Michael Rossi's Landlording Blog

I just got back from a very relaxing vacation on Topsail Island in North Carolina. For those of you that have never been to Topsail Island, it is a very quiet island with beautiful beaches. It is just about as far from being a tourist destination as a beach can be. There is no amusement park; no tourist type shows; and very few tourist shops. It was very relaxing, and except for a trip to visit the Battleship North Carolina, we didn't do any tourist activities.

However, little did I realize just how relaxing it was. Today as I returned to work on my rental business, I discovered that not only did I get a lot of relaxation on vacation, I actually got younger - A LOT YOUNGER! In fact, one rental applicant that I talked to today apparently thought I was born YESTERDAY! Talk about finding the fountain of youth! LOL!

Here's what happened. A woman called today wanting to see one of my two bedroom apartments. As always, I asked her who would be living there. She said it would be her mother; her mother's boyfriend; and she would occassionally stay there too, when she was in town. I was thinking "B.S."!!! Obviously, if the mother was actually going to live there, then she would have come to look at the apartment. So, I asked the woman why her mother wasn't here to look at it and she replied that her mother had C.O.P.D., which is a lung disease that makes breathing difficult. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that a woman with severe breathing problems would not be able to climb a LONG flight of stairs to a second story apartment. Even though my vacation had been relaxing, I clearly wasn't born YESTERDAY!

Just for fun, I played along with the charade. I told the woman that I would need her to take an application to her mother and have her mother fill it out. And by the way, I would need a copy of all their driver's licenses in order to do their screening. We walked out to my truck and I gave the woman an application. She left.

Within 5 minutes, she was back. She asked if SHE could fill out the application and now claimed that she would be paying the rent for her mother. The crap was getting pretty deep and I didn't have my hip waders! Even so, I managed to keep a straight face. I told the woman that she could indeed fill out the application, but that I would still need the info for her mother and her mother's boyfriend, including their driver's licenses. With that she left again.

I quit work today about 1 pm and headed home. As I pulled into the driveway, the woman called me. She said that she had the application complete and wanted to meet me to give me the application. I asked her if she had copies of the driver's licenses for her mother and her mother's driver's licenses. She said that her mother and the boyfriend wouldn't be living there now - they had changed their mind! At this point even hip waders couldn't stay above the b.s. and I ended the game. I told the woman that I would not rent to her, her mother, or her mother's boyfriend and then I said goodbye!

As Paul Harvey used to say - 'and now the rest of the story'. When the woman came to look at the apartment, she brought 2 men with her. She looked iffy. Her boyfriend had tattooes all over his body and I judged him to be a druggie. The other man looked even worse - like a FREAK! From experience, I immediately knew that these were the scumbags that wanted to rent the apartment, probably with the mother and the mother's boyfriend. The woman claimed to have all the money with her to rent the apartment on the spot. That was additional confirmation that I did NOT want to rent to them. My theory is that these scumbags were being setout after being evicted. I'd bet good money that their current apartment is in the mother's name and if I had screened her, she would have an eviction on her record. I would also bet that the boyfriend had an extensive criminal record. Therefore, the only one left with a relatively clean record was the woman who came to look at the apartment. NO THANKS! I don't need any scumbags renting my apartment!

My morning started bright and early. Shortly after I woke up this morning, I sat down to watch the news and check my e-mail. My security camera views are always up in the background on my laptop and as I picked up my computer I noticed a convicted felon walk onto the property at one of my apartment buildings. This criminal is nothing but trouble and is barred from the property. I called the police and reported that the felon was trespassing (criminal trespassing) on my property and asked that an officer meet me at the building. I met the officer and gave a report. The criminal was about 2 buildings down and the officer gave him a citation for the criminal trespass charge. The officer also requested that I get a copy of the security camera video to him and I did so.

After this incident, since I was already in town, I decided to lay another room of carpet at one of my 3 bedroom houses. I got that done and then moved onto mowing grass. I mowed grass at 3 buildings and then called it quits for the day.

I had a very busy day today. It started with a trip to drop off my final 2008 tax information to my accountant (it's on extension). Next was a trip to the bank and post office. I moved in a new tenant yesterday, so I had to take the money to the bank.

After these preliminary tasks, I got started on applicance day, which consisted of putting appliances in two rentals. I know this sounds like a minor task that should have only taken a few minutes - but that wasn't the case.

The story all started a couple of weeks ago with the annual Section 8 inspection of a two bedroom apartment. As usual, the apartment passed the Section 8 inspection with flying colors. The problem started when the apartment was picked for a "quality control inspection", which is when Section 8 re-inspects the apartment to basically inspect the inspector. I've been picked for a lot of these quality control inspections and have always passed them. However, this time things took a turn for the worse. The unit failed the second inspection for two reasons: 1. the inspector said the oven didn't work and 2) the kitchen had a non-working refrigerator (which ended up being true). As it turned out, there was nothing wrong with the oven, except that the tenant had unplugged it. However, the stove was very old and ugly. I decided to just replace it, with a used stove from the used-appliance store ($65). This tenant had 2 refrigerators and a freezer in her apartment and has had this arrangement for several years. It is not my business how many appliances she has and I never questioned it (and don't honestly care). As it turns out, the refrigerator in the kitchen stopped working at some time in the past, leaving the tenant with a refrigerator in the bedroom and a deep freezer in the living room. The Section 8 inspector apparently questioned the tenant about the 2 refrigerators and freezer and found that one was inop.

The tenant is not in good shape and isn't capable of much physical activity. I had to move a bunch of furniture to get the old stove and refrigerator out and then move the new in. Of course, after doing that, I had to move all the furniture back. All in all, a 5 minute job ended up taking over an hour.

Next on the agenda was to put a (used) stove and refrigerator in the 3 bedroom house I'm finishing. Unlike the previous job, this literally took 5 minutes.

There was an armed bank robbery a couple of days ago in the area. The police released a description of the suspect and the get-away car today and I think I know who did it, so I called and talked to the police captain about my suspicions. To make a long story short, there is a convicted felon in the neighborhood near the pink elephant. The felon is on parole for robbery and he is associated with another scumbag that drives a car that matches the description of the get-away car. I offered to look at the bank's security camera system and the captain said that he would pass the info to the detective in charge of the case.

Enough for one day. More tomorrow.

Today was yet another day in court. The purpose of today's court appearance was to evict another deadbeat. The deadbeat in question is a 21 year old girl who only moved in one month ago. At the time of her move-in, she had no history of evictions and no criminal record. Now, she has both. Almost immediately after she moved in, she began hanging around with a convicted felon, who is out on parole and who lives down the street. In that short month, she's been arrested for disorderly conduct and has been involved in numerous thefts and fights. I did everything right on the screening and yet I still got this scumbag! UGH!

The eviction hearing was at 9am this morning and predictably, the scumbag didn't appear. It is almost impossible for scumbags to drag their butts out of bed to be in court by 9am! So, she was evicted and I immediately filed for the writ of possession. My guess is that I'll be throwing her stuff out by next Tuesday!

In addition to the eviction, I layed another room of carpet in one of my 3 bedroom houses and replaced a broken bathtub drain. All in all, not a bad day!

With dozens of rentals, there is always something to fix. Today's project was a clogged drain line that occurred because the low income tenants weren't smart enough to scrape off their plates before trying to wash them. The drain line was BADLY plugged and it took a significant amount of effort and a significant mess to fix it. I ended up cutting the drain line and installing a new cleanout in the line so that I could run a snake through the line.

After finishing the repair, I gave the tenants a lecture about scraping the food from their plates BEFORE washing their dishes. I also promised them that I wouldn't repair another tenant-caused clog without charging them!

While we're talking about tenants that aren't too bright, one of my tenants reported to me today that a fellow tenant stole cigarettes from her. The tenant that stole the cigarettes is already being evicted for non-payment and has had several police contacts in the 6 weeks she has lived in the apartment. All the tenants, including the victim KNEW that this person was a scumbag and a thief. Even so, my tenant allowed the tenant into her apartment to use the phone and therefore became the victim of the theft. Not too bright.

BTW, the thief (my tenant) had a clean criminal background check when I accepted her. She is young and was probably a criminal all along, but obviously previous juvenile records are sealed making it impossible to discover the truth about young applicants! UGH!

I took the day off today, at least as far as the rental property business is concerned. However, I did still have a personal real estate project to do. To make a long story short, my wife's family is selling a house they inherited and somehow I got picked to do a few maintenance items at the house. To accomplish that job, I needed to pick up a few things from my storage room at the Pink Elephant. I got the things out I needed and started to cut a 2 X 6 right there on the sidewalk. I'm always aware of my surroundings when I work in low income areas (and everywhere else for that matter) and therefore I certainly took notice when a very rough looking man approached me. He had a cast on his left arm and his right forearm had MANY noticable cuts. I stopped working and asked him what I could do for him. His answer was unique to say the least. He said he wanted me to call someone to pick him up. That's not too uncommon in low income areas. Many times in the past, homeless people have asked me to call someone for them because they don't have a phone. I'm normally willing to make a quick call for them, provided I have the time. I thought that was what he wanted and I asked who he wanted me to call. His answer was that he was "thinking of committing homicide and suicide" and he wanted me to call the police. Well, that definitely got my attention! I didn't see a gun or knife and he hadn't threatened me directly, but I felt like I needed to have a few feet of separation from this guy and I definitely needed to keep him in front of me for tactical reasons. I directed him to sit down on the porch and told him that I would call the police. As soon as he sat down, I dialed the police and explained the situation to them. The said they would send an officer.

As we waited, I talked to the guy. As it turns out he was a mental health patient who is homeless and hasn't taken his medication for about 2 months. He apparently got into a fight with someone who accused him of stealing drugs and that person broke his arm. That occurred recently, although he told me different stories about when. He claimed that his wife cut his other arm, but from the shear number of cuts and the look of them, I'd bet that these were self-inflicted razor blade wounds.

About 10 minutes later, the police arrived. They talked to the man for a few minutes and it seemed like they were just going to leave. The man told them that he thought he might kill someone and burn down the guy's house that broke his arm. I wasn't too keen on him being released without getting some help. I pushed the idea of taking the guy to the hospital for a mental health evaluation and after radioing the station for permission, the police decided to do that. They searched the guy for drugs and weapons and put him in the cruiser to take him to the hospital.

Very strange encounter for a day off and just one more reason to always be armed!

I finally got back to painting the Pink Elephant today. It was a beautiful day, although blazing hot, and I spent about 3 1/2 hours doing some painting. In addition to the painting, I had to stop by the insurance agency to sign paperwork for a renewal of one of my rental policies. I also fixed a leaking sink trap.

That was about it - all in all a pretty routine day.

This weekend was another 3 day weekend! I did work about 2 hours Friday morning in order to completely catch up with the last maintenance tasks on my list. Those projects included fixing a leaking toilet (replacing the flapper valve and tightening the hold-down bolts), spraying weeds, and taking mouse traps to a tenant (and giving her a lecture about cleanliness).

After my two hours of work, I took the rest of the day off. My wife and I spent some time having fun and doing some things around the house.

On Saturday, we went to the gun show at Vets Memorial in Columbus. I didn't buy any more guns, but I did get some ammo. As most people know, thanks to our President, ammo is in very short supply. I have a compact .32 cal auto handgun that I carry when I need a small gun - like riding my bike. Ammo for it is nearly impossible to find. I've searched all the gun shops and no-one has had any for months. I found some (that was manufactured in the former communist block) at the gun show and bought several hundred rounds. I also found some 7.62 X 39 mm ammo that was made in Russia and bought half a case. Finally, I found some JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point) self-defense ammo for my Beretta carry gun and bought some of that! A very successful journey.

With the way the country is rapidly deteriorating, I consider ammo to be as vital as an emergency food and water supply. Our economy is on the brink of disaster with debt that is crushing the country and ANY spark could easily throw us into chaos. It's happened many times throughout history and it's smart to be prepared. By the way, this isn't just crazy talk, the United States government has spent millions of dollars to tell YOU to be prepared. Here's a link to the government website: http://www.ready.gov/america/npm09/getakit.html Guns and ammo are not politically correct and are therefore not on the list.

After the gun show, we went to the shooting range for a little practice and fun. My wife got a chance to shoot my .40 Beretta, which was fun. She's a very good shot, but the kick almost lifted her off the ground, which was entertaining.

Of course, I took today off also and we had some family over to swim in the pool! It was a beautiful day - perfect for swimming. We followed that up with a cookout. All in all - a very good weekend.

They say that when it rains, it pours. If that's true, then today must have been a real storm. I started my work today with a trip to the bank and post office. When I picked up the mail, I had EIGHT letters via certified mail. As a rule, certified mail is generally not a good thing. That was especially true today as they were all lawsuits! UGH!

I posted the story of the first lawsuit about two weeks ago (7/16/09). As you may recall, the city has decided to attempt to collect past due water bills from the landlord, even though the tenant subscribed to the water service. They don't even try to collect from the tenant - they just go after the "RICH" landlord!!! Needless to say, that is COMPLETELY IMMORAL. Although we're headed straight into socialism and the government wants to 'share the wealth' through taxation, it is RIDICULOUS to think that I should pay the tenant's bill for them. What's next? Should I buy their clothes? Should I buy them a car? GIVE ME A BREAK!

If you've read much of my story, then you know that I'm a real jackass when I think I've been wronged. I will NOT give in and pay these bastards! Instead, I will do whatever it takes to fight these frivilous lawsuits. Along with a few other local investors and our REIA, I am trying to organize a lawsuit against the city. We have a big-time, out-of-town attorney coming to the next REIA meeting and we will be organizing as many landlords as possible to be party to the lawsuit. I will be writing a scathing Letter to the Editor and will meet with the news department of the newspaper to have a news article done on this story. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be war against the morons running the city! They're up for election in November and our REIA already has two members running for city council!

Beyond that bit of cheery news to start my day, I did actually get some work done. I trashed out a vacant 2 bedroom apartment; collected 2 rents; and started working on rehabbing a deck in preparation for a Section 8 inspection next week. I also repaired a broken screen door lock.

I know it's hard to imagine that a landlord would be sued. Well...yes, I am being sued again. This time, I'm being sued by the city for a tenant's water bill. Yes, I said a TENANT'S WATER BILL! It seems that in this socialist world we live in, tenants are not responsible for their own debts. If the deadbeats don't pay their water bill, the city thinks that the landlord should pay it for them. This is happening all over Ohio and is an outrage. All I can say to that is HELL NO! I am not paying someone else's bills! To that end, I spent about an hour this morning putting together information for the attorney that my lawyer (our REIA's water bill lawyer) will need for my case and sending it off to him.

My other project for the day was to do some painting at the Pink Elephant. So, I got out the scaffolding and did some painting. I'm making progress!

Tomorrow, I have another move-in and am planning to do some work (although I don't know what). I'll think of something.

I had a very good day today - at least from the standpoint of getting a lot done. My objective for today was to finish making the 2 bedroom house, that was involved in my recent nasty eviction, ready for the new tenants. That involved doing several things: laying carpet; replacing a window pane; installing light bulbs and globes; some cleaning; mowing the overgrown yard; fixing the plugged toilet; etc. Things went VERY SMOOTHLY and I got it all done and the new tenants moved in.

I also received a letter today from the Nuisance Board regarding one of my properties. It seems the tenant put a couch out by the street and hasn't mowed her grass. I called the tenant and explained that she MUST take care of this stuff pronto. This is a long time tenant and I'm confident that she'll take care of it.

To end the afternoon, I got a call from one of my tenants who reported that her grand-daughter, who is a convicted felon, was harrassing her. I met her at the apartment building; called the police; and had her grand-daughter officially barred from the property.

To top off the day, I even got my lawn mowed at home and took a nice walk with my wife!

My day started with paperwork - specifically paying bills and paying my property taxes (YUK). Talk about something that gives you that sick feeling, that's exactly how I feel every six months when I write checks (in the 5 digits) for property taxes.

As I was finishing up my taxes, I got a call from The Sprint Store telling me that my Palm Pre had just arrived and I could come pick it up. So, as soon as I finished the taxes, I went to the Sprint Store and picked up my new phone.

I had a Moto Razor before, so moving up to the Palm Pre was quite a move up. The Pre is a very sophistocated machine - more like a small laptop than a phone. I'm still learning to use the phone/handheld computer, but I really like it so far. It uses an operating system that lets you view websites exactly like you would on a computer! Very cool.

After getting the Pre home and putting it on charge, I did the paperwork to take to the lawyer for the eviction I have going. As you may recall from my previous posts, I have a brand new lawyer doing my evictions. With the paperwork complete, I made a trip to the bank; the post office; and my lawyer's office to drop off the eviction paperwork. I intended to just hand the paperwork to my lawyer's secretary, but when I did the secretary said the lawyer wanted to talk to me. To my surprise, she informed me that she was moving to another city and wouldn't be able to do my eviction. RATS!

I need the evictions filed on Thursday, so I needed to find another lawyer fast! I went into town and stopped at another lawyer's office that I know. He's done some work for me in the past, so I knew he would be good. Fortunately, he was in the office and agreed to do my evictions.

Next stop was the police station. I needed to get the police reports for the last 2 months for the Pink Elephant. The reason that I needed the reports is that I've had 3 criminals barred from my property by the police and I needed copies of those reports. With copies of those reports, it's much easier to have a barred person arrested for criminal trespass.

I received a call from one of my friends who is involved in the government. She wanted to tell me that one of the local agencies had taken a BUNCH of stimulus money that they had used to hire summer workers (mostly students). They didn't have enough work to keep these workers busy and wanted to know if I had any work they could do - like painting low income houses or yard work at low income houses. My answer - YES!!! So, I made a list of rentals that I would like to have work done. We'll see what happens!

That was about it for today. I'm going to try again tomorrow to work on painting the Pink Elephant.

With the fourth being a holiday and being on a Saturday, I've received an unusually large number of rents on the first three days of the month. I collected so much cash today that I was a little leery of carrying it all around.

Rental demand also remains very high. I had an eviction this month in one of my SFHs (single family houses) and the tenant will be setout next Thursday. That is the only SFH that I've had available in four months and I already have it rented, with the new tenant to move in as soon as the old tenant is gone. I also rented my last two one-bedroom apartments today.

My project for the day was to finish installing the carpet and doing a little plumbing work in one of the one-bedroom apartment that I rented today.

I also had took care of a little management issue, when I had a guy that I recently had barred from my apartment buildings, charged with criminal trespass.

That was it for today. I'm going to a tea party tomorrow to protest our out-of-control government.

..or NOT!!! That was my tenant's best defense this morning in my 1st eviction in 9 months. She claimed that it was all a misunderstanding. The magistrate asked the tenant if she contacted me to clear up the misunderstanding. The answer was no. The magistrate asked the tenant if she paid June's rent - again the answer was no. The bottom line was that the eviction was short and sweet and the tenant was EVICTED!

What was the misunderstanding? There wasn't one, but I guess that was the only thing the tenant could think of.

This eviction was a little unique for me because I had a new lawyer, after my previous lawyer was indicted on a felony prescription drug charge a few months ago. It was also a little more interesting because I haven't had an eviction in 9 months (I felt a little rusty). My new lawyer is young and has virtually no experience actually doing an eviction, but she did fine today and this was actually a very good first eviction for her.

I have collected several rents so far today and will be collecting more later this afternoon. I didn't have any maintenance to do today, so that is about it for today.

Yesterday, I spent the day at an advanced pistol training course near Dayton. With all that has been going on lately (with the felon that has threatened me), I thought an advanced pistol training course would be a good idea. I was not disappointed. The course included a lot of close quarters gunfighting techniques; shooting from behind baracades; and shooting while moving. It was a very good advanced course taught by a couple of very experienced self-defense instructors. One of the instructors just got back from IRAQ where he was working as a security contractor.

While at the training yesterday, I got a call from one of my tenants who reported that someone had damaged the door frame when they tried to break-in to the house. I also got a call from the police who wanted to discuss the incident. This is a SFH house that is located in a blue-collar neighborhood. There typically isn't a lot of crime in this area, but there have been several home invasions recently throughout the city. The really troubling thing about the incident was that it occurred between 11am and 1pm on Sunday, right in the middle of the day. These home invasions have been quite serious, with the perpetrators brandishing guns and in some cases injuring the inhabitants of the homes. Fortunately, in this case, no one was home and no one was injured. As a result of the attempted break-in, I spent a few minutes today repairing the door jam. Fortunately, the door itself wasn't badly damaged, so the repair wasn't a big deal. I also had a discussion with the tenant about safety and security issues, so hopefully they can prevent a repeat of this incident.

In addition to repairing the door, I also bought and installed a new blade for the push-mower that I use to mow the lawns at the apartment buildings. I'm planning to do some mowing tomorrow.

After feeling guilty all week (or not) about not working, I did work about 2 hours yesterday. My project for the day was to repair a soft spot in a floor where the previous owner of the building had covered an old stairwell with some particle board that was too thin. Fortunately, there was access to the underneath side of the floor from the basement, so the repair was quite easy. While in town, I also showed an apartment to a couple who were....well.... LIARS! As it turned out, he was a violent criminal and she was a deadbeat who doesn't pay her bills. Application DENIED!

While I was home yesterday, I glanced at the computer, which had my security cameras up at the Pink Elephant and noticed that there were many people on the sidewalk all looking across the street. I knew that something was going on, so I called one of the tenants and asked what was happening. There was a fight occurring across the street and one person pulled a knife. Five or six people were involved in the fight (all young punks) and another person broke it up before anyone was stabbed. There was some blood from the fight, but no one was seriously injured. Fortunately, none of this occurred on my property (probably due to the criminals knowing about my security cameras). I'm seeing a major increase in violence this summer and am not sure what the cause is. It could be the lack of summer jobs for kids or it could just be a general deterioration of our society. Low income people are breeding at an alarming rate and it's inevitable that society will fall apart as all these lazy kids grow up feeling entitled. Most of these kids are growing up to be worse than their parents. They are lazy. They are criminals. They are on drugs. They have absolutely no intention of ever getting a job. It's a mess!

Since there is nothing I can do to correct the world's problems, I'm taking a 3 day weekend to go camping!!! Have a good weekend.

I wish that I could give you an interesting update regarding my rental business, but I just haven't done much the last week or so. Late last week, I did work a couple of hours building shelves in my storage unit. I was off all weekend and then mowed grass for a couple hours yesterday. I took the entire day off today.

The rental business isn't 24 hour excitement. In fact, there can be relatively long periods of time when there really isn't much to do at all. I currently don't have any current maintenance to do. There are a few projects I could do (such as trimming some trees or doing some painting), but I don't have any pressing projects. So, instead of inventing work, I've just been taking a lot of time off.

The big excitement of the weekend all revolved around birds. I bought an "upside down finch feeder" which is a really cool cylindrical bird feeder that finches hang on upside down while they feed. I put it up late one evening and by the early the next morning, there were 3 finches hanging upside down feeding. It was absolutely amazing to me that these birds found this feeder so quickly.

I also bought a bird feeder, which sits on top of the pole from which the upside down finch feeder hangs. I sealed the feeder with spar varnish over the weekend and then installed it today. In no time, there were a bunch of birds feeding. Most interesting to me was the number of doves that decided to sit on the ground right under the bird feeder. They didn't seem to have any interest in feeding, just sitting on the ground. That was quite interesting to me.

My wife and I finally got the swimming pool open over the weekend and we had some relatives come to swim almost as quickly as we finished. The temperature has been averaging about 12 degrees below normal this spring (despite global warming), so the water was quite cool. We haven't run the pool heater yet, so they must have wanted to swim pretty badly to brave that cool water!

My wife and I went to the shooting range on Saturday and I got the chance to run some ammo through my new handgun. You could really tell that a LOT of new people have been buying guns, because the people on both sides of me had bullets all over their targets (and I'm sure many missed the targets). I wanted to buy some more self-defense ammo while we were out, but neither the range nor the gunshop we went to had what I wanted. Ammo is still in very short supply, thanks to the increased number of people buying guns and people concerned that Obama wants to take their guns and ammo. I went to Walmart and Dunham Sports tonight and neither of them had any .40 Smith and Wesson ammo either. If that's not a sign of the times, I don't know what is!

That's it - we're up to date.

I keep thinking I've seen it all in the rental property business. Then, I realized again today that I had not.

In yesterday's blog, I described how many low income tenants act crazy during the summer. When June arrives, so does STUPID! After an incident last evening, I decided to go to the police station today to pick up the recent police reports for two of my low income apartment buildings. I was pleased to find out that there have been VERY few incidents - only 5 in the past 2 months and most of those incidents didn't even involve my tenants. However, one of the reports illustrates what a freak show low income tenants can become when the weather warms up!

CAUTION: If you are easily offended, don't read the rest of this blog.

The following is the EXACT text from the police report: (these are two of my tenants) "Steven and Jessica were arguing with each other because Steven wanted Jessica to "perform oral sex on him" and she would not do it. Steven told Jessica he "would find someone that would do it", and Jessica got mad at him for saying that and they argued. Nothing physical, all verbal. Steven is legally blind so he called a friend to pick him up to leave for the night. All calm on Ofc departure".

comment: I didn't even know that having a girfriend (or wife) refuse sex was a criminal offense. I guess that men can now call 911 if their wife/girfriend says no!!! lol!

I don't know what else to say - UNBELIEVABLE!!! It's a freak show out there!!!

After eight months of not having an eviction, it looks like I'm not going to be so lucky this month. One of my tenants, who always pays a couple of days late (during the 3 day notice period), announced on the last day that she was moving. I explained to her that she still owed June rent and she wanted me to use her deposit as her last month's rent - which I absolutely will not do. I told her that if she didn't pay immediately, she would be evicted. She hasn't paid and she is being evicted.

Believe it or not, the attorney that I've used for my evictions these past 6 years was indicted by the grand jury on felony drug charges, so I now have a new attorney. My new attorney is a young lawyer who has very little court experience, but I think she'll be fine. I had a phone conversation with her this morning about the eviction and then took the paperwork to her this afternoon.

Once again, I didn't do any maintenance today. However, I did spend a couple of hours trying to make paperwork disappear (by paying bills, filing, etc).

This evening, the police were at the Pink Elephant for at least the 3rd time in the past few weeks. This is what happens when you have low income rentals and the weather gets hot. Tensions run high and trouble erupts. The same thing happens every year and in my experience, it takes a firm hand to get it stopped before problems set in for the entire summer. So, I drove down to the Pink Elephant to take care of business. I had the police legally bar 2 scumbag neighbors from the property (one is a convicted felon who is on parole) and the police are looking for another convicted felon (also on parole). These two guys were the same ones I wrote about a few months ago. The terms of their parole don't allow convicted felons to associate with each other, but their parole officer won't do anything about it. I will be talking to the police captain about the issue tomorrow and will try to exert some more political pressure to get the situation resolved. These criminals were on my property this evening visiting some of my tenants. I had a stern conversation with my tenants, letting them know that if they invited this scum onto my property again, their month-to-month leases would be terminated. They've seen me evict many other people and they know that I'm not bluffing!

As usual, nothing goes as planned. I had planned on working on the carpet in the basement of a 3 bedroom house today. The new tenant had the water turned on at the property this morning, in anticipation of his move-in. So, upon my arrival at the house, I decided to check the water. As I checked under the kitchen sink, I discovered that the left side of the sink was leaking and that the cause was a leak around the sink strainer basket. After I saw this leak, I decided that I probably should check the rest of the water in the house, and I discovered that the chain was missing from the flapper valve in the toilet. So, to check the water to the toilet, I stuck my hand in the toilet tank and actuated the flapper with my hand. That was when I noticed that water was running out from the bottom of the toilet. Obviously, the toilet wax ring needed to be replaced. Next, I checked the tub/shower and discovered that the side of the fiberglass tub had been damaged by the previous tenants and that they had attempted to patch it (without success).

So, at this point, I realized that my plan for today needed to change. I made a list and headed for the plumbing store. A few minutes later, I was back at the house. The most pressing problem was the toilet leak, so I started there. I replaced the toilet flapper and checked it's operation. So far, so good. Next, I flushed and drained the toilet and removed it from the toilet flange. I installed the new wax ring and re-installed the toilet. To my amazement, there were no leaks!

The next priority was to repair the kitchen sink leak. That consisted of removing the old basket; tailpiece, and cross piece; and replacing them with new. Again, I was astonished when there were no leaks. That was two plumbing repairs in a row with no leaks - A NEW RECORD!

While I was on a roll, I decided to undertake the fiberglass repair in the tub. That went pretty well and I moved on to change the flourescent bulbs in the kitchen.

By this time, the grass was dry and the sun was out. I decided to mow some grass. It looked like it was going to be a great afternoon and evening - the weather was looking great for a change. So after mowing grass, I headed home for a bike ride. Right on cue, the skies darkened and the rain poured from the sky. No bike ride today. As I said earlier, nothing ever goes as planned!

After my 5 day weekend, I wasn't in a hurry to get back to work today. I did get a little done, but not much. I spent an hour or so this morning organizing the bills that came in while I was gone. Then, I made a trip to the post office and bank. Next, I went to the local Sprint Store to have a billing mistake corrected.

About that time, I received a call from the local police about a theft that occurred a couple blocks from one of my apartment buildings. The police had reason to believe that the thieves may have walked past my building, which has an elaborate surveillance camera system. The police asked me to check my surveillance tapes (really a DVR) to see if I could spot the thieves. The theives were not on camera and I called to police to give them the bad news.

Next, I showed an apartment to a potential tenant and then went to the hardware store to pick up a metric screw for my bicycle seat. That was it for today!

I'll try to be a little more productive tomorrow.

We returned this afternoon from a wonderful 5 day weekend, which was our first camping adventure of the season (largely because the weather has been so lousy in Ohio this spring). This weekend, we went camping at the Forked Run State Park, which is located on the Ohio River near Reedsville, Ohio. It was an absolutely fantastic 5 days, with perfect weather every day.

During our trip, we enjoyed mountain biking, frisbee golf, motorcycle riding; walking along the river; and a lot of good fellowship with friends. One of the main focuses on the trip was to ride the mountain biking course at Lake Hope State Park (about an hour away from Forked Run), which is rated number one in the state for single track mountain biking courses. Although we got a very good workout on the course, we were extremely disappointed in the course. In fact, my friend and I would rate the course the WORST in the state of Ohio!!! The course did not flow well and there were NUMEROUS trees that had fallen during the winter still obstructing the course. I would definitely not recommend this course and I won't be going back.

I would rate Forked Run as a very nice state park. It was scenic and had many nice camping sites. The frisbee golf course was excellent, and camp store was well stocked. In fact, the only real detractor I would list for this state park are the very hilly, winding roads surrounding the park (obviously not the park's fault).

I plan to get back to work tomorrow, but I haven't even thought about what I will do yet. I'll think about that tomorrow.

I'm finally installing a second security camera system. This one will cover 3 buildings on the same street. In preparation for the installation, today I ran wiring from the electrical box to the location for the power supply company. The cable company is scheduled to install the high speed DSL line with static IP port tomorrow morning and then I'll begin installing the cameras and DVR.

I'm REALLY sold on these security camera systems. They are a powerful deterrent to crime, as well as a deterrent the tenant's misbehaving. When there is an incident, I can copy the evidence to a DVD and take it to the police. I can also check on my rentals without ever leaving home, or even while on vacation. All I need to view my property is my laptop and an internet connection!

In addition to installing the electrical wiring for the surveillance system, I showed a 3 bedroom house to a potential tenant; mowed the grass at 3 apartment buildings; and installed a ceiling light in a 1 bedroom apartment.

Once home, I headed over to the mountain biking course for another workout! I've ridden a bunch of different mountain biking course and this one has the longest sustained vertical run of all of them. It's a killer!

Today I got to do my favorite job (OR NOT)! That job was pulling staples out of the living room floor of the 3 bedroom house where I removed the carpet pad yesterday. There were probably 200 staples and the floor was a horrible mess, with slimy stick pet urine attached to the floor along with mouse droppings. Of course, it's hard to sweep or mop with hundreds of staples in the floor and it's tough to remove staples with mouse droppings and pet urine slime goo all over the place. Fortunately, I don't have much of a sense of smell, but even so, the smell was terrible. I took those plug-in air fresheners with me and hopefully the house will smell better tomorrow.

Now that the staples are out, tomorrow I'll sweep and mop the floor and then install the new carpet. THAT ROOM WILL LOOK 100% better with the new carpet!

In addition to working on the room, I also got the security deposit for a new tenant in my one of my 1 bedroom apartments. Her rent is supposed to be paid by a government agency and I went over there to get the paperwork signed. What an experience! I was sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of low-income riff-raff who were looking for a government handout. It looked like the entire circus was sitting in that waiting room. I imagine that this is exactly what it will be like when universal healthcare comes to town - sitting in a crowded waiting room awaiting my turn to be seen by a benevolent government official. Fortunately, I am not too lazy to work and I don't have time to sit in a government office all afternoon. After waiting about 10 minutes, I gave the clerk the paperwork I had and told her to have the case worker call me when she had all the paperwork done. The tenants won't be able to move in until I have the signed paperwork!

After getting off to a slow (lazy) start this week, I got a lot of things done today. This morning, I paid rental bills and took care of some personal stuff. Then, I went to the bank and post office. My first work project of the day was to show my 3 bedroom house to a possible tenant and then to remove all the carpet pads from the house (I removed the carpet the other day). I found that one of the bedrooms had a good wood floor under the carpet and pad. I'll paint the floor in that room. The living room and other bedrooms did not have floors suitable for painting, so I'll replace the carpet in those rooms (without carpet pad).

The rain decided to hold off, so I decided to mow some grass this afternoon. I managed to mow the grass at 2 apartment buildings and 1 house.

The next task was to have a stern talk with one of my tenants who was involved in a big brawl last night. I don't know what it is with low income tenants, but a bunch of young adults decided that they were going to have a brawl last night. The police were on the street for 2 1/2 hours trying to break this up and they cited several people for various infractions. One of my tenants was involved and I told him today that any further problems from him would result in eviction!

I received a call from a woman that was looking for a one-bedroom apartment. I showed her my only vacant one-bedroom apartment and she said that she'll take it. I gave her an application and she's supposed to return the application tomorrow along with the paperwork from the government agency that is paying her first month's rent.

About the time I got home, it started to rain - so there will be no bike ride today!

It FINALLY dried up enough to actually ride a local mountain biking course today! So, I spent about 10 minutes changing a broken lock on a rental and the rest of the day doing personal tasks. My number one priority today was mountain biking. Number two was to get some work done on my pickup truck. I went to Walmart to get the work done on the pickup. That consisted of getting an oil change; getting new windshield wipers; and having a tire repaired (or should I say replaced). The tire had been slowly leaking due to a screw that was imbedded in the tire. However, when they took the tire off to repair it, they discovered that there was also a nail in the sidewall of the tire. The sidewall could not be patched, so I had to get a new tire. I know what you're thinking - that an irate tenant sabotaged the tire. However, I don't believe that's the case. I think this is just one of those road hazards that strike once in a while.

As all these things were being repaired, I walked over to a local sporting goods store and bought an AirSoft Handgun. This CO2 powered handgun is very similar to my concealed carry gun and I will be using it to practice in the house. As with many things in life, training is a critical issue when you're dealing with handguns. I wanted an airsoft gun to practice drawing and firing my handgun and I can do that a LOT cheaper and more often with the airsoft gun than with my .40 Caliber Baretta. Although slightly lighter than my Baretta, it is otherwise nearly identical to my Baretta in size and function. Of course, in addition to the practice aspect of the gun, it's fun!

My decision to buy the AirSoft gun for training purposes was partially due to an incident that occurred on Sunday. Here's my account of that incident:

I carry my handgun almost all the time. I work with a lot of riff-raff in my business and have evicted literally dozens of criminals and deadbeats over the years. I never know when I am going to meet one of these losers who wants to blame me for their situation (being homeless, put in prison, etc). In addition, some of my low income rentals are in relatively bad areas and there is occassional violence (usually among the riff-raff).

Sunday was Mother's Day. I wasn't working and wasn't planning to be in any public areas as my wife and I were going to a relative's house for a family gathering. After we left the house, my wife reminded me that we needed to stop by a convenience store to pickup one of their delicious salads. We were already running a little late and I wasn't very happy about it. We stopped at the convenience store/gas station and my wife went inside to get the salad. After an extended period of time, I went into the store to see what the delay was. I was thinking about the time and I was also perturbed that some moron had parked parallel to the convenience store door, blocking several parking spots. So, in the store I went and I asked my wife what was going on. Instead of answering my question, she asked "do you have your gun"? WHAT??? I asked, "what are you talking about"? She told me to look at the checkout counter and sure enough a loud and angry conversation was going on between some very iffy looking people and the clerk. These were the people from the oddly parked car just outside the door. MY HANDGUN WAS IN THE TRUCK! As it turned out, the people must have had their credit card declined and were yelling at the clerk about it (as if that would help). They ended up getting in their car and leaving without paying for the gas and the clerk called the sheriff.

Everything ended up being ok and obviously no-one was hurt. However, this was certainly a good opportunity for self-critique. I did just about EVERYTHING wrong in this situation. First, I wasn't wearing my gun, because I didn't think I would be exposed to the public. The lesson here is that you just never know when a dangerous situation will occur. I was so distracted by being late and the delay in getting the salad, that I lost situational awareness. The car parked parallel to the store, blocking several spots should have been a red flag that something wasn't right (think getaway car). In addition, the oddly parked car combined with my wife not returning in a timely manner should have been even more evidence that something might be amiss (maybe a robbery was in progress). Wost of all, I walked in the store (still unarmed even though my gun was in my truck), RIGHT PAST THE PEOPLE WHO WERE YELLING without even noticing because I was so pre-occupied with being late! I've gotta tell you that I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't do better. When I'm working in relatively dangerous areas, I'm always armed and always on guard; trying to maintain good situational awareness. However, yesterday, I let a sense of complacency and a minor distraction completely destroy my situational awareness. I definitely learned a lesson and will strive to do better in the future.

That incident from Sunday reminded me once again that I must take responsibility for my safety. Whether I'm working on my rentals in a low income neighborhood or stopping at the gas station, it is my responsibility to be aware of my surroundings and be prepared to act accordingly should an safety issue arise.

I received a call from the city prosecutor's office today. She wanted to inform me that the pre-trial for the felon that has been stalking me has officially been moved to June 3rd and the trial is scheduled for June 4th. I also found out that he is charged with a 1st degree misdemeanor of violating a protection order and the maximum sentence is 6 months in jail.

My project of the day was to mow my grass at home; mow the grass at two of my rentals; and haul away some old carpet from a 3 bedroom house that I'm making ready to be re-rented. I also bought some solar powered sidewalk lighting; planted a tomato plant; and did a few other things at home.

I forgot to mention that I once again won't have any evictions this month. I did collect all the rents (along with several late fees), so this month makes the 8th straight month with no evictions. I currently have two rentals that are vacant and ready to be rented.

I haven't had time to post the past few days.  My wife and I took another 3 day weekend and we've been quite busy.  We spent most of the day on Friday working on landscaping at our home.  Then Saturday, we had a big family gathering during the day and a party for our small group (from Church) in the evening.  Today we had another family gathering for Mother's day!  It was a busy 3 days.

Before my three day weekend started, I had one last work related issue to take care of.  Friday morning was the pre-trial hearing for the Felon that has been stalking me.  If you haven't been following my blog, it's a long story.  However, the short version is that this loser has a "wrap sheet" of more than 200 criminal offenses, including several felonies.  He is now awaiting charges on a felony for an arson and possibly attempted murder in a building next to one of my buildings.  I'm the primary witness in that case.  

Anyway, this criminal somehow got out of jail a little while back and the same day approached me on the sidewalk in front of one of my buildings, violating the restraining order I have against him.  I called the police and he was arrested.  He's still in jail awaiting trail on that charge and his pretrial was Friday morning. 

I have VERY LITTLE confidence in our criminal justice system, so I called the court to be sure the case was still being held.  It was.  I arrived at the courthouse about 10 minutes before the case was scheduled to be heard.  This is the same courthouse where evictions are heard, so I know all the officers that provide security.  Before they screened me, I asked if the case was still on.  This criminal is frequently violent and they always have extra security when he is brought to court from the jail.  They said that the hearing was still on, but that I needed to check with the main bailiff to determine which courtroom was holding the hearing.  So, I went to talk to the bailiff and sure enough - THE PRETRIAL HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL JUNE!   I can't tell you how many times I've been subpoened to testify in a criminal trial, only to have it either dropped or postponed!  It is VERY FRUSTRATING!  The only good thing is that the criminal will be in jail at least until the hearing in June (or at least that's what they said).

I took on another water project today and as usual managed to get wet. Maybe I should start wearing my wetsuit to work! Anyway, today's project was to replace the old metal water lines with Pex. The old lines were in bad shape. The previous owner had installed several clamp-type patches to stop leaks in the lines and there were several rusted spots on the lines that were seeping. I started where the water line entered the basement and replaced nearly all the old metal lines in the basement. The most difficult aspect of the project was removing the old lines. Many of the connections were rusted and difficult to get apart. The entire project cost less than $100 as I used mostly crimp connections.

This project was in half of one of my duplexes. I replaced the water lines in the other half of this duplex last year.

I almost never talk about religion on my blog or in any of my posts. However, it's no secret that I am a Christian - albeit a very imperfect one (aren't we all). The point of this blog post is to discuss my frequent difficulty in maintaining a Christian attitude and appropriate Christian behavior when I'm dealing with - yes, you guessed it - TENANTS!

The latest tenant to move out was a perfect example of this issue. This particular tenant moved in only a few months ago. She is disabled and essentially confined to a wheelchair. During her tenancy, I bent over backwards to help her out. That included making her apartment handicapped accessable at my expense. In addition, when a relative took advantage of her and stole some of her property, I took care of the problem for her. I went above and beyond the call of duty with this tenant.

My problem arose when she suddenly decided to move out, without giving me notice. Even with this extreme lack of courtesy and violation of her lease, I still would have been ok with her if she had just left before the 1st. Unfortunately, she decided not to do that and was still occupying the property on May 1st. To make a long story short, she stayed after the 1st without paying the rent. I knocked on her door and told her that she needed to leave ASAP or I would file an eviction. She did leave, but left a BUNCH of her junk in the apartment. Furthermore, with all that stuff being in the apartment, I couldn't be sure that she was out and I had no way to contact her. I did have a phone number for her son and I called him to explain that I had bent over backwards to help her and that I didn't appreciate the way she was acting. He agreed and said that he would attempt to get someone to remove her belongings.

Sunday, I spent all morning at church running the projection, for both services. Then, later in the evening, I was back at church for our small group meeting. As I was heading home, I received a call from one of her relatives that said that he was at this apartment to move the rest of her stuff but couldn't get in. Since I really wanted her out of there, I agreed to drive down to the apartment on Sunday night to let him in. When I arrived, I found that they had driven their pickup truck right up onto the concrete front deck - I was not happy. Then, when I let them into the apartment and they saw what a disaster the apartment was, they said that they were only there to pick up her couch and a few other things. I asked them what they intended to do about the rest of her stuff and they said that was my problem. THAT WAS IT! I went ballistic and told them what a bunch of scum I thought they were! There was a lot of cursing and nasty discourse (all coming from me) and I let them know that I was VERY angry with them and the tenant! Once again, I had learned the lesson that NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

There you have it - that is the point of this post. I certainly didn't act much like a Christian. In fact, I find that it is VERY difficult to turn the other cheek when some scumbag steals from me - especially when tenants do this with shocking regularity. I'm sure that there are Christians that could accept this stupidity from the tenants and really shine as a Christian. Unfortunately, that is NOT me! I guess I have a lot of room for improvement!

If you were looking for me today, you would have found me in the kitchen. No, I haven't suddently taken up gourmet cooking, I was rehabbing the kitchen in a one bedroom apartment. The rehab started with the badly sloped floor at the back wall in the kitchen. This is an older building and I assumed that the floor joists might have wrotted or otherwise dropped a couple of inches. Once I started working on the floor, I was pleasantly surprised that the structural members were in good shape. In fact, the floor had obviously been repaired in the past few years (before I owned it), but the repair just wasn't level. My solution was to cut out a section of the floor; add some new material on the joists to level them; and then install a new section of flooring.

After repairing the floor, I went to Lowes to buy some new kitchen cabinets and countertop because the old ones were beyond repair. Today must have been my lucky day because Lowes had a scratch and dent 36" base cabinet for only $79! I bought that base cabinet; two 15" cabinets; and a new countertop and headed back to the apartment. Normally, I wouldn't put new cabinets in a rental if there were any other choice, but in this case, there simply was no other choice. I did get the new cabinets installed; the countertop cut; and the double stainless steel sink installed. At that time, I had reached my limit of fun for one day and I called it quits. I'll continue the work on this apartment tomorrow.

I didn't see the convicted felon that has been stalking me today and I assume that he was arrested last night for violating the restraining order I have against him. Hopefully, I won't see him for another couple of months.

I spent about 3 hours today "turning" a rental (getting it ready for the next tenant). That consisted of steam cleaning the carpet; painting the wood floors; touching up the paint on the walls; cleaning the kitchen and bathroom; and just general cleaning. When I attempted to light the gas water heater, it wouldn't light properly. The water heater is 10 years old and the bottom is rusted, so I'm going to change it tomorrow instead of fixing it.

After nearly a week of miserable weather, the sun finally decided to shine again today! That meant that I was back to riding my mountain bike. Today's ride was a little over 9 miles! I'm hoping that the weather will be consistently a little better so that I can really get serious about getting in shape for mountain biking season.

My day started out with a call from a local government agency. They had a homeless man that they were trying to place in an apartment and wanted to know if I had anything available and if would take this tenant. I told them that I do a thorough background check and gave them my basic screening criteria. They said that the man hadn't ever been evicted and didn't have any criminal record. They also said that he had a job. I told them that I would take an application from him and accept him if he passed the screening.

The applicant arrived on time and did fill out an application. He also brought a form from the government agency stating that they would pay his deposit and first month's rent. I have dealt with this agency before and they will certainly do so.

When I returned home this afternoon, I screened the tenant and he was fine. I told him that he could move in Thursday or Friday, after I finish cleaning the apartment.

My maintenance project for the day was to finish the electrical work in the one-bedroom apartment that I am just about finished rehabbing. I installed the Stove wiring and plug; installed several junction boxes; traced out the wiring for the water heater; and did some other electrical work. In addition, I finished up the work that needed to be done with the water. That included fixing a leak in the brand new toilet; installing new water lines for the sink; removing the line to the outside spigot; and other miscellaneous work.

It was another good day in the rental business. Today, I rented my one bedroom apartment that I have been rehabbing. This was one of the units that slipped through the cracks as I was building my business. The rehab has been 95% done for a couple of weeks and I just need to put the finishing touches on it. I had a guy look at it today and he immediately gave me the security deposit to hold the property for him.

The tenant for the 3 bedroom section 8 house I rented, finally got all the utilities changed over into her name today. So, I met her at the house to give her the keys (I already had her deposit). I also installed some termite spikes at one of our apartment buildings where a few termites appeared today (it's termite swarm season here in Ohio).

I also had a talk with the relatively new tenants in a one-bedroom apartment at the Pink Elephant. These tenants apparently like to stay up all night and make a LOT of noise. The other tenants are NOT amused, nor am I.

While I was in the mood to talk, I had a discussion with the landlord of the building next to the Pink Elephant. There has been a lot of drug activity there and I asked him to do something about it. He's pretty much an absentee landlord and I have my doubts that he will cooperate, in which case I'll complain to the local nuisance board and he'll get fined.

Easter is always a busy time of year for me. I am actively involved in my church, which is a fairly large church that has two services every Sunday. My area of ministry at church is to be part of the tech team and more specifically to operate the projection at least once a month and for almost all of the productions. Obviously, the Easter production at our church is one of the biggest of the year. After a lot of practice, the drama production team was ready for the biggest weekend of the year for our church. We had one performance on Saturday night and two on Sunday and the church was absolutely full for each one.

Obviously, as part of the tech team, I sit in a control booth at the rear of the church. I keep my cell phone on vibrate and sometimes the choir director will text me with an issue or change (like feedback in a speaker or a change to the invitation song). So, as usual, I had my cell phone on vibrate as we started the second production Sunday morning. A few minutes into the production, my cellphone began to vibrate for a call, as opposed to a text, so I simply touched the button that sends the call to voicemail (without even checking to see who the call was from). Immediately, I received a second call, and then a voicemail. In my experience, when I receive a rapid series of calls relatively early in the morning, that is a cause for concern. Many tenants and potential tenants are sleeping in the morning, especially on a weekend morning, meaning a sudden flurry of calls may indicate trouble. So, when the team started into a song, I quickly listened to the voicemail. Here is the essence of the message I received: 'This is Officer Smith with the Police Department and we have reason to believe that one of your tenants may have committed suicide in one of your apartments. The tenant's son called us from Nevada and hasn't been able to get in touch with his father for 5 days and the other tenants also haven't seen the tenant for several days. The lights and tv are on in the apartment and we understand that this tenant has had previous problems. I understand that you have a key for the apartment and we need to get in. Please call the police department to arrange to meet me at the apartment as soon as possible.'

Well, obviously, I couldn't simply walk out in the middle of the Easter production with hundreds of people in the audience. The projection is a key part of the production and the lack of the projection would severely disrupt the production. If the police believed that there was an immediate situation, they would simple break the door to get in.

So, I began reviewing the script to see where there would be a long enough section of the production, without projection changes, to allow for a phone call. About 15 minute later, we were at that spot and I quickly called the police department. I explained who I was and that I was involved in an Easter production and that I wouldn't be able to get away for another hour. After all, if the guy had killed himself 5 days ago, another hour wouldn't matter one little bit. At about that point in our conversation, the officer on the phone interrupted me and said that they had already found the tenant - alive and well and admitted to the veteran's hospital. Good news!

The other big thing that happened to me over the weekend was that my laptop finally bit the dust. It was 3 years old, which was pretty good considering the amount of use my laptop gets. Since I use my laptop every day, I bought another a new one on Saturday. This one is a 17 inch, HP. I'm still trying to get accustomed to Windows Vista and my initial impression is YUK!

If you're wondering what happened to my Section 8 inspection on Friday morning - I PASSED! That was a nice end to the week, especially after working hard to get the house ready for the inspection.

It is now official, there will be no evictions this month. As I reported yesterday, my final iffy tenant has been admitted to a mental health facility and her mother was moving her out of the apartment yesterday. Today, I got the keys back which makes it official that I have possession of the property. I'll get in there the first of next week and get this unit cleaned out so that we can get it re-rented.

I had a long day today. It started with an insurance inspection at 9am. This was an inspection of the Pink Elephant (one of my apartment buildings). The inspector seemed impressed with the work we had done and I think that he will give the insurance company a good report.

After that, I went to work on the 3 bedroom house that I discussed in yesterday's blog. This house will be inspected on Friday (tomorrow) morning and I needed to get it finished today. When I left the house yesterday, I had the kitchen floor ripped up. Today, I layed a new subfloor and then layed commercial carpet (with no pad). Although carpet is not my preference for the kitchen, this kitchen floor was too rough to be painted or to lay vinyl.

By early afternoon, I had the kitchen floor finished and decided to go for a bike ride. It was an absolutely beautiful day in Ohio and I enjoyed a quick 6 1/2 mile ride.

After the ride, I got back to work on the house. This Section 8 tenant has kids under 6 years old, so I had some paint to touch up. I painted much of the exterior wood trim including the facia and the wood posts for both the front porch and the carport. It was a long day, but I think I'm ready for the inspection tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes.

Well, contrary to my gloomy prognostications, it looks like I will have a 7th straight month with no evictions. As I reported yesterday, I had given a 3 day notice to my tenant who had been admitted to a mental facility. I also talked to the administrator at the mental health facility, letting her know that I would be evicting the tenant if she didn't pay her rent.

About 9am this morning, I noticed on my surveillance system that the tenant's mother was removing the tenant's belongings from her apartment. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from one of my other tenants to tell me that it appeared this tenant was moving out. A little later, I received a call from the administrator of the mental health facility letting me know that she had talked to the tenant and the tenant's mother and that the tenant would be moved out by the end of the day. So, the bottom line is that I got lucky and avoided the eviction.

My project today was to continue working on the 3 bedroom Section 8 house that is being inspected on Friday. Today, I painted the floor in the living room; patched many holes and imperfections in the walls; and I removed a wrotted section of floor in the kitchen (caused by a water leak at some point). I'm hoping to get it finished up tomorrow (I better get it finished up tomorrow) because I have a Section 8 inspection on Friday morning!

My normal rent collection period lasts from the 1st to the 4th of each month. On the morning of the 5th, I post 3-day eviction notices for everyone who hasn't paid and they owe a $50 late fee if they pay during the 3-day notice period (before I file the eviction in court). That's my procedure and I follow it strictly.

This month, I had (have) a couple of interesting situations going on. The first case was a tenant who called me on the 4th to say that they were moving out. No notice, no rent for the month - nothing - just a call. They said that they would be gone in the next 3 days. I told them that I would be posting an eviction notice on the 5th, and that if they weren't completely out during the 3 day period, I would file the eviction in court and it would be on their record. I do this to motivate the tenant to actually get out and to actually allow me to evict them if they don't leave. It's a common ploy among professional tenants to keep promising to leave, all the while living rent free (without any intention of leaving) for whatever period of time the landlord will allow.

Now, here's the twist on this particular tenant. He called me yesterday to say that he got the eviction notice I put on his door. He said that he was already in the process of moving, but wasn't absolutely sure that he could be out by the 8th. He asked if he could pay a third of the rent to allow him to stay until the 10th. Since I was in town, I told him that I would stop by. A few minutes later, I arrived at the house to find the tenant and his father carrying stuff out of the house. Since they were evidently moving, I did accept a third of the rent to allow him to stay until the 10th. Needless to say, I'll still keep his security deposit to cover the lost rent from his failure to give proper notice and for any damages. The risk in doing this is that if he doesn't move, I won't be able to evict him until next month because I accepted partial rent. I believe that this tenant is actually leaving and therefore I accepted the money knowing the risk involved.

The second situation this month is a low-income, Section 8 tenant who didn't pay her $95 portion of the rent. I originally believed that she was avoiding me, but found out today that she has been admitted to a local mental facility. This is the same tenant that a neighbor told me was taking illegal drugs. I placed an eviction notice on her door on the 5th and I placed an inspection notice on her door yesterday, so that I could inspect the apartment today (to make sure someone still lived there). When I entered her apartment today, I discovered that her dog was still there and that the apartment was a MESS! I took pictures of the apartment and the mess while I was there. Since the tenant wasn't there, I decided to go to the local mental health facility to see if I could determine what was happening. Since I have several mental health patients in a couple of my apartment buildings, I work with these agencies on a frequent basis. I asked to talk to the administrator of the facility and told her that I would be evicting the tenant if I didn't get the $145 rent and late fee by tomorrow. The administrator said that she will talk to the tenant/patient and call me back. I'm sure that the mental health facility doesn't want her evicted, so hopefully they will arrange for the rent to be paid. If not, then I WILL evict the tenant. It's sad that this will probably happen, but my business is renting apartments, not providing free housing to the mentally ill.

I'll let you know how this all works out!

What's that old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? That's the way my day went today. I had planned on doing a little rehabbing, but instead ended up fixing a clogged sewer line and fixing a broken window.

Just before I headed into town today, I received a call from one of my tenants who said that both her toilet and her kitchen sink were clogged. Although tenants are required to plunge their own toilets, when multiple drains are clogged, that is usually the main sewer line. So, my first project of the day was to unclog the sewer at this apartment.

As I was working on the sewer line, I got a call from a tenant right across the street who reported that someone had attempted to break into her basement and that they had damaged a basement window. So, after completing the sewer job, I went across the street to look at the window. Unfortunately, the tenant's report of a damaged window wasn't quite correct. A more accurate description would have been that the window was totally destroyed. Even the window frame had been destroyed. My solution to this problem was to install a piece of plywood where the window had been. This will make a future break-in much more difficult and obviously no more glass will be broken!

While working in the basement on the broken window, I also noticed a water line that was dripping. It was too late in the day to start on another project, but I'll have to address this issue in the next couple of days.

I've mentioned before that I often spend the day doing a common task at more than one unit. For example, I might have water leak day, where I fix any little nagging faucets that drip. Another day, I might like to fix any roofs that need repair. Yet another day, I will mow grass, etc.

Today, it was rehab day and I worked on the one-bedroom apartment that is about to be completed and I also started the rehab on the last unrehabbed unit at the pink elephant. The weather here in Ohio was dismal with a steady, and sometimes heavy, rain. That made it a good day to do inside rehab work. In addition, the rain made it a very good day to start the rehab on the remaining unit of the pink elephant. Several sections of the ceiling had fallen in at that upstairs apartment, obviously caused by prior roof leaks. The rain made it an ideal day to see if the roof was still leaking or if it had been repaired by the previous owner. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the apartment was dry as a bone, even with today's heavy rain. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the wood floors in EXCELLENT condition. This will be a very nice apartment once it's rehabbed and despite all the debris on the floors and the holes in the ceiling, it doesn't appear to me that the rehab will be too extensive. The walls are in excellent condition, most of the windows look very good, and the floors are excellent. There are a lot of electrical wires exposed without the accompanying outlets and light fixtures, but that should be easy to fix. There is also no commode or sink in the bathroom, but again that shouldn't be a big deal.

In addition to the rehab work, I took my bicycle to the bike shop to have a new disc brake installed and to get a tune-up. The bike was done by the end of the day and hopefully the weather will be good enought for a ride tomorrow.

Mr. Fix It was on the job today as I spent the day doing miscellaneous maintenance jobs. To start the day, I removed some of the building materials from the 1 bedroom apartment that I'm rehabbing. This is the initial rehab for this unit, as I have been using it for storage.

My next project was to coat a metal roof that had a small leak. This was the Section 8 duplex that failed inspection a couple of weeks ago when the tenant suprised me by saying that the roof had a leak. Of course, you never really know if the roof is fixed until it rains - that's scheduled for tomorrow.

After that, I went to replace a window pane at another Section 8 apartment. This was the other Section 8 apartment that recently failed an inspection. At the inspection, we discovered that the tenant's kid had decided to break the window shortly before the inspection.

In addition to these projects, I did some more organizing in my new store room and also showed my only remaining vacant rental to a young couple.

That was it for today. By the time I got home, it looked like rain (both outside and on the radar), so I decided to cancel the bike ride for the day. Nevertheless, I have now lost 5 pounds and have 20 to go.

I'm hoping to work on the Pink Elephant tomorrow.

I rented the only one bedroom apartment that I had available today. That leaves me with only one available rental - a 3 bedroom house (that isn't yet ready to rent). I continue to be amazed at the demand for rentals in the area!

My project for the day was to work on the one-bedroom apartment that I rented today. It wasn't quite done, but the applicants wanted it anyway. So, I replaced the kitchen faucet and some of the associated waterlines; installed numerous light bulbs; did some cleaning, and a few other minor chores. Of course, I also had to sign the lease and other paperwork with the new tenant AND COLLECT THE MONEY (my favorite part).

Six of the seven units at the Pink Elephant are now rented and the remaining unit needs major rehab. I have already started on that and will be doing more of that work as the week progresses.

That was about it for today - nothing too exciting.

Who spends more time in court than the judge? In the past, I would frequently joke that I did! That's because, in the past, I was in court an average of at least once a month - usually evicting an inherited deadbeat tenant. Now that I'm making good progress getting my buildings stabilized and most of the tenants are mine, my eviction rate has really dropped. As I was building my business, my monthly eviction rate was 1% per month. Now that things are more stabilized, my monthly eviction rate is about 1/4 of one percent, which means that I only evict .25% of my tenants each month. I believe that March has been the 6th straight month in a row that I haven't had a single eviction, which is a record for me. The lack of evictions for 6 months is not because I have suddenly become a rental property genius, but rather it's just a statistical anomaly. I'll probably pay for that with 2 or 3 evictions in a single month sometime in the future.

Even though I haven't been to court for evictions lately, I have still been in court for other things. You may recall that I recently posted about going to court to testify against a criminal who attempted to break into 6 of our apartments and then set an arson fire at a neighboring building. Subsequent to that hearing, I got a temporary restraining order for that criminal who continually comes back to that property and has in-fact basically stalked me, possibly because I have kicked him off the property and have had him arrested several times. This guy has a wrap sheet of more than 200 criminal offenses, including a couple of felonies.

Anyway, today was the court proceeding for a permanent restraining order, based on him stalking me. Needless to say, the judge already knew who this criminal is. I testified about the contacts that I have had with the criminal and the threats he has made toward me. I also explained that I am a concealed carry holder (I carry a handgun) and that I thought the situation was very dangerous. The judge did grant a permant restraining order against this criminal for a full five years. I was surprised that a restraining order would last that long. In addition, the judge not only ordered the criminal to stay 300 feet away from me, but also 300 feet from my apartment buildings. That will be a very valuable tool for me as I can have the criminal arrested if he even comes within 300 feet of my buildings. I'm hoping that once the criminal understands that he's going to be arrested everytime that he gets within 300 feet of my building that he may finally give up and stay away.

Furthermore, a felony arson charge and possibly attempted murder charge is still pending and awaiting evidence from the state crime lab. I'm a witness in that case as my surveillance system caught all the action! So, if I can keep him in jail for the next few months, he should eventually be tried on the felony arson and attempted murder charges and should do a long stretch in prison.

After court, I did some work at the Pink Elephant (one of my apartment buildings). I'm getting ready to rehab the final unit in that building and as part of that preparation, I replaced 3 windows and a door today.

The weather in Ohio was cold today, so I didn't go for a bike ride.

My normal workdays during warmer months usually go something like this. I like to get up early and watch the news; watch CNBC; put in any stock or option trades I might be doing (just a hobby); answer e-mails and do a little posting on internet forums; and then go to work sometime between 10 am and 11 am. I typically work for 3-4 hours and arrive home before the last hour of stock market trading. After the market closes, I like to do something like ride my bicycle; ride my motorcycle; or even go scuba diving. Believe it or not, Ohio has excellent scuba diving in a lot of quarries.

The weather today was forecast to be excellent early in the day and then there was a slight chance of rain later in the day. So, I decided to change the order of events for the day. About 11am, I headed for the bike path and rode 14.3 miles. It was a grueling ride as there was a strong wind in my face for the last 7 miles. I'm trying to get into shape for mountain biking season, but that 14 mile ride just about killed me! I think I'll take a shorter ride, maybe 7 miles, tomorrow to give myself a day to rest.

After riding, I took my bike to the bike shop. My bike has disc brakes and the back brake is badly bent. That happens on these mountain biking courses as we jump obstacles and occassionally wreck our bikes trying to get over or around obstacles. At any rate, the brake was dragging every time the wheel made a rotation and was producing an annoying squeak. The technician at the bike shop attempted to straighten it, but it still wasn't right. So, he ordered a new disc brake, which should be in Friday. I took the bike with me and will ride it until he gets the part in.

About 2pm, I finally got to my 3 bedroom house to continue working on the rehab. The project for today was to remove the carpet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. While I was working on the carpet, I had two people stop by to look at the apartment. One was a Section 8 tenant that says she'll take the apartment and will put down a deposit tomorrow. That just shows how incredibly strong the rental demand is in the area. This house still looks TERRIBLE and under more normal circumstances, no-one would have committed to take it in this state of ugliness. Of course, I will be working on this house for the next week or so and it will be very nice before the tenant will be allowed to move in.

I had an ealy dinner engagement, so I had to quit early today (about 4pm). Although I only worked a couple of hours, I was happy with the work I got done and happy about finding a potential tenant for the house.

If you're following my weight loss saga, as of today I've lost 4 pounds with 21 more to go. I probably won't be able to lose a whole pound tomorrow as today's 14 mile excursion really tired me out and I won't be riding that far tomorrow.

My primary project today was to work on the only 3 bedroom house that I have vacant. The tenants left suddenly because they couldn't afford the rent and they left the house a mess. A lot of the carpet needs to be removed or changed and that's where I started today. I started in the living room and removed all the carpet and the pad. As you've heard me say, I NEVER put pads in rentals, but this particular house was my very first house from 5 1/2 years ago and I wasn't very smart about rehabbing rentals at that time. Fortunately, I installed that pad and there weren't a million staples in the pad like there often is when a "professional" installer goes crazy with their staple gun. I spent about 3 hours removing the carpet, pad, and staples. My plan is to sand the floor and then paint it with oil based floor paint.

After finishing the living room, I spent another half hour cleaning the carpet in the downstairs bedroom. Fortunately, the carpet in this room will be salvageable.

By this time, I was tired of working inside and wanted to go for my daily bike ride. The weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and about 70 degrees! I brought my bike with me to work today because there is a bike path near the house I'm working on. I ended up riding 12 1/2 miles and got a very good workout. My weigh-in when I got home showed that I have lost 3 pounds and have 22 to go. No carbs today. I'm hoping that I can lose another pound tomorrow, but I'm sure that my weight loss is going to slow down. The last time I lost 25 pounds, I averaged about 1/2 pound per day.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on working on the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms. I'm also planning to take another long bike ride - hopefully 14 miles!

I had a very nice 3 day weekend. The weather is starting to really improve here in Ohio and I have started training for the upcoming mountain biking season. Unfortunately, I've got a lot of work to do. I have gotten too fat over the past couple of years and need to lose about 25 pounds to be in top shape for the aggressive mountain biking that I plan to do this year. My friends and I are even planning on entering a couple of mountain bike races this year.

Losing weight and getting in shape is just like running a rental property business. First, you need to understand the basics and then you need to work your butt off to succeed. For me, the basics of losing weight is simply to stop eating carbs. I have done that. To get in shape for mountain biking, obviously I need to do a lot of bike riding (today I rode 7 miles with many hills). To help keep me accountable, I'm going to report on my progress on this blog. So far, I've only lost 1.5 pounds with 23.5 to go! My goal is to ride my bike everyday that the weather is suitable. If that doesn't help me pick up the pace, I'm going to start riding twice a day. WHATEVER IT TAKES!

Since this blog is about my rental property business, I guess I better say something about that! Since my last report, I did get a restraining order against the convicted felon that I've been having trouble with. The day after getting the restraining order, I saw the felon on my surveillance cameras at the Pink Elephant (one of my apartment buildings). I reported it to the police and he was arrested again for criminal trespassing. He has more than TWO HUNDRED criminal charges on his record and will be facing trial for felony arson (and maybe attempted murder).

Tomorrow, I will be working on one of my 3 bedroom houses. It needs quite a bit of work to get it ready to be re-rented, including a lot of work on the carpet. I've got to get moving so that I can rent it for April.

This week, I'm trying to get a one-bedroom apartment finished. It's one that I painted recently and needed to finish the floor. I rented a floor sander and spent Monday afternoon sanding the floor. The floor needed sanded because the previous owner saw fit to GLUE the carpet down (or maybe a tenant did it). I was surprised at how well the sander did removing the rock hard glue.

Today, I had two Section 8 inspections (annual recertification inspections). I pride myself on passing the inspections on the first attempt, but that certainly wasn't the case today. Everything that I had control of passed. However, at the first rental, the tenant suddenly remembered that the roof was leaking in one small spot. In the second rental, the tenant's kid had just broken one of the window panes. So, I have those two things to repair before the reinspection on the 27th.

After the Section 8 inspections, I intended to paint the floor that I sanded on Monday. However, when I went to Lowes to pick up the floor paint, I discovered that it was no longer available. The woman at the paint counter said that they weren't allowed to sell the paint any longer because the VOC's (volatile organic compounds) in this oil based paint were too high. That was extremely disappointing to me as this was very good paint.

So, I spent a good bit of time after that driving all over town trying to find an oil based floor paint at a reasonable price. I finally found an oil based floor paint that appears to be suitable at Menards, but it was about 3pm by then, so I just gave up and came home. It was a beautiful day here in Ohio, so I got a nice bike ride in before dinner. I'm trying to get started with my training for the upcoming mountain biking season!

Tomorrow morning, I will try again to paint the floor in the apartment that I sanded on Monday. After that, I will be in court. I'm the main witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial of a local criminal. This was the case that I discussed a couple of months ago in which a criminal attempted to break into several of my apartments and then attempted to kill a family in an apartment building that is next to one of my apartment buildings. He piled trash on their doorstep at 4am and lit it on fire so that they couldn't escape. My surveillance system caught it all on tape and the picture is EXCELLENT! The pretrial is tomorrow and then the trial is on Thursday. I was subpoenaed for both days. Hopefully, they'll put this moron away for a long time - we'll see. I don't have much faith in our justice system.

I rented another of my 1-bedroom apartments today. The demand is simply unbelievable! That leaves me with a 1-bedroom apartment and a 3 bedroom house - neither of which are ready to be rented. I need to finish sanding and painting the floor in the 1-bedroom apartment and need to do the floors and other minor cleaning and miscellaneous work in the 3 bedroom house.

My project for today was to continue working on the floors in the 2 bedroom house that I've already rented. My intent is to remove the old carpet and paint the floors. I got the carpet out yesterday, but spend the entire afternoon removing literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of staples that some moron put in the old carpet pad. I got all the staples and tack strips removed from one bedroom and about half removed from the other bedroom. I'll try again tomorrow to finish this project.

The demand for rentals continues to amaze me! As you may recall from my previous posts, I only had one vacant unit (a one-bedroom apartment) at the end of February. Then, I had three moveouts, only one of which gave me notice. So, as of the 2nd of March, I ended up with two vacant 1-bedroom apartments, one vacant 2 bedroom house, and one vacant 3 bedroom house. The 1 bedroom apartment was returned to me in move-in condition, but both of the houses needed work to be ready to re-rent.

I rented one of the 1-bedroom apartments today AND I have a screened applicant that says they will take the 2 bedroom house on Friday or Saturday. I have already trashed out the 2 bedroom house and today I removed the carpet from both bedrooms and found that the wood floors are suitable to paint! That's great news because I HATE having carpet in rentals. Tenants destroy it on a regular basis and it costs money to replace it every two or three tenants. Using a high gloss floor paint makes the floors look great and it's the ultimate in easy to replace between tenants - just roll some more paint on the floor and you're done!

Now that rent collections are over (except the few late payers that will be paying the late fee), I should have time tomorrow to pull out all the staples that were holding down the carpet pad and get those floors painted. If I get lucky, I might even be able to finish the 2 bedroom house tomorrow!

Another bright spot today was that my contractor started installing the new roof at my personal residence. They got the back of the house done today and are planning to do the front tomorrow. I'll be very glad to get that finished.

Wow! Today was the mother of all rent days. Usually, I get a lot of rents on the 1st; several rents on the 2nd; a few rents on the 3rd; and then a bunch of rents on the 4th (and then a couple of late payers with their $50 late fees over the next 3 days). Not this month. Today, the 3rd, ended up being the mother of all rent collection days. Most of my tenants pay in cash and my wallet was so full of cash that I was a little concerned about carrying it all around. Usually, when I get that much cash, I make a quick trip home to drop off the money. However, I just didn't get a break and so I had to carry the money.

In addition to collecting rents, I started cleaning out the 3 bedroom house that I got back yesterday. It's a mess and I'll have several rooms of carpet to replace. I did get new miniblinds hung up so that people couldn't see in through the windows. I also got all the loose trash picked up throughout the house and took a few of the larger items out of the house.

Finally, I received a call from the parole officer of the man that I kicked out of one of my apartments (see my previous blog post). The parole officer wanted to hear what I knew about this felon. I told him that he had shacked up with another convicted felon in one of my apartments under the guise of helping my disabled tenant, and that they stole my tenant's prescription medicine and some other items. He was going to check the police reports and then hopefully violate their parole and send them back to prison where they belong.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get an earlier start and make some serious progress on removing the damaged carpet and getting a new floor installed (whatever I decide to put down).

It's finally Friday and the end of a very busy week. Yesterday, I described the very frustrating beginning of the week and although today wasn't frustrating, it continued to be very busy. I guess I was owed a busy week after taking almost all of last week off.

I got up very early this morning after my wife heard the plop, plop, plop of water dripping from the ceiling (through the smoke detector) in the upstairs hall. It seems that the storm damage was more severe than I anticipated and last night's one-inch rain allowed the roof to leak. I had tarped the damaged area of the garage and that was dry. However, I didn't have a tall enough ladder to reach the roof over our house and the contractor thought the roofing felt would be sufficient to prevent leaks. There really wasn't any damage to the ceiling, other than perhaps the smoke detector. I will need to repaint the now water-stained ceiling, but that should be it. If it is going to rain again before the roof is replaced next week, that high portion of the roof must be tarped.

I started my work day by declining to accept a tenant that lied about a previous eviction on her application. She and her boyfriend had applied to rent one of my one-bedroom apartments. They already had a local government agency that was going to pay their first month's rent and their security deposit, and I had confirmation of that agency's committment to pay. Unfortunately, when I checked the application, I discovered that she and her husband had been evicted in 2007. Worse yet, the landlord that evicted her was her mother! What kind of scumbag makes her own mother take her to court? I don't want to find out!

Next on the agenda was signing the lease for one of the two 1-bedroom apartments that I had left. The screening results for this woman were very good and she paid two months rent up front. Gotta like that!

I then showed my last available 1-bedroom apartment to another prospective tenant. He liked it and said he will call at the beginning of the week to sign the lease. We'll see.

Then, it was time to collect rents - TWO DAYS EARLY! Because the first day of March arrives on a Sunday, many people got their government checks today and still others got their direct deposits yesterday. So, I ended up picking up about 8 rents today, even though official rent collection doesn't start until the 1st!

Between picking up rents, I received not one, but two calls from tenants that were having problems with their faucets. The first tenant had a kitchen faucet that was making a very loud whistling sound. I thought that the strainer was partial obstructed and took it off and cleaned it. After re-installing it, it still whistled. I took it off and discovered that the faucet was whistling even without the strainer installed. I'll install a new faucet there next week.

The next faucet problem was a little more serious. This faucet would not shut off, even though both knobs felt like they were working properly. I made a quick trip to Lowes to pick up a faucet and installed it. No leaks!

I also stopped by one of my 2-bedroom house that some of my neighboring tenants reported might have experienced a move-out. Sure enough, the tenants who were about 6 months into a one-year lease were gone. There was a significant amount of trash in the house, but I didn't see any damage. If I have any spare time this weekend, I may go trash it out. I don't think it will take much longer than an hour.

I got home in time to make up some quick deposits and run to the bank before it closed. Quite a busy week and I'm glad it's over.

Have a good weekend!

Before I post all the crap I've dealt with this week, let's start with the good news. I reported in a previous post that the roof on my personal residence was damaged by the 75 mph winds from a recent storm and the 80 mph winds of Hurricane Ike earlier in the year. The grit appeared to have been sandblasted from the shingles and they were paper thin. I called my insurance company about ten days ago. A few days later, an insurance adjuster came out to look at the roof. Then, last Saturday night I received a call from the insurance company. They agreed that the roof was destroyed and they estimated the repairs would be $6,500, which was almost exactly the estimate that my roofer gave me. I told them that I agreed with their estimate and they wired the money directly into my bank account on Tuesday. I was very satisfied with their service!

Now for the CRAP!!!

This week has had a steady stream of maintenance problems. Monday, I received a call from a tenant at the Pink Elephant (one of my apartment buildings) who said that her furnace wasn't working. Her furnace is in the basement and access to that basement is through the storefront, which is now the storage facility for my tools and supplies. As I approached the door to my storage room, I could hear water running (not a good sign). I opened the door to find that a water line from the upstairs apartment had become disconnected and it was spraying water into the storage room. This particular water line is some of that gray, flexible water line that is connected with compression fittings. Unfortunately, the water line that broke was at the rear of the storage area and didn't damage my tools or supplies. The water has soaked the back 10 feet of the floor in the room and was running down the stairs into the basement. The water break apparently hadn't happened too long ago because there was only about an inch of water in the basement. Obviously, I repaired the leak by replacing the line with PEX and then went to look at the furnace. The problem with the furnace was that some water had run down one of the distribution ducts for the furnace and went into the furnace. I called my HVAC guy and he came over to inspect the unit and get it working. That was Monday.

Monday evening, I got a call from a neighbor of one of my apartment buildings. She said that several known druggies were hanging around one of my apartments and that a man, woman, and two children had moved in with one of my tenants. On Tuesday, I investigated the issue. What happened is that one of my tenants had a stroke about 6 weeks ago. She was hospitalized for about 2 weeks and then in a nursing home for a month. Her relatives paid her rent during that time and everything was fine. When she moved home, her relatives asked me if one of the family could stay with her for a week or two to help her get back on her feet. Obviously, I said that was fine. What ended up happening is that a relative that just got out of prison (a convicted felon) moved in with his wife/girlfrend and their 2 kids. All the druggie friends of this guy started hanging around and one of them even stole my tenants prescriptions. What a bunch of scumbags! So, I drove over there and told the felon to "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY PROPERTY" and not come back. I also talked to the relatives of the tenant and the tenant herself. I told them all that if this scumbag isn't gone by the end of the week, or if there are ANY additional probolems in the meantime, that I will evict the tenant. We'll see what happens!

Next, I got a call from one of my better tenants who reported that her shower handle had broken and that she had to use the shutoff to stop a leak. Sure enough, she had over-tightened the handle so often and to such an extent (despite my requests in the past to the contrary) that she broke the shower. That required replacing the entire shower valve, which is in the wall behind the shower. I'll once again ask her to not overtighten the knobs, but it probably won't do any good.

Finally, and this is the kicker, I received a letter that the insurance on the Pink Elephant was being cancelled March 22 due to the "condition of the building". This was clearly a mistake on their part, but I still have had to deal with it. I talked to my agent and he called the insurance company. The sent a copy of the inspection report from the insurance inspector (13 pages in length). The report basically said that the property was safe and clean. It didn't list a single safety issue, but it did list a bunch of cosmetic items that we're still working on. This list included soffits, window trim, etc - all of which meant that we hadn't completed painting the building.

Since I tool over the building a year ago, we've already addressed ALL safety related items; upgraded the electric in several apartments; completely rehabbed 3 units and partially rehabbed 3 others; repaired the stairs; installed a handrail; had all the furnaces inspected and serviced as necessary; installed fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, a very elaborate security camera system, and painted the lower 10 feet of the building. They insured the building last year before any of these items were done and now they are cancelling the insurance because the painting isn't completed? Idiots! So, I'm writing them a letter detailing all of this. Either they will continue the insurance or will get other insurance. This is completely ridiculous and I'll get it worked out, but it is typical of the everyday frustrations of being a landlord.

That gets me up to date with the posting. Hopefully, the rest of the week will be quiet!

I started the week thinking that I would be working several days this week. I did actually do some work on Monday and everything started out as planned.

The insurance company scheduled an appoint to meet me on Tuesday at my house to look at my storm-damaged roof. The appointment was scheduled from 1 pm to 3 pm. With the appointment being in the early afternoon, I simply wasn't motivated to go to town before the appointment. As chance would have it, the insurance inspector arrived close to 3 pm. After she left, it was too late to start something for the day. The insurance inspector agreed that the roof was damaged beyond repair, but said she wasn't convinced that wind caused the grit to be removed from the roof. I must admit that I don't quite understand that. We had a hurricane (Ike) come through a few months ago with 80 mph winds and then a tremendous storm last week with 75 mph gusts. I'm pretty sure that the grit on the shingles didn't simply walk away in protest! At any rate, she thought that the insurance company would replace the roof.

The weather then got very cold and dreary and I just couldn't get too motivated to do anything on Wednesday. Part of the problem is that there just isn't a lot to do. I'm caught up on all the maintenance and am making good progress on the 1 bedroom apartment rehab. I did manage to balance my checkbooks while I was watching CNBC, so I guess that was something.

On Thursday, I did finally get back to work. I did several small maintenance items, including: fixing a partially clogged shower drain; installing a hand-held shower wand for a disabled tenant; fixing a cabinet in a Section 8 apartment; patching a hole in drywall; and (most importantly) finishing the trim around the floor I recently installed!

Today and tomorrow, my wife and I have some things to do. Therefore, I'm calling it a week and will try again next week.

Have a great weekend!

Boring - that's the best word to decribe my day.

My day started with a trip to Office Max to pick up some ink for the printer (which cost $95 - ouch). Next stop was at Lowes to pick up materials for the one-bedroom apartment I'm working on. I bought drywall mud, some 2 X 4's, a trim piece, and a couple of other things. That was $55.

After shopping, I headed for the one-bedroom apartment, where I dropped off the materials I bought. About that time, I received a call from a tenant who reported that the water pressure in his sink was low and getting lower. So, I drove over there and cleaned the faucet screen which took all of 5 minutes. From there, I headed over to the Pink Elephant for the big project of the day, which was to make more shelves. The shelves I built today were for my electrical and lighting supplies. After finishing the shelves, I arranged my electrical and lighting supplies on the shelves.

My final stop for the day was at one of my 3 bedroom houses. I received a call last evening about the a broken shower knob in one of the bathrooms. The shower knob was indeed broken and I took it with me so that I can find a replacement. This is a 2 bathroom house, so there was no hurry to replace it today. After working about 4 hours, I had enough for one day and I returned home.

After being bored for 4 hours, I played a little 007 (Quantum of Solace) on the Wii and I'm happy to report that I finally killed all the bad guys and made it to the end of the game! I really like the game, but was disappointed in the ending. The game simply stops at the end of one level and the credits roll. Very strange ending. At any rate, now I've been through the entire game on the "trainee" level and I'll start it again on a more advanced level.

We're having a banner year for storm damage here in Ohio.  So far this year, we've had 3 major events.  First was hurrican Ike which rolled through Ohio earlier in the year with hurricane force winds and did a lot of damage to the area, including minor damage to a few of my rentals.   Then, a couple of weeks ago, we had a major ice storm drop more than an inch of ice on the area.  This damaged a lot of trees and resulted in relatively minor damage to some of my property and some of the neighbor's property (when my trees fell on their property and downspouts were ripped from my buildings).  Then, last night we have very strong winds go through the area.  I don't know how strong they were, but they damaged the shingles on the roof at my home (which were probably weakened by ike) and they pulled the post that held our basketball backboard right out of the ground.  That was a 4 inch steel post set in 2 feet of concrete!  To my amazement, I didn't receive any reports of significant damage at any of the rentals.

The other issue that occurred as a result of the storm was that my security cameras went offline.  They are still working and recording, but I just can't watch the action from home via the internet.  So, I went to the storeroom at the Pink Elephant to see what the problem was.  After going through the diagnostic, I determined that the DSL service was down and I called the service provider.  They will be sending out a technician - hopefully tomorrow.

Finally, I had two small maintenance issues today.  The first issue was a leaking trap under the kitchen sink of one of my two bedroom apartments.  That was literally a 5 minute fix.  The next issue was a ceiling fan that the tenant reported was sparking.  I told the tenant to turn it off and not use it until I arrived.  To my surprise, the tenant was correct and sparks were flying when the fan blades would reach certain points in their rotation.  To be honest, I didn't look any further to see what was wrong as I'm taking out all ceiling fans anyway.  Ceiling fans are too complicated for rentals (tenants) as evidenced by a recent lawsuit I read about in which a tenant was bouncing on the furniture and lost an eye when struck by the ceiling fan blade.  Anyway, I removed the fan and replaced it with a builder's quality light (less than $6 at Lowes). 

That was it for work today and then I came home to look at my own damaged roof.  I have a contractor coming to look at it tomorrow and then I'll decide whether we'll turn it in to the insurance. 

As I write this post, the wind outside is blowing literally 60 mph. That's bad enough, but unfortunately this wind is following a very significant ice storm that occurred only 2 weeks ago. The ice storm was severe enough that numerous trees were destroyed and even more were damaged. In fact, city crews are still busy picking up downed tree limbs from the ice storm and crews have just recently finished getting all their electric customers re-connected.

This evening, I received a call from one of my low income tenants at the Pink Elephant (one of my apartment buildings). The tenant told me that the wind had knocked the electrical line down and that it was sparking. I called the electric company to report the incident and then drove down to the building to check things out and ensure that the tenants didn't electrocute themselves. When I arrived at the building, the first thing I noticed was that the lights were on. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the only thing that had happened was that a tree limb had fallen on a phone line and knocked it down. It certainly wasn't "sparking" and never had been. As often happens with low-income tenants, they were exaggerating! Therefore, I ensured that the phone company had been called and came home.

This afternoon, before all the excitement started with the storm, I went to Lowes for parts and then worked on my one bedroom apartment. No big deal. Tomorrow, I'm planning to finish the trim work on the laminate floor I installed yesterday.

After a few days of not doing much rental property stuff, I finally got back to work today. My project de jour was laying a laminate floor in one of my 1-bedroom apartments. This was the last of the cheap laminate flooring that I bought from Lowes a few weeks ago. I bought enough to do 3 rooms and today's project was the 3rd room. I won't be buying any more of this particular brand because I HATE the way it fits together (or should I say doesn't stay together).

While in town, I also looked at the 4-unit building where I will be installing the new surveillance system. This is a building with a LOT of angles and it will be a challenge to cover properly. I did some preliminary layout design for the system today including determining where the power supply and DVR will go and also made a preliminary decision on the location of the cameras.

I spent about 4 hours on these two things and that was it for today.

The market is still very good here. I continue to get a LOT of calls for houses and I don't have a single one available! That's a nice problem to have. I do have two 1-bedroom apartments available (actually 1 available and 1 almost available), so I can try to rent them for next month.

A few days ago, I ordered 4 new cameras and the power supply for my second surveillance camera installation.  I will be installing this system, which will eventually be 8 cameras, at one of my 4 unit buildings.  With the 8 cameras installed, I will be able to cover the 4 unit building; my duplex across the street; and another of my duplexes a few doors down the street.  I'm anxious to get the new surveillance system installed as it provides not only security for my tenants but also helps reduce problems on the entire street.   

FedEx was scheduled to deliver this package today and my wife had somewhere to be.  Therefore, I decided to take the day off and wait for my package to arrive and work on progressing a little farther in my new 007 "Quantum of Solace" game for the WII.   I had been stuck in the warehouse section (near the barge) and was having a great deal of problem killing all the bad guys.  I probably played this section at least 25 times, but I finally got through it today, by switching from a sniper rifle to an AK-47.  That allowed me to kill all the bad guys and move onto the barge and therefore to rapidly clear that level.

In a bit of real life crime fighting, I received a call this afternoon from the city prosecutor.  She called to tell me that I would be receiving a subpoena from the sheriff regarding testifying against the convicted felon that I caught on my surveillance cameras attempting to break into six apartments and then setting an arson fire in an adjacent building (not mine) as he attempted to kill the tenants there that he was mad at.  She said that she is going to subpoena me for both the pre-trial proceeding as well as the actual jury trial.  I told her that I would be happy to testify and that I looked forward to getting this scumbag off the streets!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid 50's.  I'm planning to get out of the house and do a little work.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'll think of something.

Michael Rossi is the author of 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, which is the only book that tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the rental property business. You won't find any guru motivational nonsense; unrealistic hype; or promises of instant riches without work in this book. What you will find is the critical information that you need to start, build, and operate a successful rental property business. And if you're wondering about the title of the book, 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, it's a sarcasm of the silly guru infomercials that promise untold riches without work - which we all know is RIDICULOUS!

A few days ago, I ordered 4 new cameras and the power supply for my second surveillance camera installation.  I will be installing this system, which will eventually be 8 cameras, at one of my 4 unit buildings.  With the 8 cameras installed, I will be able to cover the 4 unit building; my duplex across the street; and another of my duplexes a few doors down the street.  I'm anxious to get the new surveillance system installed as it provides not only security for my tenants but also helps reduce problems on the entire street.   

FedEx was scheduled to deliver this package today and my wife had somewhere to be.  Therefore, I decided to take the day off and wait for my package to arrive and work on progressing a little farther in my new 007 "Quantum of Solace" game for the WII.   I had been stuck in the warehouse section (near the barge) and was having a great deal of problem killing all the bad guys.  I probably played this section at least 25 times, but I finally got through it today, by switching from a sniper rifle to an AK-47.  That allowed me to kill all the bad guys and move onto the barge and therefore to rapidly clear that level.

In a bit of real life crime fighting, I received a call this afternoon from the city prosecutor.  She called to tell me that I would be receiving a subpoena from the sheriff regarding testifying against the convicted felon that I caught on my surveillance cameras attempting to break into six apartments and then setting an arson fire in an adjacent building (not mine) as he attempted to kill the tenants there that he was mad at.  She said that she is going to subpoena me for both the pre-trial proceeding as well as the actual jury trial.  I told her that I would be happy to testify and that I looked forward to getting this scumbag off the streets!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid 50's.  I'm planning to get out of the house and do a little work.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'll think of something.

I arrived home from my trip last evening. All in all, it was a nice trip. My wife had a good time at her conference and we had some fun time also. My wife and I ended up seeing Gran Torino on Wednesday night. It was a good movie, but I would have enjoyed it more if Clint Eastwood would have done more shooting!

One of readers of this blog, Robin, suggested that I see Defiance. I saw it yesterday afternoon while my wife was at the conference and it was an excellent movie. It is the true story of the Russian resistance during WWII. Lots of action and a great story! I highly recommend it.

I spent today catching up from the days I was gone. I spent the morning paying bills and this afternoon, I cut up one of the many trees that fell due to the ice storm. Today's project was cutting up and removing my tree limbs that fell in a neighbor's yard at one of my duplexes. Fortunately, the limbs didn't do too much damage, although they did knock down all her utility lines and damaged a couple of boards in her privacy fence. I spent about an hour and a half cutting up the limbs and removing them. I'll pick up a couple of fence boards tomorrow to fix her fence.

After I finished with the fence, I worked on the ice covered sidewalks at the Pink Elephant. Fortunately, the ice is very rough (and about 1 1/2 inches thick) and not very slippery. I've treated them three times with ice melt and was able to get part of the ice broken up and shoveled.

Tomorrow, I've got another tree to cut up and some more ice to work on. I also need to decide which unit I will rehab next. With only one rental available, I need to get moving on the last couple of un-rehabbed units I have left to do.

I am happy to report that all of our houses are now rented! In addition, all of our two and three bedroom apartments are rented and the only thing I have left is a single one-bedroom apartment! That doesn't happen very often, but just shows the growing demand for rentals, due in large part to the poor economy and high number of foreclosures.

I'm currently working on rehabbing the few remaining units that I bypassed during our rapid expansion of the past 5 years. I've just about finished the rehab on a one-bedroom apartment and will be working on another one-bedroom after that. The next one is an apartment that I was using for storage prior to setting up the storefront at the pink elephant as my centralized storage facility.

I will consider my business to be stabilized once these few remaining units are complete. At that point, I'll take a look at the numbers I'm achieving and the hours I'm working and decide if purchasing any further units are warranted. My goal is to reach a balance between generating the money that allows me to live the lifestyle I desire and work few enough hours each week to be semi-retired.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished! I know that, and yet I did a good deed for one of my tenants today anyway. I'm now awaiting the inevitable punishment.

This tenant has been quite ill and has been in the hospital and nursing home for nearly 2 months. She nearly died from a severe bout of pneumonia and the complications that occurred as a result of that. She is now so weak and has so much lung damage, that she is barely able to walk and can't even climb a single step safely. There is one step at her apartment and I built a ramp to allow her to be mobile with a walker. In addition, she needed her couch elevated to make it easier for her to get up from the couch, so I built some platforms to elevate each leg of the couch several inches.

I also received a call from one of my tenants today about a leaking sink. This should have been a 5 minute repair, but ended up being a 45 minute pain in the butt. The sink was leaking from the top of the tail piece just under the sink. I tried tightening up the washer that holds the rubber gasket against the bottom of the sink. That SHOULD have fixed it, but didn't. I took it completely apart; put new plumber's putty under the lip of the drain piece; and reinstalled the tailpiece - all to no avail. In fact, after I did all that, it was leaking worse than before.

So, I went to my storeroom and picked up an entirely new tailpiece. Back at the apartment, I had it installed in a few minutes and it was finally right - NO LEAKS!

Finally, I did a little painting at one of my one bedroom apartments. That was it for today!

I caught a druggie on my security cameras slinking around my property a couple of days ago. This guy is the same homeless druggie that stole a bicycle from one of my tenants several months ago. When I saw him, he was on the sidewalk by my apartment building with his grocery cart full of his belongings. He has been barred from my property and I will have him arrested for criminal tresspass if I seem him actually on the property. The problem was that he left his shopping cart full of clothes in front of my building, which was an eyesore and certainly not the image I'm trying to project.

I took his cart to the edge of my property and put it with the trash cans. The next day, he took his belongings out of the cart and put it on the porch of a house a couple of doors down, leaving me the cart. I am simply not going to put up with riff-raff hanging around my property. I've spent a lot of time and effort cleaning up the area and I'm not going to allow it to be taken over by losers.

As I was at the building to pick up supplies today, I saw this druggie walking down the sidewalk. I told him in no uncertain terms that I will not permit him to be on the property and that I will aggressively have him prosecuted if I see any evidence of illegal activity from him in the area. I advised him to go elsewhere and avoid the area. As part of my efforts, I also had a lengthy conversation with a local police officer about the issue and he agreed to keep an eye on the area and on this particular criminal.

My projects today started with re-connecting the water lines in the two bedroom house that I rented a couple of days ago. As each house goes vacant, I've been installing a Sharkbite quick disconnect fitting in the main water line just after the water line enters the house. That allows me to quickly disconnect the water line if the house becomes vacant during the winter. That permits draining all the water from the lines and allows me to leave the heat off without fear of having frozen water lines.

My next project was fixing several small maintenance issues at a two-bedroom house that I recently rented. The repairs included installing a new shower head; fixing a sink stopper; installing two new faucets for the clothes washer; fixing a leaking sink; and repairing a loose window pane. This all went uncharacteristically smoothly and I finished all of these items in about an hour.

My final project of the day was to visit one of my tenants in a nursing home where she is finishing a long rehab after having nearly died from a very serious pneumonia. She needs a ramp installed and she needs the couch elevated about 4 inches. She is still extremely weak and will have a difficult time getting up the step and getting out of the low-sitting couch. So, I met her at the nursing home to discuss installing the ramp and elevating the couch for her. A member of the rehab staff met with us to discuss the dimensions of the ramp. I'm planning to build the ramp tomorrow.

That was it for the day and I was home by 3pm. I also played my new James Bond Quantum of Solace game some more this afternoon and evening and made it through the Science Center level. I really like that game and highly recommend it.

I'm hoping to get a few more things done this week, because I'm planning to be gone on a little trip with my wife for 5 days starting Sunday.

Things are definitely picking up, despite it being the middle of winter and extremely cold here in Ohio. Today, I signed the lease and received the money for my last available 3-bedroom house. I also have a Section 8 tenant approved for my last 2-bedroom house and hope that he will be moving in later this week. I have been out of one bedroom houses for a couple of months. So, hopefully, by the end of the week, I won't have a single house available for rent.

I still have a little more work to do on the apartment front. While I've been out of 3-bedroom apartments for months, I currently have one 2-bedroom apartment and two 1-bedroom apartments available.

On the maintenance side, I repaired a bathtub faucet in a 3-bedroom apartment and installed a gas heater in one of my 1-bedroom apartments.

That was enough for today. I got home early (about 2:30 pm) and spent some time with my new James Bond game (Quantum of Solace) on the Wii. I have one of those Zappers which makes the game really cool!

Yesterday, I had a Section 8 tenant fill out an application and give me his "Request for Tenancy". I screened the applicant this morning (all ok) and took his paperwork to the local Section 8 office. Late this afternoon, I received a call from the local Section 8 director asking if they could do the inspection tomorrow. That's great, because it will allow me to start getting paid for the property. However, the house needs a new water heater and I'll have to do that tomorrow morning before the inspection. It currently has a gas water heater, but I'll be replacing it with an electric one. I also have a ceiling light to install.

Today, I showed a couple of rentals to prospective tenants and continued my waterline replacement project in one of my 3 bedroom duplexes. I have now completed my work on the cold water portion of the waterlines. Sometime in the next few days, I'll do the hot water side. As usual, I'm replacing the old copper and galvanized water lines with PEX. The PEX offers many advantages in that it won't corrode and won't break when frozen.

The temperature here tonight will be below zero, and I'm hoping that I won't have any frozen water lines to fix tomorrow (or worse yet, tonight)!

As I was driving into town at about noon today, I received a call from one of my Section 8 tenants. She said that they were nearly "frozen to death". Since that sounded pretty serious, I told her that I would be right over, I certainly don't want to have any tenants die from the cold. I knocked on the door and was surprised when the female tenant (the one that called) was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. I asked her what the problem was and she said that the kitchen was so cold that the water in her washing machine was frozen and that it was "ice cold" in the bedrooms upstairs.

Now I'm no newbie when it comes to operating rentals during the winter. I know that EVERY year tenants call to complain about the cold and about their utility bills. During the winter, I always carry two thermometers in my truck. So, I told her that we would put a thermometer in each room to see what the temperature actually is. Within a couple of minutes, the thermometer in the kitchen read 68 degrees and the one upstairs read nearly 70 degrees! Hardly cold enough to "freeze to death". As I did a little more looking, I determined that the tenants had placed things over the registers in both rooms. So, I instructed the tenants to uncover the registers and expressed my sincere belief that they would indeed survive!

Never underestimate a tenant's ability to exaggerate and be dramatic!!!

Freezing drizzle, wind, snow flurries, clouds, and cold - those are a good description of our weather today. In fact, it was an absolutely miserable and gloomy day here in Ohio today. I had intended to do some work on rentals, but after hearing the cold wind howl and seeing the gloomy weather, I decided to take it easy today. As a confirmed political junky, it was a good day to stay home. I watched the Hillary Clinton confirmation hearings, which were quite interesting. A big topic at the hearings was the money that Bill Clinton has made, especially from foreign governments. I knew that Bill Clinton had made a lot of money with his overseas speeches and consulting, but today I heard that the number might be $500 MILLION! WOW! I think we're all in the wrong business. Where do I sign up to give speeches to the Saudis?

Late this afternoon, I decided to go to K-mart to buy a new cellphone case. My old one lasted all of one month before falling completely apart. I bought it at WalMart, so I decided to see if K-mart would have a better one. While at K-mart, I hit the discount jackpot by finding a pair of very nice hiking boots for $15 on a clearance table! I felt like I had found a $100K house for $10K! That's one thing that real estate has taught me. Whether I'm shopping for a rental property, a car, or a pair of shoes, I want to buy at a HUGE DISCOUNT! In addition, I have learned that sometimes a deal appears even when you're not looking for one and you need to be prepared to take advantage of it. You can always do better than retail with a little effort!

While I was getting my stuff at K-mart, I received two calls from people that wanted to look at 2 different houses. So, since I was already in town, I agreed to show them the houses. They both seemed interested, but neither put down any money. I'd like to get them rented and based on the number of calls I'm receiving, I feel confident that I'll have them rented soon.

On the way home, I also stopped by the duplex where I fixed the front stairs yesterday to pick up the cones that I left.

I'm planning to actually get something done tomorrow. No more goofing around!

All landlords know that you don't receive a lot of calls in the morning (at least til about 10am). Tenants that work day shift are busy working and tenants that don't work (far too many) are busy sleeping. When I got a phone call this morning at about 7:30 am, I knew that probably wasn't a good thing. The caller was a long time Section 8 tenant in one of my low income apartment buildings. She was calling to tell me that someone tried to break into her apartment at about 4am this morning. She said that there was some damage to her door and that the police wanted me to check our security camera video to see if we could identify the culprit. Since this wasn't an emergency, I told her that I would be there around 10 am.

When I arrived a little before 10 am, I went straight to my apartment building next door, where our security camera system is located. This particular security camera system covers both buildings. As I approached the door to the storeroom where the security camera system is located, I immediately noticed that something was wrong. There were scrape marks on the door frame; the door knob was dented; and the plastic trim piece on the padlock was missing. Someone had clearly tried to break into my storeroom also. Upon entering the storeroom, I started to burn a DVD of the camera footage from the night before.

While the DVD was being burned, I went next door to talk to the tenant. The door trim had been taken off the door by the criminal and there were tool marks on the door where the criminal had attempted to gain entry. There was also a shoe print on the door where it had obviously been kicked. I repaired the door and told the tenant that I would contact the police with the camera video after I had a chance to review it.

It's easiest to review the camera video on my laptop, so I grabbed the DVD and prepared to go home to get look at it on my laptop. As I was getting to my truck, I saw a man walking on the sidewalk wearing a badge around his neck (like a detective). I asked him if I could help him find someone and he asked who owned the building with the security cameras. I asked him who he was and he said that he was the investigator with the fire department. The building next door to mine had been the victim of an arson fire last night. I told him that I owned the building with the cameras and that there had been break-in attempts at both of my apartment buildings last night also. That couldn't be a coincidence, crimes at three buildings in a row in an area where there hasn't been any significant crime (at least since I put in the security camera system). I also discovered that 2 bicycles had been stolen from my building last night. I explained to the investigator that I had the camera video on DVD and was going home to look at it. I told him that I would call him with the result.

I went home to watch the video and have an early lunch. What I saw was shocking. A well-known criminal from the area was responsible for this mini-crime spree. I instantly knew the identity of the criminal. I had encountered this loser many times before. However, what was surprising was the extent of this criminal's activities the night before. The video caught him attempting to break into 6 apartments; attempting to break into my storeroom; and walking to the building next door at exactly the time that the fire was set. BUSTED!

I called the fire inspector and told him that I would bring the DVD down during the afternoon and I intended to call the police about getting them the video also.

My intention for the afternoon had originally been to replace an old corroded galvanized water line that was supplying one of the water tanks in the same building that had been broken into. So, one the way back into town, I stopped at the plumbing supply store to get the parts. I dropped off the video at the fire station and went back to the apartment building to start working on the water line. No sooner had I arrived at the building, my phone rang. It was a tenant at my apartment building next door. The criminal that had been on the crime spree the night before was there and in a confrontation with one of my tenants who caught him with her stolen bike. He was threatening my tenant with the same hammer that he used the night before to strike my door knob and pad lock. Needless to say, I immediately called the police, as did some of the tenants. Within a few minutes there were two police cruisers on the scene. The criminal had fled the scene, but I had the opportunity to show the officer the video. The officer said that based on the video, they would attempt to arrest the criminal and they asked me to take a copy of the video to the police station in the next couple of days.

After all the excitement settled down, I went next door and replaced the water line. That was enough for one day and I headed for home.

Tomorrow, my wife and I are going snowboarding!

My day started with a call from one of the tenants. He reported that his furnace had gone out and that they were "freezing". I made that my first stop this morning and I took a look at the furnace, even though I am not a furnace expert. I checked that all the wires were intact; that the overtemperature switch was working; and everything else I could think to check. I discovered that the furnace motor was not working, although the motor switch seemed to be ok. Therefore, since I wasn't sure exactly what was wrong, I called my HVAC guy and he agreed to meet me at the property later in the morning.

Stop number two was at one of my 2 bedroom apartments - to show it to an applicant. The woman liked the apartment and said she would take it, but I never believe it until I receive the money.

Stop number three was at one of my 2 bedroom houses to show it to an applicant. This woman liked the house and also said that she would take it. I had already screened this woman and her husband about a week ago, but without money, it's far from a done deal.

My fourth stop was at a duplex that had frozen water lines in the basement during the last 5 degree day. I installed those insulating sleeves on all of the water lines and we'll see how it does during the next cold weather this weekend.

Stop number 5 was at one of my 3 bedroom houses to show it to another applicant. This couple liked the house and said they will have the money by Saturday. Again, we'll see!

Stop number 6 was back at the house with the furnace problem. I met the HVAC guy and he quickly diagnosed the problem as a bad furnace motor (which is what I thought). Fortunately, he had one on the truck and within an hour, he had it installed and the furnace was once again working.

On a humerous note, the tenants in the apartment were wearing heavy winter coats and talking about how cold they were. According to the thermostat, the temperature never got below 63 degrees F! When I told them that my wife and I keep our house at 67 degrees all the time, they said that they keep their apartment at 75 to 80 degrees because of their pet lizards! These are Section 8 tenants whose rent is 100% paid by Section 8!

My final stop of the day was back at the 2 bedroom apartment that I showed eariler in the day. Another couple wanted to look at it. They liked it and said they will take it. So, I've got two people that say they will take the same apartment. Personally, I'm just hoping that one of them will follow through!

Unless you've been lost on a desert island, you know that our country is in the early stages of an economic crisis which could easily become a depression. Approximately a trillion dollars have been spent on bailouts to date and the economy is still deteriorating. Big Wall Street firms are bankrupt and the state of California has just announced that it can not make its payroll! Things do not look good.

Fortunately, the rental property business is still doing quite well. In fact, we are at record occupancy and are renting things just about as fast as they become available. My biggest concern is that job losses and high heating costs will result in a rash of evictions in the near future. To my relief, I only have one late rent this month, so this month won't be the start of a rash of evictions. In fact, I'll post the 3-day eviction notice tomorrow for the tenant that hasn't paid and I'm still hopeful that they will pay during the 3 day period with the $50 late fee!

Tomorrow, I have to run projection at church, so that will keep me busy until early afternoon. Then, I will spend a couple of minutes posting that 3-day notice and I may show my 6 bedroom house to a prospective tenant.

Michael Rossi is the author of 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, which is the only book that tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the rental property business. You won't find any guru motivational nonsense; unrealistic hype; or promises of instant riches without work in this book. What you will find is the critical information that you need to start, build, and operate a successful rental property business. And if you're wondering about the title of the book, 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches, it's a sarcasm of the silly guru infomercials that promise untold riches without work - which we all know is RIDICULOUS!

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