Fresh from posting questions about my very first eviction - this is a single mother with kids tenant who was already delinquent on rent when I acquired the property. I am at the stage where a constable will come in 1 week to evict, after having gone through the court process. I don't yet know how much of a "horror story" this will be - ie is the apartment trashed? Will she go kicking and screaming?
The courts were very straightforward though, and issued the judgement in my favour without argumentation as the tenant did not dispute the facts of the matter.
I will have lost 4-5 months rent + $100 in interstate trips + $270 in court costs to evict the tenant, all beginning immediately after buying the property when I'm trying to get it running smoothly. It has definitely shot my cashflow projections to hell, but I would have been pretty surprised if things had gone too smoothly at first. In addition, due to a mistake made by the electrician who re-wired the house (prior to us buying it), we ended up liable for her entire unpaid electrical bill balance, which of course she hadn't paid in the 6 months since she moved in. So I have been subsidising the tenant's lifestyle -ouch!! Due to all of this, we have put more into the property in expenses than we have got out in rent yet.
All that said, we will push through this difficult first 6 months and hope that things will smooth out after that to achieve some MMM-success story results.