In my local FB tenant/LL matching group, someone posted they were looking for a place and had an eviction history. One guy who manages several properties was all over here him offering a unit. Another guy demanded 6 months up front and the tenant was interested. Said he'd have it next week. Two conclusions I'm drawing here: 1) Some LLs are so desperate to rent that they'll roll the dice and play the averages 2) Other Landlords specialize in renting to the unrentables and charge a premium price.

Better them than me. Life's too short to deal with those knuckleheads.

I understand the business model that caters to these folks. What I don't understand is being so desperate for a tenant that you would take anyone with a pulse. You will never dig your way out of a desperate situation by creating more desperation for the future. That seems counter intuitive to me.

"What I don't understand is being so desperate for a tenant that you would take anyone with a pulse. You will never dig your way out of a desperate situation by creating more desperation for the future. That seems counter intuitive to me."

I agree but let me offer one explanation of what I believe is happening here. I think there are two sorts of investors; pre-covid and post covid. The former can afford to operate far more leisurely when it comes to vacancies while the latter is under pressure having paid much more with a much higher level of debt service and pressure to cover it. If you have either low or no leverage, you can afford to be choosey. If the mortgage nut is large along with other costs having increased, you're under pressure to fill those vacancies as quick as you can. I just think many people are in this position and can not financially handle a longer vacancy.

There is a large mobile home park (not in our town) that caters to people who have harmed children. The owner rents the mobile homes by the room and these individuals pay a hefty price to live there. It is gated and fenced with signs all over saying children are not allowed. It is a sad, sad thing and one that we would never be involved with no matter how much money it made.

Not that these individuals are the same as someone who has been evicted; just musing that perhaps renting to evictees is a new market niche.

I would like to hear from successful operators of such businesses. Buy here pay here car lots developed tactics that work…I’m sure that some exist for getting rent paid.

Maybe I will look into this as a test once I get my current place filled with a decent tenant.

I have some vacant properties. I was hoping to maybe build a decent place on one and retail it.

I could look into maybe a 3/1 duplex on a slab. Block walls inside and out. Maybe even a concrete ceiling poured in place.

Commercial doors with steel frames inside and out. Commercial grade stainless appliances including stainless cabinets and vanities.

Landscape the outside with stone on top of good weedblock up to sidewalks and drives made from concrete chips.

Make the place as close to tenant proof as possible. Then charge double deposit and higher rents for people with evictions.

The ROI could be pretty decent. Easy to turn over. Spray everything white semi-gloss. If it won't wash off then spray the entire place again.

It would be ugly but very functional. Have zero tolerance for lates and other violations.

That or do what all the slumlords in my area do...

Buy a crappy place, do nothing with it, rent it out for as much as you can for as long as you can. Evict, rise and repeat.

Oh, that is definitely a niche that certain landlords specialize in.

And make lots of money at.

They also don't experience any eviction delays, because they don't go through court.

Tenants with warrants would rather just move than go near a court building, or even be served a court document.

I used to know (now deceased) a notorious and unashamed landlord like that.

He also was a shark looking to take advantage of a newby's inexperience, which is what made me dislike him.

Well, it's a way to make money and in a way, it's not entirely unfamiliar to me particularly owning a rooming house. I would say that my roomers are several steps above child molesters and criminals and although I've graduated some to apartments, most will never get to that point. I don't care about credit. As a matter of fact, bad credit is actually better because they have fewer options. I do care about employment and lack of criminal history. Of course , eviction is a lockout in my case.

That's not the case with regular rentals. I think you'd have to be a slumlord or have very basic places completely tenant proofed for this to be viable and be ready to evict at a moment's notice. I'm thinking a 50% rent premium at a minimum. There's definitely a market.

Local landlord made a living renting to the "unrentables"... evictees, convicts, etc. He charged a high deposit, top of the market rent, and evict when one day late.... and his houses sometimes passed code. Mr Landlord is now 85 i think.... in the last 2 yrs, i think like 5 houses have been demo by the city for being inhabitable. He has sold like 10 via auction because the properties had a demo order placed on it... Still probably has another 100 properties. Mr Landlord made the comment once, "Once I got to 100, I stopped counting and keeping tracking... but I still bought them for cash."

Back story: a few years ago, two guys broke in to his house. Went to the basement. Found Mr Landlord "cash" bag. Mr LL called the police, reported that 250K was stolen from the bag. Next day at Meijer, one of the individuals tried using a $20 bill from 1990's (no hologram bar code, etc")... cashier thought it was a fake. Called police. Police pulled the car over in the parking lot. Discovered it was one of the individuals that stole the money. It wasn't 250K, it was $450k!! Each split the $$, paid off a car loan, was buying grocery and tv...

How would the ad copy read?

6x6 LMAO

In most cases I'd say NO...but if the eviction was a long time ago and your state allows you to collect extra deposit and maybe even a "risk premium" on the rent...then I'd consider it.

I had one lady who had recently divorced and warned me her credit looked horrible due to that...but she was on her feet again and had a good job. She had plenty of cash, so I asked for $50/month extra on the rent and triple deposit up front, then I'd return 1 month's worth of the deposit after 6 months of perfectly on-time payments and another month's worth after 12 months of perfect on-time payments. She ended up leaving at 9 months but paid perfectly each month and paid the ELT when she left.

I used to think that I'd take someone with an eviction in my rooming houses. Not any more. The real cost if it goes bad is the cost of eviction. $180 to file, $40 for the writ, plus lawyer fees if it's in an LLC. Plus all the lost rent.

I always try to help tenants avoid eviction. For my tenants who take it all the way through, it's for one of three reasons:

1) They aren't rational enough to realize that sticking it out through an eviction is a bad choice that will haunt them for years.

2) They have no family or friends that can provide resources, so they really have no other option.

3) Their future prospects are so bad that they don't care what happens to them.

Prior eviction is a hard no for me.

This tells me that they are OK to cross that line, to take someone's paycheck (mine) and spend it for their own needs.

Robin, I agree with your list.

Since I am an LLC I have to use a lawyer. Eviction costs me $400 and change all in.

Well not lost rents and damages of course.

I tried to reason with a soon to be ex tenant who brought in a boy toy and was asked to leave. I said that if she could move by a specific date I wouldn't file on her.

Her reply was rude and then she started saying she had nothing to worry about and I shouldn't care about her.

Well she was filed on. The place she was moving to dropped her, either because of the BF or the eviction. She begged for more time. She then got rude again and I just blocked her number.

She was positive that I would not win in court. She actually cried when the judge awarded everything to me. Then instead of paying the amount due she decided to get clever and make the collections company find her.

They did. She was garnished (she worked at a bank) and paid 8% interest on what was owed.

Last I knew she was no longer at that bank. No idea if that is because she was let go or just job jumped.

I never had slums per se but I had a lot of properties in less than desirable areas and my places were only "adequate" ...not updated or modern. Clean, very dated, maintained. They got what they paid for. If they wanted "better" they could have attempted to do so but probably would have never found anything. These type renters have used and abused the systems in place for a long time. And they know it.