Malcom's Dad
In today’s interview with Mark Wayne of WICH Radio in Norwich, CT, the question came up “What if you want to start a rental house business buy you are leery about dealing with tenants?”‘
My response is that some tenants are real pleasures to work with and you rarely even see them. They go the extra mile to maintain your property and get along beautifully with the neighbors.
On the other hand, other tenants require constant attention and supervision, not unlike my own teenagers who like to push me to the frazzled limits of my sanity .
As the dad observed on Malcom in the Middle, “Let’s face it, teenagers are thoughtless, inconsiderate eating–machines dedicated to putting us through hell and sending us to an early grave.”
Okay, tenants probably aren’t that bad, but that’s a good starting point for discussion purposes.
Some of the common problems that landlords face are:
1. Tenants that pay late or don’t pay
2. Noisy tenants
3. Messy or destructive tenants
Handling difficult situations
If you are using a month-to-month lease, as I strongly suggest, either the tenant or the landlord can cancel the contract by giving the other party one month’s notice. This way, if you need to evict a tenant, you just give them a one month written notice, and they are out the next month.
You don’t even need to have a good reason to remove them.
You are just exercising your right to cancel their monthly contract. It removes the possibility of having to go to court to remove a tenant. Easy as pie.
Here are the steps that I take to remove a bad tenant:
1. Tenant engages in some action that violates the contract, for example, they pay the rent late.
2. Call the tenants to inform them they are in violation of the contract.
3. Follow up immediately with a memo that again tells them of their contract violation, and tell them exactly what I expect them to do. For example, pay the rent at an agreed upon date. Tell them the consequences of not immediately remedying the situation. For example if they don’t pay the rent, I will not renew the month-to-month contract.
4. If they don’t take the appropriate action, of if another violation occurs, send them a form or a memo saying you are cancelling the contract. They must be out in 30 days.
5. If they are not out in 30 days, I can pay to have a deputy sheriff evict them. If they are still behind on their rent when they leave, I keep their security deposit to cover the unpaid rent.
Don’t get the wrong impression, most of my tenants have been good tenants. I have only had one eviction in years that I have operated my business. And the eviction was a fairly easy process because of the month-to month lease.
Upcoming radio interviews
August 17, 7:50 am, Jason Mansmith show, WRPN 1600 am, Ripon, Wisconsin.
August 19, 7:40 am, Gary Sutton, WSBA 910 AM, York, PA.
August 20, 8:30 am, I will be on David Sutton’s show, KSRN 1490 am, Los Alamos, New Mexico.
August 23 at 8:05 am, the Cliff “On-Air” Turner show, KLBN 1450 AM, La Grande, Oregon.
August 25 at 8:08 am, I will be on Jeff Anderson’s show, KSDR 1480 am, Watertown, South Dakota.
August 26 at 11:05 am, the Ron Ross Show, WJBC 1230 am, Bloomington, Illinois.
September 15 at 8:05 am, the Dan Ramey show, WBEX 1490 AM, Chillicothe, Ohio.
