examine each case and find a pattern why it has happened so often to you. You will find out some psychological pattern that you may have that made you susceptible to choosing bad tenants. I found the common psychological mindset that will get some landlord into trouble is “Thank God I found a tenant, I wish he is okay and my vacancy will soon be over…”. This mindset is dangerous because it pushes you to relax your renting requirements. Basically, these landlords wanted to get out of this mental uncertainty as quickly as they can. In doing so, it buries the seed of later trouble. Selecting a tenant carefully is very important. Among the top you must see good credit, they may have a bankruptcy in the past, that’s fine, but they better not have ANY late payment records to their credit cards or other accounts. They better don’t have any public records of being sued. They better not have any bad debt being pursued by other debtors. They better have good income and relatively stable job. No single mom or dad, they are troubles. You also need to check eviction records in all the counties that they used to reside…

then most probably they will back away because they simply used this to intimidate you. They didn’t intend to really go to court to sue you. Don’t be afraid of being sued, in most cases, they won’t win because they don’t have evidence. However, if you want to evict somebody for not paying rent, even if they threaten to sue you, you should still proceed with eviction. Eviction proceding is rock solid your right of being a landlord. Nothing can stop that. In most landlord tenant cases, you often don’t need a lawyer. You simply appear in court and defend yourself. Gathering all the evidences, bringing all the photos showing tenant misbehavior. In most cases, you will win.

I have a gut feeling that many previously hot market seems to have hit the bottom in recent months and weeks. Many builders have cut the price to the bare bone, from 20% to even 50%. Noticably, Florida may be the best place to find great deals. Rather than going to Auctions or looting for foreclosures, why not go to the new home builders and really negotiate the deals. A lot of the builders are in such pressure that they are willing to negotiate the price down to just “cost” level, meaning a 20-40% price cut to you. However, these deals can only be had on “quick sales” inventory. Florida is the worst casualty area, I am tempting to go there and harvest great deals.

and the permanent rental rate is lower than metro regions. So, the strategy is not for regular rental, but to rent it on weekly basis as vacation rental. In this case, you may not use the same strategy as those used in big metro regions, like 100% financiing, putting down more cash may be necessary to reduce risks.

You pay off only to the extent that allows you to make even cash flow. Once that goal is reached, don’t worry about paying more money into this house. Use the cash you in your hand to buy more houses. The key to get rich is NOT to OWN money, but to CONTROL money.

The more houses you can control, the greater the leverage you have, the higher the return you may get in the future.