All Forum Posts by: Jim K.

Hi, @Jamaal Smith

I've been in your shoes. As I'm sure you understand already, the ra-ra gurus of real estate try to say as little about eviction as possible. It's one of the absolute worst parts of rental property investing of any variety.

Your first step is going to be to research Texas law, and then narrow it down to the particular county and municipality this property is in. There's a great book called Every Landlord's Legal Guide published by NOLO that will give you some great basic advice on how the process works, you may want to buy that. But while evictions have many similarities throughout the country, scrupulously following local law and procedure is the key to getting through the process with as little pain as possible.

You will probably want to also find and consult a local real estate attorney who does evictions on the process, especially this first time, especially if you suspect you're going to be doing this multiple times in the future.

I can't answer your first specific question better than that. Find descriptions of the process, and study the process. I'm even hesitant to give you the web address I'm about to give you, because if you haven't looked for it and found it already before coming to the Bigger Pockets forums to ask strangers for help, you're way, way behind the eight ball. But here's where to start your research in Dallas County: General Procedures for Filing an Eviction for Non-Payment of Rent


I also can't answer your second question successfully from my perspective. For me, operating in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, it's always better not to accept any sort of payments once eviction proceedings have started. It always tends to complicate the case. What you always want, in any eviction before any district magisterial judge here in my area, is a clear open-and-shut case where you are obviously high on the Mountain of Right, while the tenant is deep in the Valley of Wrong.

But I don't operate out of Dallas and I really can't tell you with any real authority what's best there. Good luck, Jamaal.

 Why, Justin, what a suspicious thing to say! It can't possibly be true, can it?

(I would post Fat Joe's and Li'l Wayne's video of the song "Make It Rain" here if the BP comment moderating staff would let me.)

@Andrew Postell

@Scott Mac

My question is very narrow in scope. Thanks for touching on it, Scott, but you didn't come near it, Andrew. Maybe you thought I was asking about the creation of FDIC insurance and portfolio loans, which would be a more intelligent banking question, I'm sure. I'm nowhere near as sophisticated.

No...what I want to know is how and when the duplex, triplex, and quadplex ended up eligible for FHA residential loans, while anything larger is not, even if you live in it. Who decided this, and when? I think a trend is developing in the national economy around quadplexes and some triplexes that some investors were able to buy with FHA loans, small down payments, and lower interest rates compared to those available today. One is certainly developing in Pittsburgh.

@Chris Seveney

Thanks. Do you have any general idea when it happened, or during what time period?

I'm not even sure how to looking it up, so I'll ask the community. When did the shape of the current lending status of small multifamily begin to exist, that is, what year and in what legislation did the federal government decide that for lending purposes, a quadplex was the largest multifamily building that could be considered to be a residential property, while a fiveplex or larger apartment building was always to be considered a commercial property, even if the buyer lived in it?

Yeah, I'm just along for the ride here. But just one point about the words you're using: you pay for a coach, a mentor mentors you for free. I've learned more than my fair share from mentors. The most I ever paid for coaching was $150 for a general three-day seminar, where I learned that if you beg on the phone just right, credit card companies will just raise the hell out of your card's spending limit.

@James Wise

No, just a stain on the sublime artistry and good name of autotuned gangster hip-hop.

@Devin Woods

Curses! Foiled again!

Exactly. I found it highly telling that this thread was supposed to be about reality and ended up knee deep in hypotheticals.

I mean, if Marcus had asked, for instance:

1. Has any landlord here ever saved a tenant's life?

2. Has any landlord here ever had to evict a morbidly obese bisexual drug addict, her fetishist feeder boyfriend, and all their sex toys and vintage fat-fetish porn VHS video collection?

3. Has any landlord here ever had to explain to a tenant that the "German Shepherd" he adopted at the shelter was actually a pit bull terrier?

4. Has any landlord here ever received an inquiry about an open apartment on FB marketplace by an applicant whose profile included a rap video of himself self-produced and filmed while he was actually incarcerated in the local county jail?

Well, I'm pretty sure this page is full of landlords who have actually seen all four of these things happen, and wouldn't have to veer into hypotheticals to talk about the possibilities such questions raised.

@Marcus Auerbach

I agree. We're finally getting down to hard brass tacks in a real-world discussion that, once again, you'll only ever find in the Bigger Pockets forums in the entire universe of real estate training and educational offerings. Thanks for starting this thread.