Painting the New Duplex

If you've been following my blog, you know that we're taking over four buildings effective April 1. One of these buildings is a large duplex. This is a side by side duplex with one side currently rented. Obviously, it would be better for me if both sides were rented when I take possession of the building. To that end, I have been working in conjunction with the current owner to find a suitable tenant. After a lot of effort, we finally found a Section 8 tenant for the vacant half and have gotten a non-refundable deposit from her. The Section 8 inspector came out and would not pass the duplex unless the exterior was painted because he felt that the paint was in marginal condition. Although I normally would do the painting myself, the paint needs to be finished ASAP so that we can get the new tenant moved-in and started paying rent.

Therefore, I contacted several painters and got bids from $1,500 to $5,000 to paint the duplex. Onc of the painters expressed a strong desire to do additional work for me and was willing to do this first one for $1,000 (labor only). If he does a good job, I will let him paint at least one of the other newly acquired buildings. He will either start tomorrow or Monday at the latest, which should allow us to be done and get the tenant moved-in by the 1st.

In addition to talking to the painter, I also had to go to one of my apartment buildings today to check out a smoke alarm that was reported to be sounding in the basement by one of the tenants. The basement is all brick including the floors. It is my experience that in these damp basements, smoke alarms often fail and sound a constant alarm when they do. The alarm was indeed defective and I replaced it with a new one.

While I was in town, I also showed one of our vacant apartments to a potential tenant. After my trip in town, I spent some time riding bicycles with my wife. It's been a long cold winter here in Ohio and we're both out of shape! My goal is to start getting some serious exercise every day and with spring finally arriving, I think that is certainly a goal that can be accomplished!

That was about it for today. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I'm planning to take the day off. Have a great weekend!