I have owned a new park for about 3 months. 24 homes. I have 1 awful person. She is nonstop complaining to us (many long emails daily) and picks fights with all the neighbors and onsite manager. Big time victim mentality. She calls the police all the time. I am putting in speed bumps for her. I just notified her that she is receiving an official violation notice for obstructing management’s ability to run the park. She was harassing my manager for taking pictures of obstructions she put in the road. She has been on a rent to own for like 7 years. It ends in Jan 2026. She always pays her rent and the home and lot are in good condition. After I told her of the violation she said after her home is paid off she might sell it or move it. This is music to my ears. I know it is bluster from her but I feel like I should go for it and offer to buy the home.
Does anyone think this is NOT a smart approach? I don’t want her to move the home. I would need to offer her at least 10k I think, probably more. She paid 31k on the rent to own but clearly that is an inflated price based on long term payments. I would think walking away with 10k in her pocket could be enticing. I also feel like she will be hesitant to leave even though she hates everyone.
Is it crazy to offer 10k for a house I technically own? I think it will come out ok financially in the end after a few years. It is more just ridding my park of this lady.
Goodness gracious. She’s a nightmare. I don’t think buying her out is crazy. You said the home is in good shape and you don’t want that home to leave the park so you should be able to sell/RTO that to another tenant shortly after and it sounds like you would come out on top. She might ask for more, so be ready but it may make sense financially and for the sake of headaches and stress.
Would love to get her out but not breaking the bank to do it. She will be a pain to even go through a sale with but I will probably take a stab. She will probably say I am forcing her out and bullying her even though she said in writing she was going to sell or move.
I am sorry to hear about this. What a miserable individual. “Cash for keys” is one option. We’ve done it before with RTO tenants. Usually our payouts are between $500-1000.
That said, I feel $10k is way too much. This is probably not someone you want to evict, unless your case is bulletproof. It CAN be done, I’m just warning you to have a good file to back your case. For evictions, most people always assume its for non-payment. This is false. We’ve evicted for other reasons (and during COVID, mind you). One good reason is multiple repeat violations of Park Rules. A good one the court may side with you on is SAFETY. Did she ever do anything posed a major safety hazard to your staff or residents? Something to consider.
Safey hazard yes. She narrowed the road with bricks and lights so people would not drive as close to her home. I gave her a violation and she moved them back. The tricky thing is she is 7 months from paying off an 8 year RTO. $500 - $1,000 would never work for cash for keys. I feel like I am really in a position of just buying a used home from someone. The contract price for her home was $31,000. Not worth that on cash at this point, not even close.
Like DaveR said, you could get her out on rules violations. Did you ‘buy’ the RTO paper? If not and you don’t have to recover that cost, consider cancelling the RTO, put the home in her name, then get her out on rules violations. You are at risk of the home being moved unfortunately but she likely can’t afford to move it and will sell it - no flipper will buy the home because it will be too expensive so she’ll have to sell it for retail price to a future tenant - all the while throughout the selling cycle she will have to pay lot rent. To get her out quickly, find out the retail price for that home in your demographic/area, offer her 75/80% of that value (or more) in cash, then resell it and make a few dollars or break even… or even take a small loss (a small loss is a small price to pay to not have the headache)
I had someone similar once and this may be a crazy approach to it. I actually just took her out to lunch and we talked it out. There is a reason people act out like this- trauma, insecurity, need to control, etc. We talked. I listened. Engaged her in the park and our plans…
May blow up in your face but maybe an option. Save you some money…