So we have what is basically an up/down duplex back in Colorado. Its has a small MIL apartment taking up the lower level of the house that has its own entrance. Me and My wife have since moved and have been waiting for the market to recover a bit before we tried to sell. With how the market has been doing in the last year we decided that we would try to sell it. So we talked to our tenant that lived up stairs and let her know we wanted to start marketing the property. We reached an agreeament where we reduced her rent to allow showing. After the first few weeks she notified our agent that she wasn't taking any more showing till she moved out which was going to be in a few weeks. Even though her lease was still in place for another 6 months. Her boyfriend who she has been on and off with for the last year and a half she had been in the property had finally broken up with here and she couldn't handle living there any more. After some negotiating we basically get her out of the unit. She had already stopped paying and if we had a clean unit it would make it easier to show.
With finally getting her out we get to inherit the tenant that was in the lower unit that we were allowing her to sublet (I'm guessing this was mistake #2, well lesson learned). We get his info and have him sign a month to month lease with us. When we ask for his security deposit that the other tenant had said she refunded him, after asking her to send to us, he gives us a story about his car breaking down and how he would have it for us in a week. At this point we decide we don't want to deal with this dead beat and inform him that we need him out by the end of July because we are going to come in and do some renovations on the house and it wont be livable. Well fast forward a week and a half and our nosy old neighbor gives us a call. Apparently she had seen some people in the upstairs of the house.
We give the renter a call and ask him about it and he goes quiet on the phone and then stumbles through some bs story about how it must have been one of his buddies. Don't know how they got in, maybe an agent that was showing the house left a door or a window unlocked. We let him know that people are watching the property and to let his friend know they aren't allowed there and that we would call the cops next time our neighbors let us know some one was there.
Well I guess he didn't take our little talk to heart. Out neighbor arrived at her house this morning after a week away for the holiday and what does she see....trash beer bottles and bits of fireworks ever where. And she promptly make a call to us. And we make the call to the cops. And the cops find that our down stairs tenant has moved in up stairs with a key he had received from our old tenant. Apparently she had been letting him use the washer and dryer up stairs. And now he is freaking out that the cops are going to arrest him. We quickly reach an agreement we wouldn't press charges if he had all his shit out of our house and it was spotless in the next 48 hours. The awesome cop even told us that he would check back in 2 days and make sure the house was vacant in ear shot of the tenant.
Well I guess I've learned some more lessons on land lording, just hope this is the last surprise before I get rid of this property.