Mentally and Physically Exausted

[flash]

I am worn out from working on my rental property after work and on weekends but we finally got our new family moved in and hopefully we can finish up the small details on a little slower pace .Boy do I hate repairs after really bad tennants are gone.We pretty much repaired everything in a month not counting the trash hauling and flea killing which was bad. My new tennants were very good at helping to repair and repaint for a couple of months free rent ,couldnt have done it so quickly without them. They are glad to be in a house instead of an apartment and I am glad to have them . I hope they stay a long, long time .They are the first tennants Ive ever had that plan on planting flowers and more trees and want to improve the yard .

[Rank]

good tenants are a good thang.... just curious, why didnt you hire people that do rental rehabs for a living ... the pros ... I found them efficient, cheaper and the turn around is quick. ,,, and if you have spare time, take on a few of the tasks, just to oversee the job?

[Hank70SS]

Good luck with the new tenants John. Sounds like you found some good ones. I've heard horror stories from friends that had rental property.

[flash]

I had a management company in charge of renting the house and doing upkeep but when the house became vacant I couldnt get them to do anything at all.He agreed that he let me down and said he would get it back in rental condition but nothing happened in a months time. In hindsight I should have hired someone to come in and sued him for damages but that takes money as well. I spent about $4000 so far getting it back in good condition and feel lucky to get the security deposit that he was holding from the previous tennant. I was so ashamed of my rental house that I could not wait to get it cleaned up again. The management company had gotten to where they were screening their calls and would not answer or return my calls so my wife borrowed a friends cell phone and he answered and she demanded the deposit or else .I will now be renting it myself and will know who is in there. I know a lot of the people who use this company and will advise them to be careful and tell them how he did with my place. Word of mouth in a small town will get around so that hopefully nobody else has to deal with this .My new tennants werent actually looking to move when I found them ,I pretty much made them a deal they couldnt pass up.They agreed to help me do the repairs for some free rent plus they are getting a 3 bedroom house with a nice yard for the same price as they were paying for a 2 bedroom apt .They are good folks too.

[Ms Grumpy]

So glad that you found good tenants. It sounds like the past tenants were really, really bad. Is there anyway that you can take them to small claims court to cover some of the damages ?

[flash]

I dont even know who was legally there ,mailbox was full of bills everyday for 8 different people .I could not get the mail person to stop leaving mail so I removed the mailbox and took all mail to the Post Office .They asked me what to do with it all and I told them I didnt care that it wasnt mine.As far as going after tennants for damages the legal system usually favors the tennant as they think us landlords are being unfair. You wouldnt believe how hard it can be to evict someone for non payment of rent ,it can take months and they destroy your place too.You can also get into trouble if you give someone a bad reference .I have had other landlords tell me what great tennants they were when checking a reference because they wanted them out of their house so badly. Rentals can be profitable but they can also be a pain in the rear,we have been renting this one for about 18 years.If Joan hadnt talked me out of it I was going to give it to the local fire dept to burn down for training purposes because it was so bad.Im glad now that she talked me out of it as it is in nice condition again but 1 more time and it may be time for it to go away.And you cant hardly sell anything nowdays .

[Ms Grumpy]

Now as the landlord don't you have the right to go and check on the property. To go there when the tenants are there and go into the house and make sure everything is OK.

[Rank]

It is not really dificult to be a landlord but the primary thing is to cover your legal bases with both the rental agreement and procedural actions.

I have it written into the rental agreement that I will be entering the house every three months to change the batterys on the smoke detectors which is pre-scheduled on the first tuesday of every quarter .... and then I write the first visit date as a reference back on the agreement. This is a great way to ME piece of mind that squatters havent moved in, more animals than agreed , or the property isnt getting abused.

The importance of the rental agreement is that it establishes the ground rules of which both parties agree to and should they be violated (by either party) their would be ramifications

It just a matter of conducting a business, and if any landlord cannot say "NO!" then they should probably leave the management aspects up to a property manager.

And as far as Flash's claim that the current occupants "are good people" ... he should simply hope for the best but prepare for the worse. Do you realize you cannot even rent a video without showing your drivers license? .... some property owners think they are invading a applicants privacy by asking for it .... try sueing someone without having any personal information of them LOL

[shadowgray396]

Hope all goes well with the new tentants. Back ground checks on past history of renting other properties is a must when dealing with rentals. I could always tell how they would treat my rentals by how their cars looked. Clean car clean house, trash car trashed house. Good luck

Ray

[Ms Grumpy]

flash is such a nice person, I hope that he is right when he says that he has good people in his rental property.