Another Day in Court!

I am actually off today as I have been for most of the past week or so. However, I had to make an appearance in court today for a lawsuit I have against a previous tenant. This lawsuit was originally scheduled earlier in the month, but my attorney had a sick child and the court proceedings were rescheduled.

I normally don't sue tenants for damages after we evict them, but these tenants made me angry. Therefore, I'm suing them just to make their lives miserable. They spread tacks and nails throughout the house to make cleaning the carpet difficult and the intentionally made a BIG mess of the place. The straw that broke the camel's back was that they abandoned a little kitten outside in freezing temperatures. Fortunately, I found it in time to save it, but these tenants were just real scumbags and I wanted to make a point.

The tenants didn't show up in court today and I received a judgement for almost $3,000. I probably won't collect it, but I will try to make their lives miserable for the next few years. In addition, they will have a judgement on their credit report and an eviction on their record. That should make it impossible for them to buy a house and make it difficult to find places to rent.

Happy New Year!

Busy Christmas Week!

This has been a busy Christmas week. I've never been to so many Christmas parties in my life. We had company much of the week and are just now beginning to relax.

I did a little work the past two days. The appraiser came to look at the properties that I'm buying and the one that I'm refinancing. In addition, I showed my 2 bedroom house to an applicant and she rented the house. This was the house that I previously wrote about the gas furnace with the cracked heat exchanger. Here in Ohio, people want all electric houses. Houses with gas heat are very hard to rent. Therefore, I spent about 4 hours yesterday and 2 hours today installing electric baseboard heat in the house.

On Monday, I have a court hearing (previously continued) for the last deadbeat that we evicted in November. I'm suing the deadbeat for the damage they caused to the house. I just found out today that their water had be shut off in July and they had broken into the meter and turned it back on. The water company sent me a bill for this, which I will not pay. However, on Monday I will be visiting the police to file a report about this criminal activity.

Tomorrow, we will be going snowboarding, weather permitting. Only a couple of weeks to our first big snowboarding trip in New York (Holiday Valley).

Break-in

I spent about 2 hours working today (if you could call it work). Today started out with me inspecting the new roof that I had put on one of my apartment building. This was the most difficult part of the day as that roof is WAY UP THERE and the contractor's ladder was very flimsy. At any rate, since I paid $2,000 to have the roof redone, I felt compelled to get my courage up and climb that rickety ladder and take a look. The job looked good and I wrote the contractor a check for the work he did.

I then went over to one of our apartments that had been involved in a break-in on the evening of the 22nd. The tenant called me yesterday to inform me that his apartment had been broken into. I always ask if the tenant called the police and if the police caught the criminals - they had. The criminal was in jail and has been charged with felony aggravated burglary and criminal tresspassing. I then asked if he knew the criminal - he did! In almost every case in which one of my tenants has been the victim of a crime, it is their fault. They hang around with scum and then are victimized by the scum. That is exactly what happened in this case. My tenant was friends with this criminal, who was a local tattoo artist, and the criminal broke in to steal his prescription medication and other things. This is very typical with low income tenants. They have a lot of problems and they are all self-inflicted!!!

The criminal kicked in the lower panel of a side door and broke the door jam. I screwed the door shut (with 3 inch screws) and made a wood panel to replace the broken panel. That was it for today!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Great Weekend!

We're back after taking yesterday and today off to go snowboarding. The weather was quite warm for late December, with today getting into the 50's. However, the snow conditions were quite good and there was almost no crowd either yesterday or today. We had a lot of fun, starting out just snowboarding and then heading over to the terrain park for some jumps and tables. Lots of fun.

Even though I was off yesterday, I did do one work related thing before we left. That work was to do the paper work for a new LLC for my new rentals. I also got an EIN (employer identification number) for the new LLC. I will need the new LLC and the EIN to close the loan with the bank.

That's it for today. All that snowboarding wore me out!

End of the Week!

Today was the end of the week for me! I took Monday off to go snowboarding and I'm taking tomorrow (and Saturday) off to go snowboarding again. I did a little work today (for about 2 hours) on one of my rentals, but my mind wasn't really in the work. Christmas is getting close and I'm ready for snowboarding and Christmas activities - not work.

This freedom to do what I want to do is my favorite part of my rental business. I'm not anticipating much work happening between now and the end of the year!

Loan Approved!

I got some good news from the bank today. They say that they will fund my latest purchase of 10 rental units in 4 buildings. This includes 2 single family houses, a duplex, and a 6 unit apartment building. This is the first loan I have done since all the sub-prime fiasco; credit crunch, etc. No problem!

In addition to talking to the bank, I also had to do a little credit repair work on my own credit score. When I was talking to my bank about the loan, they told me that my credit score had dropped a BUNCH because the other local bank I use had turned in several late payments to the credit bureau. Since I've never made a late payment on anything, I knew immediately what the problem was. Here's the story: I use two small local banks for all my real estate purchases. At one of the banks, I have a line of credit. Commercial lines of credit usually run for a year and then must be renewed. Normally, this renewal only takes a signature and it's done. However, the paperwork apparently wasn't right on my line of credit and the bank needed to redo it from square one. For whatever reason, this took them 3 or 4 months. During this 3 or 4 month period, the line of credit was technically in default because it had become due and payable when it expired. I received a statement during each of those months saying that I owed the entire amount plus a late fee. When I received the first one, I called the bank President and told him about the statements I was receiving. He told me to continue to make the payment and disregard the notices, which I did. Well, apparently, someone at the bank didn't get the memo and turned the loan into the credit bureau. UGH! So, today, I called the President of the bank again and he asked me to bring a copy of my credit report to the bank. I subscribe to FreeCreditReport.com and so I printed a copy off of that and took it to the bank. He explained that he wanted the credit report because the bank needed to determine where they screwed up and that they would remove the items from my credit report.

After this, I did a little more Christmas shopping and then finally went into town to work on my 2 bedroom house. Today, I replaced 2 broken windows with plexiglass (thanks to vandals); replaced several missing lightbulbs (stolen by the tenant); replaced a broken toilet seat; and checked on the bat that I assisted yesterday. I expected to find the bat dead, but he was gone! Maybe he survived after all.

Finally, I showed a rental to a potential tenant. That was about it! I'm going to work a few hours tomorrow and then take Friday off to go snowboarding.

Dr. Doolittle

I got back to work today - well if you can call two hours work! I fixed a lock on one of the tenants doors and replaced a broken window. I then replaced all the mini-blinds on a 2 bedroom house that I'm getting rent-ready. While I was replacing the mini-blinds in the kitchen, I noticed a small bat that had gotten its wing caught in a small corner of the kitchen where the drywall didn't quite meet. Somehow, the bat managed to get his wing wedged in this small crack. There was some blood on the wall where the bat had been injured. When I first saw it, I thought it was dead. I touched it and it immediately began to screech. It was obviously not only alive, but in distress. I put on some gloves and tried to gently slide the bat's wing out of the crack. Unfortunately, that didn't work and the bat was still really stuck. I next tried to pry the two sheets of drywall a little farther apart to open up the crack. Again, no dice! Finally, I used a screwdriver to gently put a hole in the wall just above the bat's wing. With a little work, I was finally able to free the bat. The bat had a small hole in his wing, but I didn't see any obvious serious injuries. Therefore, I took the bat outside and put him in a stack of logs. I doubt if he'll survive, but I did my best to help him out.

After helping the bat and putting up all the miniblinds, I called it quits and headed to the mall to do some Christmas Shopping.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call the bank about my loan for the rentals that I'm buying. I'd like to get these properties closed by the end of the year, if possible.

More Snowboarding Today!

I took another day off today to go snowboarding. The weather was excellent for a day at the mountain. We had a significant snow fall over the weekend and they were making snow today also. They have more than 2 feet of base and all the runs were open. Since today was Monday, there were very few people there. I didn't stand in line for a lift even a single time. I can't even count how many runs I made, but it was a BUNCH. I feel like I am getting close to meeting my goal of being proficient at snowboarding "goofy" (wrong foot forward). One or two more days will probably make me very comfortable boarding both ways. Next, I will need to start jumping "goofy". That should be a challenge!

You might think that I've completely forgotten about my rental business. I have not. I will be doing a little maintenance tomorrow and will probably do a little work Wednesday and Thursday as well (unless someone wants to go snowboarding one of those days). I also need to finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow.

Starting Friday, I'm planning to take off until after Christmas. We're going snowboarding over the weekend and then of course Christmas is on Tuesday. That's about it for today!

SNOWBOARDING!

The best part of owning a rental property business is being able to take off whenever I want. Today was just such a day. Our local ski resort opened today at 4pm (after being closed all week) and therefore I took the day off so that I could be there when they opened. This was Friday and therefore most people had to work today. Therefore, I had the mountain almost to myself for the first hour. In fact, I literally snowboarded a full 45 minutes before I even saw another skier. IT WAS GREAT!

My priority this year is to be able to board "goofy", meaning that I am learning to board with my non-dominant foot forward. It is essential to learn to board both ways so that I can do 180s during jumps. I got a very good start toward that goal today, making many runs "goofy". Now, I just need enough repetition to feel comfortable at higher speeds and jumping. Weather permitting, I may go again Sunday or Monday. Again, Monday would be better as it will be less crowded with most people working.

Christmas Deals!

Christmas came early this year in the form of a 6 unit apartment building. On December 1st, I reported on my blog about a landlord who offered to sell his building to me for $30,000. I finally went to look at the building yesterday and signed a contract right there on the spot.

Today, I went to the bank to talk to them about getting the money for this deal and the four other rentals that we already have under contract. The bank didn't seem to think it would be a problem, and I am hoping to close on all 10 units by the end of the month.

The big issue in this process is that the electric service in the apartment building is only 60 amps. It is very difficult to get insurance on rentals with 60 amp electric, but my insurance agent did find a company that will write this policy for me while I upgrade the electric.

That's about it. A pretty exciting end to the year!

Four for 95

We now have a contract on the last four rentals that we'll probably buy this year. These 2 single family houses and a duplex (with 3 garages) are on a street where I already own several properties. I will be buying all four for $95,000, which is a very good deal. Gross rents will be about $2,300 per month.

I'll be going to the bank on Wednesday to try to obtain the financing for this purchase. I'm anxious to see what changes there have been since all this sub-prime fiasco and credit crunch has occurred. I'll report back on that when I find out. I'd like to close this by the end of the month.

Tomorrow, I have another day in court. I am suing the tenant we recently evicted for damages, mainly because I'm angry that they intentionally damaged the house and because they abandoned a small kitten on the property. That makes them SCUM in my book and I'm going to do everything possible to make their life miserable. That will ruin their credit for several years and will make obtaining a home loan next to impossible. I think it's important that responsible landlords let the deadbeats know that we aren't going to accept this type of behavior.

Rain Halts Snowboarding Day

Well, I had planned to take yesterday off to go snowboarding on opening day at Mad River Mountain. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We had nearly constant drizzle and light rain, and it clearly wasn't a good day for snowboarding.

With the snowboarding day cancelled, I headed into town to work on one of my rentals. This rental is the 3 bedroom house that we recently took back after an eviction. The tenant intentionally clogged up the main drain, probably with rags and opened the cleanout in the basement so that sewage would come out in the basement. The sewage was all dried up yesterday and I spent about 10 minutes shoveling it up. Next, I used my professional, $400 power snake to try to unclog the line. I thought that would take about 10 minutes. After more than 2 hours and making a big mess, I gave up and called my plumber. He has a VERY EXPENSIVE water jet machine. The water spray is so powerful that it will actually cut tree roots! It only took him 10 minutes to clear the blockage. Unfortunately, it costs me about $160 to have them come with their expensive machine, but it had to be done. That was the last thing that needed to be done to this house and the new tenant is moving in this weekend.

Snow Day!

We got our first significant snow of the year today, with about 4 inches of snow on the ground by early afternoon. The roads were quite slippery and my wife had a couple of routine medical tests that needed to be done today. Therefore, I took the day off to drive my wife to her appointment and then we went to Walmart to get new tires for my truck. This freedom to set my own schedule is the thing I like most about the rental property business. I have no boss that I must ask for a day off and I never need to plan a day off in advance.

Speaking of days off, our local ski resort will be opening Friday afternoon. I've been waiting for this day for a month! If the weather looks good Friday, I'm taking the day off to go snowboarding. I'm also taking Monday off to go snowboarding. It doesn't get any better than that!

Inspection - Passed!

Today was the Section 8 inspection on the apartment that I just got back from the previous tenant THIS MORNING. At the beginning of November, I had a tenant move out of one of my two bedroom apartments. The tenants in the adjacent one bedroom apartment wanted the two bedroom apartment. A new Section 8 tenant wanted the one bedroom apartment that was being vacated. I've only had this building since the spring and the two bedroom apartment was in its original condition. It needed new carpet; a complete paint job; and other cosmetic work. I finished the rehab on Friday and the tenants moved their stuff from their apartment to the new one over the weekend. They finished moving and cleaning their apartment last night and I got in there about noon today to prepare for the 3pm Section 8 inspection. Of course, I had rehabbed the 1 bedroom before the current tenant moved in last May and so I was quite confident that very little work needed to be done. Fortunately, that was a correct assumption and by 3pm I had everything ready to go. The apartment passed the inspection and I can move the new Section 8 tenant in later this week.

The fourth of each month is the last day that I collect rents without a late fee. Unfortunately, one tenant didn't pay her rent today and instead informed me that she was leaving immediately. This is the same tenant that I have written about in previous blogs. To recap, she allowed her boyfriend to move in (against the lease) and then discovered that he was a convicted felon and had a LENGTHY CRIMINAL RECORD including felony drug convictions; felony carrying a concealed weapon; and a BUNCH of misdemeanors. She kicked him out and he has been stalking her every since. In the past couple of weeks, he has slashed her tires twice; thrown a brick at her car windshield while she was in the car; shot a pellet gun at her car; and continuously stalked her. She now has a restraining order and the local domestic violence group is helping her leave.

She assured me that she will be out tomorrow and I will not post a 3-day notice tomorrow. However, if she doesn't leave tomorrow as promised, I will post a 3-day eviction notice on Thursday. Four days later, I will file an eviction in court if she isn't gone. As a landlord, I won't allow a non-paying tenant to stay rent-free. This may seem harsh, but remember that her poor judgement is what caused her problems. If she had been more diligent in picking a boyfriend, she wouldn't be stalked by a dangerous felon! In my experience, low income tenants have a LOT of drama in their lives, almost all of it self-inflicted.

One bright spot is that I got my last 3 bedroom house rented today. As of today, I am completely out of 1 bedroom and 3 bedroom rentals. I still have three 2 bedroom rentals open.

Rent Day!

I spent the day collecting rents. With it being December and the holidays rapidly approaching, I didn't get many rents on the 1st and 2nd. So, everybody was calling today. Tomorrow morning, I'll divide the money into the respective companies and test all the cash with a conterfeit pen. When I receive the rent, I mark each pile of cash with the name of the tenant I received it from (so that I know who gave me each bill). Then, I will make up deposit slips and take it to the bank. COLLECTING RENT IS MY FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB!

They're blowing snow at Mad River Mountain, our local ski resort. The weather was bitter cold today and more cold is expected all week. Did I mention that I'm ready for some serious snowboarding?

Collected One Rent

Today is Sunday and therefore I didn't work today. I did make a quick trip into town to pickup one rent, but that was about it. This afternoon, I spend a couple of hours fighting the battle in the pacific on my new Play Station 2. I don't play video games very often, but really enjoyed playing it on a very rainy day today.

This evening, my wife and I went to our small group meeting at church. That is always one of the highlights of my week.

Last year, the local ski resort opened on December 9th. I'm hoping for that again this year, but today's warm, 56 degree temperature isn't helping. C'mon cold weather. I've got my new snowboarding jacket and pants ready to go and I'm beginning to dream of riding the snowboard!

How to Find a Great Deal

New investors often tell me that they can't find properties that will cash flow. When I ask them what they have been doing to find great deals, their answer is almost always that they've been looking on the MLS. In my experience, very few good deals are found on the MLS.

I get the majority of my deals by meeting and knowing people. Take a look at what happened to me yesterday:

One of my buildings is a 6-unit apartment building. I was at the building picking up a couple of rents and fixing a light. One section of my building needs to have the shingles replaced and I will be using a contractor to do that job (due to the height of the roof). I thought I had a contractor lined up, but he has suddenly disappeared. As I was leaving my building, there was a roofing contractor working on the house next door. I went over to talk to the contractor about my roof and the homeowner was also there. We began talking about tenants because the contractor also had a rental. I made a comment about the building across the street that has had some terrible tenants in it recently. As it turns out, the homeowner knew the owner of that building and she said that he tried to sell the building to her for $30,000. THIS IS A SIX UNIT BUILDING and should have rents of about $2,300 per month! When I got home, I called the owner and he does want to sell it for $30,000. He has had a string of TERRIBLE tenants. His daughter got involved in drugs and he spent a bunch of money trying to help her get straight. He is depressed about the whole situation and just wants to get rid of it. He will show it to me at the beginning of the week and I will probably buy it on the spot! The retail value of this building is about $220,000! A great deal would be $100,000. For $30,000 IT IS A STEAL! This is how I get most of my deals - by getting out of the house and talking to people. I buy a lot of properties from disgruntled landlords. Unless you MEET a lot of people, you'll never even hear about these deals. My advice: GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND TALK TO PEOPLE!

Typical Day

Nothing too exciting to report today. In fact, it was just a typical day in the rental property business. It was quite cold today, so I didn't leave for work until about 11am. No sooner than I got in the truck, I received a call from a potential tenant that wanted to look at my 2 bedroom house. So, I went to show that house before I started working on the rental. When I finally arrived at the rental, I started by removing the old, nasty carpet. This was quite a job because someone in the past had nailed part of it down, even though there were tack strips in-place. After I removed all the carpet and took it to the truck, I removed the old vertical blinds and headed to the dump with an entire truck load of carpet, blinds, and other trash. After dumping the trash, I made my daily trip to Lowes and bought miniblinds for the windows and carpet for the living room and stairs. Back at the rental, I installed the new mini-blinds. By then, it was after 3pm and I decided to head home. Tomorrow, I plan to install all the carpet and have the apartment just about finished.

The true beauty of having a rental property business will rapidly present itself in the form of WINTER! When the weather turns a little colder, my rental property business will allow me to spend many days snowboarding, while others are working their 9-5. That's what I love about the rental property business - the freedom to do what I want, when I want to do it!!!

Felon, Felon, Go Away!

Way back on November 10th, one of the topics on my blog concerned a low-income female tenant of mine who allowed a man to shack up with her (against the lease). She started having a bad feeling about the guy and when I helped her do a criminal background check on him, she discovered that he was a convicted felon. His background included trafficking in illegal drugs and carrying a concealed weapon under disability. He is a bad dude!!!

The tenant kicked the guy out on the 10th and I changed the locks for her (she was dumb enough to give him a key). Well, things have gone downhill since then. He has made several threats against her and is apparently trying to carry them out. He started out by slashing her tires TWICE! Then, he found her sitting in her car in town and threw a brick at her windshield. He also harassed her on the telephone until she changed her phone number. The tenant has called the police each time, but so far the police haven't done anything, although they are supposedly looking for him after the brick incident.

This morning, he called me. He accused me of stealing his SS# or driver's license number in order to do the criminal background check. I informed him that criminal records are public information and that you don't need a SS# or driver's license number to check a person's criminal background. Fortunately, I have an unlisted home phone number and NEVER tell anyone where I live. Therefore, he hasn't tried to do anything to me yet, but I am religiously carrying my handgun as always - just to be safe. When you are a landlord, you make a lot of enemies with people you evict; people you decline for a rental; and drug addicts/dealers you turn into the police.

Just part of the daily drama of dealing with low income tenants!

What's Wrong with Antuane?

Winter is typically a difficult time to find new tenants. Fortunately, I am very nearly full this winter. I currently only have 3 units left: a two bedroom apartment; a two bedroom house; and a three bedroom house (my most recent eviction). I would certainly like to have these properties rented for the winter! However, I learned long ago that it is infinitely preferable to wish you had a tenant than to have a tenant and wish you didn't!!!

It takes a lot of discipline to turn down applicants when you have vacancies. It is even harder when you turn down several potential tenants in a row. Such has been the case this last week for me. If my count is correct, I have now turned down 6 of the last 7 applicants. This is after screening them on the phone (before I agree to show the property to them) and screening them again before I give them an application.

Antuane was my latest applicant to be turned down. Antuane called me about a week ago looking for a 3 bedroom house to rent. He was well-spoken and said that he was looking for a rental for his family, which consisted of Antuane, his wife, and two children. I described the house to Antuane on the telephone and explained our screening criteria to him. Antuane then drove by the property and called me back to say that he was interested in seeing the interior of the house. I met Antuane at the property and was surprised that his wife wasn't there also. Everyone that is married knows that a husband would NOT dare to rent a house without his wife approving of the property (I know I wouldn't).

Antuane was a clean cut young man that was well dressed and with no inappropriate tattoos (so far, so good). He only spent about 2 minutes looking at the interior of the house and then asked for an application. I found that quite odd. I have shown rentals to hundreds of people and usually people spend more time looking around and then have several questions. I was beginning to become a little suspicious. I gave Antuane the application and again explained our screening criteria to him. He assured me that he would pass the screening without a problem.

A couple of days later (yesterday), I received a call from Antuane who said that he left the application in the mailbox at the rental. I told him that I would look at it and that he should call me in the evening. While I was in town, I picked up the application and last evening I began to screen it. I always start with the criminal background check because a bad criminal record is the number one reason that we decline applicants. Sure enough, Antuane was lying to me. He had a lengthy criminal record including possession of cocaine. He also had a recent eviction. That was enough for me! I only spent two minutes on the screening and had already found 3 pages of criminal history and an eviction. That was enough for me!

This morning I received a call from Antuane. He asked if I had reviewed his application. I responded, "as you are well aware, you did not pass." Antuane acted like he was surprised. "What did you find, he asked". I responded, "you have three full pages of criminal activity including possession of cocaine! You also have a recent eviction." He again sounded surprised, at which point I said "YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT YOU'RE A CRIMINAL, SO THERE IS NO REASON TO PRETEND OTHERWISE. The company does not allow me to rent to criminals. Goodbye." With that, our conversation was over.

It never fails to amaze me that these criminals think everyone else is stupid. I guess that is why we must screen our potential applicants.

Thanksgiving is over and most Americans have been stuffed with turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie! We take this one day each year to be thankful and that is well justified. As a nation, we are truly blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. One of the things that I am most thankful for is the freedom that we have in this nation to be anything we can dream of (and are willing to work for).

For me, that means owning a rental property that allows me to be semi-retired at a relatively young age. In my opinion, this is truly the best business in the world. I make a nice income and only work 3-4 hours per day, 3-4 days per week (12-16 hours per week). I also have the freedom to set my own schedule, which is everything to me.

I write this blog to give new investors a look at the REAL WORLD of owning a rental property business (as opposed to all the silly guru hype out there). Therefore, I am constantly writing about what I'm doing. That means talking about evictions and terrible tenants. That means talking about stolen copper water lines. That means talking about fixing leaky toilets and damage caused by angry tenants. All of that IS the reality of my daily adventure in the rental property business. However, that is not the entire story.

I guess that I should set the record straight. When I talk about the tenant from hell, that's because there isn't anything to say about the 90% of tenants who are absolutely no trouble. When I talk repairing a leaky toilet, that's because there is nothing to say about the dozens of toilets that are not leaking. Yes, there are challenges in the rental property business (and in all other businesses), but when all is said and done, this is a GREAT business!

So, on this last day of the Thanksgiving weekend, I'd just like to set the record straight. Most tenants are good tenants. Most of my buildings require no maintenance at any given time. Most of the week, I'm not working thanks to my rental property business. I never need to set an alarm clock or ask a boss for anything. Starting in the next couple of weeks, there will probably be a lot of weekdays when I don't do any work on my rentals. While the rest of America will be at their 9-5 job, I'll be working hard on my snowboarding technique.

I am thankful for my rental property business!

Carpet and Paint

My recent eviction resulted in a house that needed a typical carpet and paint rehab. In this case, the carpet looked TERRIBLE, but was less than a year old. I spent most of yesterday steam cleaning the carpet; removing all the stickers that the tenant put on the walls; filling nail holes and small holes in the walls; and painting the living room. It is starting to look good again.

I will still need to steam clean the living room again (once it's dry) and paint most of the walls in the house. One thing I do is to always paint all the interiors the same color (Berkshire White). It is therefore very easy to touch up bad spots. Just use a semi-wet brush with Berkshire White and ugly spots are fixed.

Today, I'm going to get back to working on the doublewide project. I'll be installing another leaching line today and should only have 3 more days left on this project. Nothing too exciting this week as we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving on Wednesday and Thursday.

Home Again!

Today was mighty fine! The first thing that made today a great day was that I found a home for the kitten that my deadbeat tenant abandoned. It's ironic, but finding a home for an abandoned kitten holds a good lesson about finding great deals for houses. How did I find a house for my kitten? I found that kitten a home exactly like I find great real estate deals - personal contacts (lots of them). Beginning Thursday afternoon, I began telling everyone the story of my orphaned cat. I told my wife, who told everyone she knew. I told several tenants that I came into contact with. I told everyone at my local REIA meeting. I told my parents. In each case, I asked them to tell everyone they came in contact with about my homeless kitten. By the end of Thursday, I had probably talked to more than 40 people about my kitten. Who knows how many more people they told. I did the same thing Friday. At about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, my mother called to say that she found someone to take the cat. Almost as if this was destined to happen, my mother called one of her friends who is a pet lover. About an hour before my mother called, this woman's cat had died and she had literally just finished burying it. The woman was distraught about the death of her cat and immediately told my mother that she would take the kitten!!!

This is very similar to the way I find great real estate deals. Hundreds of people know that I buy houses (and I'm telling new people all the time). From that huge network of people, I receive a LOT of calls from people who have a friend that needs to get rid of their property. Contrast that to so many newbies who contact me saying that they can't find properties that will cash flow. When I ask them what they have done to find deals, they usually say something like "I've talked to a realtor". If I had only told one person about my kitten, it would still be homeless! Telling dozens of people who in turn told their friends gave me a huge network of people trying to find that kitten a home!

The other thing that made today a GREAT DAY was Ohio State's vistory over Michigan. GO BUCKS! Will the last one out of Michigan please turn out the lights!

Yesterday was setout day for the deadbeats at one of my best single family houses. Above are the pictures of the refrigerator and the upstairs bedroom, but the rest of the house looked the same. It was a mess and I was surprised at the large amount of stuff they left. Although it was a mess, there were many nice toys; a lot of clothes; some furniture; an air conditioner; and an entire kitchen full of food. I've got to admit - I don't get it. Why would someone leave so much of their stuff? They must have been in complete denial that they were being thrown out. Despite all the junk, what really makes me angry at these scumbag deadbeats is that they abandoned a young kitten. When I arrived yesterday to meet the court bailiff at the house, the kitten was sitting on the front step - cold, hungry, and thirsty. At first, I wasn't sure that the kitten belonged to these people, because they weren't allowed to have pets and I had never seen a pet. However, as I was cleaning up the house, I found a nearly full bag of kitten food in the house. They must have just gotten the kitten and then just abandoned it. As far as I'm concerned they are just THE SCUM OF THE EARTH!

Of course, to offset the lost rent and damage I am keeping the tenant's security deposit. Normally, we'll just drop things at this point. However, I am so infuriated by the tenants making such a mess intentionally and really infuriated about them abandoning a kitten, that I am going forward with our second cause of action for money damages. In fact, I called my lawyer yesterday and told her to proceed! We will probably never collect, but I will ruin their credit and do my best to cause them misery for the next few years. Probably not the best business decision, but I want to ensure that they know that I am not happy and that not everyone will let deadbeats slide. This will have one positive benefit, in that they will undoubtedly spread the word about what I'm doing to them. That will cause other deadbeats to think twice before applying for one of my rentals - A GOOD THING!

Drive By "S.O.B."

I have been called a "slumlord" so many times that I can't possibly remember them all. After all, that is the standard refrain from tenants when they screw up and must be evicted. In my experience, tenants rarely accept responsibility for their actions and therefore will almost always blame the landlord for their shortcomings.

However, today something new happened. I was cleaning out one of our apartments when a van drove by and the woman shouted "you Son of a B****! I immediately recognized it as the woman that I evicted last week. In fact, her setout is coming up this Thursday at 10 am and I haven't seen any evidence that they are moving out yet. I don't know how she knew where I was or if she just happened to be driving by, but this apartment is several blocks from her rental.

As I exited the apartment again a few minutes later, the woman was now walking on the sidewalk outside the apartment building and talking about me on the phone to someone. I heard her say "yes, he's here", as she looked straight at me. That was just a little bit spooky and I was very cautious the rest of the day. You never know when one of these tenants will snap and do something stupid. I always carry my handgun for protection. Fortunately, nothing bad happened today and I'll continue to be extra vigilant for the next couple of weeks.

I'm hoping the tenants will be out of the house before the setout on Thursday, but I doubt it. I have had setouts in the past that required the police to be there the entire day to keep the tenant from becoming violent.

THE RENTAL BUSINESS IS NEVER DULL!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD:

I finally finished the blocks for my doublewide project today. YEAH!


THE BAD:

Just before I was planning to leave the house yesterday to go work on the blocks for my doublewide project, I received a call from the tenant who was moving into our 3 bedroom duplex. Apparently, when the water company tried to turn the water on, they discovered that the copper piping had been stolen from the basement. So instead of getting to work on the blocks, I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours replacing the copper water lines that had been stolen with PEX (plastic water line). Fortunately, installing the PEX is a very fast and easy repair and the tenant now has water!


THE UGLY!

A few days ago, I got a call from one of my female tenants. She allowed a new shack-up boyfriend to move in and was calling to tell me that she didn't feel safe with him. I reminded her that no-one was allowed to live with her without our written permission. I then suggested that we do a criminal background check on him and I discovered that he had three felony convictions for trafficking in illegal drugs; another felony for carrying a concealed weapon under disability; a misdemeanor for domestic violence, and several other misdemeanors.

Yesterday, I received a call from her. Her felon boyfriend would be out of town for a couple of hours and she was throwing all his belongings out on the curb while he was gone. She wanted to know if I would change the locks before he got back. Since I didn't want a felon in my property and I wanted to protect my tenant, I changed the locks for her. When the felon got back, he was NOT HAPPY to find all his belongings sitting on the street. He called me to complain that "my tenant" had illegally evicted him. I told him that she was not allowed to have other people live there without my permission and as far as I was concerned he had never lived there (he was simply visiting - that's what all the tenants say when they allow someone to move in). He threatened to sue her and me for illegally evicting him, at which point I said "go ahead".

The good news is that he's gone. Even if he does sue me, he won't win. I certainly couldn't evict someone who never lived there!

Out of 3's!

I'm now officially out of one-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom apartments and houses. I rented my last three-bedroom duplex yesterday. YEAH! I still have 3 two-bedroom rentals left, but only 1 two-bedroom house is rent ready. I'm very happy that we're almost full again! It certainly would be nice to have a good occupancy during the winter.

I received a call from the Bailiff yesterday. The setout for the tenant I evicted the other day is on the 15th. I am not happy about that! That is 9 days after the eviction hearing. Ohio law requires the deadbeats to be setout within 10 days, so this is the next to last day! This is a VERY NICE 2-3 bedroom house and I'd like to get it re-rented. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it (other than vent my frustration here). UGH!

Today, I will be heading out to the double-wide to continue with the block laying. My goal is to finish the blockwork this week and the rest of the project next week. Then, I can refi to get my money back and I'll be ready to buy the next four.

It is starting to get chilly here in Ohio, so I probably won't go to work today until noon. During nicer weather, I usually work 11am to 2pm, but in the colder weather I think noon to 3pm will be warmer (especially for laying blocks). Also, during the winter, I usually work fewer days than during the summer. During the summer, there are outdoor projects to do and it's easy to work 3-4 days each week. During the winter, there is not as much to do and I'll probably cut back to two or three 3-hour days per week. Besides the lower volume of work, snowboarding season will be starting in about one month. I like to snowboard during the week while most other people are working and the kids are in school. It's almost like having the "mountain" to yourself. With the kids in school, I can also get a lot of practice in the terrain park (and I need it).

Another Day in Court

My day started with a trip to municipal court for an eviction. I had a tenant that decided October was his month not to pay and I promptly filed for eviction. Unfortunately, it takes 4-5 weeks in Ohio to get a hearing and today was my day to get rid of this deadbeat and his family. The deadbeat and his deadbeat wife (I don't like deadbeats) arrived at court just in time for the hearing. They didn't have a lawyer, but of course I did.

My lawyer presented our side of the case first, which was basically that we had a lease with the deadbeats and they didn't pay. The magistrate then asked the deadbeats if they had a defense. Their first defense was that I was rude to them when I came to post the 3 day eviction notice (I was - I don't like deadbeats). Their next defense was that there were a variety of things wrong with the house. This was simply perjury. This is one of my nicest houses and is absolutely beautiful! There is absolutely nothing wrong with the house, but what else were the deadbeats going to say to the magistrate? If they told the truth, they would have said that they were lazy losers who don't pay their bills, but you'll never hear that kind of truth in court. They went on and on and on and on. I thought they would never shut up. Finally, the magistrate heard enough and shut them up.

She then explained to them that the only thing that mattered in an eviction hearing was the fact that they didn't pay the rent. Nothing else would be considered. She then ruled in my favor, followed by explaining the set-out procedure to the tenants. Finally, she asked me if I would give them a few days before filing for the setout. I replied ABSOLUTELY NOT! The tenant loudly protested that this wasn't fair (kind of ironic coming from someone who doesn't pay their rent). "We have children", she protested. I remained silent but was thinking that maybe they should have paid the rent if they cared about their children! They also complained that they couldn't find another place to rent because they had this eviction filing on their record. Maybe they should have thought about that also before they decided not to pay the rent. Good riddance to bad rubbish - that's what I say.

A Little Justice

Tenants have the upperhand in our twisted legal system. There is no doubt about that! Unfortunately, debtors prisons are a thing of the past and people no longer are required to be responsible for their actions. Landlords see this injustice every day. A tenant can stop paying the rent and completely trash their rental without significant reprisals. Yes, the landlord can evict them, but this typically takes well over a month, even in Ohio. Yes, the landlord can sue the tenant for damages and will almost always win. However, the landlord will almost never be able to collect.

Last week, I found myself once again in court. This time wasn't for an eviction case, but rather to testify for another landlord (a friend) about the damage an ex-tenant caused. The landlord made a big mistake by renting a duplex that needed repair. She rented the apartment as-is and with discounted rent and it was agreed that the tenant would do the repairs. Please note that this is illegal in most states. The landlord is legally responsible for providing the tenant with a habitable property and this responsibility can NOT be transferred to the tenant. This was a BIG mistake on the part of the landlord.

This arrangement went bad from the very beginning. No only did the tenant NEVER pay any rent, but in fact the tenant slowly disassembled the interior of the property and sold it. Everything that contained any metal was stolen and sold as scrap. The furnace was stolen. The water lines were stolen. The furnace ducts were removed and stolen. Then, after the metal was gone, the tenant started destroying the enterior of the property. He even stole all the kitchen cabinets! Quite honestly, I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything quite like this. In my opinion, this scumbag tenant should be spending the next 50 years in prison at hard labor. However, in our wacked out judicial system, he wasn't even charged with a crime.

Anyway, the tenant got a FREE lower-than-a-snake, scumbag legal aid lawyer (no, I don't like them). My friend hired a lawyer at $125 per hous. The scumbag legal aid lawyer REQUESTED A JURY TRIAL for the eviction. This was an attempt to stall and it worked. About three months later, the tenant was evicted. My friend contacted the police about everything that was stolen. They would not prosecute or charge the tenant with any crime. They said it was a civil matter. Therefore, my friend sued the tenant for damages. The tenant countersued, which was a little ridiculous considering he had lived free for 8 months and stolen just about everything except the sidewalk. The case finally went to court and the tenant (with his scumbag legal-aid lawyer) agree to a consent decree in which the tenant would pay the landlord for damages by a certain date. That never happened. So, the landlord was back in court this week and I was asked to be a witness to the damage. This never happened either. The tenant didn't show up and the free scumbag legal aid lawyer had pulled some technical trickery that my friend hadn't understood. To make a long story short, after about an hour of meetings between the judge, my friend, and the free scumbag legal aid lawyer, the case was concluded with another consent decree with my friend being awarded a whopping $500. Did I mention that our legal system is a big joke?

So, where does that leave us as landlords? We can evict bad tenants and we can spend money to get worthless judgements. However, every now and then there is a hint of justice. This week, I received a letter from my local metropolitan housing office regarding one of my ex-tenants that didn't pay her portion of the Section 8 payment for her final month. In addition, she didn't pay her final water bill either. When she left (a couple of years ago), I contacted my local Section 8 office and they terminated her from the Section 8 program for failing to pay her portion of the rent.

This weeks letter from Metropolitan Housing was a landlord reference form designed to determine whether the tenant would be eligible to live in a free public housing project. With the referral I sent to Metropolitan Housing, she won't get in. I reported every incident that I had with this tenant. I included a copy of the letter I received from Section 8 stating that she was being dropped from the Section 8 program for failing to pay her portion of the last month's rent. I included a copy of the unpaid water bill and finally I looked up her criminal record on the local court web site and sent that too (she was arrested several times after she left)! So, while I will probably never collect the rent she didn't pay ($58) and her water bill ($123), I got a lot of satisfaction in knowing that the taxpayers won't be paying to house this deadbeat! Maybe, that's a little justice after all!!!

Tongues Anyone?

I now officially have two spare tongues. Hold on, before you jump to the conclusion that you have reached some sort of weird body parts auction site, the tongues I'm talking about are steel tongues from my doublewide project. I finally got back to work on the doublewide project and finally got both of the tongues cut off. Normally, the tongues are bolted on to the frame, but this house didn't have any tongues when I bought the house. The mobile home mover found some tongues but they didn't line up with the bolt holes on the house. So, the mobile home mover welded the tongues onto the house. It was my job to cut them back off.

When I first tried to work on them the other day, one of the torch gauge sets was broken. I bought another gauge set and started cutting the tongues off with the torch. However, I decided that the risk of fire was great enough that I wanted to try cutting the welds off with an angle grinder. I started doing that, but needed another cutting wheel. So, yesterday I finally got the new cutting wheel and was able to successfully remove both tongues.

Yesterday was also inspection day for one of my Section 8 rentals. On the day of the inspection, I usually go the the unit about two hours before the inspection to make sure everything is up to Section 8 standards. This includes checking the smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, paint (especially around the windows), electrical outlets, glass in the windows, plumbing for leaks, etc. I have a 5-gallon bucket that I call my Section 8 bucket. It contains everything necessary to repair most Section 8 issues. For example, one item in the bucket is smoke detector batteries (9 volt batteries) . It is typical to find smoke detectors without batteries. Low income tenants often remove the batteries to use in their CD players and other appliances. Yes, they're just plain stupid for doing so, but that is the reality. When I checked the 3 smoke detectors in the rental unit yesterday, one was missing the battery and one had the battery disconnected so that it wouldn't function. Those would have both been failure items during the Section 8 inspection.

When the Section 8 inspector arrived, it was an inspector I had never met. He explained that the regular inspector was sick and that he was filling in. He also said that he was the trainer for all the Section 8 inspectors in the area. Wonderful! That's all I need - the inspector that trains the other inspectors! As it turned out, the regular inspector had told the trainer inspector that I was one of the better landlords in town, which was nice. I did pass the inspection and the inspector told me that this unit was only the second to pass all day! I felt good about that.

Next up for the doublewide project is to finish the blocks on the end of the house. I am planning to do that on Monday. I'm taking the weekend off. Everything comes to a halt in Ohio when the Buckeyes are playing football. Kickoff today is high noon! Go Bucks!

Almost....

I ALMOST got started working on the doublewide project today. Everything started out well, meeting with another investor and friend (Allagash from REIClub) who was passing through Ohio. He brought some good luck with him from Texas, as I finally got my 3 bedroom house rented today!

Then, I got a call from the bank that the renewal of my business line of credit was done and they wanted to complete it by 2pm today to meet the month end. So, I had to drive back into town to sign a small mountain of paperwork. Next, I met with another applicant for one of our duplexes and stopped by my house to do the screening. This tenant claimed to work at a local prison and have a clean record. However, when I started screening her, I found that she had a recent criminal history and that she had been sued by several local businesses. No thanks. Fortunately, I have a Section 8 tenant that is already approved for this unit, although Section 8 has not done the inspection yet. So, it should be rented either way.

After all this, I finally got out to the doublewide project and prepared to cut the tongues off. Unfortunately, I hadn't used my cutting torch in a couple of years and one of the regulators wouldn't work properly. So, I made another trip to town to the welding shop and bought a new regulator. By the time that was done, I was ready to quit for the day. Tomorrow is another day! You know what they say...third time's a charm.

It's almost always the water!

I left for town this morning with the intention of spending about 15 minutes unclogging a bathtub before I started working on my doublewide project. Unfortunately, these plumbing repairs always seem to take longer than expected. Today, it took a LOT LONGER! What started out as a simple, 15 minute unclogging of the tub turned into a ripping out of the carpet; removing the floor; and replacing the pipes type ordeal.

I started out by trying to unclog the drain with a hand-type snake, which should be fine for all normal clogs. When that didn't work, I tried to use my professional, $400 power snake. I knew that things weren't going to go well when the end of the snake BROKE OFF! With that, I had to remove the carpet and the wood floor to expose the piping. The pipes were very old galvanized lines. I tried to disassemble them, but the fittings were hopelessly corroded together. Therefore, I was forced to cut the pipes off with a sawsall and headed to the plumbing store for the PVC replacements. After all was said and done, I spent about $42 and 3 1/2 hours to fix this problem. I normally only work 3-4 hours each day, so after completing the repair, I decided to call it a day. The doublewide project will be waiting for me tomorrow.

Drying Up!

After a week off, with the exception of showing a few rentals, the ground is starting to dry up and I'm planning on putting in some work on the doublewide tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow is to cut the tongues off the end that has yet to have blocks installed. If I can easily cut them loose, we'll just push them under the house and leave them there. If not, then I'll actually cut them in half and haul the steel to the recycling center.

On Wednesday, I'm hoping to finish the blocks on the end. That will complete the block work and nearly complete the project.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

After being in a drought all summer, we had 4 inches of rain this past week. Unfortunately, all that rain turned my doublewide project into a giant mud hole and therefore I didn't get any additional work done.

In my last post, I stated that I finally found someone that I was able to approve for my 3 bedroom house that is vacant. Unfortunately, they did not come up with the money. I'm showing the house again today to two more couples. I'm still hoping to get it rented for November, but we're starting to get quite late in the month. At any rate, I'd much rather have another month of vacancy that to rent it to a deadbeat that will tear up the house and that I'll only have to evict later.

Qualified!

It was bound to happen. I finally found someone that is qualified to rent my 3 bedroom house. This is a young married couple with 5 children and NO CRIMINAL RECORD!!! They say they want the house and we'll see if they come up with the money. Nothing is a done deal until the money is received and obviously I won't hold it for them without a non-refundable deposit. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In other good news, I now have the blocks laid on the front, back, and one end of the doublewide project. I have laid blocks around many doublewides, but this was the worst. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE TOP BLOCKS HAD TO BE CUT! Many of these blocks required several cuts to fit around beams and other obstacles not typical of more recent doublewides (this one is a 1979).

I just received a call from one of my tenants asking how much the front apartment rented for. They were asking because the front tenant told them he was leaving. You guessed it - I haven't heard a word from him. He certainly hasn't given notice. This is a holdover tenant from the previous landlord and he did not pay a security deposit. The landlord I bought the building from would take just about any story or promise in lieu of a deposit. This is what always happens if you have no deposit. The tenants don't feel obligated to follow the law or the lease because the landlord has no leverage over them. This is the last holdover tenant from the previous landlord, so I won't encounter this situation again soon.

Cash Crunch!

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. If you want to stay in business, you need to have positive cash flow. In fact, the lack of adequate cash flow is the number one reason new businesses fail! I know this and am constantly preaching this to new investors.

To have adequate cash flow, you must buy your rentals at a big discount. Of course, I have done that and all of my rentals cash flow quite nicely. However, in addition to buying right, you must also plan your spending, especially capital expenditures. This month, I did not do this very well and I found myself in a cash crunch. It all started with the doublewide project I am completing. I have been doing this project with all cash and it is nearing completion. That has drained my cash on hand and I will be refinancing later this month to get my cash back. All of this was planned in advance. However, a couple of unexpected events occurred that I hadn't planned for. First, my wife was involved in a major accident. Her Mercedes was totaled and she needed another car. I am a big believer in not using credit for non-income producing assets. In other words, I always pay cash for automobiles. I spent some of my reserve cash on her new Jaguar (2002 Jaguar S-Type). Then, I suddenly had 5 new vacancies, all of which were unexpected. One couple broke up and moved out. Another tenant moved without notice to shack up with her boyfriend. Another long term tenant gave her 30-day notice because she has a new baby and needed a bigger house. Another excellent tenant got custody of a relative and needed a 4 bedroom house. I don't have one available. She gave her 30-day notice last month and moved out this month. Finally, I had to evict another tenant. OUCH!

None of these things by themselves is a big deal. I use cash flow to do projects all the time. The car accident was certainly unexpected, but again not a big deal. Likewise, in the rental business, you can be full one month and then have several vacancies the next month. However, combine all of these events in a single month, and my cash got very low. OOPS! If I had to do it over, I would not have put so much cash on the car. This would have allowed me to keep a better cash reserve level and allowed me to avoid the cash crunch altogether.

Everything has worked out fine. When you have a relatively large rental portfolio, money comes in all month long. Every time you rent another unit, you receive the rent and the security deposit. Also, almost every month at least one new tenant has their first month's rent or deposit paid by one government agency or another. When this happens, that money arrives later in the month. Also, when you evict a tenant, you must put up a deposit for the setout. If you do the setout yourself (I always do), you get that money back later in the month. All told, this usually adds up to another few thousand dollars each month.

The moral of this story is that you must always plan your cash flow carefully and ensure that you don't get overextended. This month was a reminder of that fact!!!

0 for 4

I had another woman apply to rent my nice 3 bedroom house today. From the time I talked to her on the phone, I wasn't impressed. She was just...wierd. Her mannerisms were odd. I know that's not very objective, but I trust my instincts.

When I met her at the property, my suspicions were only amplified. She WAS wierd. She brought a plastic grocery bag with dozens of her "husband's" pay stubs. In addition, she brought three envelopes - one with $600, one with$80, and one with $100 (which wasn't the amount needed to rent the house anyway). Wierd! Why was she trying so hard to prove she could afford the house?

At any rate, I MIGHT not deny someone for being wierd if everything else is OK. So, I had her fill out an application. As I reviewed the application with her. I noticed that she had listed 3 addresses in 2006, including a house she claimed to have bought and then sold. When I asked to see her driver's license, I noticed it listed yet another (4th) address and that it was issued in 2006. I questioned her about all of these addresses and she admitted to moving 4 times in 2006! That is not a good sign that she will stay a long time in my rental.

When I got back home, I ran her screening. She didn't have any criminal activity - GOOD! Her "husband" (shack up boyfriend) had several domestic violence and other criminal activity, but all if it was at least 6 years old. I called her current landlord. He said that she had not paid the October rent and that her lease ran through March. The applicant said that she was moving because the landlord would not fix her water heater. I asked him about that and to my surprise he said "THAT'S RIGHT!" He went on to explain that she didn't pay the gas bill and had her gas shut off. When the gas company came to turn it back on, they wanted this and that fixed before they would turn it back on and he wasn't in any hurry to help her out. That was good enough for me! The pieces of the puzzle were now all in place.

She had violated her current lease by not keeping her utilities turned on. She had not paid her October rent. She was trying to leave before her lease was up. She was wierd. I denied her application and told her that I wouldn't take a tenant who has cheated another landlord!!!

Looking for a Decent Tenant

Still looking for a decent tenant for my 3-bedroom house. I had a middle aged couple come by to look at the house yesterday. They filled out an application and want the house. When I asked them where they lived, they said they were staying with a friend, which is almost always a RED FLAG! The woman filled out the application, but the man only put his name, but failed to include his middle initial, birthdate, or social security number - another RED FLAG. I asked to see their driver's licenses and added the man's info to the application.

When I did the screening, both of these people technically passed our basic criteria. However, there are so many warning signs and past problems, that I'm going to turn them down. The woman had two evictions, in 1991 and 2000 (nine years apart). That says to me that their financial situation was not improving over an entire decade and they lacked character over a 10 year period. The woman claimed to be injured and sued K-mart. She looked completely healthy but is on disability. I don't like people that are trying to get rich suing people!!! The man had two full pages on his criminal report (mostly traffic infractions), but including a criminal offense for writing a bad check in 1999. Finally, the woman has filed for a restraining order against another woman THIS MONTH! I'm betting the other woman is the man's ex-something. I don't need this kind of drama and I certainly don't want these people in one of my best rentals.

Dodged Another Bullet

I had another group of people apply for my 3 bedroom, 2 bath house today. This is one of my nicest houses and I like to find really good tenants for it.

I received a call this afternoon from a woman who was looking for a 3-bedroom house and was also looking for the school district that this house is in. I described the house to her and explained our screening criteria to her. She said that the screening wasn't a problem and that she would like to look at the house. I agreed to meet her in 30 minutes.

They arrived at the house just before my arrival. I was please to see a very nice Chrysler in the driveway - a good sign. As the woman got out of the car, she was clean and didn't have any obvious tattoos - another good sign. My first clue that something was amiss appeared when the man didn't get out of the car. People that are going to rent a house almost always want to see their new house. I asked the woman if her husband wanted to look at the house. She said something to him and he got out of the car. Although he didn't have any tattoos or any obvious warning signs, I didn't like the way he looked.

I showed them the house and they wanted it. I again explained our screening criteria and told them I would be checking everyone that would be living there. The man immediately responded that he would NOT be living there. YEAH RIGHT! I wasn't buying that for a moment. I asked where he lived and the woman replied that he lived with his sister. I asked how she would have enough income to afford the rent and she said that her mother would be living with her and her children. She claimed that between her mother and her, they made $3,000 per month. Then, a couple of minutes later, she asked if we would take a check from the Salvation Army for the security deposit. I responded by asking her why someone with a $3,000 per month income needed assistance from the Salvation Army.

To make a long story short, I returned to my computer to begin my screening. I always start with the criminal background check and discovered that the woman was evicted a little over 5 years ago. She also had a theft conviction about 8 years ago. Next, I called her next-to-last landlord. The landlord vividly remembered this tenant and told me it took her 4 months to get the property back in shape to be rented! This was enough that I had decided I wouldn't accept this applicant, but I was curious enough about the boyfriend that I checked him also. HE WAS EVICTED EARLIER THIS MONTH!!! That's why they insisted that he wouldn't be living in the house! He also had a conviction for assault and another one for drug possession.

A good screening helped me dodge a bullet today.

Laying Blocks

I'm making very good progress on my new doublewide rental. All of the inside work is done and the tenants have partially moved in. The heating and cooling company came out and finished up installing the electric furnace and air conditioning. The electric has been completed and is on. I am now in the process of laying blocks around the double-wide so that it will be on a permanent foundation. With doublewides, the blocks must be laid after the house is set and it is a HARD, PHYSICAL JOB! I have the blocks in the front done and will be doing the blocks along one side today. With a little luck, another week will see this job completed!!!

After this job is complete, I will be going to the bank to refinance it. I have done this entire deal with cash and need to get my cash back, so that I can buy additional properties. I currently have 4 deals waiting on the money from this refinance, so I've got to get it done!

I also don't think that I mentioned in any of my previous posts that I filed an eviction on another tenant this month. Prior to last month, I had been doing very well with the tenants. I hadn't had any evictions in several month. Then, last month I had one of our low income tenants fail to pay and I evicted her. This month, I had the tenant in one of our nicer houses fail to pay and I filed an eviction for him. The important thing with evictions is that the tenant MUST be evicted as soon as he fails to pay the full rent. It is much better to have a vacant property than a property that contains a non-paying tenant. My motto is that "IF YOU DON'T PAY, YOU DON'T STAY!" It's just that simple.

Another Scammer

I had two more couples apply for our two open 2-bedroom apartments today. You may recall that I turned down yesterday's applicant because he had a 2 page criminal wrapsheet. Both of today's young couples claimed to have clean records. The first couple was very straightforward in filling out the application. When the second couple had completed their application, I noticed that the woman had not included her name anywhere on the application, even in the Section for additional residents. I was immediately suspicious because I specifically told her that I needed both names and even showed her where to put her name, SS#, and date of birth. Therefore, I told her again that I needed her name; SS#; date of birth; and that I also needed to see her driver's license. The man stated that she wouldn't be living there, only visiting - EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD A CHILD AND WE'RE LOOKING AT THE APARTMENT TOGETHER. The translation of that is that they know she can't pass the screening so they are pretending that she won't be living there.

When I returned home, I ran the screening on both couples, starting with the criminal background check. The first couple checked out fine. My suspicion about the second couple was right on the money. The man had an old criminal record (nothing in the past 7 years), but the woman had been evicted 3 times, including at the end of July!!! Needless to say, I'm not renting to this couple!!!

On a more cheery note, the electric company finally connected the electric to my new doublewide today! That was very good news. I've ordered the blocks for tomorrow and I'll start the very physical task of laying the blocks either tomorrow or Thursday.

Outta There!

Today was setout day for one of my tenants. Apparently, she thought that her money was better spent on alcohol and drugs than on the rent. Personally, I didn't think this was a good decision as she is not only now homeless but I took all of her belongings to the dump today. It was her choice to make and she made it. Now, she will have to live her poor decision.

As I was finishing the cleanup of her apartment, I had a young couple stop by to apply for this apartment. They were relatively clean cut and claimed to have no criminal record. However, when I ran their background check, I was shocked to find that this 21 year old man had TWO FULL PAGES OF CRIMINAL HISTORY. That was only in municipal court (for misdemeanors). Obviously, that was enough info for me and I will NOT be renting to this loser. I didn't even check his wife, but I'm sure that she is no angel either. The saddest part of this is that they had a very young child. I feel sorry for a child that has such losers as parents.

UGH!

Crackers

After the long day yesterday, I decided to make today a short day. I installed the stairs on both decks (on the double-wide project) and then called it quits early, after working about 3 hours. I was looking forward to a nice, quiet evening. My wife and I enjoyed a delicious dinner and then I received a call from one of my tenants. The tenant who is being set out Monday invited several crack addicts over to help her move some of her stuff. The evidently had a big drug party; made a big mess in the apartment; and the police were called. The lock has been removed from the door and the door was open - just in time for every drug scum in town to use the apartment for a Friday night party.

So, my Friday evening was interrupted. I drove down to the apartment building to check the apartment for druggies and other riff-raff. Once I determined that the apartment was empty and the tenant was out, I installed a new lock on the door. The evicted tenant told another tenant that she was out, although she left a LOT of trash for me to throw away.

So, after a few minutes of hassle, I was once again home to enjoy my evening. Such is the life of a rental property owner.

Soooooooo Busy

Today was a busy, busy day! My day started out at 7am with paperwork (as usual). My main paperwork project this morning was making up the deposits from day 3 of rent collecting. In addition to simply making up deposit slips, I also check all the cash with a "counterfeit pen" to be sure the cash is valid. So far, I've never had any bogus money, but I keep track of the cash from each tenant, so that if I do get bad money, I'll know who I got it from.


Once the deposits were all prepared, I had to go to an 8:15 appointment with the eye doctor. After some recent Yag Laser Surgery, my bionic eye is once again at 20/20, which is good!

Next, I made my daily trip to Lowes to buy materials for today's project. Today's project was to install the back deck and to put stairs on both decks. While at Lowes, I received my first call of the day from a tenant who wanted to pay his rent. Therefore, after loading the truck up with treated lumber for the deck, I went into town and collected the rent from the tenant who called and two other tenants.

With my first 3 rents of the day, I drove to the doublewide project and installed the back deck. The back deck is only 8 feet by 10 feet and this only took about an hour to install. I then attempted to install the stairs, but I bought the wrong risers. I made some further measurements and will try again tomorrow to install the stairs.

At 3 pm, I had several more rents to pickup and one lease to sign with a new tenant. I had to make this quick, because I had an appointment with my lawyer at 4pm regarding my wife's recent car accident. The appointment with my lawyer lasted about 30 minutes and then I went to pickup one last rent.

Finally, we went to pickup my wife's new car - a 2002 S-type Jaguar. After a long day and our less than stellar experience last week searching for a car, I was very concerned that the car would not be ready. I was very pleasantly surprised when it was not only ready, but everything was done as promised and the car looked great! So, even though this was a long and difficult day, it ended on a good note!

Building a Deck with Bluetooth

My old cellphone bit the dust, just one month after my 2 year plan expired and coincidentally just when I became eligible for a free phone from Sprint (with a new 2 year plan of course). Is this a phone company conspiracy to keep people hooked on their service? I don't know and I'll leave that topic for another forum.

I use my cell phone as my business phone, so I couldn't go even a day without a phone. So, I headed down to the Sprint Store to get a new phone. After looking over all the different phones, I decided on a MotoRazor. I also added the $25 service pack which has all the bells and whistles. My new phone has a GPS; internet access; some TV channels; and a live weather radar, which will come in handy for seeing where the rain is located when I want to paint a rental. Those are all nice features, but the feature I like the best is the Bluetooth. Wow, that Bluetooth earpiece is really going to improve my life!

During a typical day, I receive about 30-40 calls. Most of these calls are from potential tenants wanting to ask about our available rentals. Prior to today, I have always had to stop whatever I was working on and answer my cellphone. THAT IS OVER! Now, I can simply tap the button on my bluetooth earpiece and talk on the phone while both hands are free to continue working. Since most of my calls last about a minute, the Bluetooth should add about 40 productive minutes each day to my life. I like it. In addition, it will certainly make driving safer as I will have both hands on the wheel while being able to talk on the phone.

Today, I started adding building the decks for the doublewide. The tenant will be moving in on Sunday, so I've got to get the decks and steps done! I made good progress, installing all the posts and finishing the floor of the front deck. Tomorrow, my plan is to finish both decks including stairs. Of course, tomorrow is the 4th, which is the last day for my tenants to pay rent, so I'll be bouncing back and forth between collecting rents and working on the deck.

Additionally, my wife and I are meeting tomorrow with our attorney about my wife's recent car accident. We now have one witness and I am confident that she will be acquitted of her traffic citation when we go to court.

Finally, we are picking up my wife's new Jaguar tomorrow! I'm looking forward to that!

Day in Court!

Today was my day in court, or should I say my tenant's day in court. For the first time in several months, I had an eviction this morning. This particular tenant is a serious drunk who recently fell off the wagon and is now spending all of her government check on alcohol and drugs. I have no tolerance for tenants that don't pay the rent and I posted the 3 day notice the day after the rent was due, on September 5th. As a result of this eviction, we have lost September and October rent; court costs (about $150); and legal fees (another $150). Of course, I had a security deposit $400, which will help offset some of the loss and I may be able to rent the apartment for half of October, which would also help.

Contrast that to the case before mine in which the landlord accepted excuses for two months before finally posting the 3 day notice at the beginning of September. This landlord lost the rent for July, August, September, and October. If this was not bad enough, this amateur landlord also agreed to give the tenant a little more time to vacate the property before filing for the setout. I absolutely couldn't believe it. To be honest, I felt like shaking the landlord and asking her if she had lost her mind. She's already lost 3 full months rent and is now allowing the tenant some more time to live rent-free. No wonder so many landlords don't make it in this business.

When the judge asked me if I would give my tenant a few more days, my reply was "ABSOLUTELY NOT"! Right after the eviction proceedings, I payed the fee to have the tenant set out. Why would anyone possibly give a tenant a few more days after they've already been ripped off?

Brutal Day!

The rental property business can be a tough business. As you probably know, the vast majority of new landlords fail in a short period of time due to cash flow issues. Additionally, dealing with tenants can be very difficult and some people literally become sick due to the stress.

I consider myself to be a strong person. However, I had a very long day Thursday that pushed me to the very limit of my patience and endurance. The problem Thursday wan't dealing with a violent drug addict or getting one of my rentals back completely trashed. No, it was much worse than that! I had to go car shopping with my wife to replace her car that was totaled in a recent accident!

There are a bunch of car dealers in Columbus and we started our search at about noon. My wife and I like to drive nice cars and we also like to pay cash for all non-appreciating "assets". Therefore, our goal was to find a used Mercedes or Jaguar (S-type) in excellent condition for about $15,000. Needless to say, that can be a significant challenge, especially in one day. The evening before our car hunting trip, we did some research on the internet and found some interesting possibilities. Our first stop was to an Acura dealer that had a good selection of used Jaguars. They had a couple of very nice S-type Jaguars, but they were about $5K more than we wanted to spend. One was very well equipped and looked new inside, but had a significant scratch on the bumper and did not have heated seats, which my wife wanted.

Next, we went to look at a 2002 Mercedes C240 that was fully loaded. It had low miles and was only $13,900. The moment we saw it, we knew this was our car. It was absolutely spotless and had just about every possible amenity. We decided to take it for a test drive before we bought it. Unfortunately, something was BADLY wrong with the engine. I have owned several Mercedes and I have never heard a Mercedes make a noise like that! The dealer insisted that the noise was only the 2 stage fan, but the car also had a vibration bad enough that you could feel it. We don't need a nice looking car with significant mechanical problems, so we said "no thanks" and moved on.

Next, we went to another large import lot, only to discover that they didn't have even a single car we were interested in.

From there, we went to a large Mercedes dealership. They had a 2001, one-owner, E-class with all the bells and whistles that was in immaculate shape. We drove it and it appeared to be perfect. The only catch - it had 123,000 miles. Mercedes has a reputation of producing excellent vehicles that last a LONG time, but I was still concerned about the miles. The dealer was asking $17,500 for the car, which was about the blue book value. I asked them if they would take $15,000 out-the-door (tax included) for the car, which would bring the pre-tax price down to about $13,500. They played the good cop, bad cop game with the manager coming in to explain to us that they had a lot in the car and their bottom line was $15,500 "out the door". While I might have bought it at $15,000, that was my absolute maximum and we decided to move on.

Next, we went to a CarMax dealership. They had a couple of nice Mercedes, but they were priced about $10,000 above our target price.

By this time, it was after 5pm and we decided to stop for dinner. Almost as soon as we sat down, the salesman from the Acura dealership called to say that they would be willing to come down on the price of the S-type Jaguar AND install seat heaters AND repaint the entire bumper to take care of the scratch. I asked the salesman if they would take $18,000 out the door (which would make the purchase price about $16,500). He said he would call me back. A couple of minutes later he called back and agreed to the price. I told him we would consider his offer.

Not 5 minutes later, another salesman called to say that they would accept $15,000 for the beautiful Mercedes that had $123,000 miles. I told him we would consider it.

A couple of minutes later, the Jaguar salesman called back to say that they would paint the bumper the next day and asked what he could do to put this deal together. I asked him if he could do better on the price and he said that he could probably knock another couple of hundred dollars off if we came back to the dealership. With that, I agreed and after dinner, we drove back to finally buy a car.

When we arrived at the dealership, we asked to test drive the car. It drove well, except for a slight vibration in the steering wheel. I believe that the vibration is a tire problem. The salesman promised to fix this issue. When we arrived back at the dealership, we carefully inspected the car and discovered that it didn't have a CD changer as was identified on the window sticker. By this time, the used car manager was at the car and I asked him if they were going to install the CD Changer. He began to quibble and I told him that this was not negotiable. The sticker said there was a CD Changer and we were not buying it without one. He reluctantly agreed. With all the issues settled, we went inside to sign the paperwork.

When the salesman returned with the paperwork, the out the door price was now about $18,200. I reminded him that we had agreed on $18,000 less a "couple hundred dollars if we came back to the dealership". By my math, that is $17,800. The salesman went back to talk to his manager and I was not happy that they had tried to add about $400 to the agree upon price. When the salesman came back, he had a new price on the form, $18,000. At this point, I was getting quite angry. Being diplomatic is not my strong point and I told him that we agreed upon a price and if he couldn't abide by our agreement, we were leaving. He said "just a minute, I've got to tell my manager that you're leaving". I was furious that they were still playing good cop/bad cop with me and my Christian values weren't quite enough to keep me from saying a few choice words to the salesman.

As we reached our car, the manager was right behind us. He apologized for the confusion and took full responsibility for the problem. He promised to personally make sure that everything else worked out correctly from that point forward. I agreed to go ahead with the purchase and we went back inside to complete the paperwork. By the time everything was finally done, it was after 9 pm. All in all, it was a VERY FRUSTRATING DAY. Dealing with these car salesmen is far worse than dealing with any deadbeat tenant or drug addict! I despise the entire car buying exercise and I put car salesmen next to last on my list of the worst people in society - just one spot ahead of the low-life scumbag contingency lawyers!

Too Busy to Work!

Today reminded me of trying to get a drink through a fire hose. I had so much stuff going on that it was difficult to get much done! The day started with organizing and paying some of the bills that arrived while I was on vacation. Next, I had some paperwork to type and send to Section 8. I then had to sign and send out the tax returns for all my companies (which had been on extension). The reason for having several companies is that it's important to divide your rental properties into different companies (LLCs) so that one lawsuit can't threaten your entire portfolio.

Next, I needed to take care of some paperwork relating to my wife's recent accident. The insurance has decided that my wife's car is totaled. I needed to send them the title so that they will send us a check for her car. I took care of that and then headed into town to send it to the insurance via next day air. I then had to go to the police department to pickup a copy of the police report of the accident, which will be needed when we meet with the attorney tomorrow. Next, I went to the city engineering department to get a map of the accident location which will be used in the court proceedings. By the time all of this was completed, it was already after noon.

After a quick lunch, I made my daily trip to Lowes to buy parts for today's work, which was pipe for the septic system. When I finally arrived at the doublewide, I briefly worked on a shower and then planned on working on the septic system. Unfortunately, it started to rain and that was my signal to call it a day!

I'm sincerely hoping to get more accomplished tomorrow than I did today.

Play Time is Over!

We had a great time on vacation, but today it was time to get back to work. I installed a new water heater in the doublewide that I have been working on; fixed a couple of water leaks on the hot water side; called the electric company to see why they haven't installed the electric pole yet (ugh); and called the heating and cooling company to see why they hadn't installed the electric furnace and air conditioning yet (ugh). All in all, a busy day.

I also was reminded of a lesson that every new real estate investor should take to heart. As I was leaving the house to go pickup dinner, the garbage man was stopping at the end of our driveway to pickup our trash. I got out of my truck and went over to thank the garbage man for the many years of good service he had given us. I did this because I recently got an announcement from a larger waste company that they had bought his business and would therefore be taking over his routes. I congratulated him on the sale of his business and was surprised when he said that the sale of his business wasn't enough for him to even break even, but it had kept him from being forced to file bankruptcy! This is a man who provided outstanding service to his customers at a reasonable price, but still didn't make it.

So, how does this situation with the garbage man relate to real estate investors? The answer is that most small businesses fail in a relatively short period of time. Running a business is not only about providing a good product. In fact, beyond everything else, running a business is ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS. If the numbers don't work, your business will fail. This is particularly true in the rental property business. The vast majority of newbies fail. They fail because they didn't understand a few key principles: operating expenses; cash flow; determining the maximum purchase price; and dealing with tenants.

Running a successful business is not easy and the vast majority don't succeed. Success requires knowledge; hard work; and persistence.

Just Another Day in the Rental Business

Yesterday was just another day in the rental business - sitting on the beach and riding our bikes along the beautiful wooded bike trails of Hilton Head Island. In the afternoon, we had a cookout with some tasty spare ribs and then played cards with some friends. We have also befriended some squirrels, who are obviously very comfortable with people. We've been feeding the squirrels peanuts and they will actually take them right out of your hand. Yes, being a landlord is a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

In reality, I'm still on vacation and am not spending my typical 3-4 hours each day working on my rentals. So far this week, I've only received 2 calls from tenants and neither was important. I took my ad out of the newpaper before we left and therefore haven't been receiving calls from applicants. It's been very peaceful and a nice break!

I'll have my ad re-started next Monday and be ready to get back to work. In the meantime, I've got a few more days of fun!

Back to Business

It's back to business, at least as far as posting to this blog. It has been about 3 weeks since I last posted, so let's catch up.

When I last posted, I was starting on our latest doublewide. I have already gotten it rented for October 1st and therefore need to get it done. To date, I have hooked up all the sewage; contacted the electric company to arrange for a new electric pole; built and installed the panel for the electric meter base and disconnect; wired the meter and disconnect to the house; arranged to have the gas furnace changed to an electric furnace; installed the septic tank (yes, I did this myself); and much more.

Unfortunately, one of the things I had to do was spend two entire days fixing all the broken water lines under the house. They had apparently frozen and were broken in MANY places.

In the last 3 weeks, I have also had one tenant suddenly leave without any notice and I am evicting another for non-payment. Having a tenant suddenly leave was a first for me, although this is a fairly common occurrence in this business. Fortunately, they left the house in good condition and it is basically ready to rent. The tenant I am evicting is a drunk and probably spent the rent on drugs and/or alcohol.

The last big thing that happened was that my wife was in a major automobile accident. Although she was not seriously hurt, the other driver broke her wrist and received 2nd degree burns after spilling her coffee. To make matters worse, my wife was cited by the police, even though the facts do not support that it was her fault. I have already contacted my attorney and we will be aggressively fighting the citation. Although the fine is only $100, we are fighting it for 2 reasons. First, and most importantly, we want to avoid a lawsuit. Landlords are big targets for lawsuits and if my wife caused the accident (she didn't), then we are at higher risk for a lawsuit. Worse yet, my wife was driving her Mercedes, which can also attract attention from scumbag contingency lawyers. Secondly, we don't want to pay higher insurance premiums. Therefore, we will AGGRESSIVELY fight the citation. I'd rather spend a few hundred dollars in insurance premiums to clear up my wife's record than to pay a $100 fine and then higher premiums for years to come.

After all of this, we needed a vacation. Therefore, we are currently spending about ten days at Hilton Head. It is absolutely beautiful in Hilton Head this time of year with nearly perfect weather. We have been spending time at the beach and going for long bike rides. Yesterday, we toured the Island on our bikes and had dinner at the Salty Dog, which is a popular place to eat. Today, we are planning to do some Jet Skiing!

Mike

Sewage Man!

I got started on my latest rental project today, which is a doublewide. I previously poured the footer and had the house set, blocked, and leveled. Today, we hooked up the sewage and drain lines under the house. When I purchased the house, the mobile home mover cut the sewage and drains off. The trick today was to put them back together. While this sounds easy, it was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It took a solid hour trying to determine which section of pipe went in each location. After a lot of trial and error, I finally figured it out and got it all put back together.

In addition to working on this project, I also mowed the grass at one of my apartment buildings and one of my houses.

Busy Little Day

Today was a busy little day. I started out this morning meeting the new tenant for my duplex. We filled out all the forms: the lease, pet addendum, emergency notification form, lead paint disclosure, and move-in/move-out form. She has already paid the deposit and the rent, so I gave her the keys and she is ready to move in!

Then, I went to finish the room I have been rehabbing. For a 100+ year old room where absolutely nothing is straight or level, it turned out alright. The biggest improvement is the floor. Before the rehab, it ran downhill at such a slope that you could literally see everything leaning. Now, the floor is perfectly level and the room looks a lot better. Today, I put on the final trim pieces and painted the room. In addition, I repaired the bathtub spout that was broken off a couple of days ago by the tenant's young son (when he fell on it). I am happy to report that this job is finally done. Tomorrow, I'll be moving on to doing the initial plumbing work for our latest doublewide rental.

In addition to everything else, I also picked up the first two September rents. Rent collections for September are just around the corner!

A Little Excitement

Things have been a little boring lately - just the way I like it! We really haven't had any significant tenant problems for quite some time. This evening, I received a call from one of my tenants who said that she thought one of her troubled relatives had broken into 1/2 of a duplex that we are preparing to rehab and that he was still there, probably on a drug binge. I jumped in the truck and headed to town to investigate. Just as she said, his bike was parked outside. I checked the doors, which were still locked, but did find a broken window which had been pushed in.

I carefully searched the property, but no-one was there. After checking with the tenant in the other half of the duplex, I found out that the sheriff had been there earlier in the day looking for the criminal. They apparently found him in the area and arrested him, which was why his bike was still there. No harm done, except a short interruption to my evening.

Earlier in the day, I completed almost all the work on the room I was rehabbing. Today, I built a new closet and installed new paneling on a couple of the walls. I still have a little painting and a couple of pieces of trim to install tomorrow and then I'll be done. My next project is to do all the work on a doublewide that will be my latest rental. The doublewide is already set on the footer and I've got to install the electric, water, septic system, and lay the blocks around the perimeter. I've already got a deposit to rent the doublewide for October, so I'll have to work fast!

New Door Installed!

I got the pre-hung steel door installed into the room we're rehabbing. This door exits to the deck in the back yard. I thought it would be an easy job, but it turned out being a little more complicated than first thought. The challenge was that very little extra space existed between the deck floor and the suspended ceiling. The door required an 82 inch vertical opening and the maximum vertical space was only about 82 1/2 inches. There was only about 1/2 inch to spare and that required everything to be cut just right. Fortunately, I got everything cut correctly the first time and the door fit like a glove (a very tight glove).

This evening, I've got to finish the last three months of taxes for one of my rental property companies. I use Quickbooks Pro for inputting all the accounting data. That should only take an hour or two.