Return to the rental rant...

OliverGuy · Mar 13, 2013

Sorry, but this is just too good. If you didn't see a post a couple weeks ago, one of my renter's didn't have enough money for heat they say. House thermo was higher in reality than they said they kept it on (said they were trying sooo hard to save money by keeping the thermo low), there was a brand new 60" TV on the wall...... Was trying to be nice and put a 95%LP furnace in to help them spend less on heat and for the long haul to minimize any heat problems for awhile. I asked if there was a good time for me to change out the old furnace and put in a new one. Sure the answer was, "we'll be in florida at the end of march for a week". Good grief. I'll be here working...

Iowa Jim · Mar 13, 2013

I am beginning to develop a bad attitude about "renters"! I am tired of liars, deadbeats, and cheats. They can afford Direct TV, new SUVs, but not the rent or heat. Just evicted another one, will see what kind of mess I have to deal with on Friday.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 13, 2013

as my wife says "No good deed goes unpunished" and I think she is right in most cases, but I keep trying.

ericlb · Mar 13, 2013

lol it would be interesting to know what the trip was for, family crisis or vacation, i once had kind of the same experience,i thought,[before i knew better] that it would be good to have some rental property and get paid from it, i had made me some money in the wrecker business,so i bought a pretty nice mobile home that belonged to a old family friend in a good park and rented it out to a divorces lady with 2 kids, figured they be safer than renting to guys who would probably be party animals and wreck the place,the lady, after a couple months had the usual tale of whoa,and no money, in an attempt to help her out [ after i had to replace all the pipes under the house due to freezing] i told her to just pay the lot rent, and we would figure something out for my rent, turned out she was playing the same number on the park owner, so neither of us was being paid and both of us thought the other was getting paid,we finally compared notes, and i came by to see tha lady and see what gives, she had bought a new car! the old one ran fine, so there was really no reason for the new one, needless to say she had to move,after that lesson i sold the trailer

old rooster · Mar 13, 2013

Amazing how they have money for everything, but the roof over their head! Going through the eviction process, myself, at the present.

Hotflashjr · Mar 13, 2013

During the blizzard here in MA my renters never checked to see if their generator would hook up to the switching panel at our rental house. He owns a 30 amp generator and its a 20 amp panel. He only purchased 5 gallons of fuel for his 9000 watt 30 amp generator for a blizzard. One day into the storm he called and told me I needed to bring him another generator and/or fuel because he was out and was broke, has a kid at the house, wan wan cry cry. After plowing for 40 hours straight made the 2 hour drive. Found him sitting on a 30 case of beer drinking away with 4 empty pizza boxes and running his big screen TV and xbox off of the generator instead of a heater. Told me no gas stations were open for miles. Funny, the one half mile down the street was open and had all 3 grades of fuel. I HATE BEING A LAND LORD!

larrystinescorner · Mar 13, 2013

I showed this before,but since you mentioned renting a trailer out,here it is again! I told the renters you have to leave,because the trailer is leaving!

Kenboling · Mar 13, 2013

I know what you are saying. I have four of them now for about ten years. Three are never any problem but number four is , well it attracts the deadbeats and freeloaders like moths to a porchlight. Funny, the flatscreen TV seems to be a common thread among the posts and, yes , they have the largest TV I have ever seen in my life. While trying to collect amonthly pittance of thier portion and hearing excuses of why they had no money I asked the young man to help me with some minor projects and I would call it even. You should have seen the look of horror on his face . Well, the next day I awoke him promptly at 11:00 am and noticed a SATELLITE DISH on the roof. I went off on them I'm sorry to say . "How can you say you are broke and then sign a two-year agreement for service ?" Just blank stares was all I got.

Now they are on full assistance with utility help and danged if I didn't get a dun for the water bill. Uhhh!

Thanks fellas, I feel better now, rant over

Ken

Traditional Farmer · Mar 13, 2013

Typical these days of people that get Gov't checks they think the necessities should be free and all their $$$ should go to buy luxuries

LAA · Mar 13, 2013

Sounds like a good week to hire an off duty deputy to video tape you clearing all of their trash out of your house and changing the locks.

SweetFeet · Mar 13, 2013

Amazing. I just don't get it.

Geez, I don't think we ate out for five years after we got married. Nor did we buy anything new - furnished our home striclty with "early used American" as my husband liked to say. LOL.

Could not afford "stuff"...we had a farm to pay for and fix up.

Those kids will never have anything at the rate they are going.

IrvIA · Mar 13, 2013

I had one too. Talked a good story when I rented it to her about how clean she was...told me she had OCD obsessive compulsive disorder, in other words a clean freak. I should have charged her for getting her over it....after she got evicted for nonpayment, the place was a pig sty. I could go on and on.....but take a look.

Dick2 · Mar 13, 2013

Just read a novel and the author injected a sentence that I was surprised to find in a novel.

"If you pay a person whether that person works or not, they will wear out the seat of their pants before they wear out the knees."

Sound real accurate to me!

Swede in IOWA · Mar 13, 2013

Just sold one last week. Have four remaining. The one I sold I purchased in 1980. I have totally redone it four times including last fall. It was trashed that many times. I am a hard learner. Other than normal repair the other four have been fine. Bought them to supplement my retirement income. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Swede

Ronald Anthony Anderson · Mar 13, 2013

Owning rental property will give you the happiest two days of your life. The day you buy it and the day you sell it.

Bill Radford · Mar 13, 2013

My mother had a house that her an Dad bought in the late 1940's. They lived there until they could afford to build a new house (around 1960)
They rented the house out through the years with Dad doing the "management" of the property.
Things went ok until Dad died around 2000.
Mom had no experience with this, but pride would not allow her to let me help her plus I think that she thought I would have wanted a cut of the rent.
To make a long story short, she rented it to a woman and the troubles began. The Police Chief came to see me one night and wanted to talk to me. Said that the property was a suspected crack house.When Mom found out, she went to her lawyer and had a deed made out and signed the place over to me (Thanks!)
After evicting the bums, I go my friend to take it down and haul it off. Problem solved. Now I have a lot to mow and the neighborhood is improved.

Dr. Walt · Mar 13, 2013

Hope you insisted on an upfront cleaning & repair deposit.

Mike (WA) · Mar 13, 2013

Evictions are over half of my law practice, and I've gotten quite good at it, iff'n I do say so myself. I can't count the number of landlords who told me the tenant says it'll take you 3 months to evict me, and I've got 'em walking down the road talking to themselves in 3 weeks. I see some legitimate hardship cases, and usually I can convince a hard@$$ landlord to work with them, at least a little bit. But I've seen enough slugs to last a lifetime, and I will never be a landlord, EVER! But don't all you guys quit- I need to make a living, too!

If your state has a provision for terminating a tenancy without cause (usually by giving notice 20 days before the next rent is due), BY ALL MEANS do not do leases! Just month to month rental agreements. In my experience, leases do nothing to "lock in" a tenant, and they're going to leave if they want. But a Lease locks the landlord in, when you get some real slugs who are trashing the place, but manage to keep paying the rent. Any guvment money the tenant gets is exempt from attachment by creditors, so your threat of suing them for breaking the lease is usually an empty threat.

The other big problem is trailer courts, where the tenant owns the trailer, and landlord just gets space rent. VERY difficult to get a tenant and his trailer booted, except for non payment of space rent. If someone tries to sell you a "manufactured home park" (ie, trailer court), my advice is to look at your watch, mutter "Golly, will you look at the time! I'm late for having my nails done", and head for the pickup.

Adirondack case guy · Mar 13, 2013

Yup, Larry
It was going so fast behind that Oliver that it passed a sleeping orange turtle. HeHe.
Loren

dr sportster · Mar 13, 2013

Are You gonna eat those cheese sticks . They look delicious !

da.bees · Mar 13, 2013

Dabbling in real estate rental isn't much different to dabbling in livestock or farming. We read rants weekly about the"stupid city guy"that bought the place next door. What do you suppose would be the outcome if somone who had never turned wrenches decided to open a tractor restoration shop? You will never be good at much of any thing until you make it through kindergarten of hard knocks.
My suggestion to anyone thinking about rental property is hire on taking care of somone elses property first. Even if you only mow or paint,you will see many of the day to day problems first hand.
Raising race horses is an easy way to make fast cash and I just happen to have a couple I'm willing to make you a deal on. :wink:

larrystinescorner · Mar 13, 2013

ok ,you asked for it ! (lol)

MarkB_MI · Mar 13, 2013

Ya gotta remember: it's a business.

One might reasonably assume that fairness and generosity will be repaid with candor and punctuality. Sorry to say, but that's seldom the case.

They will ALWAYS have a story. It might be true; it might not be true. In my experience, renters will tell you whatever they think you're likely to believe. I've had renters lie to me when it would have been simpler to tell the truth. Why? Out of habit, I suppose.

Over the years, I've cut renters a lot of slack. It has been the exception rather than the rule where the renter didn't end up taking advantage of my patience. It is what it is.

Mark-Mi · Mar 13, 2013

I wanna PUKE

Anonymous-0 · Mar 13, 2013

i get dibs on the babybel then.

dr sportster · Mar 13, 2013

I guess I'm not getting the cheese sticks.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 13, 2013

why not? i just want the babybel. you can have them sticks.

massey 333 · Mar 13, 2013

You must not of ever got involved with Children Services if you can do them so quickly.The last one we had 2 court eviction orders(which got throwed out by them),8 months and over $6000.00 + lost.Divorce,so we had 2 Attorneys plus each child had an attorney from the state.

IrvIA · Mar 13, 2013

they're available!!

IrvIA · Mar 13, 2013

Ya think thats bad, you shoulda seen the stove...well heck I'll just show you,..I guess I only took one from under the stove..took me the better part of a day to clean it up. I had to take it almost all apart. How bout the carpet, too. Had to replace all of it. And a ceiling fan with a fur coat, dryer lint throwed behind the dryer. Had to take the washer all apart. Of coure she didn't have a job. Shall I go on. LOL

IrvIA · Mar 13, 2013

I just noticed the dates on my pictures, Nov 4 to Nov 29. I worked in there every day 'cept Sundays..painted the whole house inside plus all the rest ..after I fixed the 2 holes in the drywall...I'm not sure it was done on the 29th either. A couple of pics of the inside all those oak cabinets were new in 98 plus the fridge and stove.

IrvIA · Mar 13, 2013

Uhh, not quite enough. $225

scotc · Mar 14, 2013

I remember hearing when I was little that the fastest way to lose money on a house was to rent it out. My grandfather rented my uncle's house out when my uncle was a kid, and I guess it turned into a real mess.

W_B · Mar 15, 2013

Dad had several rental houses when we lived in the city. When a tenant moved out we spent weekends cleaning and painting and patching. Ever wonder how a urine streak starts about 5 feet up the wall?... bunk beds! Best part was Dad took us to McDonald's for lunch, only time we ever had fast food, although McD's was about the only fast food place back in the 60's.

bison · Mar 15, 2013