Episode 12 | Eviction Court

Welcome back to the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Alex Barnett.

And my name is Joe Homs, and I'm the experienced one.

How experienced are you?

I have over 40 years of real estate experience.

As what?

As a real estate broker, as a mentor, um, as an investor. You name it, I've done it. Dang.

When are you gonna retire?

I don't know. When am I gonna retire? I guess when I'm in the ground. Okay.

That's what I'm hoping to do too. Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's fun. It's fun out there, you know?

Absolutely.

It's full of surprises.

Fun every day.

Fun every day. The hunt of the deal. The craziness that goes on. Um, and speaking of crazy, you know, I was thinking of today we could talk about as our topic evictions in general.

Evictions.

Yes, the E word.

Yeah, that terrible word. And I see that on BiggerPockets, uh, I see that on YouTube all the time. You poor people in California have to go through all this stuff. You can't even—

you can't even evict in California.

Yeah, I wouldn't— you can't even evict. I wouldn't buy anything over there. Um, again, I've been doing this for 40 years. I've never had a problem or an issue. And then when issues do arise, um, yes, you can get them out.

I wonder what they're comparing it to, because I believe in, um, maybe Kentucky, it's sort of what they call a shotgun state, where you can go and you can break the door down and drag, drag your tenant out by the collar. And yeah, you can have one shotgun in your hand. Is that a thing?

I don't know. Is that proper to say nowadays? You know, it's like, wow, a shotgun thing.

Shotgun state.

Yeah, no, we're definitely not that.

Okay, because that's what I think people compare it to. Yeah, they— somebody brought up at the, um, at your meetup, you know, can't you just take the doors off the hinges? Yeah, and then—

and I have heard that before, you know, from people that are my age, that, uh, you know, maybe they used to do things, uh, not on the up and up. Uh, that's not what occurs today, but, um, yeah, maybe it was, you know, like that before. I mean, I'd never experienced anything like that, but, um, and, and I think people hear horror stories of things that happen here in California, and so they think that, you know, every property that you buy, there's going to be a bad tenant in it and you're going to have to evict them. Um, which is not the case, uh, not the case whatsoever. And then if you do your due diligence, you know, you do a background check, credit check, application, you verify their employment, uh, all the information that they put on there is correct. Um, at the end of the day, you should— shouldn't have any issues with tenants whatsoever. I mean, there's always some that slip through the cracks, and I think that's what we're going to talk about today.

Yes.

One that slipped through the cracks?

One that slipped through the cracks. She was very crafty, this one. And it just kind of made me realize just to do more due diligence. Because what had happened was I had 2 properties, 2 mobile homes out in Hemet, California. Both were in between tenants. And so you have your holding costs and all that kind of stuff. So what I was doing is I was actually rushing the process. And I should have just waited a little bit longer to get more applicants, but I kind of went with the first one. She checked all the preliminary boxes and, you know, she was fine in the beginning, and then it just kind of all unraveled from there.

And boy, did it unravel. And boy, did it unravel. And, you know, that's the thing, whether you're flipping or doing anything, due diligence Is very important.

Yeah.

I mean, it's super important. And, um, we went out to court, uh, yesterday, and even the process of getting to that point, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done before you get there. I mean, literally preparing everything that you're going to present to the judge in court to bolster your case, because obviously the other half of this situation, the tenant, It's gonna say, you know, you're like the worst person in the world, and, you know, lots of strange things that they will say. But, um, you have to have pretty much everything in black and white, you know.

Yeah. And I'm realizing now the importance of documenting everything and, you know, having a lot of things in writing, and even your own— even documenting for yourself exactly what's going on. We sent a maintenance guy over there to do X, Y, and Z. Here's a picture of it. You know, file that away. And like most things that I do, I just kind of jump into it, and then I figure it out along the way. So so that's that's what happened here. And then once things started getting a little weird, and it was really just her her responses to to things that she was sending me because I was managing this myself. And so I was like, oh yeah, just and maybe this was the first part. I was like, you know, we just got it rehabbed, so you should be good. But you know, if anything. Anything needs to be fixed, just let me know. And so just left the door wide open.

Yeah.

And it started with a little, you know, garbage disposal is kind of backed up. Okay, you know, send our guy over there, it gets fixed. And then it starts going into, um, she's hearing a noise outside of the property. She's texting me at 3 AM and she's like, is somebody out there that you know? And then kind of saying— then she— then it turns into I need the, the bottom of the mobile home locked because I believe that people can be sleeping under there or in the water heater little closet. And I'm like, uh-oh.

Yeah, you picked a doozy. You did. You picked the doozy. Yeah.

And then that's when Lauren was like, hold on, let me look this lady up really quick, just in the Google search.

And then we found out that, you know, she was involved in all these other cases and Um, and that's, you know, honestly, that's kind of amazing too, because you went ahead and did your due diligence with the application. And I don't know how much you did about a background check as far as calling her employer.

I didn't do that.

And things like that. But you should. Yeah. Um, and then you ran a credit check.

Yeah.

And a credit check, not a problem. Yeah. You know, there was no evictions, in fact. But then later you just literally did a Google search and you found what?

Yeah, she, she had all these evictions in another state. Um, she had just been suing corporations and colleges and entertainers, uh, her own family. She's one of these people. So—

She was like a professional YouTube attorney.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, just, you know, gain knowledge from YouTube how to be an attorney and how to sue people, but not really having a degree in that. And that's what she was trying to do. And then she was trying to, I mean, the nicest word is extort money out of people. That's what she was doing. And they would just literally just pay her off just to get rid of her.

Yeah. And it makes sense because it does become sort of a burden in your life as we're trying to, you know, just do our regular real estate business of acquiring properties.

And so what did you do? What was the process when you finally decided enough is enough? This lady needs to leave. And by that point, she had not been paying her rent as well, right?

It was— we were in the middle of doing a repair, and she basically told me that she was going to sue me, right? In, in the middle of while we're repairing something. It was like the floor, repairing the floor. It was a small little thing that she wanted fixed, and I would always send somebody over right away. And she just kind of started yelling like, well, I'm gonna sue you. I was like, Oh, that's when it hit me. That's what the whole thing was leading up to. And so that's when I decided, okay, this— I'm gonna need to get an attorney because I don't know where this is gonna go. And then basically I did all my correspondence to her through the attorney because that's what she wanted. And so then that was at the end of January. She had paid for January's at the end, and we kind of just had a feeling. that she wasn't going to pay for February. February rolls around, we wait, you know, the allotted time. It's about a week, 10 days, and then she still hadn't paid. And so we went ahead and started the eviction. And so she hasn't paid since then.

Before that, I believe she had requested binding arbitration.

Yes. So she wanted mediation.

Mediation.

Yeah, I was trying to, to work it out with her and she was just saying, well, this is beyond, you know, our communication, obviously. So I want mediation. And I'm just kind of going along with everything. I was like, okay, if that's what you want, then let's do that, and not really pushing back. And I realized that was a mistake as well. But, um, she— so she had mediation and it was a complete waste of time, didn't get anywhere. That's when she told me she wanted $15,000 to move out.

Yeah.

And then it kept going higher and higher every time I talked to her.

Yeah.

Or she— every time she talked to—

So I mean, when you had your mediation, it was a professional mediator and she was basically going back and talking to both of you, and she wasn't, you know, you were willing to offer her some cash just to get out, right? But not 15 grand.

Yeah, it wasn't enough for her. I said, I'd give you back your deposit, you can break the lease, you can leave. And then she just wanted all of her money back plus emotional damage, I guess. I'm not sure exactly what. Yeah. Yeah, so that did nothing. And so we just kind of started the eviction process, and it took, it took them a little bit to serve her. So I don't know if she was like ducking them or not answering the door, but they ended up getting service, and then we got a court date, and that was yesterday.

So let's talk about the process. So, um, the date that you contacted the attorney, um, you have to give her notice, you know, To pay or quit, basically. Uh, and then that's like a 15-day process.

Mm-hmm.

And then after that, you, you had already given her like a 30-day notice or 60-day notice, but she wasn't paying at all. So from there, from that point to the time that they served her, and she actually responded to being served and sued, and Just rambling and rambling on, on these papers that I saw. Um, how long was that process? So from, from the time you contacted the eviction attorney to the time you got into court, how many days or months was that?

It was about mid-February to mid-May. So 2 months, a couple of months. Yeah.

Okay. So it's not, uh, you know, the world is ending, you know, 6 months, a year down the road, you're going to get to court. It's a pretty quick process. Yeah, you know, it's it's not that difficult. Okay, so then everybody served. Everybody has notice. You have to go to court. That was yesterday. Yep. We all went to court. I went to court with you to hold your hand. Yes, and Lauren's hand. She was more stressed out than you, but I was nervous.

I'm not gonna lie.

I I've been through lots of these, and I explained what the process was. I explained that you know you're basically waiting for the other side to show up. You're You have an attorney that's representing you. They're going to tell you, just, you know, when we get up there, just give me the facts. Just literally, what did he tell you? What are the answers he wanted?

He said you have, you have 4 answers: yes, no, I don't know, or can you repeat the question. Don't elaborate on anything.

Very important, don't elaborate. Um, whatever the other side says, you're there because they stopped making their payment to you for rent. And that's the only issue. Whatever other issues they bring up are really not addressed by the court. The only thing that's being addressed by the court is that this person has stopped paying the rent. Okay, so you got to keep that on track. And the judge actually does a really good job. We, we heard a couple of other cases, and I was very impressed with the judge. And he did a really good job at keeping people on track so that he's not there, you know, till 9 or 10 o'clock at night, right? Um, but, um, so anyways, so we're— we keep looking and, uh, we're on what's, uh, called first call. First call is everybody that's there and we're gonna take your cases first. And if, uh, she's not there, then we're gonna wait for second call, it's called. Okay, so we're there. Literally, they open up the court like at, uh, 9.

Mm-hmm.

And we run through first call till about 10, 10:30. 30, take a break, and then we come back in, second call. Uh, those other people that showed up, and would they take care of them first, get them out. And we're kind of literally almost the last ones in there, and she's still not there. Um, they send the, uh, the bailiff out to call for her on the— in the hallway. Nobody there.

Yeah.

So then they go through the process.

Yep.

I mean, you know, they ask you the questions, you know, what happened? When did this start? Has she paid you any money? All these And, and I, you know, I see you up there, you know, kind of shaking and stuff. Yes.

Yeah, I was just like trying to pay attention to say the right word.

So, I mean, yeah, they have to go through the process because the judge needs to hear, you know, at least one side of the story. And you're the one there, and you're the one, uh, you're the plaintiff, you're the one that's suing. So he's got to get all the facts straight. And so they ran through all that stuff, and, um, And then at the end of the day, there is a monetary judgment in your favor for the rent that was owed, court costs, attorney fees, all that's rolled into one. You think you'll ever get that back?

I doubt it.

Okay. And are you gonna stress over that?

No.

Yeah.

As long as she's out.

Yeah. So, so now we're at the point where, um, where you've got a judgment against her and order to evict. So what's the, what's the next process after that?

So now I believe that they set it up with the sheriff's department.

Sheriff's department.

Yeah, to set a lockout date. And so that's the main next step is the last date to be there, get your stuff out.

Yeah. So we go through that process and the sheriff obviously is backed up. That probably can take longer than going to court sometimes. So we're talking another 30 to 60 days where she can stay in there. Uh, rent-free.

Yeah.

But, and, you know, unfortunately, that's, that's our process here.

Yeah.

Um, the sheriff, the sheriff does go out and they'll knock on the door either the day before or a couple of days before just to let them know that we're coming tomorrow. We're going to lock you out if you're still here. Um, oh, and by the way, if you want to see a video of an actual eviction and lockout Look on my YouTube channel. It's there. Make sure you find the right one. I just did one on April, April 1st. Yeah, that's a good one to watch too.

Really good one.

But the other real one, you know, 6 sheriff officers, yeah, male and female, show up at the door, knock at the door. I had the key, so I've supplied them with the key. They went in, they searched the whole place. They found that The people had already moved out. But anyways, we went in, took possession, took some photos in there. It was something to watch. Yeah, it was a it was it was a lot to watch. And but anyways, if you want to see that eviction, take take a look at that on on my YouTube channel. So yeah, so now we're waiting at this point for the sheriff to call you and say, "Hey Alex, we're going out there tomorrow." Right. Okay, please bring a locksmith with you because you never can tell if this person has changed the keys on the property. So you do need to have a locksmith there on standby, and they'll let you know what time, and they literally come in force. And if the tenant is still there, they'll escort her out off the premises and literally have you change the locks on the door, and they'll post notice on the door in case she returns.

She returns.

She's subject to being arrested, he or she, anybody. So that's kind of the process, and that's where we're at at this point in time, is waiting for that process.

Yeah, and one thing the lawyer told me was that we were originally just gonna go for a possession judgment, and because apparently if you try to go for the monetary judgment, it can prolong because maybe she fights against that or something. So that was one thing that was an extra win. And then also, it's going to be at this point unsealed, meaning there's a chance if they show up at court that you can settle. And the judge is telling everybody to, you know, if both sides are here, try and settle because it's— it may not go the way that you want it once it goes to trial. And so she wasn't there to do that, but when I saw a lot of the other cases They settled and the defendant, the person who hadn't been paying, requested that it was sealed. And so I'm thinking a lot— that happens a lot, maybe. I don't know if that's just a California thing, but you can seal your evictions.

Yeah, and, and honestly, it's probably just a California thing because I personally don't think it should be sealed. If you get to that point and, uh, you know, somebody files an eviction, that should be public record so that the next person doesn't fall into that trap like you did, right? Um, and so that's what— that's kind of what you're talking about it sealed or unsealed. Yeah. And at this point, it's unsealed. And, you know, we're hoping that it stays like that so that if she decides to go rent from somebody else, it'll literally come up that she was just recently evicted.

Yeah.

I think that's only fair. Yeah. You know, for landlords and stuff that it's unsealed. Why should— I don't know who made up that rule. But, you know, again, this is Just California.

Yeah, you know, those are maybe some of the, you know, the liberal laws that they're— that other people in red states are talking about. Yeah, but I mean, I've even heard in Florida there's, there's, there's squatters' rights. And so if you have a squatter in your property, they have rights to the property somehow, and you can't get them out unless you go through the eviction process. So I don't know if we, we may have something like that here, but, you know, even in Florida, that's considered a red state, is you know, subject to some of those laws. So I'm just— I'm assuming some of these other red states, the, the renter has certain rights, you know. And so you just got to go through the process. And I think the main thing here is having somebody that, you know, can take you through the whole process, you know, really smooth. So the guy we use, he's, he's great. So, you know, he'll just get the job done and do it right.

Yeah, it's not something that You can do on your own. Yes, you can. You can file the eviction paperwork on your own and have somebody serve them. It's not something that I would recommend. It's, it's, I think it costs about $1,200 to do that. So yeah, it's not like the end of the world that you're gonna, you know, be losing thousands and thousands of dollars. I, I would literally just have the professionals do it.

Yeah.

It's not something that I would do. And I, I love doing things You know, on my own. I always have. But that's one thing that I never, never ever, you know, took upon myself to do or recommend that anybody do.

No, there's too many moving parts, and you got to know the right schedule and what paper to serve when and how to do that.

It's—

they have it down like clockwork. This is just— it's what they do. And yeah, it totally seems reasonable at that price to Put up with this lady's shenanigans, so I had no I had no problem paying an attorney. And while we were there, he's just like, "This is what you need to say. Don't say anything else." Yeah, they just knew exactly what to do.

No, no. If you've never if you've never been to court, then yeah, they have to kind of tell you like, "Okay, don't don't start talking about you know the hillside and all the you know pretty flowers that you saw that day." And it started out as a good day, you know, but then it ended. up being this. Nobody cares. They just care about the facts. And the quicker you can give that information, the better it is for everybody that's there.

Yeah.

You know, especially the people waiting like us. You know, I don't think we left till maybe like 11. So we were there from like 8.

Yeah.

8 in the morning, we met with the attorney till about 11.

Yeah.

Not that that's a long period of time, but, um, you know, we all have I have better things to do than to sit there and wait in court.

Yeah.

And I'm glad they do have an afternoon session, so I'm glad that, um, you know, there wasn't so many people there that we had to go to an afternoon session because—

oh wow.

Yeah, then you would have had to buy me lunch and, you know, it would cost you more.

So that's right. Yeah. Okay, so that's what happens if you don't go through first call, second call. Yeah, just keep getting pushed.

Yeah, sometimes they'll push you to You know, after one, two o'clock come back. Everybody come back after one or two. Oh, and by the way, lunch for them in court is literally from twelve to two. It's not you know it's not an hour. It's like okay, we're gonna adjourn and we'll be back at two.

Oh, two? Yeah.

That's two hours. What the hell are you doing? You know, one martini is not enough. You need several. Yeah. Well, after listening to a lot of the people there, and it was. That was interesting to me, and it always is interesting to me because we had a couple that were getting evicted, and they brought six kids with them. Yeah, and it did not look like they were their kids. Right. Okay.

I know what they're saying.

And this is like during the middle of the day. They are you know why aren't these kids in school? Like if I were the judge, that would be my first question is like are are all those kids back there with you, and how come they're not in school?

Right.

Well, Judge, you know, they're, they're our sympathy factor. Okay. So like, you know, we thought we'd pull at your heartstrings, you know, do you really want to evict all these kids?

Yeah.

You know, but, uh, they settled.

Right.

You know, they didn't even get to that point. So they settled. And I think at the end of the day, they owed $20 grand. And when you asked me earlier, I go, you go, you think they're going to pay the $20 grand? And I go, in your dreams, they're going to pay it. They're not gonna pay it. They're definitely gonna move out because that's one thing that the attorney does is once you get the judgment, even if there's a settlement and the date that they have to move by. So let's say they have to move by June 1st. He always, always starts the prep work to get the sheriff out there because he doesn't believe anybody. He's been doing this for such a long time that, okay, if they're out, June 1st. Okay, great, because the sheriff's coming June 2nd. Okay. Yeah. And if they're not out, we'll make sure that they're out.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we have one more in the, in the docket here.

Yeah, we do. Yeah, we have one more. That was an unusual, unusual situation, but we actually drove by that property and to see if they were like in any way in the process of moving and I know, you know, they're out front having a good time, talking to some people out in front. And Alex is driving by going, you know, hey, oh gosh, what happens if they recognize me? I go, they're not going to recognize you.

Didn't care.

Just keep driving by slow, you know, just go down the street, turn back around. And we came back around, you know, they were— they weren't paying attention to us whatsoever.

Yeah, the, the owner texted me this morning, or the, the people we bought it from, Oh, really? Yeah. And she was like, hey, I heard from, uh, one of the family members that they're— they haven't even started anything. They don't plan on doing it. And so she was wondering, like, is there a chance that, you know, it won't go through? And I was like, no, it just— this is the process, and it seems like a long time, but it's not. Once, once you get that court date, it's like it goes by quick. So yeah, it was just funny that we drove— I was like, we drove by. Yeah, it looked like he was just— wow, he just leaned up against the car, just no care in the world.

Yeah. And I've seen them go down to the last minute, literally the last minute.

Yeah.

You know, and they take and they throw all their stuff out on the front yard, on the street. And, you know, you get there and, are you coming back for this stuff?

Right.

Maybe that couch there, but yeah, the rest of it, we don't care about it.

Oh my God.

Okay, well, why don't you just leave it in the house? I'd take care of it then. You know, it's in the house.

Yeah.

You know, but no. Yeah, you got the whole street and all the neighbors, you know, it's like, okay, you guys gonna pick this stuff up? Yeah, we'll pick it up, don't worry about it.

Interesting. But I totally see, um, tired landlord. I could see that. Yeah, now being on the other side, I'm like, okay, now I see why these people are just like, well, if you take care of this tenant situation, I will sell you my property. Yeah, so that totally— no, absolutely, totally makes sense to me now being on the other side because it's, uh Yeah, and if you have multiple properties, you know, just dealing with the intricacies of certain types of peoples and personalities, you know, and so, yeah, can turn into a full-time job.

And sometimes people are, you know, letting their relatives live in properties.

Oh yeah, that's a big one.

It's like, I know I don't want to deal with it, can you deal with it? Because that's my son that's living there, you know. Yeah, it's like my sister or whatever.

Right.

You know, so, um, you know, those are actually good calls because you're, you're there trying to solve a problem, and that's the problem you're going to solve, is to get them out of this mess that they're in and inherit, uh, you know, the mess of a tenant in place that you need to take out.

That's going to be my next list to pull, is to figure out how to get that— the, the list of people that are actually Going through evictions. Because I know it's possible, but I feel like that could be a high-performing list. So yeah, I'm gonna start that process soon. Yeah, go to—

yeah, that'd be good. I don't know how you're gonna get it, but yeah, that'd be good.

Apparently you flex the Freedom of Information Act somehow, and really, I don't know, maybe it works.

I don't know.

And then you have to befriend the people at the, the county clerk's office. Is that where they file it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. So maybe I'll go to the one in Santa Ana and see what happens.

Yeah. Bring some flowers.

Bring some flowers, donuts.

Donuts.

Candies.

Candy. Yeah. I guess, you know, I don't know if that still works or not with, uh, you know, this new generation that's on a health, uh, kick.

Oh, true.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe bring something else, some granola bars or something like that.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Cold brew coffee.

Yeah, something.

Yeah. Oh well, that, that'll be another, uh, episode then. We'll report back and see how that goes.

Yeah, sounds great.

Awesome. Well, you guys, um, if you made it this far, please share the podcast with any new or experienced investor. Make sure to check out both of our YouTube channels. He's @JoeHoms, I'm @AlexAndLaurenRealEstate, and We're going to be having some guests coming up soon. We're working that out, so make sure to tune back in, and we'll see you guys on the next one.

See you on the next one. Take care. If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach.