If you own a rental property but had a tenant trash it when they go away then make sure you read this article because we’re addressing the all-too-common obstacle that landlords have when they say, “Help! My last tenant trashed my Fort Wayne house!”
Do you have a rental property? Did you have a tenant drop it in less-than-perfect condition? It happens! In fact, it’s an experience that probably every landlord has faced at least one time. If you looked at your empty rental property and said, “Help! My tenant trashed my Fort Wayne house” then here are some things you can do about it.
Is it worth going after the tenant?
You need to first see the damage and choose if it’s really worth going after the tenant. Unfortunately, it, often times than not, isn’t worth the hassle because it may be a time consuming and even expensive effort to get the tenant to pay you back. However, if the damage is significant enough, you might decide to do this.
Is it worth repairing the damage?
From holes in the walls to missing toilets – we’ve heard of just about everything you can imagine! Sometimes a bit of drywall and paint will correct the problem, in which you might want to fix it up and rent it out again, and then just acknowledge the inconvenience as the cost of doing business. However, if the destruction is not worth repairing yourself then you may be interested in a couple of other choices:
You could rent your house to a handyman
One little-known option that is actually really productive is to find a handyman who wants to rent the house. In exchange for a discount on rent (or even free rent) they can fix up the house for you to make it a nice rental property again. Make sure you have a timeline all spelled out, though, to dodge then staying too long without a lot of work getting done.
You could sell the house
Another choice is to sell the house and move on from owning a frustrating rental property. However, be attentive to the fact that if you try to sell the house on the open market, you may have to fix it up first in order for the agent to list it. Another choice is to sell privately to a house-buying team like ours. (We buy houses in as-is condition and we’ll fix them up ourselves).