If you are a property owner and have been renting to tenants; sooner or later you will run into issues with them. Bad tenants can wreak havoc on your property and can take all of the fun out of owning property. Many people don’t screen their tenants properly and/or are not experienced investors and end up renting their properties to people who take advantage of them. They always seem to come up with an excuse. “My hours were cut in half, I’ll give you the rest of the rent next week” this excuse turns into 3 weeks and then 3 months if you are not strict. Some people don’t understand the concept of living somewhere, “If you want to stay you have to pay!”

Other tenants will start moving their family members and friends into their apartment as you watch the monthly water bill climb through the roof and the wear and tear on the house skyrocket. We can go on for days with bad tenant stories but we want you to know that if you have had enough of these issues and don’t want to deal with them anymore the Freedom Property team is here for you.

Some things you can try on your own first:

– Cash for Keys
This has been effective in the past for us. Simply offer your tenant $500 to be out of the apartment within X number of days and they will receive cold hard cash. Many times this can be much less expensive than serving them a notice to quit and going through the eviction process.

– Serve them a notice to quit immediately
The morning of the 11^th day you should have a marshall serve them a notice to quit. You should do this with all tenants so they do not take advantage of you. Once one tenant takes advantage of you the word will spread and you will have multiple units starting to pay late or stop paying since they know you are not enforcing the lease.

– Co-signer or friend/family member
When we rent our units we get a cosigner for a good applicant who is borderline for income requirements. A cosigner can usually be a relative or close friend that provides (and you verify) at the time of signing the lease. This person can be contacted if they do not get the rent payment to you in time and could provide you with payment to avoid going into default. Sometimes people run into temporary, minor financial setbacks and if you can salvage a good tenant by taking the right steps it can save you some headaches.

If all else fails and the above doesn’t work:

Give us a call and lets see how we can help you become Free of your tenant problems. After all we are Freedom Property for a reason! Call us now 860-876-SOLD. Or fill out the form and we will talk soon!