When you're in the landlording business, you will have problem tenants once in a while. It is very common to evict a tenant for non-payment, only to have them blame the landlord. That is exactly what happened to me today.
While I was doing some painting at the Pink Elephant, I received a call from the city fire inspector. He told me that they had a complaint about one of my rentals from - guess who - the tenant I'm evicting. The tenant had called to complain that his side door was screwed shut, which violates the city fire code (all doors must be operational, even though only one door is required). I explained to the fire inspector that the idiot tenant was the one that screwed the door shut after one of his druggie friends broke in the side door. At any rate, I told the fire inspector that I would remove the screws today and he said he would re-inspect it tomorrow.
I arrived at the apartment and knocked on the door. When the tenant opened the door, I said that I was there to remove the screws from the side door and walked in. Suddenly, the tenant shoved me! Feeling somewhat threatened, I shoved back and knocked him nearly across the room. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He stated that I had to give him a 24 hour notice. I informed the moron that he called the fire inspector to complain about an "unsafe condition" that he caused and that I did NOT need to give him a 24 hour notice.
I proceeded to remove the screws from the door. As I was leaving, this idiot tried to slam the door on me, but I caught the door with one arm and it swung back, striking him in the face. Being finished with my business, I left.
A few minutes later, another one of my tenants who live across the street and saw the entire incident called me to say that the tenant had called the police and that the police were there. I asked her to give the phone to the police officer, but the police officer was in his apartment.
About a half hour later, I received a call from someone who claimed to be a lawyer friend of the idiot tenant. He asked me for my side of the story and I told him that I didn't talk to scumbag lawyers, and then I hung up.
This is the first time in 5 years that I've had a physical confrontation with a tenant. The odd thing is that I had not had a prior confrontation with the tenant - not even a verbal argument. This incident just illustrates how landlords must be prepared to defend themselves at all times. Who knows what was going on in this person's mind?
Thursday, June 19, 2008
$2,500 Lunch!
I worked about 4 hours yesterday doing routine maintenance. I started the day with about one hour of painting at the Pink Elephant. Then, I had lunch with another investor in town. The topic of our lunch was both the coming DEPRESSION in this country and how to deal with it, and more importantly, an advertising agreement that we're putting together to save a LOT of money!
The advertising topic got started when I received a call last week from the local newspaper saying that my ad rates were going from $134 per month to $260 per month (wow - talk about inflation)! That means that my newspaper advertising budget would be jumping from $1,608 per year to $3,120 per year, WHICH I THINK IS OUTRAGEOUS! I called my friend, who is another member of our REIA and a successful landlord, to give him the news. We discussed the issue and decided that we would set up an advertising system that would allow up to 5 REIA members to run one ad that would drive traffic to a phone tree and our REIA website. With 5 members sharing the cost, that would save me $2,500 per year on advertising and provide access to a phone tree that will help pre-screen potential tenants. My friend will be administering the phone tree and I will handle the advertisements and the billing. I don't think that having 5 landlords on the phone tree will affect my call volume at all, because people generally call all of the ads in the paper when they're looking for a rental anyway. We'll see! I'm looking forward to trying it out. Anytime you can save or make $2,500 at lunch, you're having a good day!
After lunch, I installed a new handrail (made out of 2 X 4's) for the stairs at the Pink Elephant and I also installed emergency lighting in the hallway.
That was all the work I wanted to do for the day. After a nice dinner, I took a nice bike ride. All in all, a great day!
The advertising topic got started when I received a call last week from the local newspaper saying that my ad rates were going from $134 per month to $260 per month (wow - talk about inflation)! That means that my newspaper advertising budget would be jumping from $1,608 per year to $3,120 per year, WHICH I THINK IS OUTRAGEOUS! I called my friend, who is another member of our REIA and a successful landlord, to give him the news. We discussed the issue and decided that we would set up an advertising system that would allow up to 5 REIA members to run one ad that would drive traffic to a phone tree and our REIA website. With 5 members sharing the cost, that would save me $2,500 per year on advertising and provide access to a phone tree that will help pre-screen potential tenants. My friend will be administering the phone tree and I will handle the advertisements and the billing. I don't think that having 5 landlords on the phone tree will affect my call volume at all, because people generally call all of the ads in the paper when they're looking for a rental anyway. We'll see! I'm looking forward to trying it out. Anytime you can save or make $2,500 at lunch, you're having a good day!
After lunch, I installed a new handrail (made out of 2 X 4's) for the stairs at the Pink Elephant and I also installed emergency lighting in the hallway.
That was all the work I wanted to do for the day. After a nice dinner, I took a nice bike ride. All in all, a great day!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The routine is back!
I got back to my normal routine yesterday, after a couple of weeks of harder work. My projects yesterday included doing some painting on the exterior of the Pink Elephant (my latest apartment building), as well as mowing two yards, showing an apartment, and fixing a lighting problem. I worked 4 hours yesterday.
The real excitement yesterday was riding my new mountain bike. It's mighty fancy with dual disc brakes, thumb shifters, and 24 speeds. I went on a 6.6 mile ride yesterday morning and then a 16.6 mile ride last evening, for a total of 23.2 miles! That was a lot of riding for me in one day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My project for today is to stop by the local HUD office to sign some paperwork and pick up two Section 8 checks, and to install a new shower in an apartment at the Pink Elephant. I'm hoping to complete this work in about 3 hours!
The real excitement yesterday was riding my new mountain bike. It's mighty fancy with dual disc brakes, thumb shifters, and 24 speeds. I went on a 6.6 mile ride yesterday morning and then a 16.6 mile ride last evening, for a total of 23.2 miles! That was a lot of riding for me in one day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My project for today is to stop by the local HUD office to sign some paperwork and pick up two Section 8 checks, and to install a new shower in an apartment at the Pink Elephant. I'm hoping to complete this work in about 3 hours!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Still Busy!
Things continue to be busy here with record high demand for rentals. When I started my rental business, the rental market here was just average. Then, at about the peak of the real estate boom, the rental business in our area was the worst it had been in over 2o years, according to the long term successful investors at my REIA. I attribute that to the huge number of unqualified buyers that bought houses during that period with gimmick loans. With the recent real estate bust has come the decline in homeownership by those unqualified people. Unqualified buyers can no longer easily buy a house and many of those that did during the boom have lost their homes to foreclosures. So, I guess in my short, 5 year real estate career, I've seen our local rental market go through an entire business cycle. Let's just hope the market gets stuck in the current high demand part of the cycle!
This extremely high demand has caused me to really put in some longer work days lately, as I'm trying to rehab all of the units we acquired earlier in the year. I had planned to slowly rehab these units over the summer, but the demand has caused me to accelerate that pace. I don't mind doing a little extra work to significantly increase my income. The good news is that once the rehabs are done, I'll have a lot of free time to play.
This extremely high demand has caused me to really put in some longer work days lately, as I'm trying to rehab all of the units we acquired earlier in the year. I had planned to slowly rehab these units over the summer, but the demand has caused me to accelerate that pace. I don't mind doing a little extra work to significantly increase my income. The good news is that once the rehabs are done, I'll have a lot of free time to play.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Nuisance Board Meeting
Today's big agenda was a meeting with the city nuisance board; a captain from the police department; and the city law director. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss my progress on getting rid of the police calls to the Pink Elephant.
At this point, I have now evicted the drug dealers, drug addicts, and vagrants and are in the process of repainting the exterior of the building. I took an updated Nuisance Abatement Plan to the board and explained all the things we have done. The board was satisfied with the progress and approved my plan as written.
I wrote a very pointed Letter to the Editor to our local newspaper about the prosecutor failing to keep a dangerous felon in jail that frequently trespasses on our property. I asked the Law Director about that at the Nuisance Meeting but she refused to answer! I thought that was disturbing - that the Law Director doesn't feel obligated to answer questions from the public concerning the performance of her job.
I continue to be very busy with record low vacancies. As I write this blog, I am out of 1 and 3 bedroom houses and out of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. The only open rentals I have are a 1 bedroom apartment and the 2 bedroom house that I just bought. Wow! I would certainly like to see this demand for rentals continue.
At this point, I have now evicted the drug dealers, drug addicts, and vagrants and are in the process of repainting the exterior of the building. I took an updated Nuisance Abatement Plan to the board and explained all the things we have done. The board was satisfied with the progress and approved my plan as written.
I wrote a very pointed Letter to the Editor to our local newspaper about the prosecutor failing to keep a dangerous felon in jail that frequently trespasses on our property. I asked the Law Director about that at the Nuisance Meeting but she refused to answer! I thought that was disturbing - that the Law Director doesn't feel obligated to answer questions from the public concerning the performance of her job.
I continue to be very busy with record low vacancies. As I write this blog, I am out of 1 and 3 bedroom houses and out of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. The only open rentals I have are a 1 bedroom apartment and the 2 bedroom house that I just bought. Wow! I would certainly like to see this demand for rentals continue.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Getting the Criminals Off the Street!
After a wonderful 4 day vacation last weekend, I returned home to find a lot happening on the legal front. While I was having fun, the Sheriff had dropped by the house to leave a subpeona for me to testify in a criminal case on Tuesday. This case involved a convicted felon that I had arrested for criminal tresspass at one of our apartment buildings. This felon has literally been arrested over 110 times and is currently awaiting a felony trial for carrying a concealed weapon. He is a drug addict who is very unpredictable and dangerous. More on this case later.
As I headed into town on Monday morning to begin collecting rents, I received a call from one of the city council members who asked me to attend the next nuisance abatement board meeting. As one of the largest rental property owners in the city, I have frequent contact with the city officials and they call me when there is a problem. The police captain and the nuisance board wants to talk to me about the recent activity at the Pink Elephant (my relatively new pink apartment building). This meeting will be held next Tuesday (the 10th).
Prior to my taking over the building, there were often multiple police calls to the building each day with constant fights, drug problems, and other criminal activity. In the month prior to my takeover, there was a pile of police reports over an inch thick. I have worked very hard to get rid of the riff-raff and have cut the number of incidents down to almost zero. To be honest, I was quite surprised to receive this call because I had talked to this same city councilwoman about 2 weeks ago, and she expressed her satisfaction and appreciation that I had cleaned up the building (gotten rid of the druggies and other scumbags).
So that I will be prepared for this meeting, I went to the police station and got copies of all the police reports for the past 2 months. I was pleased to find that in the last 2 months, there were only 6 police reports and 5 of those incidents didn't include my tenants. In fact, 3 of those reports involved the convicted felon that I mentioned above when he was trespassing on the property. In fact, after looking at the police reports, I can't imagine why the nuisance abatement board or police captain would like to talk to me.
Tuesday morning, I arrived at court to testify against the felon. After sitting in the courtroom a few minutes, the prosecutor asked me to go out in the hall with her. She thanked me for coming to testify, but said the felon was being released after being jailed for only 15 days. She said that even with a trial, he could only be held for 30 days and that the prosecutor had decided to release him for time served. I about had a stroke right there on the spot. If I didn't have such a hard head, my head surely would have exploded. I asked the prosecutor if she knew that this criminal had been arrested over 100 times. She did. I asked her if she knew that he was awaiting trial on felony charges of carrying a concealed weapon. She did. I asked her if she would accept responsibility for this criminal killing someone. She didn't reply, but simply said he was being released. I was furious!
Immediately upon leaving the courtroom, I called the city councilwoman to explain to her that this criminal had been let go. The city wants me to prevent incidents at my building, apparently including the 3 incidents in the past 2 months involving this felon (who isn't even one of my tenants), but when I have a dangerous criminal arrested and go to testify against him in court, the city prosecutor releases him. UNBELIEVABLE! The city councilwoman said that she will contact the prosecutor and demand answers. She is just as angry about this situation as I am.
I am writing a letter to the editor about this situation and I fully intend to press this issue until the prosecutor gets her act together.
As I headed into town on Monday morning to begin collecting rents, I received a call from one of the city council members who asked me to attend the next nuisance abatement board meeting. As one of the largest rental property owners in the city, I have frequent contact with the city officials and they call me when there is a problem. The police captain and the nuisance board wants to talk to me about the recent activity at the Pink Elephant (my relatively new pink apartment building). This meeting will be held next Tuesday (the 10th).
Prior to my taking over the building, there were often multiple police calls to the building each day with constant fights, drug problems, and other criminal activity. In the month prior to my takeover, there was a pile of police reports over an inch thick. I have worked very hard to get rid of the riff-raff and have cut the number of incidents down to almost zero. To be honest, I was quite surprised to receive this call because I had talked to this same city councilwoman about 2 weeks ago, and she expressed her satisfaction and appreciation that I had cleaned up the building (gotten rid of the druggies and other scumbags).
So that I will be prepared for this meeting, I went to the police station and got copies of all the police reports for the past 2 months. I was pleased to find that in the last 2 months, there were only 6 police reports and 5 of those incidents didn't include my tenants. In fact, 3 of those reports involved the convicted felon that I mentioned above when he was trespassing on the property. In fact, after looking at the police reports, I can't imagine why the nuisance abatement board or police captain would like to talk to me.
Tuesday morning, I arrived at court to testify against the felon. After sitting in the courtroom a few minutes, the prosecutor asked me to go out in the hall with her. She thanked me for coming to testify, but said the felon was being released after being jailed for only 15 days. She said that even with a trial, he could only be held for 30 days and that the prosecutor had decided to release him for time served. I about had a stroke right there on the spot. If I didn't have such a hard head, my head surely would have exploded. I asked the prosecutor if she knew that this criminal had been arrested over 100 times. She did. I asked her if she knew that he was awaiting trial on felony charges of carrying a concealed weapon. She did. I asked her if she would accept responsibility for this criminal killing someone. She didn't reply, but simply said he was being released. I was furious!
Immediately upon leaving the courtroom, I called the city councilwoman to explain to her that this criminal had been let go. The city wants me to prevent incidents at my building, apparently including the 3 incidents in the past 2 months involving this felon (who isn't even one of my tenants), but when I have a dangerous criminal arrested and go to testify against him in court, the city prosecutor releases him. UNBELIEVABLE! The city councilwoman said that she will contact the prosecutor and demand answers. She is just as angry about this situation as I am.
I am writing a letter to the editor about this situation and I fully intend to press this issue until the prosecutor gets her act together.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Four Day Weekend!
My wife and I had a WONDERFUL time on our four day weekend!!! During most years, we would have already been camping two or three times by this point in the year. However, with the very cool and wet weather we've been experiencing this year, this weekend was the first weather opportunity to go camping. This late spring has made for a long time between snowboarding season and camping season and I was overdue for some serious fun.
Many of the members of our small group from church were able to join us on Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday, which made the weekend all the better. In addition to sitting by the campfire each evening and enjoying great fellowship (along with some great cookouts), we rode our bycicles; went mountain biking on a challenging mountain bike course; and rode our motorcycles. The state park also has a shooting range and I took my handgun for a little target practice, but we were just having so much fun that we didn't have time for the shooting. We'll try that again next time.
Now that we're back from the trip, I feel completely refreshed and ready to get back to work in my rental business. Making things even more fun is that today is RENT COLLECTION DAY! YEAH!
Many of the members of our small group from church were able to join us on Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday, which made the weekend all the better. In addition to sitting by the campfire each evening and enjoying great fellowship (along with some great cookouts), we rode our bycicles; went mountain biking on a challenging mountain bike course; and rode our motorcycles. The state park also has a shooting range and I took my handgun for a little target practice, but we were just having so much fun that we didn't have time for the shooting. We'll try that again next time.
Now that we're back from the trip, I feel completely refreshed and ready to get back to work in my rental business. Making things even more fun is that today is RENT COLLECTION DAY! YEAH!
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