Recovering From an Eviction

Sometimes alcohol abuse may be a good analogy for Property Management and Evictions. An eviction is the equivalent of what an alcoholic usually call a hangover. All of us who drink understand that sometimes we are going to have to deal with a hangover due to the fact that we make some overzealous choices which in the future we know we are going to regret. The same can be said with property management. The following is a humorous analysis of my first horrendous experience with new york tenant landlord law.  

  One of my first experiences with property management was like a lot of people’s first experiences with alcohol: It sucked, and made me never want to try it again. However, like an alcoholic, I understood that I was hooked, and for several self denigrating reason I made up my mind to keep trying it again, and even made a job out of it. That was many years ago, but just like a regaining alcoholic who is standing in front of the podium at a twelve level plan discussing how they are a habitual alcoholic, here I am in front of you explaining how I am still trying to get better from an Eviction. This was no ordinary eviction, it makes the heart palpitate, skin crawl, and a lump grow in your gullet. I still suffer from night sweats because of it. Below I will discuss the mistakes I made hoping that probably we may all learn from my experience.    

It was my first investment property and I was filling a vacancy for the first time. I had a lot of interest in the place, and I was trying to resolve which person I was planning to rent to out of a typical batch of not so distinguished renters. But I had a mortgage to pay, so I decided to rent it to three college age guys with a puppy. I understand that sounds bad, but wait until you hear who I decided to rent it to. Before calling the kids and letting them know that they could have the place, a couple phoned me and asked if the place was still available. They seemed like a pleasant couple in their mid-twenties and they even brought along their child, so they seemed like quite nice family. Later on I found out that it was a rent-a-kid.

    I decided to rent to them as they seemed quite nice. However, the first error I commited was I never ran their credit report, I never checked their background, had them list their references. They ended up being addicts, drug dealers and caused over $12,000.00 dollars in damage to the house. The eviction new york process took 6 months because they were professional deadbeat renters and knew how to avoid service. The moral of the story is: always check credit, background, rental history, employment history, and eviction history. For the small quantity of time and money that it takes to make these checks, you may save yourself a huge sum of money, time, and emotional distress.