The property is currently occupied but not by paying tenants but by family members who have been living there for free for the last 10 years!!!! ... I get to the property, the residents are extremely unhappy that they have to move, they have 0 income, no credit, and the house is a hoarder house.
Needless to say, this will be the most hard earned 10k I've ever earned
Devan! This is the opportunity to commit the most altruistic act of your entire life!
For 10 years, these people have been stuck in a rut, incapacitated by inaction, blind to the opportunities available to them, right here in this Greatest Country on God's Green Earth.
You have the opportunity to pick up several thousand dollars while at the same time, giving these people a fresh new start on the rest of their lives! I envy you.
I would recommend a bifurcated attack. I would immediately file for eviction while at the same time offering cash for keys. But I would limit the cash for keys to whatever is market rate for one month's rent and deposit for a one bedroom apartment in the ABSOLUTE cheapest area of town. Anything more than that and you are setting these people up for failure. Between the bunch of them, they should have no trouble scraping together that small amount of rent every month.
Before doing anything, make sure that the owner is on board with both the eviction and the cash for keys. I'm guessing that he will split the cost with you (or maybe even more) if you will take care of all of the necessary, unpleasant details.
***The very most important thing is for the owner to change his phone number immediately***
Even if only temporarily, he must change his phone number to avoid the onslaught of calls that he is sure to receive from his "loved ones" in their last ditch effort to guilt him into relenting. During my 28 years of police patrol work, I can't tell you the thousands of times that I have witnessed great "wailing and gnashing of teeth" as soon to be displaced family members begin to shout, rip their own clothing, beat on their chests and call out the names of deceased family members in an effort to avail a heavenly intercession to prevent being "put out."
"Ohhhhh, Lord Jesus, if you put us out, I'm gonna lay down right here and die, and I put that on my dead mama! Oh Lord Jesus, Take Me!!! (grasps chest while dropping to the floor) "Call the parametrics! I'm going into Cadillac arrest!" blah blah blah...
Family members will use every weapon of manipulation, and will especially use young children, to temporarily soften the will of another family member to go forward with an eviction. And every time that the owner relents on the action, the eviction clock starts all over again.
DL
