What I Learned: Evicting a Tenant (for Illinois)

Disclaimer

Here on Selfmadesns.com I’m only giving you my life experiences. So, you may learn and benefit from my mistakes along the way. As well as learn from all of the good decisions I made. What may work for me in some different experiences is not always what you should be doing on your own. Always do your own research or speak with a professional on the subject. Better yet do both guys. It will be way more beneficial for you at the end of the day. If you want more information on our terms, please visit our terms and conditions page along with the privacy policy page as well.

Hello guys, you see by the title that we have another good one on our hands. Today we have another experience I would like to share with you. And hopefully You guys can take something away from this experience that will help you in your future. So, let’s get into the story that brought about this learning experience I have for you guys today. So, one of my tenants I had inside one of my investment properties had fell be hide on rent 3 months. They had lost their job and couldn’t afford the rent anymore. They would try and pay part of the rent but, I don’t like to take partial payments. They weren’t a bad tenant but, I had to move forward on the evicting process for this tenant.

The Process

So going through this process the first time was not fun at all, especially when it happens to good people. I learned that I had to give them a five-day notice to come up with the rent before eviction. Granted I had been having this talk of evicting them ahead of this, to give them a heads up. They also let me know that they would be staying as long as possible. They wanted to stay there as long as possible because they would be moving back home with their parents. We could have just broken the lease, but this is a business. And I still wanted the money for the lease agreement.

Like I stated before they let me know they were going to be staying as long as possible. So, after I gave them the five-day notice, I thought my job was done and they would be out after five days. But I was so wrong. Come to find out I had to than file an eviction lawsuit also known as a Forcible Entry and Detainer action. Then I had to do this because they didn’t leave after the five days. I found this out after I called the police to get them out. I wanted to get it rented out as quickly as possible guys. And this was holding me up.

More

So, I file the paperwork and guess what? I had to wait even more time! I had to wait for the tenant to be served summons and complaint paper. This had to be done 3 days before the court date. So, I had to pay someone to serve them the paperwork. More money out of my pockets. After we finally got the paperwork, we had to be in court. I just had to bring my proof of the non-payments and the judgment went pretty smooth after that. Little did I know That wasn’t the end of the story.

The judge had given them 2 weeks to move out of the property. But when the tenants had told me they were going to be staying as long as possible, they were not playing. I had arrived at the property 2 days after their move out date, to find them still there. Now I had to have the sheriff come get them out! After that they finally moved out that day! The property was just really dirty! Nothing really major had been damaged to the places, so I was happy. I just wanted to get back to getting the money coming in.

Bonus – Real Estate Tips

Like the title of the bonus part of post this one right here is for the investors out there. Don’t worry I will have something for my buyers and sellers soon. Like I was saying this one here is for my investors. Today I’m going to be giving you 3 very good tip when you are thinking about an investment property. No matter if you are building for the ground up or buying something with a little charm. As always don’t just take this and run with it. Do your own research before you make and decide to do anything my friends.

#1

  Tip number one is to research the location you want to buy in. Location really is everything especially in real estate. As an investor you want homes that will appreciate in value. The goal is always to make money. So, when you are looking for a good location look at the school district. Home in good school value appreciate faster than ones in not so good school districts. So, whenever you start looking keep that in mind. Nobody is trying to buy a home that’s not going to go up in value. That’s like burning money. I don’t know about you, but I like to spend, save, investing my money not burn it.

#2

  If you have the money to buy into new development neighborhoods in good school districts. Do so in bulk. Like anything when you buy in bulk it’s cheaper. Now we are talking homes, so bulk is a little different. Bulk for homes is like four, five, or six. So, check this out here. Imagine you go into a new developing neighborhood and say you want to buy five homes. Instead of paying 220k a piece for one, they let you get five for 180k. Six months to a year you might be looking at 500k in profit if you sell.

#3

  Last tip is if you have multiple projects you want to dive into at once. Try in keep them close together this way whoever you get to do the job can cut down on some of the expenses. Like 3 miles apart is a good range.

  At the end of the day real estate is a pretty good investment. There are losses in real estate when it comes to investing but you can really keep your losses kind of low because real is black and white if you know what to look for. It’s not like when someone comes to you with a business idea, and someone is trying to explain to you, their vision. You maybe can’t see it, but it sounds good, and you end up losing money. Real estate is a little safer than that my friends. Do your own research my friends and have a good one.

Summary

What I learned from this is that when seems too good to be true, it is! I thought this was gone be a five-day process for me. It took me months guys. I took up too much of my time. Now I have an attorney to handle this whole thing for me. Yes, it cost but my time is worth more my friends. Not every state is the same. And now we have come to an end. Also, I hope you guys enjoyed the bonus part of the post today. Thanks for the visit, guys. Hopefully you can leave here with something that will help you out. Good luck out there! Hi guys let me know if you learned anything, if it helped you out with anything, or if it was enjoyable.