As a landlord, your goal is to make money right? Of course, but sometimes even the most experienced landlords leave money on the table. A bad tenant can leave you tired, frustrated, and you may want to just get on with other business. But, if you expend a little more effort, you can get some of that money back that you were prepared to just write off.

1. Sometimes just a letter to the tenant can translate into money. Even though your tenant may have gone through rough financial times during their stay with you, they may now have an improved financial picture as the economy has picked up steam. Maybe they are concerned about their credit now and trying to get financially stable again. So this might be the time that they pay the back rent owed, or at least make a payment arrangement with you.

2. If the previous tenant is still refusing to pay back rent owed, you still have options besides the legal route. There are services on the Internet that will do the heavy lifting for you. These rent recovery services will generate the collection letters, and handle the credit reporting for you. Many of them will aggressively pursue collection so that you don’t have to. With the information that they obtain, you can make an informed decision as to whether you need to eventually go to court or not, such as whether is it worthwhile to garnish their wages. You are wasting your time if they don’t have a suitable job.

3. You can get peace of mind by purchasing ‘collection protection’ from the beginning. Some companies offer this preemptive service for a small fee, which will underscore the importance of prompt rent payment to the tenant from the start. They will know that their future credit rating is as risk if they don’t pay on time, and that payment will be aggressively pursued if they skip out.

As a landlord, you have enough to deal with. There is no reason why you cannot be worry-free about tenants that don’t pay their rent and move out. Just a little action and prevention can go a long way.