How a first time landlord just learned the hard way .

Question

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 .

Drew Sygit · Answer

Filed under, "No good deed, goes unpunished" 🤢

Jim Johnson · Answer

Stories like this are a tough reminder that tenant screening and consistent enforcement of lease terms matter just as much as buying the right property.

The part that stood out to me wasn't the repair bill—it was the five months of missed payments. Small problems tend to become much larger and more expensive when action gets delayed.

Looking at the numbers, I'd probably be asking:

• What is the property's value as-is?
• What is the realistic value after an $80k–$100k renovation?
• How long will the renovation take?
• What's the opportunity cost of tying up additional capital?

Sometimes the right answer is to renovate and hold. Sometimes it's to sell and redeploy the capital elsewhere. The math usually tells the story.

Either way, that's an expensive lesson for a first-time landlord, and unfortunately it's one that a lot of owners learn after trying to help someone out rather than treating the property like a business from day one.