All Forum Posts by: Scott Matthew C.

@Melanie Stephens

Not screening my tenant with a last minute decision to toss them the keys to my newly renovated 50k rehabbed SFR last year. This husband and wife divorced 6 months later. Husband and two kids move out. Wife decides to date a violent gang member, and some of his posse moves in. After not paying rent in feb, I file for eviction. In March I go to court and win my eviction case. Yay! Wrong. Eviction moratorium happens and these people get to stay three more months until they lifted the moratorium in Texas. Swat team busts in and hauls four of them off for stolen goods in the meantime (just a couple weeks after I won my eviction in court). I'm told they were dealing drugs out of there too. Drive by shootings happened a few times and two of my new windows I installed last year got blown out. Nice. Bullet holes in my new front door. Police tell me they had my house under surveillance for 9 months for all kinds of illegal activity. They said the police records showed them coming to my house 19 times in a short period of time. Somebody built a beautiful huge 6 bedroom custom built house next door to mine and listed it for sale. The real estate agent said every time he showed the house, either cops came swarming into my house or gang members were hanging out and partying in my front yard. Prospective buyers asked if this was a safe neighborhood after seeing all that. Lol. You can't make this stuff up! A week after one of the gang members they hauled off for stolen goods (who had 6 felonies according to the cop) gets out of jail (because prisons kept letting people out due to Covid outbreaks inside) he decides to steal a car and park it out front. That turns into a major high speed chase all around town. Guns drawn and tires spiked. He comes bombing back to my little "crack shack" on blown out tires and they run inside and catch him (bawling like a little baby bc he knew he had to go back to prison..according to the officer). I filed for an emergency writ of possession with the judge and sent her all the police reports. She said no dice. You'll have to wait like everyone else until the eviction moratorium is lifted. The list goes on with much more non sense to tell. $8,400 in lost rent and a completely trashed house. I mean destroyed. They even stole my new stainless steel fridge! When three deputies came to kick them out three weeks ago, 14 of them and a pit bull came out one by one with nowhere to go. They even spent the night outside in my front yard with all their junk after they got evicted. I still couldn't get them to leave! Cops said they could live in my yard for another day or so with their belongings. Huh!? I told the police they were trespassing and I didn't want them shooting up drugs and pooping in my yard until they figured out where they would go. Drug needles everywhere inside while we removed all their stuff. Lovely. Cost me 16k to renovate it last month to get it rent ready. Smelled like weed inside and every wall and door had graffiti. And every room had major holes in the sheet rock. Like 4 or 5 foot holes. Even inside closets. Weird. Front door had big writing in a black marker that said "F... off Feds." Moral of the story...screen your tenants! Not sure if my screening would have made a difference with this couple getting a divorce and her choice of new boyfriend, but I didn't screen and I blame myself 100%...even though they seemed like the all American family when I met and interviewed them. Lol