Hi BP,

Wife and I purchased a duplex in September, 2014 for $142,000 as owner occupied with 15% down.  We put roughly $20,000 into it and have successfully rented it the last 2 years for $25,800 annual gross rent.  We now live in Florida and are absentee landlords for the last 11 months.  The property shares a driveway with the neighboring 4-plex that leads to a shared packing lot in the back of both properties.  Our duplex was built in 2007 and has two units - 3BR / 2BA with stainless appliances, hardwood floors, 10ft ceilings and plenty of upgrades .  We've attracted high quality tenants and have done pretty well with it until recently.  

The neighboring 4-plex was built in the 1920s and the landlord has put minimal back into it.  He doesn't do background checks on tenants and doesn't have them sign a lease.  His logic is that he can boot them out at any time if they don't pay.  Needless to say there is a lot of turnover and always drama from that side of the parking lot.  I'm constantly reassuring our tenants and jumping in to resolve issues that directly stem from the neighboring property.  If we didn't share the space in the back it wouldn't be an issue as much.  The mess would at least be contained and not have as much spill over.  Nextdoor currently has a tenant that is allowing drug dealing thugs to "post up" during the day in his place to sell crack for a few hours and then they move on once the product has moved.  His tenant gets a percentage or some crack in form of payment.  During that time when the crack dealers are "posting up for business"  there is anywhere from 20-30 people moving on foot into the back apartment.  I've notified the landlord and he has taken an unexpected stance lately.  His new attitude is that he can't control what they do in their home and if I have a problem with it I should call the police.  The landlord notified his downstairs tenant that my tenant complained.  Needless to say the crack head tenant approached my tenant about it and there has been drama, to the point my tenant is moving out and not signing a new lease.  Previously when I lived there I had a good working relationship with the landlord next door and he would just boot them out if I had an issue.  Now that I'm an absentee landlord he feels like he doesn't need to help me out and it's my problem to deal with.  He also faults me for being an absentee landlord in the first place.  The upstairs tenant has called the police non-emergency line to complain about the drug activity when it's taking place and has seen minimal results. 

I'm not a big fan of using a property management company and I don't think they are going to work on the drama next door for me anyway.  Our upstairs tenant is moving out December 1st and the downstairs tenant is currently month to month.  I'm going to contact the downstairs tenant and see if they will sign a 1 year lease.  I'm really worried the property next door is going to scare away the high quality tenants and force us to take riskier applications and possibly less rent in the future.  This area is up and coming with a great deal of desirable attributes with the less desirable.  Most tenants are aware of this but the house next door is the source of a lot of the bad news in this area.  

I know that was a lot but my question for you guys is do we:

1. Stay put and weather the storm with hopes that it gets better even though its out of our control nextdoor.
2. Sell the property and find something locally in Florida to invest in.

Personally I run a ecommerce business full time and I enjoy focusing on that.  Dealing with this drama really screws up my day.  I'm big into quality of life and believe there are a lot of ways to make money out there.  Dealing with crack heads next door is not what gets me excited in the morning.  We had the duplex appraised in July and it came back at $260,000.

Thanks guys for looking at my load of drama and helping me out with it.

Chris