In this video, seasoned broker, mentor, and investor Joe Homs (40+ years experience) outlines a step‑by‑step approach for landlords when tenants stop paying rent. He advises first reviewing the lease to confirm legal eviction rights, then personally contacting the tenant—often by knocking on the door—to discuss the situation and clearly explain his process. Homs stresses demanding the full amount owed because accepting partial rent can block an eviction. If payment isn’t forthcoming, he recommends hiring an eviction attorney (about $1,100 to cover notice service and filing) who will serve the proper notice, file the eviction lawsuit, and navigate court requirements, avoiding service defects. He warns tenants that an eviction will appear on their permanent credit and rental records, making future leasing difficult, which can be used as leverage. Finally, Homs suggests landlords who lack experience consider hiring a property management company to handle the process professionally. Throughout, he emphasizes staying calm, professional, and not hesitating to bring in experts.
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What should you do when tenants stop paying rent? As a broker, mentor, and investor for over 40 years, I've seen my fair share of tenant troubles, and I'm here to give you some tips on what to do when this happens. It's never a pleasant situation when tenants stop paying rent, but it's important to stay calm and handle it professionally. Here are some steps that you can take. Hi, I'm Joe Homs, and I have over 40 years of experience as a broker, mentor, and investor, and I want you to subscribe so that you never miss a video. First, let's start off with your lease agreement. Your lease agreement should be professionally done, so make sure that you review whatever that lease agreement is, wherever you got it from. Hopefully you got it from a professional that knows what they're doing. Maybe it was vetted by an attorney. Real estate agents are a good place to get lease agreements because they are, they are all reviewed by a real estate attorney. So make sure the first thing you do is read that to make sure that you have the legal right to start an eviction process. Number 2, I always like to reach out to the tenant. I like— in fact, I go knock on their door to find out in person what's going on. And you'd be surprised what they tell you. But then, then I would go into my process and I would tell them, you know, understand I'm not here to threaten you in any way. I'm here just to collect the rent for the owner, and if that's not possible and you're telling me that's not possible for whatever reason, now I'm going to tell you what my process is, and my process is I've been here and I've spoken to you in person, and hopefully we can resolve this. So I would begin there. Hope you're getting value out of these videos. All I ask in return is that you hit that like button, and in my process How do you do this? How I do this is basically I kind of inform them that, okay, if I, if I was able to get some money from you, and hopefully it's, it's all of it, because the minute you accept half of the rent payment, then you're going on to the next month. You can't start an eviction if you've received some money from this tenant. So I like to get all of it. And if you're not getting all of it at that point in time, then I tell them, Okay, so my next recourse is to go through the eviction process. The eviction process for me, my eviction attorney charges about $1,100 to go through the eviction up to the court date, and that's serving the notice and actually filing the paperwork to go to court and try to get this person, if they're cooperative, evicted in a short period of time. If they're not cooperative, then yeah, we're going to end up going to court. The next thing is once the attorney has it, he's going to serve a notice on, on the property and the individual. And yes, I can do that myself, but the problem is if I do it and I have somebody else serve the notice for me, because you don't want an interested party doing all that, if I take it to my attorney at the end of the day, he's going to want to do everything all over again. He knows how to do everything, so I just immediately just send it to the attorney and let him take it from A to Z because he knows the process, he knows what the court wants, and he knows how to get around all these, you know, tenants saying I wasn't served properly or things like that. So I just let my attorney do the service. Then once we do that, then he does file an eviction lawsuit. They're given a period of time Okay. To pay me or pay my client the money that's owed me, and if they don't, then he actually files the paperwork, the eviction paperwork, to go into court and start the process. The other thing I forgot to say is when I'm speaking to tenants, I, again, I tell them my process, but I also tell them if I have to go through the eviction route, this is something that's going to be on your permanent record for the rest of your life, really. If somebody pulls up your FICO score, or if you go out and want to lease another property, that's going to show up. And so now you tell me, if you're a landlord, would you rent to this person who's already been evicted once before? Probably not. You should always consider hiring a property management company if you don't know what you're doing. You can get yourself in a lot of deep, hot water. If you don't know what the process is from beginning to end. So that's where a property management company may, you know, be able to help you and assist you. So think about hiring a property manager. Dealing with tenants who stop paying rent is never fun, but it's important to approach it calmly and professionally. And if it all gets too overwhelming, don't be afraid to bring in the professionals. Feel free to leave a comment with any questions or feedback. And remember, don't let tenant troubles keep you up at night. If you're thinking about purchasing a property with tenants in place, click on this video right here. As always, feel free to reach out anytime. I'm always here to help. Rip your pants off.
