First Rental Property

I don’t even know where to begin…

The experience I gained from my court hearing this past Thursday was incredible.

It was probably the most insightful day I have had as a real estate investor during my 6 years of investing.

To let you know how it went, I technically ‘won’ my case.  ‘Won’ is a relative term here, so don’t get too excited.  There is a lot more that still needs to play out, so stay tuned!

Before I jump into Part Two of this series, I would like to review the key learning point I shared with you from How to Evict a Tenant – Part One.

In Part One, I mentioned the following:

If the time ever comes where you are in the process of evicting a tenant, and you are attending a court hearing, you must over prepare. Do your homework, and take with you to the hearing all of the documents and evidence that you feel will help you to prove your point in court and help you to win your case.

Here is an example of how my over preparation helped me to ‘win’ my case on Thursday.

By nature, I am a very diligent person.  I am organized and I keep records.  As a real estate investor, these skills are paramount.  You need to keep information in order.  I am specifically referring to paperwork.

When you buy your first rental property, you may be surprised to see how much paperwork is involved with the property.  The constant flow of paperwork does not stop once you have purchased the property.  Rather, you will continue to receive new paperwork concerning the property on a continual basis.  This paperwork can come in a number of different forms.  Here is a short list of some of the different types  of paperwork that you will have to collect, sort and manage on a continual basis:

• Mortgage Documents

This is your original mortgage agreement that you get when you obtain financing on your rental property.  This is very important to keep as you may have to present this document in the future.  You never know when you might need to refer to it again, so keep it in a safe place.  I personally have a filing cabinet where I keep all of my mortgage documents.  That way, if I need to access them in a hurry, I know exactly where to find them!

• Mortgage Statements

This is a a periodic statement that you recieve from your lender.  Your lender being of course the bank or mortgage company that you hold your mortgage with.  This document gives you a snapshot of all of the ‘vital signs’ of the mortgage.  Things such as mortgage balance, interest rate, and remaining amortization are just a few things listed on this statement.

• Property Tax Bill

This is a record from your local municipality pertaining to the taxes that you owe on the rental property.  If you purchase more than one rental property, you will no doubt have to present your property tax bill for each property every time you obtain financing for a subsequent property.  This document is very important.  By taking a close look at this document, the reader can tell if you have been paying your property taxes or not.  If you have not, you better pay them fast, otherwise you can be at risk of losing your rental property.

• Utility Bills

Even when a tenant pays all utilities on a rental property, there will still be some utility bills that you may need to pay yourself, and that you need to keep track of.  I have a constant flow of utility bills that come in each month that I need to keep track of and sort.  This may sound overwhelming.  It’s not.

• Property Management Bills

Do you have property management on the unit?  If so, you will need to keep track of what you owe them for the monthly property management fee.  In addition, you will also have to keep track of any repairs and maintenance that they have done on the property.  The property manager will have to issue you invoices that you will have to pay, and then file for your records.

Before I get off topic too much, let me come full circle and talk about how keeping certain documents in order can help you during the eviction process.

The documents that you will have to keep in order are the documents that are directly related to the eviction of your tenant.  These documents will of course be the ones in relation to the legal proceeding that you are in the middle of.

No matter what state, province, territory or country you live in, the process of evicting a tenant can be very different.  However, in many of these jurisdictions, the is a set process in place that you must follow.  With this process there are also prescribed documents that you need to either file with your local authorities, or that you need to have a good record of.

My success during my hearing this past Thursday was a direct result of me being organized and having all of the required documents on hand.

Despite the fact that these documents were not filed properly the first time with the authorities.  However, that is a story for another day, and a story that I am not going to blog about.  If you are interested to know, contact me offline and I will share the story with you.

I was asked by the ruling authority at the hearing to present key documents.  I was able to present these documents without hesitation, because I WAS PREPARED AND I BROUGHT THEM WITH ME…

I can’t stress this point enough.

The point is:

You need to over prepare AND have all of your necessary documents in order when you are in the process of evicting a tenant.

In closing, I am going to leave you with another key point.

I share this key point with you in the hope that it will help you one day when you yourself are going through the eviction process.

This key point is to have an Entourage with you.  Have an entourage with you either at your court hearing or have them close by.   Have them close enough to you so that you can call them or e-mail them when you need them the most!

In Part Three of this post, I will explain the importance of your Entourage and how support from this group can help calm your nerves, and ultimately help you “win” your hearing!

Keep Learning,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: If you are a new real estate investor, consider following my blog.  If you do, you will gain knowledge and confidence that will help you to purchase your first rental property.