What's that smell?

I took it easy this morning and didn't go to work until noon. My project today was to finish the second of three apartments at one of our new apartment buildings. There really wasn't much left to do. I had to patch a small hole in the wall; install 2 miniblinds; and make an access panel out of drywell for the water heater area.

The tenant had moved most of their stuff in yesterday. I knew that they had a small dog and cat, and had them sign a pet agreement when we did the lease. However, today I was a little surprised to find a PYTHON in the apartment. I guess I forgot to ask if they had any snakes from the Amazon! Oh well. I didn't get too excited about the snake and as long as they don't allow it to roam free, it's ok with me.

However, what wasn't OK with me was the smell when I went into the back apartment. This apartment is vacant and it's probably been a month or so since I spent more than 2 minutes in there (when I looked at the apartment before we bought the building). I had showed the apartment to the potential tenant who is going to rent it a couple of days ago, but somehow didn't notice how bad the smell was. I am accustomed to seeing and smelling some nasty things, but the smell today almost made me throw-up. It smelled like something died and was in the latter stages of decay. Opening the door of the unplugged refrigerator answered the all important question - WHERE. The smell almost knocked me over! I went to the truck and got an industrial trash bag and gloves. As I started cleaning the filth out of the refrigerator/freezer, I noticed that something was MOVING. I put my glasses on and realized that the freezer portion was full of live magots. YUK! I finished cleaning up the mess and then headed home. That was enough for one day. I'll probably have to spray some OdorX in the refrigerator on Monday. That smell deserves more than a box of baking soda!

If the rental business isn't glamorous, I don't know what is!

Back to Work for Number 10!

I am almost in shock! I headed back to work today and rented another unit. I have now rented 10 units this month - TEN! I simply can not believe it! This is exactly double my old record of five new tenants in a single month. Of course, many of these tenants went into the vacant rentals that we just bought. However, what shocks me is the demand for rentals. I've only been in business for a little over 3 1/2 years, but this is by FAR the best rental market that I've seen!

I guess it's about time. According to the old-timers, last summer was the worst rental market they had seen in 20 years. Whatever the situation, I'm truly grateful for all the new renters.

Today, I installed new miniblinds in the second of our new houses. I like to get the miniblinds up as soon as possible so that vandals can't see in. I also swept the floors on the first floor of this house.

After that, I ran back home to meet a guy that wanted to buy my old motorcycle. I purchased this Honda last year for $700, so that I could learn to ride. After successfully learning to ride, I bought a beautiful V-star Classic and therefore needed to sell my Honda. I spent about $200 on the Honda in the year I had it: new seat cover, new brakes, and new saddle bags. Today, I sold it for $1,300. Kinda reminds me of buying houses at a discount!!!

After selling the motorcycle, I went back to work. I installed carpet in the apartment that the couple rented yesterday. This was in one of my new apartment buildings and fortunately only needed carpet and a couple of other little touch-ups.

That was it for today. Tomorrow I'm planning to do some more work on the house where I hung mini-blinds today. That's my last 3-bedroom house and there is a lot of demand. I am anxious to get it done!

Sick as a Dog!

First, I'm NOT looking for sympathy or get-well-soon wishes. I am NOT a victim. However, I wanted to discuss today's situation to point out one of the best aspects of being a landlord.

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with late stage Lyme disease (you know, getting bitten by an angry tick). I had a LOT of neurological problems such as numbness in hands and feet, pain in joints, slurred speech, dragging leg, randomly twitching muscles, etc. It's very disconcerting when it first happens, but I got used to it! (All of the sypmtoms finally went away after a few months of treatment). Unfortunately, there's not really a cure for Lyme disease and it can reoccur whenever it chooses. The initial treatment is several months of IV and oral antibiotics, but if that doesn't "cure" you, then further treatment for repeat performances is only marginally effective.

About a month ago, I started having a new episode. Many of the old symptoms reappeared, but I have been getting by and working VERY hard on all of my new rentals. I had absolutely no desire to go to the doctor or waste time with this silliness. Today, I was not so lucky. In addition to the pain, I also had EXTREME fatigue (another unpleasant symptom). I felt HORRIBLE! It was even an effort to breath! UGH!

Now here's where we get to the good part! I decided that it was finally time to go to the doctor (who says I'm not right on top of things?) Since I am supported by my rental business, I did not have to go to work today. I simply took the day off. I didn't ask anyone or have to call my boss. I just decided that I was going to be OFF today. After all, the rents still come in whether I work or not and there was nothing so pressing that I had to work sick. If I don't feel better tomorrow, I might take tomorrow off also and maybe the whole weekend.

By evening, I felt a little better, and went to my local REIA meeting. I didn't have to worry about the boss seeing my out and about after calling in sick, BECAUSE I AM THE BOSS!

Another great thing about being in the rental business with this type of disease is that I can work whatever number of hours I desire. I am not lazy and I will get back to work shortly no matter how I feel. (What am I going to do, stay home and watch soap operas all day?) However, if this turns out to be a major relapse, I may once again experience the extreme fatigue like today. The great thing is that I can continue to work at MY PACE. If I can only work an hour and then need to lay down for 15 minutes, I can do that! THAT IS HUGE!!! Not many employers would put up with this for long, but I can do it without a problem! In fact, i can do whatever I want!

I LOVE THE RENTAL BUSINESS! There's nothing like having the freedom to do what you want to do, when you want to do it! IT IS WONDERFUL!

Again, I will definitely be fine! I don't want sympathy - it's no big deal.

Mike

Number Nine!

I worked a full 8 hours Monday and then took yesterday off (except for picking up the rent for new tenant #8 of the month). Today I headed back to work and started out by putting the finishing touches on one of the houses that we just bought and already have rented.. After that, I walked next door and started working on the second house that we just bought. This house needs more work than the first one. The entire interior of the house will need to be cleaned and painted. In addition, the garage needs to be painted. It clearly hasn't been painted for at least 50 years!!! The good thing about that is that there isn't any flaking paint - it's basically back to bare wood. After all the painting, I also need to do something with the garage door as part of it is off the track.

I'm estimating that the work on this house will take about 4 days total. I got a little surprise on this house today when I called to have the electric turned on. The electric company said that the meter had been vandalized and that the meter base would have to be replaced before they would turn on the electric. I do almost all the work on my rentals myself, but I don't do the main electrical service. Therefore, I have a call in to my electrician.

Late this afternoon, I got a call from a young couple that looked at one of our new 1 bedroom apartments about a week ago. They wanted to take it and move starting tomorrow. Since they hadn't yet filled out an application, I met them at the apartment and had them fill one out. Then, I went home to my office to do their screening. Their screening was clean and I then went back to the apartment to sign a lease with them and get their money. That makes the 9th new move in this month! The rental market in our area is absolutely on fire!!!! I also had another applicant fill out an application today on the 3 bedroom house that I haven't even started working on. WOW!

I've already got a deal to buy another duplex and plan to keep on buying, although not at the pace of this past month!

House Complete!

I worked hard today and got a lot done. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a tenant with a scumbag contingency lawyer was trying to extort money from us. Today, I got the morning started by writing a response letter that my attorney will use as a guide to write a letter to the tenant's lawyer. Basically, the letter says that we will not give in to extortion (a threatened lawsuit) and will fight all the way. Most of these scumbag lawyers are looking for a weak landlord that will settle with them or give them their insurance information. I have absolutely no intention of doing either.

After writing the letter, I went to work on one of our new rental houses. Although it took nearly 8 hours, I installed two large rooms of carpet and painted the kitchen and stairs. In addition, I mowed the grass at this house and the other house that we just bought. When I returned home, I called the new tenant and told her that she could move in tomorrow.

I also heard again from the landlord that wants to sell me her duplex for $42,500. She wants to get the property under contract and I agreed to meet with her later this week to get that done. I am buying the property for $42,500 and it will have gross rents of about $925 per month.

Back to Work

After a 2 day forced vacation caused by my ailing pickup truck, I finally got back to work today. I started out by mowing the grass at a couple of my apartment buildings. Then, I went to one of my new duplexes to finish up a little electrical work and plumbing work. After finishing the duplex, I went to one of my new houses to rip up the old carpet. I plan on finishing this house Monday by installing 2 new rooms of carpet and painting the kitchen. This house is already rented and I'd like to have it ready so that the new tenants can move in on Tuesday.

On my last blog, I talked about the 7 unit apartment building that another investor offered me. I went to look at it and decided it was more work than I wanted to take on. The numbers were good, but it was a huge building and the rehab could have easily taken 3 months. While I was talking to this investor, she agreed to sell me her 2-unit duplex for $42,500. This is an excellent deal and will have gross monthly rents in excess of 2% of the purchase price. I will take this deal. I'm taking tomorrow off. I'll be running the projection at Church and then we're having a big mother's day cookout at our house.

Life is Always Interesting!

Today started with my pickup truck biting the dust. That's bad news because all of my tools are in there and I depend on it for my rental business. It all started a couple of weeks ago, when the "check engine" light came on. There were no problems that I could discern and I was in the middle of rehabbing the rentals that I had just acquired. Therefore, I decided to wait until my schedule improved to take the truck to the shop.

Within a few days, the RPM began to act erratically when stopped. Then, the speedometer would occassionally drop to zero and the odometer would become all dashes. I continued to hope that I could complete my rehab work before losing the use of my truck. A couple of days ago, my ABS (anti-skid braking) light came on and the brakes would intermittently pulse as the brakes were applied. Things rapidly got worse and I was forced to take the truck to my local Ford dealer for $987 worth of work. I'm hoping to get it back tomorrow.

In the mean time, I rode my motorcycle to work today. My project today was to run a new electrical circuit to the new water heater in one of our apartments. I was able to carry enough tools in my saddlebags to get the job done.

After all my recent work, I had hoped to take a couple of months break before buying any more property. However, I received a call today from a successful local investor who had a property she wants to sell. I really wasn't too interested until she said that the 7 unit apartment building would be leased to the government for $3,800 per month and the sale price was only $105,000 (and it needs about $20,000 in modifications). That means that the monthly gross rents are more than 3% of the acquisition cost! That is a hard deal to pass up. I'm going to look at it tomorrow! I'll probably do something with it even though I had hoped to take a break.