Anyone investing in Real Estate will always hear all the great things about it and all of the bad things about it from others who have been doing this. The great advantages of investing in Real Estate are the profit on bank leverage, monthly semi residual income, tax advantages, depreciation, appreciation and owning a tangible. Some of the negative things you always hear are bad tenants, evictions, trashing your place, vacancy and overall stress. I personally believe the stress is the worst of all of those problems. In my opinion Evictions are the main cause of a majority of the fear and stress that comes with renting out property. I will further expand on the eviction process, the costs associated and what really happens.
Almost anyone who has dealt with an eviction understands that it can be a very time consuming and stressful matter. The biggest thing that I can stress is during my first eviction the unknown process was what really worried me. I heard so many different things but this is my experience with it and what you can expect. When the tenant or squatters decide to not pay the rent in total you serve them with a 3 day notice to pay rent or quit said premise. Most people don’t take these too seriously because they learn on the internet that if they don’t comply than can stay for quite some time before the court system actually boots them out. This is true. The eviction process can take up to two months. After the three days has expired you contact an eviction attorney that will take your case, usually runs about a thousand dollars+ depending where you go and what city you’re in. They need to serve the tenants named in the eviction/unlawful detainer. This depends on how long the process server takes to serve; this is an unknown period that can be up to two weeks, or a couple days. After they have served you will get a court date about a month after that, after you win your court case, which you will if they don’t pay. You receive a “writ of possession” after about 7-10 days. The “writ of possession” is then delivered to the Sherriff who eventually posts the real eviction notice which is 5 days to vacate. If they have not left during this time the Sherriff will make them leave or arrest for trespassing. You can legally change the locks and put their belongings in storage. This process can take around two months so you have to be prepared to pay all your bills.
The good news is if you screened your tenant well and they have a legit job, the unlawful detainer comes with a judgment for lost rent and legal fees. You should be able to garnish the wages of your nonpaying tenant and recoup a majority of your losses. You can also keep the security deposit which helps a little as well. Lastly you can sue for any damages in small claims court and tack that onto the wage garnishment as well. It is a stressful and hard process, but once it is done there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck.
