartment involved in this eviction on the way to the lawyer's office and to my total surprise, the tenants were loading their stuff into a pickup truck. I stopped and told the tenant that I was on my way to the attorney's office to file the eviction. They said that they would be out today and have everything cleaned up by tomorrow. As a result, I decided to wait one more day before taking the paperwork to the lawyer. I don't want to spend money on the lawyer and the court filing fee if I don't have to.

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Ohio and I was looking forward to finally getting back to painting the Pink Elephant. I got out my scaffolding and got to work. Everything went well and I was happy with the work I got done.

I quit about 3pm because I wanted to take the paperwork to Community Action, which is the agency in charge of the weatherization program.

After dinner, I went for a nice bike ride and then my wife and I went for a walk. All in all, a very good day!

It's been quite an unusual year in my rental business - at least as far as my evictions go. I went an entire 9 months without a single eviction, which was absolutely astounding. It got to be kind of a game for me - seeing how long this would go before I finally had an eviction. I was secretly hoping for an entire year, but I knew that was highly unlikely.

As each month went by without an eviction, I felt like a guy riding one of those mechanical bulls. The longer the ride lasted, the more it was going to hurt when it ended. That wild ride finally ended in June with one eviction. This month started with three imminent evictions, but it looks like two of those tenants will move out before the 3 day eviction notice expires. If so, I'll only have one eviction again this month.

My rental property work today included fixing a leaking shower stall; showing an apartment to a potential tenant; getting the lease signed for a new tenant; and paying some bills.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to take the eviction paperwork to the lawyer; replace a couple of cracked windows; and start painting at the pink elephant.

..or NOT!!! That was my tenant's best defense this morning in my 1st eviction in 9 months. She claimed that it was all a misunderstanding. The magistrate asked the tenant if she contacted me to clear up the misunderstanding. The answer was no. The magistrate asked the tenant if she paid June's rent - again the answer was no. The bottom line was that the eviction was short and sweet and the tenant was EVICTED!

What was the misunderstanding? There wasn't one, but I guess that was the only thing the tenant could think of.

This eviction was a little unique for me because I had a new lawyer, after my previous lawyer was indicted on a felony prescription drug charge a few months ago. It was also a little more interesting because I haven't had an eviction in 9 months (I felt a little rusty). My new lawyer is young and has virtually no experience actually doing an eviction, but she did fine today and this was actually a very good first eviction for her.

I have collected several rents so far today and will be collecting more later this afternoon. I didn't have any maintenance to do today, so that is about it for today.

After eight months of not having an eviction, it looks like I'm not going to be so lucky this month. One of my tenants, who always pays a couple of days late (during the 3 day notice period), announced on the last day that she was moving. I explained to her that she still owed June rent and she wanted me to use her deposit as her last month's rent - which I absolutely will not do. I told her that if she didn't pay immediately, she would be evicted. She hasn't paid and she is being evicted.

Believe it or not, the attorney that I've used for my evictions these past 6 years was indicted by the grand jury on felony drug charges, so I now have a new attorney. My new attorney is a young lawyer who has very little court experience, but I think she'll be fine. I had a phone conversation with her this morning about the eviction and then took the paperwork to her this afternoon.

Once again, I didn't do any maintenance today. However, I did spend a couple of hours trying to make paperwork disappear (by paying bills, filing, etc).

This evening, the police were at the Pink Elephant for at least the 3rd time in the past few weeks. This is what happens when you have low income rentals and the weather gets hot. Tensions run high and trouble erupts. The same thing happens every year and in my experience, it takes a firm hand to get it stopped before problems set in for the entire summer. So, I drove down to the Pink Elephant to take care of business. I had the police legally bar 2 scumbag neighbors from the property (one is a convicted felon who is on parole) and the police are looking for another convicted felon (also on parole). These two guys were the same ones I wrote about a few months ago. The terms of their parole don't allow convicted felons to associate with each other, but their parole officer won't do anything about it. I will be talking to the police captain about the issue tomorrow and will try to exert some more political pressure to get the situation resolved. These criminals were on my property this evening visiting some of my tenants. I had a stern conversation with my tenants, letting them know that if they invited this scum onto my property again, their month-to-month leases would be terminated. They've seen me evict many other people and they know that I'm not bluffing!

Today was a fun and interesting day. As you may recall, I had a tenant that decided to start taking crack instead of paying the rent. To make a long story short, she ended up being admitted to a mental health facility. Instead of being evicted, she decided to voluntarily leave. Her mother only took one car load of her belongings and then gave the key back to me. I confirmed with the mother, the administrator, and finally the tenant that she had gotten everything she wanted (although once I got the keys back, she was legally out). Today, I decided to trash out the apartment.

The place was a mess. Furthermore, there was a TON of stuff left in the apartment. I started in the living room and began bagging up the stuff. When I finished bagging up the first 45 gallon industrial strength trash bag, I took it to the trash area for the building. Before I could get back to the apartment, I saw one of the neighbors going through the bag, digging out some of the clothes. So, I walked back over and asked her if she wanted to go through the apartment to pick out anything else. Not only did she want to do that, but she got several more of her friends to come over as well. It was like a treasure hunt for them as they picked out clothes, the stereo, furniture, toys, CDs, DVDs, a microwave, tables, and a LOT of other things. By the time they were done, they had taken half of the stuff in the apartment and done half my job for me!

As it turned out, I got a lot done. I got the place trashed out; new mini-blinds put up; all the wood floors swept; the carpet vacuumed. Maybe the next time I trash out a place, I'll put up a sign!

Well, contrary to my gloomy prognostications, it looks like I will have a 7th straight month with no evictions. As I reported yesterday, I had given a 3 day notice to my tenant who had been admitted to a mental facility. I also talked to the administrator at the mental health facility, letting her know that I would be evicting the tenant if she didn't pay her rent.

About 9am this morning, I noticed on my surveillance system that the tenant's mother was removing the tenant's belongings from her apartment. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from one of my other tenants to tell me that it appeared this tenant was moving out. A little later, I received a call from the administrator of the mental health facility letting me know that she had talked to the tenant and the tenant's mother and that the tenant would be moved out by the end of the day. So, the bottom line is that I got lucky and avoided the eviction.

My project today was to continue working on the 3 bedroom Section 8 house that is being inspected on Friday. Today, I painted the floor in the living room; patched many holes and imperfections in the walls; and I removed a wrotted section of floor in the kitchen (caused by a water leak at some point). I'm hoping to get it finished up tomorrow (I better get it finished up tomorrow) because I have a Section 8 inspection on Friday morning!

Unless you've been lost on a desert island, you know that our country is in the early stages of an economic crisis which could easily become a depression. Approximately a trillion dollars have been spent on bailouts to date and the economy is still deteriorating. Big Wall Street firms are bankrupt and the state of California has just announced that it can not make its payroll! Things do not look good.

Fortunately, the rental property business is still doing quite well. In fact, we are at record occupancy and are renting things just about as fast as they become available. My biggest concern is that job losses and high heating costs will result in a rash of evictions in the near future. To my relief, I only have one late rent this month, so this month won't be the start of a rash of evictions. In fact, I'll post the 3-day eviction notice tomorrow for the tenant that hasn't paid and I'm still hopeful that they will pay during the 3 day period with the $50 late fee!

Tomorrow, I have to run projection at church, so that will keep me busy until early afternoon. Then, I will spend a couple of minutes posting that 3-day notice and I may show my 6 bedroom house to a prospective tenant.

Michael Rossi is the author of 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, which is the only book that tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the rental property business. You won't find any guru motivational nonsense; unrealistic hype; or promises of instant riches without work in this book. What you will find is the critical information that you need to start, build, and operate a successful rental property business. And if you're wondering about the title of the book, 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, it's a sarcasm of the silly guru infomercials that promise untold riches without work - which we all know is RIDICULOUS!

If you'd like to read more about the book, check it out at www.1MinuteToRentalPropertyRiches.com. When you're ready to buy, you'll get the best price and fastest delivery from the bookstore right here on BiggerPockets!