Vacancies
Today I want to talk about the big four letter word- fear. Ever since I started investing in real estate my friends have asked me what happens if everyone moves out? Even if this happens all you have to do is do a make ready, advertise the property, get a new tenant, and you are right back at it.
Sure it will happen. People do move. But it should be part of your expectations. What gets people upset is disappointment- but if you already expect it it won’t be a big deal when it happens.
Sometimes it’s a good thing when people move out- like if they’re not paying or they’re bad tenants. Then you can use it as an opportunity to move a good tenant in.
Evictions
But what do you do if someone isn’t paying you and they don’t want to move? Sure it’s not the ideal scenario, but it happens. If this does happen all you need is a paper called a petition for eviction. Its actually a really simple process. All you have to do is fill out the paper and take it to the Justice of the Peace and fill out some more paperwork there to evict them. There’s plenty of videos that go into detail about how to evict someone. But its really easy if you follow all the steps- you take them to court and the judge gives them a date to move out. If they still don’t move out you can request to have constables come and get them out. Once all their stuff is out you change the locks and you’ll be done in about thirty days.
That might sound like a long time but it’s really not compared to other states. There are also ways you can prevent this by taking the time to screen your tenants. Make sure they are employed, check to see if they’ve ever had another eviction, and call their current landlord to see why they’re moving. But know that even if you screen a few people are going to get past you.
What happens more than renting to bad tenants is that circumstances change- people will lose jobs or have a death in the family. It’s no big deal just move on and make sure you don’t give people too much time. You don’t want to be sitting for 3 months and wishing you had taken action before.