{"id":9965,"date":"2018-04-25T10:08:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T17:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.movoto.com\/blog\/?p=9965"},"modified":"2018-04-25T10:08:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T17:08:05","slug":"tenants-from-hell-five-tips-for-managing-terrible-tenants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.movoto.com\/blog\/tenants-from-hell-five-tips-for-managing-terrible-tenants\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenants from Hell: Five Tips for Managing Terrible Tenants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every landlord eventually gets them.<br \/>\nIf you are a landlord and haven&#8217;t faced them yet &#8211; don&#8217;t worry, you will. I&#8217;m talking about the tenants from hell. The tenant who pays rent late, argues with everything you say, damages the property, lets their children turn your walls into a work of modern art, and lies like they get paid to do so. Perhaps you are not even a landlord yet &#8211; but with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.movoto.com\/blog\/market-trends\/january-2013-state-of-the-market-inventory-is-down-way-down\/\">decreasing inventory<\/a> and rising prices, many are finding now is a great time to get into the world of investing in real estate.<br \/>\nAs a landlord for the past six years, I&#8217;ve had my fair share of tenants from hell. They aren&#8217;t fun. I could tell you countless stories of tenants who lie, cheat, steal, and create disastrous messes that I wouldn&#8217;t expect an animal to make. However, each year I find less and less of these tenants within my little kingdom. It&#8217;s not because the tenants in my area are improving and it&#8217;s not because I&#8217;m <a href=\"https:\/\/www.movoto.com\/blog\/novelty-real-estate\/bacon-home\/\">covering the homes in delicious bacon<\/a> to attract only the best tenants. The difference is in <em>how I deal with the problem.<\/em> This post is going to share five tips I have used in minimizing my dealings with the tenants from hell.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 1: Don&#8217;t Scream, Screen<\/h2>\n<p>The first step in dealing with tenants from hell is simple and obvious: don&#8217;t admit them. When renting to anyone, be sure to do a proper screening. A good screening includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Running a background check<\/li>\n<li>Running a credit check<\/li>\n<li>Calling their references<\/li>\n<li>Calling ALL previous landlords<\/li>\n<li>Driving by their current residence &#8211; maybe even inviting yourself in<\/li>\n<li>Verifying their income<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, most tenants do not know what amount they can afford. Begin by requiring that their verifiable income must be at least <em>three times the monthly rent.<\/em> This is a standard used by many investors to qualify a tenant and for me &#8211; it&#8217;s non-negotiable. Don&#8217;t be affraid of saying &#8220;no&#8221; and waiting for the perfect tenant.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 2: Have a Written Policy<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s difficult to know how to follow the rules when there are no rules to follow. The lease is your first step in creating a written policy, but you can also create a list of &#8220;dos and don&#8217;ts&#8221; to give to your tenant when they move in.<br \/>\nIf rent is due on the 1st &#8211; then have that in writing and have the tenant sign a lease that says so. Don&#8217;t be a &#8220;handshake&#8221; landlord and show the tenant that this is just a hobby for you. You wouldn&#8217;t expect a lawyer to draft up a legal document without paperwork or a car dealer to sell you a new Prius without your name on the dotted line &#8211; so the same should be said for the relationship between you and your tenant. Start things off on the right foot: get it all in writing and show that you are a professional.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 3: Be Strict and Carry a Big Stick<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the &#8220;horror stories&#8221; involving tenants were, I&#8217;m sorry to say, the landlord&#8217;s fault. No, the landlord wasn&#8217;t the one &#8220;doing the deed,&#8221; but usually it was the landlord&#8217;s flexibility that gave the tenant the permission to do wrong. For example, by not charging a late fee, the landlord is giving permission to the tenant to pay whenever.<br \/>\nWhile it might sound mean, being as strict as possible will ensure that the rules are followed and actually create a better relationship between you and your tenant. It comes down to the question, Is it better to be feared or loved? In the case of landlording: it is better to be feared.<br \/>\nHaving punishments in place (monetarily speaking) will ensure the tenants follow those rules. I require that rent is paid on the first, but I offer a 5 day grace period. On day six &#8211; if no rent is received, we issue a three-day &#8220;pay or vacate&#8221; notice taped to their door, along with a hefty late fee and &#8220;notice serving fee.&#8221; I do not let tenants get behind on rent &#8211; and you know what? They never do.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 4: Don&#8217;t Be the Landlord<\/h2>\n<p>If you are a non-confrontational person like me, the best tip is to simply &#8220;not be the landlord.&#8221; No, I&#8217;m not suggesting that you hire a property manager to take care of your rental (though, for many this is the best answer.) Instead, I believe it is important to separate yourself from being the owner and just be the &#8220;property manager&#8221; to the tenant.<br \/>\nThis way, you can always need to &#8220;ask the owner first&#8221; and get back to the tenant, giving you time to think about tough (or not so tough) questions they might ask. The bad guy becomes this elusive and mysterious &#8220;owner,&#8221; and you become simply the &#8220;middle man.&#8221;<br \/>\nI know some of you reading this are thinking &#8220;but that&#8217;s dishonest!&#8221; Trust me &#8211; it&#8217;s not. If you are holding property in your own name (instead of a legal entity) you are are just setting yourself up for legal problems. Go speak to your lawyer, form a legal entity to own the house, and then simply manage that entity. Two birds, one stone.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 5: Don&#8217;t be Afraid to Remove the Problem<\/h2>\n<p>Life is too short to be stuck renting to tenants from hell. If you are having problems with your tenants after following the rules above &#8211; get rid of them. There are plenty of places they can go, so it&#8217;s not like you are kicking them out on the street. If they have a lease and you don&#8217;t want to evict &#8211; you can always try a technique known as &#8220;Cash for Keys&#8221; where you actually offer the tenant money to leave (while I know the gut reaction to this is shock &#8211; trust me, sometimes it&#8217;s the best thing for the wallet and the headaches that an eviction could cost.)<br \/>\nIn the case where an eviction is necessary &#8211; come down hard and come down fast. Hire a qualified lawyer to swiftly evict the tenant and move on. As I said, life is too short to deal with tenants from hell.<br \/>\nHave you had any tenants from hell? What tricks have you used to deal with them? Leave your answers in the comments below and let&#8217;s talk about it.<br \/>\n<em>About the author: Brandon Turner is the Senior Editor &amp; Community Manager of BiggerPockets.com, the premier <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\">real estate investing<\/a> social network, as well as an active real estate investor and author of <a title=\"How To Rent Your House: The Definitive Step by Step Guide\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/2013\/01\/04\/how-to-rent-your-house\/\">How to Rent Your House<\/a>, a #1 best selling Kindle book.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"excerpt\" src=\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/movotoblog\/2013\/01\/images\/blog-tenant-hell-tile.jpg\" alt=\"Tenants\" \/>Frustrated with your terrible tenants? Here are five tips to help landlords avoid nightmare scenarios from our friends at BiggerPockets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-estate-tips","post--single"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tenants from Hell: Five Tips for Managing Terrible Tenants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Frustrated with your terrible tenants? Here are five tips to help landlords avoid nightmare scenarios from our friends at BiggerPockets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.movoto.com\/blog\/tenants-from-hell-five-tips-for-managing-terrible-tenants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tenants from Hell: Five Tips for Managing Terrible Tenants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Frustrated with your terrible tenants? 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