Yet another Apartment issue... at a time like this!

Why do things always come at the worst of times? That always seems to be the story with us anyway. We got a call yesterday (voicemail actually) from a tenant of ours in PG...yes, the same horrible location that we own that always seems to be causing us problems.... anyway, she told us that she was moving out and would be out by the end of the month. Does she realize that is only 4 days away? Does she realize she has a contract, legal contract, until Dec'08? Does she even care that I have a baby due any day? The answer to all of these questions is NO!! A BIG FAT NO!! Either that or she just does not care and I guess that could be the case too.

So, Neil and I jump on the computer and post the apartment for rent within minutes of hearing her message and then decide that it might be best to head over there and see for ourselves what is going on. Tenants have a tendency to lie. For all I knew, she had been out for weeks and I would not have known the difference. I am glad we ran up there. She was just leaving the apartment and had that "oh crap" look on her face!! It amazes me that someone thinks they can just up and leave, giving barely notice, not paying you a single dime for the rent you will be missing out on.

Well, for those who know me well, know that I do not take these things lying down. My mean side comes shining through without much effort!! I ran up there, told her she needed to pay me Aug rent and she was lucky I was not asking for the next four months up front. She said..." oh, I thought you could just use my security deposit for rent next month..." WRONG!!! That baby was lost the minute you started moving out!! I had to remind her of the legal rights I have against her and the contract she signed. Her apartment was loaded with JUNK still, it was in desperate need of a cleaning, and I think she was going to leave it that way!! SOME PEOPLE!! By the time we left, I was able to collect rent for August (in cash), she agreed to pay for a cleaning service to come in and clean her apartment tomorrow, and she will not get a dime of her deposit back!!

Oh, and we got a call from a nice couple within 15 minutes of posting the ad, they showed up at the apartment within the hour, and they signed anothers years lease and gave us a security deposit. Oh, and we were able to raise rent quite a bit from where the past tenants were paying. I truly feel blessed. Things really worked out with us coming out way ahead, from something that could have caused us ALOT of stress and problems. I think the Lord knew the timing was bad for me and I could not handle any apartment problems at the time.

The cleaning service is in tommorrow, carpets cleaned on Wed, and the new tenant is moving in on Thursday!! Thank goodness for these little miracles!!

Where have I been?

In preperation for our move, we are selling our investment properties!! YEA!! They have been a true blessing for us the last 8 years we have been doing it, but I can tell you...I am not going to miss those late night calls or unexpected vacancies. We have two of them on the market right now and I have been doing it myself. I feel like I have done this buying and selling thing enough times, that this should be a piece of cake, but I really was not prepaired for how it consumes my days. All the phone calls... all the showings.. waiting for the offers... countering the offers... waiting for the response... I am tired.

I am greatful that it has been easier then expected. We have been flooded with calls and walk throughs, but I am still very tired. We have an offer in right now on one of them, I am waiting to counter due to the fact that we have had alot of interest and I am hoping I get another to play against it. At least things are moving forward and in this market, I am greatful.

More to follow...

You may think this is a joke but think again!!

It has been a while since my last post... I did not want to have people leaving me nasty comments about my lack of effort or anything, so here is the latest.

Remember just last week how I said that my tenant defaulted on her lease because her sister was committed to a mental hospital? Also, remember how I said I had a new tenant moving in the very next day...oh, and how I said she seemed nice? Well, here it is....

This second tenant...we will just call her dummy... had plans of moving in last Sat. Neil and I showed up EARLY at the apartment on Sat. to clean, repair, improve, and do all other things you do when you have a move-out/move-in situation. We were there (with our two children) for 8 hours getting the apartment ready to go. Dummy calls me around 2:00 to ask if she could come over and do a walk-through with me prior to getting her keys and loading her truck to start moving in. I said sure and she came right over. We walked through the apartment together and discussed some minor things that still needed to be done. Things like an outlet cover, touching up a wall, removing the old water heater that was just replaced...small things like that. She was fine with it and said nothing. She leaves after giving me the remainder of the rent for the month and starts to load the trucks to move her things over. Neil and I leave...FINALLY... to head home for the day.

About four hours later the phone calls start. She wants to know why there faucet outside had a small drip, she wanted to know why the outlet upstairs did not work...all things we said we did not know, but would look into. Finally, she tells us that she just wants out of her lease. She did not want to live there and she wants her deposit and rent back. WHAT AN IDIOT!!

Did she forget she signed a binding lease? Did she think that she could just decide that she wanted to break it? Anyway, she moved all of her things back out that same day... cancelled her rent check on us...and is suing us for her deposit money.

Could things get any better? Why do these things only happen to us? What are we doing wrong? So, since Feb 1st... I have had a tenant leave without notice, costing me THOUSANDS of $$$ worth of damage. We were able to completely tear it apart and rebuild it in a week and get another tenant in there. This tenant defaults 45 days later because of mental issues. I get another tenant in the very day after she moves out, but this one also moves out the very same day. So in two months, I have gone through 3 tenants!! WHAT IS WRONG HERE?

Yes, for those wondering, I have another tenant moving in on Thursday :)

It is almost so crazy it is makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Here are pictures of our PG apartment, so you know we are not slumlords!!

Latest Apartment Update

For those of you who are sick of hearing my crys and complaints about our apartments...tough!! This blog is the only place I can openly rag on them and describe just how stupid these people can be!!

So, remember the apartment in Feb that was left torn upside down and caused me to almost be committed? Well, here we are no more then 2 months later and I am back at square one!!! WHY WHY WHY? Now keep in mind this apartment is big.. I mean 1600 + sqft big and attracts alot of large families. Why wouldn't it. I never get a nice quite newlywed couple, I always get the single moms, newly divorced, 4+ kids, kind of people.

I thought I was a good judge of character, but apparently not!! I let these two sisters move in. They each kids...but, I felt good about them...I thought! Anyway, I got a call a few weeks back that the one sister was committed to a mental hospital because she tried to choke her sister to death. So, now they can not live together anymore and the remaining sister can not afford the $1000 rent on her own. She is now moving out and I am left to find a replacement.

I went down there today to find a broken window and smoke damage because they failed to open the fireplace once they lite a fire. The place was a MESS!! Clutter to the ceiling...toys thrown across the front lawn... and the BRAND NEW CARPET I JUST INSTALLED looked sooo dirty!! I was so irritated.

Anyway, fortunately I found a replacement tenant today. She seems nice, but I have been wrong before!! Now, I just have to get this old tenant out and that could be a task. She has until Friday to be out...we will see what happens.

Then I get to start the legal small claims proceedings and try to collect for the damages.

GOOD TIMES!!

Have I mentioned lately that I HATE my apartments!! Man, I really really hate them.
I guess what I hate the most is that just when you think things are going well...they are all rented, you have had no calls with problems or complaints and THEN YOU GET SMACKED ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD!!

I have this handyman. Is is slow, but he is CHEAP...oh and a little stupid! But, I will get a call from a tenant who has a leak so I call him. This easy leak then turns into having to rip the Sheetrock out, replace some pipes, patch the Sheetrock and then repaint. What a joke!!
Then, I get a call from another tenant that the electric Hot Water heater is not working. I send Mr. Bonehead down there. He finds that breakers are bad, but can not find any to replace it with. Then I hear that my idiot tenants are building fires in the fireplace...I told them not too!! Oh, one of the tenants has been committed to some mental hospital...wants to default...could it get any better?

I AM FINALLY DONE!!!

It has only taken me a year, but I am officially done with my real estate classes. I wanted to get my real estate license to buy and sell investment properties for Hubby and I. It has been a LONG road... alot longer then it should have been! But, I am officially done!

Well, now I have to study up and take my national test for the board of Realtors, then find a broker who not charge me an arm and a leg to buy and sell my own properties...ok, then I will be done!

But at least NO MORE CLASSES!! YEA!!

Apartment Update!!

It has really been a long and frustrating week. We have spent almost every waking moment down at that apartment working to get it ready to rent. Neil also decided it would be best to take two days off of work to get things moving. Of course, things NEVER go according to plan, but I am very VERY glad to say that despite a few minor set backs…we are DONE!!!! The painting and patch work took two days longer then expected. Of course, the holes were more extensive then we originally thought. It seems that whenever we turned around there was another one that showed up. We also had to replace almost all the doors, because they came with holes too. We got carpet installed on Thursday and doors, sinks, and lights installed on Friday. I also decided that I was not going to break my back cleaning that nasty horrid place myself, so I called a sweet lady we have used before to come and clean. I think she was confused as to why there were remains of a charcoal fire in the stove, and potatoes that had sprouted and were growing in the cabinets.

We went down there Sat. morning to do the light finish work and to get a contract signed!! Yes, I also have a tenant. They moved in on Sat. so I am officially done with the place.

It is hard to look at the benefits of things when you are sitting in the middle of a trial like this. You ask yourself why the Lord has put this trial in your lives. What have we done to deserve this? For us, a trial like this could be financially devastating. We are still new in this Landlord business. Although, we have had apartments for about 7 years, as many of you know they are not quick money makers. It takes years to get to a good cash flow status. When we have an apartment go vacant, especially when we have one that leaves us with huge repair work, it can be disastrous. We can look back and see the blessings that have come from this. This lady was not a tenant we would have chosen. She lived there when we bought the place and we knew that it would be bad when she moved out. We were not expecting this bad, but at least she is out. Now, we are just waiting for the next tenant to call us with a bomb to drop.

I was not able to take a lot of pictures. It seems that there was always some one somewhere or some mess that still needed to be cleaned up...but I will get more posted.

SOME PEOPLE!!!

Why do these things always happen to me? You are going along in your life...everything is running smooth (or so you think) and then WHAM...you get a reality check smacking you on the side of your head!! To make matters worse it is because you have complete stupid idiots in your life that do these things to you!!

This is what I am talking about. Neil got the day off last Friday to do some improvements around our house. He was having a friend come and help him put some really nice wooden caps along the sides of our stairs...I will post pictures later. Anyway, we wake up to a text message from a tenant in one of our duplexes. Keep in mind it was the first of Feb. and I was expecting to be getting a rent check from this lady any day... I knew it was bad when I hear Neil cussing from the other room as he is reading the message. She says, and I will summarize...

"Neil, sorry for the short notice, but we got a job transfer out of state and we left four days ago. You have our deposit, so you can use that for the cleaning. Whatever is left, please send me the difference."

We immediately go into overdrive mode and get the kids ready, throw clothes on ourselves and head over to the apartment to see just how bad it looks. The whole time I am freaking out, because now I am without rent for the month and I am going to have to scramble to get someone in there!!

To put it very very VERY lightly...this apartment was in the worst state I have ever had any apartment left!! I can not believe the disgust and filth that was around there. This tenant had lived there for over two years and had NEVER CLEANED A DAY IN HER LIFE!!! The place should have been condemned. Not only was the apartment completely nasty and dirty, it had so much extensive damage it was going to take forever to get it to rentable status. I had HUGE holes in almost every wall. Holes in every door. Food caked to the ceiling. Blinds falling off the windows. A two car carport stacked 6 feet high of garbage, old furniture, clothes, and dog *@#!. The place STUNK so bad I could not breathe. All of this caused me to have a temporary breakdown. I have never cried over an apartment before. I was so upset, Neil had to yell at me to get me refocused.

Granted Neil and I are not one to sit still to long, so within minutes I had our contractor on the phone and our carpet guy scheduled. Things are not done yet...we have spent the last three days down there cleaning and hauling 8 truck loads FULL to the dump. But, I am very excited to say that it is getting painted as we speak and carpet is going in tomorrow. I think I may even have a tenant lined up. All in less then four days!!

I have posted some pictures...trust me; these do not even do the apartment its proper justice. Just pretend you are sitting in a pile of garbage as you look at these pictures!!