Your experience is similar to mine. I’ve twenty rental properties for twelve years, probably 100 different tenants in that time. I’ve never evicted anyone. In three cases, I chose not to renew the lease because they were causing problems. I’ve never had a tenant stiff me on rent.
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I have had some pretty bad tenants but that is not the norm. If they have a financial setback or divorce then it can get pretty bad. In the few cases I have had to evict they waited until the last possible day when the sheriff was coming to put them out.
I have decided I will try to avoid all that in the future by offering a months rent in cash if they leave within a couple weeks, that will save me money in the long run.
I have people leave after breaking the windows, putting holes in the walls, ruining the floor with dog poop and pee, when they weren’t supposed to have any pets. I’ve had to replace doors, windows, sub floor and flooring. I’ve had my appliances stolen. It can easily take a year to break even but I still do it. All my original money is still there and then some.
If I can maintain my health I will keep the rentals for the income if not I will sell out. If I do sell out the capital gains taxes will eat me up and I will have a drastic cut in monthly income. I think I might be better off having a property management company take care of them for me. I only have 8 units so it isn’t too bad right now but I am getting older every year so that it is becoming a real hassle.
I would 1031 it into something more feasible to avoid cap gains. Not sure where you are located but in a BLUE state ANYTHING is a better risk.
Ye olde cash for keys. I haven’t gotten to that point yet however I no longer do rental agreements longer than month to month since the tenant pool is now extremely poor and in BLUE states the only person held to a contract is the LL, not the tenant.