Welcome back to episode eight of the Women Invest in Real Estate podcast! In this episode, we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we are up to in our businesses, and we’re kicking it off with an eviction story from Amelia. Let’s get started!
Amelia’s Tenant Eviction Story
With what is Amelia's first (and also hopefully her last) eviction, she’s learning some excellent lessons on handling tenants and the process of an eviction. This particular tenant has been problematic for the past 9-10 months and it has escalated to his becoming verbally abusive towards her and physically destructive to her property.
While no property owner wants their property to sit vacant, it will serve her much better in the long run, to hire a lawyer and evict this tenant. She will be able to rehab this unit and be able to up the rent on the unit - so while evicting a tenant is never an ideal solution, in this case, it is the best choice. She has positive, regular cash flow from her mid-term rentals and can afford to let the unit sit vacant while she goes through the eviction process and rehabs this unit.
Hiring a Lawyer
Hiring a lawyer has been the absolute best decision to move through this process and has served Amelia well. Amelia paid her lawyer a retainer of $1,990 to essentially handle her entire eviction process. If the tenant leaves without having to go to court she will receive $900 of that back and feels it has been 100% worth it.
Best tips for the eviction process…
- Communicate only in writing, not by phone
- If you can afford to do so, hire a lawyer
- Don’t accept a partial rent payment if you’re already in the eviction process
- Send documents, or any deposit/checks, via certified mail
- Put your human feelings aside and just like move forward from a business standpoint
Grace’s Updates
Grace is in the process of purchasing a single-family (nearly turn-key) home that is on the same street as her existing four-plexes. For this property, Grace negotiated a seller-financed deal that was a bit different than others she has done because this particular seller is an investor herself. It will be a quick turnover - a solid house, in a solid neighborhood - just needs a fresh coat of paint before listing. She has already reached out to some insurance agencies who are all interested in renting this property for their clients.
After this house is finished, Grace is excited to be done rehabbing and buying for a solid three months so she can do some traveling and just take a massive break. Grace has been rehabbing for nearly a year and a half straight and is excited to hit pause after this house is complete.
Also during this time, Grace is excited to get some much-needed systems upgraded and new systems in place to help her productivity and also take a good look at where she’s at and what direction she wants to take coming up.
In The Works…
Amelia currently still has 5 inherited tenants. Once they move out she plans to convert them into mid-term rentals, however, there are two tenants who might be hold-outs as long-term tenants. Frankly, she is fine with that. They have been there for 10 and 17 years and despite being under market value provide stability and the property functions well as it sits right now.
Amelia also has an Airbnb property in Clear Lake Iowa which reached over 80% occupancy for July and is set to make over $2,500 in cash flow on this property in July alone. This has given her the bug to keep her eyes peeled for vacation rental properties that makes sense for her.
Grace on the other hand doesn’t want to be all mid-term rental. She likes the consistency and stability that comes with her long-term rentals. Like Amelia, Grace also has her eyes peeled for an Airbnb-style property that is small, doesn’t require a ton of rehab work, and will serve her well. Another reason Grace is looking to add an Airbnb property to her portfolio is that she wants to be able to hire an internal property manager but right now it doesn’t make sense financially. But if she add an Airbnb to her portfolio that would add to her cash flow she would be in a better position to add this person to her team and take some work off of her own plate.
That’s all for this week, thank you so much for joining us and getting a little behind-the-scenes look at the happenings in our lives as real estate investors! We're so happy that you're listening and you can follow us over on Instagram for more updates!
We'll see you in the next episode!
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