How a first time landlord just learned the hard way .

[Matthew Paul]

I was asked by a neighbor to come help with an eviction and look at the condition of the house .  The backstory , He bought the house 2 years ago to help out some family friends ( mistake number 1 )   .  They were constantly late , and naturally always had a sob story that he fell for . ( mistake number 2 )  .  The husband lost his job and was only making partial payments . ( mistake number 3 ) Soon after payments stopped and he still fell for sob stories for 5 months . ( mistake number 4 ) .

Eviction took 40 days to get thru the courts , it was a 900 sq ft house on a slab , they sheriff dept required 15 people there and gave us 2 hours .  The tenants already vacated but left a mess , it stunk so bad we needed respirator masks .  Rotten food , animal waste , junk , trash , you name it .  Imagine riding behind a garbage truck in 95 degree weather and it was worse than that . The sheriff gagged  and said have at it . Front yard is full of all the stuff and there have been complaints already because of the smell . ( they cant remove the stuff for 24 hours ) .  Its at least 1 40 yard can just for the stuff they left .  ( I am showing up tomorrow with a mini ex to load the stuff since it was so gross )  . He left all the windows open and left fans run just to air out the house . 

Rough Costs .   15 guys @ $100 each   $1500  dumpster  $ 700  clean up next day  $900   

repair costs on the house , It needs everything , basically a complete gut . , and since it is going this far I suggested that it gets rewired  a more open floor plan , all new windows , plumbing , flooring . etc .  I told him $80 to $100 grand .   And then SELL IT . 

He is debating on fixing it up or selling it as is , he has to run the numbers .