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.
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2 comments:
Once again, I read something written by you and it makes me want to stay out of rental properties!!
Investing in rental properties is definitely not for everyone. There is a lot of drama with low income tenants and dealing with these incidents are part of what we get paid for.
However, for those that are able to deal with the occassional nonsense from tenants, rental properties offer a unique opportunity to rapidly build wealth and income, which is not possible in most other businesses.
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