Which states are the friendliest states for LLs, and which states are the friendliest to Tenants?

Things to consider:

- How quickly you can rent a vacant premise.

- How quickly you can turn a unit around at a reasonable cost.

- How quickly can you evict a trouble tenant.

Coastal NC is what I consider very LL friendly if you follow all the rules. Do not attempt self-help evictions.

Otherwise you can:

1) Rent that space as fast you can, no one cares or monitors this.

2) I don't understand this question. It depends on the unit, who is leaving and why, and how you keep your places up. Once rehabbed in the first place, we expect to spend minimal amounts on turn-over: a few blinds, maybe.

3) Within 30 days following proper procedure, and more quickly if illegal activities are involved. File the paperwork, court will be 10 or so days later, sheriff serves tenant.

4) no rent control, no rules about charging for this and that except for amount of Security Deposit and late fees but this is not a profit center anyway, or shouldn't be.

ANd NC *did* make it a criminal misdeameanor for a tenant to deliberately damage a rental unit. And if the damage is over a certain amount, of course it goes to a higher crime.

All that said: choose your tenants wisely in the first place. NC does not allow garnishment, and you can't get a monetary judgment on rent or damages if tenant does not show up in court or if sheriff posted rather than personally served notice.

So first you sue for back rent and possession. You will get only possession, so file the first second they are late. THEN after they are out, charge them for criminal damage, I guess. I have never had to do this so I'm guessing.

I believe Missouri is well-balance towards both parties, which is as it should be. We don't require Pay or Quit. That was always a stupid requirement I thought. What other business do you have to demand the money that everyone already agreed was due?

We are a "no cause" eviction state too. I can terminate a lease once it expires because....ta-da...it's my property! If a person wants stability, they can go buy house or negotiate a longer term lease.

Tenants have rights as well. We have to achieve personal service to get a money judgment. Keeps shady LL's from just filing for money after taking a wad of cash.

It also takes about 3 weeks to get to court. I hate that all the tenant has to do is say, "I'm contesting this" and we have to do a trial in 1-2 weeks. No evidence or reason required. I think if it comes out later that they were just blowing smoke, there should be an additional penalty for wasting the court's and the land lord's time. Might make them think twice.

There's also a 10 day window to appeal the judgment, so a tenant can assert their rights still if they feel something was not done fairly. I've never had anyone do it.

NJ is one of the least landlord-friendly. The landlord-tenant laws are actually called the "Anti-Eviction" laws. That pretty much says it all.

Accidental Rental - what???!! So if you just want to sell your property (as an example) and there is a tenant in it - you can't just say "effective - 90 days from now - your tenancy is no longer allowed (or whatever)"? If they want to stay they keep paying?

What if you want to increase the rent? Is there a limit to that? So if you are charging $1200 but want them out - can you raise it so $1500 (with proper notice). Is that how you do it?

If you sell, the lease stays in place - it "attaches" to the property as the lawyers say. The buyer assumes the lease obligations.

There are only 17 reasons you can legally evict in NJ. One is if tenant fails to pay a rent increase. So the advice I've heard is to increase the rent just enough so that it stings but not enough that a judge would rule it "unreasonable." I've heard that anything over 10% might be unreasonable but it's up to each judge.

If they fail to pay the "reasonable" rent increase, then you can start the eviction process.

It's messed up but most tenants don't even know about this law so it rarely comes up.

I have managed in 5 states in my peak, where I see the problems in housing court is commonly owner/managers who are not aware of the laws, they want to enforce a verbal disagreement and judges quickly give up on a case like this. Sometimes when the manager is not up to date the judge explains when and why this change came about and rule on a case after pressing it thru the old law if the tenant has really gone sour, the best thing for a owner/manager is to be involved in the housing rules and that includes attending council or alderman meetings to prevent unfair laws going into effect, a classic example is rent control dynamics and animal allowance.

We all face snags in the business and some turn away from simple problems, but when you ignore things repeatedly the tenant will run over you.

With your list of questions, I don't think you can look at it state by state. It is more local than that.

For example, I own in a town of 1/4 million in Texas. Rents have steadily increased, I typically can fill a vacancy with a good tenant in 2-5 days, have evicted in 21 days, and both cash flow and property values continue to go up.

Just down the road is small town of less than 3 thousand, vacancies take months to fill, the tenant pool is not good, and rents haven't increased in several years. The evictions times/costs are about the same. This little town is dying a slow death.

If you are going to look at it by state, the comparison to look for is the statutes and court practices leaning one way or the other, otherwise you have to get down to cities and maybe even down to neighborhoods.

In CA when I was a kid I thought it was normal for my mother to throw lamps at deadbeats. It took forever to evict, two months wasn't unusual, so there was a lot of emotion and self help. She ended up going to law school and becoming a lawyer. LOL

Cut to AZ. Casino river resort town. Worst tenant pool imaginable. Overall AZ is very LL friendly, but losing ground. All the social ists moving to Tucsonifornia and bringing their anti LL trends outvote those of us in the rural areas. Scammers and deadbeats galore.

IF you hit all your dates you can do 21 day evictions. 5 day pay or quit, 7-10 days for court, 7 days to lockout. We also have a squatter or unwelcome guest law. If not named in a lease they can be removed by police without notice, with some caveats.

Negatives, you can only charge 1 1/2 month rent as deposit and last month rent. So if your rent is $500 you only get a $250 deposit. And because we have to provide the 30 day notice BEFORE the rental cycle is due they always stiff you on the last month rent.

Also now we are required to use the constable, which often delays eviction due to service failure. The constable isn't going to flip the breaker to force them outside to be served, or stake the property out until they show.

Also a growing numbers of cities are adding taxes on rentals. Our town is 2% if you own over 3, but most SFH investors side step it via LLC's and trusts in different names. So it only hits multi owners like me. Yet another reason I got out of residential rentals. My rents have to be higher than the dump house next to my apts owned by an out of state slumlord. Very unfair.

Our town added a registry a couple years ago. Any rental owned by a non AZ resident must be registered with the owner or mgt contact posted on the property. I'd guess there is maybe a 1% compliance. Inspection fees are the next trend, thanks to Airbnb.

Our License Plate Motto is ...."Live Free or Die"

no sales tax

No Income tax

Indiana is overall, but alot depends on local judges.