You know, this month has been pretty unpredictable. For example, I seriously believed that Danny of Property X would have been gone by now. The judge ordered him to pay $250 a week until everything is paid back in full, but Danny paid just $265 during the entire month of July! So I was all set to prepare for prospective tenants until I got a phone call that very same Tuesday. Not a text, but a phone call. It was Danny, telling me that he had the first payment of $250. This week he did the same thing. How is it that a guy who paid only $265 one month has now paid $500 in two weeks? Two words: court-ordered.
One of the biggest mistakes I make is doing payment agreements between myself and the tenant. While the results have been mixed, the tenant generally doesn’t stick to the exact date for each payment, and it becomes a major hassle to schedule times to pick up the money. And should the tenant default on the payments, I have to take them to court and go through the whole process to evict them. With a court ordered payment agreement, there’s almost no pressure on my side. The tenant feels the pressure because they know all it takes is a phone call from me to my lawyer saying, “The scumbag missed a payment.” The lawyer gets the warrant the very next day and the marshal comes out three days later. Simple and easy. And I make sure to add the eviction and lawyer fees so that I don’t pay anything out of pocket. This way of doing business has other positive effects as well. Take the Van Sickle family for example.
I get this text from the son, Chuck:
“Hey Ahkenaten I don’t know what to say about this but I just realized that the apartment is infested with bed bugs. I found them last night and they’re in everything. I’ve been tearing the apartment apart all day and I’ve been doing research on how to get rid of them and it seems like it’s gonna be very hard. The neighbors seen me dragging out all the beds and furniture and said the people who lived here before us had an infestation here and…”
His text looks grammatically worse than this and I can’t translate any further without getting a headache. Basically, Chuck said that they “just found” bed bugs in the apartment, which makes no sense when he’s been living there for seven months. He also mentioned that his mom moved out last month, which was around the same time that they were having “mail problems” with the rent. That little bit of information was very important, because he texted me on the 7th of this month saying that he sent the rent “a couple of days ago”. This was their scam:
Remember last month when they had “proof” that they sent the rent? Well, what they actually did was get the money order from the bank and save the copy. Then they would re-deposit the money into their account and use the copy to show me that they at least had the rent. This would buy them some time as I would sit around like an asshole waiting for a check in the mail that was never coming. They did this in July and they thought I was gonna go for it again this month. Chuck was even asking if I could “forgive the rent” for July to help pay for the bed bug removal, not realizing that by making this statement, he confirmed that he never sent the rent in the first place. So I sent him a text stating that the rent would not be forgiven and that we have to file eviction papers (I just use the term “papers”) on Monday (August 17th). Because he knew I did it to Danny, his tone changed immediately. There were no more excuses. He knew I would follow through with the eviction, so he paid most of the $750 that same day ($670). And that, my dear blog, is how things have to be done.
I don’t care if I’m the nice landlord. All that matters is that I’m the good landlord. I get repairs fixed quickly. I act in a professional manner. And, when someone is behind on payments, I have to take them to court. Doing a payment agreement outside of the court system is just unnecessary stress on my part. Remember Chris of Property 2? What would have happened had those final payment agreements had been court ordered? Would he have left earlier? Would he have actually paid? I’ll never know because I made the mistake of taking him at his word, and it cost me $892. Tenants lie… even the good ones. It’s just part of the business. But so are evictions. They make sure that a tenant’s lie means absolutely nothing. It’s that “fuck you, pay me” philosophy from Goodfellas, and this situation proves that it works. You lent money to your ex? Fuck you, pay me! You have bed bugs? Fuck you, pay me! A payment agreement done any other way is just stupid, and I’m done making stupid mistakes with these filthy animals.
P.S.: When I sent my pest control guy there, he told me that Chuck was threatening not to pay rent unless I pay for the bedbugs to be treated. What Chuck didn’t know was that the pest control guy has been working for me for at least 5 years now, and he has documented proof that the place hasn’t had bedbugs for years. The pest guy even told me that, should this situation end up in court, he will testify on my behalf. Ha! It pays to surround myself with professionals.
One of the biggest mistakes I make is doing payment agreements between myself and the tenant. While the results have been mixed, the tenant generally doesn’t stick to the exact date for each payment, and it becomes a major hassle to schedule times to pick up the money. And should the tenant default on the payments, I have to take them to court and go through the whole process to evict them. With a court ordered payment agreement, there’s almost no pressure on my side. The tenant feels the pressure because they know all it takes is a phone call from me to my lawyer saying, “The scumbag missed a payment.” The lawyer gets the warrant the very next day and the marshal comes out three days later. Simple and easy. And I make sure to add the eviction and lawyer fees so that I don’t pay anything out of pocket. This way of doing business has other positive effects as well. Take the Van Sickle family for example.
I get this text from the son, Chuck:
“Hey Ahkenaten I don’t know what to say about this but I just realized that the apartment is infested with bed bugs. I found them last night and they’re in everything. I’ve been tearing the apartment apart all day and I’ve been doing research on how to get rid of them and it seems like it’s gonna be very hard. The neighbors seen me dragging out all the beds and furniture and said the people who lived here before us had an infestation here and…”
His text looks grammatically worse than this and I can’t translate any further without getting a headache. Basically, Chuck said that they “just found” bed bugs in the apartment, which makes no sense when he’s been living there for seven months. He also mentioned that his mom moved out last month, which was around the same time that they were having “mail problems” with the rent. That little bit of information was very important, because he texted me on the 7th of this month saying that he sent the rent “a couple of days ago”. This was their scam:
Remember last month when they had “proof” that they sent the rent? Well, what they actually did was get the money order from the bank and save the copy. Then they would re-deposit the money into their account and use the copy to show me that they at least had the rent. This would buy them some time as I would sit around like an asshole waiting for a check in the mail that was never coming. They did this in July and they thought I was gonna go for it again this month. Chuck was even asking if I could “forgive the rent” for July to help pay for the bed bug removal, not realizing that by making this statement, he confirmed that he never sent the rent in the first place. So I sent him a text stating that the rent would not be forgiven and that we have to file eviction papers (I just use the term “papers”) on Monday (August 17th). Because he knew I did it to Danny, his tone changed immediately. There were no more excuses. He knew I would follow through with the eviction, so he paid most of the $750 that same day ($670). And that, my dear blog, is how things have to be done.
I don’t care if I’m the nice landlord. All that matters is that I’m the good landlord. I get repairs fixed quickly. I act in a professional manner. And, when someone is behind on payments, I have to take them to court. Doing a payment agreement outside of the court system is just unnecessary stress on my part. Remember Chris of Property 2? What would have happened had those final payment agreements had been court ordered? Would he have left earlier? Would he have actually paid? I’ll never know because I made the mistake of taking him at his word, and it cost me $892. Tenants lie… even the good ones. It’s just part of the business. But so are evictions. They make sure that a tenant’s lie means absolutely nothing. It’s that “fuck you, pay me” philosophy from Goodfellas, and this situation proves that it works. You lent money to your ex? Fuck you, pay me! You have bed bugs? Fuck you, pay me! A payment agreement done any other way is just stupid, and I’m done making stupid mistakes with these filthy animals.
P.S.: When I sent my pest control guy there, he told me that Chuck was threatening not to pay rent unless I pay for the bedbugs to be treated. What Chuck didn’t know was that the pest control guy has been working for me for at least 5 years now, and he has documented proof that the place hasn’t had bedbugs for years. The pest guy even told me that, should this situation end up in court, he will testify on my behalf. Ha! It pays to surround myself with professionals.
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