Related Services

Managing Legal Nightmares

Wow! This area is so big and so full of traps for the unwary Investor, it's a
challenge narrowing it down to practical key steps, but we shall.

You will find that you manage less legal nightmares if you diligently
practice Preventive Law. In other words, do those things you know you
should to the best of your ability, and don't take any shortcuts. Buy right,
screen right, manage right, and your legal nightmares virtually don't exist,
because you have not created the incubator for them.
When you have a legal nightmare, and you eventually will even if you do
everything right, know how you are going to generally handle the problem
before it even happens. For example, are you an expert on evicting a
tenant who is in breach of the contract? If not, who is your expert
advisor? Do you have a relationship with a competent and trustworthy
real estate attorney or someone who is equally knowledgeable and
experienced?
Know what your legal position is, the power that you have, and know what
the tenant's legal position is and what his negotiating power is. If you
don't know how the legal process works, you won't know what true power
either you or the tenant have. Reality is a little different than your legal
rights. Both knowledge and experience are worth their weight in gold here.
Always have a plan for dealing with tenant problems, and consistently
follow that plan. The key reason for this is that you need to resolve
problems very quickly, because time is money, and if you lose a couple of
months of rent, your rate of return will substantially drop. Not good.

Get good at managing
legal nightmares, or
better yet, preventing
them, and your stress
level and your rate of
return will make you a
much happier person.
And that would be a
good thing.

Elsewhere on this site and forum, are many legal tips for dealing with legal
nightmares. Don't forget you can ask questions on the forum and network with
other Landlords.