DONE!

I finished the 2 bedroom apartment today that I have been working on. My tasks were to replace a broken window, paint the kitchen cabinets, put a second coat of paint on the bathroom walls, and install two fuses. In addition to that, I rented one of my 2 bedroom houses today and have several people wanting my 2 bedroom apartment. Today was a good day!

More interestingly, I called Americolor which is a carpet dyeing company in Oregon. As anyone in the rental business knows, tenants can badly stain any carpet in a very short period of time. It's not uncommon for carpet to only last one or two years. As a potential fix to the problem, I have decided to try dyeing the carpet after it gets hopelessly stained. If I could get one more year out of the carpet, that would be a GREAT THING! I'll let you know how that turns out.

In addition, I scheduled my concealed carry (handgun) course for this weekend. That is for my renewal. My current license is due to expire next month and therefore I've got to get that done asap! The course should be a lot of fun as a friend is going with me. He'll be getting his concealed carry permit for the first time.

Closer and Closer

I didn't spend much time working today. In fact, I was toying with the idea of just being lazy today, but then I needed to go pickup some medicine for our sick dog. So, I decided that while I was out, I would spend an hour or so working on my 2 bedroom apartment.

I installed one small piece of carpet in the foyer today and lined some really nasty shelves in the kitchen with that non-slip shelf liner.

After that, I stopped at a mobile home parts store that had 5 pieces of the gray 4" double lap vinyl siding I needed to fix the fire damage to one of my houses. That cost $25, which was a small price to pay to fix the fire damage (or should I say for the tenant to pay).

That was it for the day!

The Fire Was Not Too Bad

In my last post, I mentioned that there had been a small fire at one of my houses. I went by to see the damage and talked to those involved. The tenants were outside smoking and threw their butts on the ground near where the trash was sitting (against the house). The trash caught fire and burned about 5 pieces of vinyl siding and the stairs. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the wood underneath the siding and the wood stairs can be sanded and painted. Obviously, I will pass the cost of this damage on to the tenant.

Today, I spent about 2 hours working on my 2 bedroom apartment which is very near completion. I installed a new medicine cabinet, fixed holes in the walls and ceiling, installed a mini-blind, and did some other work. I also took an application from a potential tenant. Her screening was fine and she claims that she will have the money by the 1st. We'll see!

That was about it for today.

Where There's Smoke...

Well, today was a VERY busy day and a good one. I passed two Section 8 inspections and may have rented another of my 2 bedroom houses. I also painted the wood floor in one of my 2 bedroom apartments; unclogged a sewer drain; and had two applicants fill out applications for rentals.

One of the applicants was an older woman who wanted to live in the apartment with her daughter. The woman's screening was ok, but her daughter was unacceptable with 2 full pages of criminal activity, much of it in the past 2 years. Her criminal activity included possession of drugs; assault; and various other crimes. NO WAY!

There was one bad thing that happened today. I received a call from one of my tenants who reported that his daughters started a small fire which burned the siding on the house. It seems that they were smoking outside and threw the butts in the trash, which was piled up outside. It caught fire and damaged the siding. I will go look at it tomorrow to see the damage for myself. Obviously, the tenant will have to pay for the damage.

Back at it

The Easter Production at church went very well and everyone involved seemed very happy. We had excellent crowds on Saturday evening and during both performances on Sunday. After all the practices and performances, I was quite tired by Sunday evening.

After the busy weekend, I was back to my normal schedule today, working about 4 hours on one of my rentals. Today was a good day. The main project for today was to fix the floor and replace a fire extinguisher in a rental that will be inspected tomorrow morning by Section 8.

In addition to working on the rental, I also got my most expensive house rented today. That is a very good thing and I'll be very happy to get the rent for April.

Tomorrow, I'll be finishing up the 2 bedroom apartment I've been working on and then I'll need to find something else to do later in the week. As soon as the weather finally breaks, I've got big plans to paint several rentals, starting with my new 7-unit apartment building!

Dry!

Finally, after a BUNCH of rain and flooding, there was no rain yesterday. In fact, it was quite a nice day with temperatures near 50 degrees and sunny skies. I decided to take this nice day to seal two roofs and tuckpoint the brick wall of one of my apartment buildings. Those were jobs that needed to be done but had been postponed for the past couple of months due to the nasty winter weather we've been having.

I will be taking today and tomorrow off as I am the projection technician at church and we're having an Easter production this weekend.

On Monday, I'll be repairing the floor in one of my rentals before a Section 8 inspection on Tuesday. In addition, I will be replacing the fire extinguisher in that apartment. While fire extinguishers are not required by Section 8 or by state law, I provide them in all my rentals. In this case, that was a wise decision because the tenant had a grease fire which they put out with the fire extinguisher. I'd certainly much rather spend a little money on fire extinguishers than have an apartment building or a house burn down and a tenant be injured!!!

Almost Done with the Rehab

I'm nearing completion of the rehab of one of my 2 bedroom apartments. Today, I painted the bathroom and installed the new (used) stove and refrigerator. I still need to paint the floor in one bedroom and do some miscellaneous repairs, but I should be done in another day or two.

I haven't posted for a couple of days, so I'll try to catch up on what's been happening. One of the main things that happened this week is the setout of the drug dealer from my new apartment building. This went right down to the last minute, but at 10 am on Tuesday (the setout time), the tenant was gone. Good Riddance!!! I'm making good progress on this building with the two worst tenants evicted and setout and now it is time to concentrate on rehabbing the building. As soon as the weather improves (we had flooding rains this week), I will start working on repainting the exterior of the building. In the mean time, I'll start rehabbing the two apartments that are vacant as a result of the evictions I have done.

I've also been showing rentals to a lot of potential tenants this week, but I haven't rented any additional units yet. So far, everyone that has applied has either been evicted or has a significant criminal record. Still looking!

Typical Day of Rehabbing

Yesterday was a typical day for me. I like to take it easy in the morning and then work 3 or 4 hours in the afternoon. That is exactly what I did yesterday (and will be doing again today). I am an early riser, usually getting up at about 6 am. I like to watch the news, read the paper, have breakfast, and then maybe go for a bicycle or motorcycle ride. It was too wet for a bike ride yesterday, but I did enjoy a little reading. About 11 am, I got in the truck and headed to town to continue the rehab on my 2 bedroom apartment. Yesterday's project was to start painting the apartment. To that end, I worked about 4 hours (11am to 3pm) and did get 3 rooms painted - the living room, bedroom, and foyer. That paint is really making the apartment look better. Today, I'm planning to paint the other bedroom, the kitchen, and the bathroom.

Controlled Chaos!

One of the things I like about the rental property business is the unpredictable nature of the business. "Never a dull moment" is certainly an accurate description of the rental property business. Yesterday was a good example. My intention was to work on rehabbing a two bedroom apartment, however I ended up doing a bunch of other things as well.

First, I hauled the belongings of the tenant that we set-out on Tuesday to the dump. Fortunately, a bunch of the belongings were pilfered by the upstanding citizens of the community, so I was able to haul all the stuff to the bank with one truck and trailer load!

Next, I received a call from one of the tenants whose toilet was running. This wasn't a big problem and I was able to fix it in only a few minutes.

After the toilet repair, I went to Lowes to buy carpet for my rehab. While at Lowes, I received a call from the plumber who was coming to clear tree roots from the sewer line at my new apartment building. I finished my shopping and drove to the building to oversee the tree root removal. This is the plumber I use for all difficult sewer problems and they were able to rapidly clear the sewer line with their water jet machine.

After all this extraneous stuff, I finally arrived at the apartment to begin laying carpet. I was able to lay 3 rooms of carpet and scrape the wood floor in another room (for painting).

That is the way this business goes - controlled chaos! The plan for the day usually doesn't last more than the first 5 minutes of the day. "Go with the flow" is the phrase that best describes the rental property business.

TO THE SHELTER!

At 10 am, I met the court bailiff (an armed ex-police officer) at my apartment building for the setout of one of the deadbeat tenants I inherited with the building. The tenant was not there, but his deadbeat friend was asleep in the apartment. He was NOT happy to find out that he was being thrown out. Moreover, this was the only place he had to live, so he had to go to the homeless shelter in lieu of being outside in freezing weather. He has been nothing but trouble since I've had the building and I didn't feel the least bit sorry for him.

Fortunately, there wasn't too much stuff in the apartment and it only took me about one hour to put it all outside. I'll pick it all up tomorrow and haul it to the dump. Having a setout is very good for business, because it lets the rest of the tenants see what happens when you don't pay the rent. They will all see the tenant's stuff sitting out in the snow and they'll see it all hauled to the dump tomorrow. That's a good lesson for them to learn! This lesson will be even more impressive because the setout for the next tenant is next Tuesday!!!

Snow, snow, snow!

Here in the Ohio valley, this weekend brought the biggest snow storm in over 90 years (so much for global warming). We had well over a foot of snow on top of about 1 inch of ice. So, I spent about 4 hours shoveling snow at my apartment buildings over the past 2 days. Fortunately, the temperature today was about 50 degrees and the snow has already melted a bunch.

I've also had the flu for the past week, despite getting my flu shot. I wonder if I can get a refund for that flu shot??? At any rate, I'm just now starting to feel better and am hoping to get back to working on rental properties tomorrow.

Tomorrow is an important day in the life of my new apartment building. The setout for the first evicted tenant is tomorrow at 10 am. This is important for 2 reasons. First, it wil get rid of one deadbeat tenant. Second, and more important, is that the setout will send a strong message to the rest of the tenants that I'm not playing games.

The court bailiff called this morning and said that the next setout in this apartment building will be on the 18th. No other evictions are emminent. Tomorrow evening is the nuisance board meeting and I will be attending to give them an update on the evictions and cleanup of the building.

I Blew It!

My purpose in writing this blog is to give new investors a real world view into the life of a full-time landlord. The reason that I believe it is necessary to provide this real world view is that the gurus promote such a distorted view of the business. Anyone that's watched a real estate infomercial or seen a guru speak at a seminar knows that the gurus paint a very rosey picture of the business. From listening to the gurus, you would think that this business is all about sitting on your yacht while half-dressed super-models count the immense piles of cash that roll in. It's so ridiculous that one mobile home guru says that 'we don't call mobile homes trailers anymore. The only trailer you'll need in the mobile home business, is the one you'll need to take all the money to the bank'. RIDICULOUS!

So, I see my mission as providing a REALISTIC view of the business. Unfortunately, I BLEW IT! A recent question from a reader brought this point home. Here is the question:

"I found your blog very entertaining and enlightening. My question is - How come you seem to rent only to low life scum? Is there no money to be made in buying nicer properties and renting to regular working people?"

While I haven't done it intentionally, I'm afraid that I have provided an overly dark view of the rental property business. The above question really brings home that fact. Let me try to set the record straight.

My rental property business is the best thing that every happened to me from a financial and lifestyle standpoint. It allows me to make a nice living while only working 3-4 hours per day and 3-4 days a week. I can't think of any other business that would allow me to work only 12-16 hours per week and enjoy such freedom.

To provide for my lifestyle, I have several dozen rentals. The vast majority of the tenants are absolutely no problem at all. In fact, I estimate that about 90% of the tenants at any one time are good tenants. Another 9% of the tenants have some problem, but do not warrant being evicted. The final 1% of tenants must be evicted.

My failure in this blog has been to write so much about the 1% of the tenants that are bad. A good analogy is driving. You get in the car every day and go about your business without ever talking about driving your car. Why, because it's routine and boring. However, on the rare occassion that you're a witness to a big car crash, you can bet that your friends will hear about that. In much the same way, I have written about the interesting things that happen to me and largely ignored the boring parts of the business. After all, an eviction or a lawsuit is infinitely more interesting than saying "absolutely nothing happened today".

So, starting today, I will try to give a more accurate representation of the business.

Update on Eviction

About 8:30 this morning, I received a call from my attorney. She checked the court records this morning and determined that the tenant from yesterday's eviction proceedings did NOT post the required money with the court. Therefore, the eviction will be affirmed today and I took the setout fee to my attorney's office (to then be filed with the court) so that he can be physically removed from the property. That was good news because I really wanted this deadbeat out.

When I saw my lawyer today, she said that yesterday's eviction was the most entertaining she had ever attended. The tenant was allowed to rant and rave for 45 minutes and was able to confuse the magistrate. My attorney simply couldn't believe that he was allowed to go on and on and on!

Two of the tenants that received eviction notices yesterday are supposed to pay tomorrow (with the $50 late fee). One other tenant said they are trying to come up with the rent and late fee. We'll see how it all turns out.

I also rented another apartment today. That makes 3 rentals that we've rented in the last week. So far, so good.

It's All About the Law

Legal Day! That's what today was all about.

My morning began by printing out 3-day eviction notices for four of my tenants. The first tenant is one of the deadbeats in my new 7-unit apartment building. Next, was an eviction notice for the tenants in one of my 3-bedroom houses, that is rented by students. They have lived in the house for 11 months and simply didn't pay the rent this month. The third eviction notice was for the tenant in one of the 3-bedroom houses we just bought, although this probably won't actually become an eviction. This tenant is moving out of state and promises to be out by this Saturday. Even if someone promises to be out, I always post the 3-day notice so that I can immediately evict them if they aren't gone. Finally, I printed an eviction notice for a tenant that will be paying the rent this Friday (along with a $50 late fee). Again, If the tenant doesn't pay this Friday as promised, I'll be able to start the eviction early next week.

After printing the eviction notices, I made a quick trip to the bank to deposit yesterday's rent collections. Since yesterday was the last day for my tenants to pay the rent without a late fee, I collected a BUNCH of rents yesterday, much of it in cash. I don't like to carry a bunch of cash around, so my goal is always to get it to the bank ASAP!

Following my trip to the bank, I headed to the courthouse for today's eviction proceedings. As you may recall from yesterday, the tenant that was being evicted today was a black guy, who is a flaming racist. What should have been a 10 minute eviction turned into a 45 minute fiasco in which the magistrate allowed the tenant to lie and perjure himself for 45 minutes. After the tenant got done with his 45 minute rant, the magistrate seemed confused. Fortunately, her ruling was a no-lose decision for me. She ruled that the tenant could stay if he payed all the back rent; the court costs; and my attorney's fees. He'll then get to stay until he misses the next rent payment, at which time I'll evict him again. If he doesn't pay, then the eviction will be granted tomorrow morning and he'll be set-out in a few days. In all the dozens of evictions I've done, I've never had a decision like this one! However, since I can't lose, I guess I'll consider it another victory. Knock on wood, I've never lost an eviction case.

Shortly after leaving the courtroom, I received a call from my other attorney, who is handling a former tenant's personal injury lawsuit against my LLC. You can read about this lawsuit in a previous blog entry, but to make a long story short, it was just an extortion attempt by a tenant that I evicted and a scumbag contingency lawyer. Once they received the reply from my lawyer and my countersuit, they decided that their little extortion attempt might not be such a good idea. Today they called my attorney offering to dismiss the lawsuit. I'll discuss this entire fiasco in a future blog entry, after the releases are signed by the plaintiff.

Finally, I went around to the properties of the tenants for whom I had printed the eviction notices this morning. I posted the eviction notices on their doors and took a picture of each notice on the door. After that, I was done for the day (before noon) and ready to take the rest of the day off! Whew! All this law makes a person tired!

Two for Three and One To Go!

I started this week with three evictions scheduled. One of the tenants moved out voluntarily and I have already re-rented that apartment. That left me with two evictions for this week: one today and one tomorrow. Today's eviction went very well. The tenant did show up in court, as they usually do. The tenant made the usual excuses for not paying the rent. As usual, the magistrate didn't care about their excuses and granted the eviction. So far, that leaves me 2 for 3.

Tomorrow is the last of the 3 evictions. I anticipate that this eviction may be a little more challenging. Of course, then tenant is in the wrong and will be evicted (at some point), but he is also a minority who is a racist (he made racial comments about some of the other tenants). I therefore anticipate that he will show up in court with a low-life, scumbag legal aid lawyer and they will play every card, including the race card. It won't work, but they may be able to delay the eviction by asking for a continuance, playing the race card (although I don't know how that could work), or asking for a jury trial. None of these will ultimately work, but they are effective delay tactics. I'll try to post the result of the hearing tomorrow!

A Little Good News

Today was a good day. After church, I had a man call looking for a 1-bedroom apartment. He wanted to spend as little as possible. One of the people I have been evicting told me that he would be out today by noon. Suprisingly, he was out today as promised and he even cleaned the apartment. So, I showed the apartment to the man and he says he will take it. He's supposed to receive his social security via direct deposit tomorrow morning and will bring the money then.

That is what I call a good day. A tenant leaving without needing to be setout and re-renting the apartment the same day!

I'm still getting a lot of calls looking for houses and apartments and I'm hoping to get a couple of more rented in the next day or so.