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!

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.

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.

If you are wondering what happened to yesterday's blog, my wife and I went out with friends for an afternoon and evening of fun and I didn't get home until late - too late to post my blog. So, let's catch up now!

Yesterday started at about 9 am with the posting of an eviction notice for a tenant at the Pink Elephant. My next stop was in municipal court at 9:30. This was my "second cause of action" (lawsuit) against the tenant I evicted last month. She really pissed me off, so I sued her for everything I could possibly think of! All together, I am claiming about $2,000 in damages which includes lost rent, late fees, physical damage, etc. In reality, I have already won the lawsuit via a default judgment because the tenant didn't respond to my lawsuit in the designated time (idiot). However, a hearing before the magistrate is still required to justify the amount of the judgment. The tenant didn't show up at this hearing, which was all the better for me!

You may recall from my original post on this eviction, that I have a new lawyer. She is inexperienced in evictions, but did a very nice job at the original eviction hearing. Unfortunately, there was a little paperwork snafu at the hearing yesterday, when my lawyer hadn't filed the proper amendment to the complaint, which should have included the final amount of damages we are seeking. This amendment required a proper service on the tenant and obviously that hadn't happened. The result of this mistake was that the magistrate could only award me a little over $700 in damages yesterday. So, we elected to continue the case for another 30 days so that my lawyer could amend the paperwork. When we go back to court, I can be awarded the entire amount of the damages. No big deal!

Next on the agenda were two Section 8 inspections. The first one was at about 11:30 and I passed it with flying colors. The next one happened at about 1:30 and it also easily passed! It doesn't get better than that!

As soon as the second inspection was complete, I was ready to quit for the day and I headed home. My wife and I decided to have some fun and we met another couple for an afternoon and evening out on the town!

My projects today included repairing the ceiling in an apartment and replacing a defective ceiling light. That took about 3 hours and that was enough for today. I had a few things I wanted to do around my home today, so I spent most of the day doing personal (non-work) stuff. I'll be mowing grass tomorrow and am thinking about going shooting.

I started out the day with 17 rents to collect. With the exception of one iffy tenant and a couple of chronic late payers (bless them for the late fees every month), I got all the rents I was expecting today.

My project today was to rebuild the rail for the deck that I rebuilt yesterday. That turned out to be a bigger job than I anticipated as the untreated wood that was used for the rail was in bad shape. So, I rebuilt the entire rail with treated lumber.

I also inspected one of the apartments that will be inspected by Section 8 tomorrow. It was generally in good shape. I had to plug in the exhaust fan in the bathroom, as a working exhaust fan (or a window) is required for the Section 8 inspection. However, this tenant doesn't like the noise that the exhaust fan makes, so she has me unplug it right after the inspector leaves every year.

To my dismay, I also had to put a battery in the smoke detector. You'll notice that I didn't say "replace" the battery, I said put a battery in the smoke detector BECAUSE THE TENANT TOOK THE BATTERY OUT OF IT!!! I am continually shocked at the number of tenants that remove their smoke detector batteries to use them in some other gizmo, like toys and various electrical appliances. I wasn't able to coordinate with the tenant of the other house that will be inspected tomorrow, but she said the only thing she could think of that needed to be done for her inspection was to find her smoke detector!!! She apparently hasn't only taken the battery out of her detector - SHE'S LOST IT!!!

It's a good thing that fires are relatively rare, because otherwise every tenant on the planet would burn to death! I just can't believe that people are so dumb as to remove the smoke detector batteries or remove the entire detector!

Before the inspections tomorrow, I will be in court for the conclusion of my lawsuit against the tenant I evicted last month. We have a default judgment against the tenant who didn't respond and tomorrow's hearing will be to get the amount of the judgment finalized. This idiot tenant is the manager at the local Dollar General and it should be easy to garnish her wages!

You've probably never heard of a Cluster Headache. I've had them on and off since I was a kid and they are brutal. According to the doctors, they are the worst headache (pain wise) that you can have. They're called Cluster Headaches because they occur in clusters, often every day for months. Cluster headaches come on VERY fast. From the first feel of tightening in the head or neck to excruciating pain can take as little as 5 or 10 minutes. I never go anywhere without having medication close by (in my truck, backtop bag, snowboarding bag, bike bag, etc). At the first sign of a cluster headache, I take 4 Ibuprofen and 3 extra strength Excederin. Then, if the pain doesn't ease up within 30 minutes, I take a Flexeril . Flexeril is a nasty drug. It's supposed to be a muscle relaxor and they do a good job of stopping Cluster Headaches, but they make me drowsy and mean. The medicine in combination with the cluster headaches makes me very sensitive to light and especially sound. It's very hard to listen to anyone talk when you have one of these headaches.

I had a VERY bad headache yesterday that didn't want to go away, and I took almost the entire day off (except for a quick trip to sign some papers for "free" government weatherization of one of my apartment buildings). Today, I had one of the worst headaches I've had in years and the first round of drugs Ibuprofen, Excederin, and Flexeril didn't stop it. I had to wait til noon to take the second round. Finally, by 2pm, my headache started to improve and I was able to go into town to do a little work.

What does this story of my headache have to do with the rental property business? EVERYTHING! One of the best things about owning a rental property business is that I can set my own schedule. When I felt bad yesterday, I didn't have to go to work. When I felt bad again today, I didn't have to go to work. I could take off without calling a boss or asking for permission. As they say in those credit card commercials: The freedom to set your own schedule - PRICELESS!

When I did recover this afternoon, I went into town to work on a 1 bedroom apartment that I rented for August 1st. The previous tenant broke the commode and I needed to repair the floor and replace the toilet with a new one. In addition, I had to replace the smoke detector, which the tenant stole and replace the bathroom mirror. I did the smoke detector and mirror first, since they were minor jobs. Then, I removed the old commode and cut out the water damaged section of floor. I used the cardboard from the box for the new commode to make a pattern for the new subfloor, which I will make out of 3/4 inch treated plywood. Due to the late start, that is all I did for today!

After not working much last week, I did get a little work done today. To start, I had a tenant that reported that her kitchen light had gone out. I always suspect that the bulb(s) are burned out when a tenant reports that a light is out, but in this case the tenant swore that the switch didn't feel the same as it felt yesterday (she thought it felt much weaker than yesterday). I have seen switches break on occassion and that is often how they feel. This particular light fixture had four flourescent tubes and the tenant reported that they all were on yesterday. It seemed highly unlikely that all four bulbs burned out at once. So, I removed the switch cover and tested the switch with a meter. The switch was fine. I should have gone with my next inclination. So, I changed the bulbs and the light worked fine. I suspect that three of the bulbs had burned out over time and the last bulb finally burned out yesterday. Obviously, the tenant hadn't realized that only one bulb was working until yesterday and the tenant just imagined that the feel of the switch had changed. No big deal!

My next project was to mow the grass at 2 apartment buildings and then spray weeds. Both of these buildings have small yards and that only took about an hour.

Finally, I was scheduled to meet a woman who was interested in one of my apartments. She is significantly disabled and this is a downstairs apartment. Moreover, her son lived right across the street and he would be able to come over and help her with her daily activities. She liked the apartment and put down a non-refundable deposit so that I would hold the apartment for her. One more apartment rented!

We've all heard that some of the 911 masterminds were subjected to waterboarding in an effort to get critical information from them. By all accounts this water torture was quite successful, yielding critical intelligence. I too have experienced water torture and the bad thing is that I'm not even a terrorist!

Here's what happened. I had some tenants move into a 2-bedroom apartment on Saturday. The downstairs apartment just below this apartment has had an intermittent leak in the ceiling below the bathroom in that upstairs apartment. The downstairs tenant reported that the leak only occurred when the previous upstairs tenant took a shower. So, before the new tenant moved in, I wanted to ensure that the water leak was fixed. To that end, on Friday, I took at look at the bathroom in the upstairs apartment in search of possible sources of leaks.

This bathroom has an old claw foot tub that has a shower enclosure around it. Two curtains enclose the tub. On my inspection, I noticed that the shower curtains didn't quite close on the end of the tub opposite the shower head. If the tenant was taking a shower without the curtains completely closed, that could certainly explain the leak. So, to fix the problem, I added a third curtain to that end of the shower so that it was securely covered. I then ran the shower for a solid 20 minutes and checked the downstairs apartment for leaks. The result was that there was no leak and I believed that I had solved the problem. By running the shower for 20 minutes, I had not only eliminated the possibility that water was getting through the curtain, but I had also eliminated a leak in the drain line. Furthermore, a leak in the water lines was also eliminated because the water lines had been continuously pressurized, even while the apartment was vacant.

On Saturday, the tenant began moving in. Shortly after the tenant began moving, I received a call from the downstairs tenant that her ceiling was leaking. This was particularly puzzling because the tenants weren't even in the apartment yet and certainly hadn't taken a shower. I decided to go take a look at the situation even though it was a weekend, even though the leak was only slowly dripping and the repair could certainly have waited until Monday.

Sure enough, the ceiling in the ground floor apartment was leaking with a slow drip. I checked the bathroom in the upstairs apartment again and didn't find any evidence of a leak. Somewhat frustrated, I decided to cut open the ceiling in the downstairs apartment to see where the leak was coming from. To my absolute amazement, there was a pin-hole leak in one of the hot side waterlines. That certainly was illogical, but that was definitely causing the leak. Why it leaked only intermittently I can not explain. The water line was continuously pressurized and one would think that it would leak continuously!

At any rate, since it was Saturday, I decided to do a temporary repair by installing a stainless steel band clamp designed to repair just such a leak. The water line was very close to the bottom of the floor of the upstairs apartment. To get the clamp to seal correctly, I needed to rotate it slightly by tapping it with a hammer. I didn't tap it very hard, but at that point the water torture began anyway. As I tapped it with a hammer, there was a sudden gush of water. No, the clamp hadn't failed, the torrent of water was coming from several inches above and to the right of the clamp. I ran outside and shut off the water to the entire building. I then went back to the upstairs apartment and the tenant reported that he heard a sound coming from the wall. I touched the wall and it was HOT! The old galvanized water line had broken inside the kitchen wall.

As I began exploring the extent of the issue, it became apparent that all the old galvanized water lines in the apartment were in bad shape. I found several spots that were badly corroded. Worse yet, the pipes all ran under the floor and in the walls. This would be a major project!!! UGH!

So, I started ripping open the walls and floor. Water lines ran behind the built-in kitchen cabinets and I had to demolish them also. It was a huge project!

To make a long story short, I ended up replacing all the water lines, from the basement to and through the second floor apartment. By the time I quit on Saturday afternoon, I had all the water lines (PEX) installed and the water back on to the building.

On Monday, I installed new kitchen cabinets; a new countertop; and new sink. I also did a lot of patching of the walls (where I had ripped out the old water lines). What started out as a minor slow drip rapidly turned into full blown water torture! The good news is that I survived the incident and the new tenants are thrilled to have a brand new kitchen!

Today, I only worked about 2 1/2 hours. I mowed grass at two apartment buildings; sprayed weeds at 3 buildings; and removed several small trees that were a nuisance.

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 planned on just doing a little work today. To that end, I didn't leave the house until about noon. My plan was to coat a small section of roof that was leaking; repair one window; and put a few weeds out of their misery. One of my tenants had different ideas. She called as I was on the way to town and reported that her commode and bathtub was plugged up. I asked her about the bathroom sink drain and the kitchen sink drain and she said that they were fine.

Upon arrival at the house, I did a little troubleshooting. The commode was indeed plugged as was the bathtub. The kitchen sink appeared to be open as did the bathroom sink. My initial diagnosis was that the sewer line was plugged somewhere just below the commode (and obviously below where the tub line "Y's" into the main sewer line. I tried plunging the toilet to no avail. I tried a toilet snake - again to no avail. At that point, I tried running the bathroom sink again and discovered that water was coming up into the tub as the sink was running. That signaled a more serious blockage and I called the plumber. The plumber arrived about 30 minutes later and had to cut out a BUNCH of tree roots from the main sewer line.

My next project was to coat the leaking roof, which only took about 20 minutes. I then fixed the window, which again only took a few minutes. Finally, I had to work on one of my security camera systems. Everything was working except the "remote view" feature, which allows me to view the security cameras from home. I thought I had it fixed, but it's still not working. I'll have to call tech support tomorrow and get a little help.

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!

It's been quite an unusual year in my rental business - at least as far as my evictions go. I went an entire 9 months without a single eviction, which was absolutely astounding. It got to be kind of a game for me - seeing how long this would go before I finally had an eviction. I was secretly hoping for an entire year, but I knew that was highly unlikely.

As each month went by without an eviction, I felt like a guy riding one of those mechanical bulls. The longer the ride lasted, the more it was going to hurt when it ended. That wild ride finally ended in June with one eviction. This month started with three imminent evictions, but it looks like two of those tenants will move out before the 3 day eviction notice expires. If so, I'll only have one eviction again this month.

My rental property work today included fixing a leaking shower stall; showing an apartment to a potential tenant; getting the lease signed for a new tenant; and paying some bills.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to take the eviction paperwork to the lawyer; replace a couple of cracked windows; and start painting at the pink elephant.

..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.

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!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! There are a lot of little children's sayings that have to do with lying. They were probably all written by parents who were landlords; not as a result of the children lying, but because of the tenants lying! As a landlord, I'm so cynical that I just assume that everyone is lying until proven otherwise. When it comes to tenant applicants, if you assume that the applicant is lying, more often than not you'll be right.

In addition to assuming that all applicants are lying, I also judge a tenant by their looks, mannerisms, and the words they use. If they've got a lot of tattoes, especially on their face, neck, and hands, I assume that they're a druggie. If they've got such baggy pants that they need one hand to hold them up, I assume that they're a druggie in training. If the applicant carefully chooses their words, I assume that they're trying to shade the truth (lie). If an applicant pauses when asked if they've been evicted or stumbles when asked about their criminal record, I assume that they're trying to hide the truth.

Using these simple clues and a little common sense, I'm able to pick out about 95% of the scumbags before I ever do a screening. However, there is always a very small percentage of the population that are such practiced liars, that they slip past my initial meeting with them. Such was the case of a young family that I met a couple of days ago. They looked at the 2 bedroom apartment I just got back from a mental patient turned druggie that voluntarily left in lieu of being evicted. They were in their 20's with a young baby. I didn't see any tattoes or inappropriate piercings. They answered all my questions immediately and confidently. They filled out an application and said that they would take the apartment. I was very comfortable that they would pass the screening and move into the apartment in the next couple of days.

THEY FOOLED ME! I always start my screenings with a check of the local municipal court website. With barely a single mouse click, the extent of their lies became blatantly obvious! They had just been evicted in late 2008 and the husband (shack up boy friend) had been arrested at least 3 times in the past year! That was all I needed to see and I stopped the screening. Needless to say, I'm not renting an apartment to lying scumbags like that!

The moral of the story is no matter how nice and upstanding a person seems - you've got to screen them!

They say that all good things must come to an end. I suppose that's true, but it can certainly be sad to see the good times end. Unfortunately, as I sit here tonight, I'm in that spot.

For the past 6 months, I haven't had a single eviction. Moreover, this past month I have been at 100% occupancy. In the space of one day, that luck has completely fallen apart. It started with a phone call this morning, when one of my tenants called to say that they were moving. No notice. No rent for this month. They can't afford the rent and they'll be out in the next 3 days.

Then, later in the day, I started getting that uneasy feeling that another tenant was avoiding me, indicating to me that she wasn't going to pay the rent. This is a Section 8 tenant who in my opinion is somewhat mentally ill. While I was in town collecting the final few rents, I stopped by her apartment and knocked on the door. It sure sounded like someone was at home, yet no one answered the door. As I was leaving the house, the next door neighbor (who looks iffy to me) asked me if I was looking for the woman that lives in that apartment. I responded that I was. He proceeded to call her a "slutty crackhead" along with just about every nasty name he could think of. He said that she had sold all her belongings to buy crack and that she was broke. That explains why she was avoiding me.

To tell the truth, I feel a little bit sorry for her. I think the truth of the situation is that she's being taken advantage of by the druggies, which often happens to people who are retarded (mentally ill). This type of crime is a real shame and my opinion is that the scumbags that prey on the mentally ill should be thrown in jail and the key thrown away. However, the reality of the situation remains and I won't allow her problems to become my problems. If she's doing illegal drugs and/or not paying the rent - SHE'S GOTTA GO! I'll take a 3-day notice to her tomorrow and will contact Section 8 on Monday.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, I have one other tenant that I'm concerned about. He is living in one of the apartments at the pink elephant and also has not paid rent. His rent is paid by a payee, so I'm a little concerned that it hasn't arrived yet. I'll also take him a 3-day notice tomorrow.

So, after 6 months of no evictions and one month of 100% occupancy, the fun has come to the inevitable end. I is impossible to have several dozen rentals and not have evictions, sudden move-outs, and tenant problems. Back to reality!

For the second month in a row, the 3rd has been a very big day. Usually, I collect a lot of rents on the first, collect only a few rents on the 2nd and 3rd, and then collect a bunch of rents on the 4th, which is the last day to pay rent without a $50 late fee. However, something seems to have changed lately and I collected a bunch of rents today! How many rents did I collect? So many that I made two trips home to unload cash so that I wouldn't have to carry it all!

In addition to being another day of collecting rents, I also spent some time today showing toys to prospective buyers. I recently made a decision to sell all my toys that haven't been used in the last year. I sold the first one last week for $14K, which I used to pay off debt. I have several other toys that I'm going to sell. Looking back, I think that it's been ridiculous having so many expensive toys that I don't even use! So, I'm going on a toy sale and debt paydown binge. Anyone need a beautiful SL 500 Convertible that's only been driven by a real estate investor to church on Sunday? LOL!

Have a good weekend!

I spent about 3 hours today cutting out and replacing the split sewer line that I discussed in last night's blog. That cast iron pipe was really a chore to cut with my reciprocating saw, but I finally got it cut out. Then, I installed a new 4 inch PVC sewer line, with a cleanout assembly, in its place. After all the work was done, I checked everything for leaks and it was dry as a bone.

In addition to the sewer pipe repair, I also did a repair to the concrete front steps. The steps were cracked and deteriorating, and I patched then with a vinyl concrete patching material.

Today was day 2 of rent collections, and I collected several more rents.

I was done at about 3pm and went for my daily bike ride. If you're following my weight loss saga, I've currently lost 5 pounds and have 20 more to go! Now that the weather is better, I'm hoping that I can get in my bike ride every day. Mountain biking season is right around the corner and I need to get in proper condition.

Today's project was to look at a water leak coming from one of the outside walls in one of my 3 bedroom duplexes. This wall is located in the basement stairwell and is located below the upstairs bathroom. The wall was an old plaster wall, with the plaster beginning to deteriorate. There was clear evidence that water had been leaking both inside the house and through the wall to the outside of the house. The big question was where the water was coming from. I questioned the tenant about when it was leaking. She said that the leak seemed to occur every day and it didn't need to be raining for the wall to leak. That led me to believe that the leak was coming from the bathroom above the stairway. I could also deduce that the leak was not a broken water line because the leak wasn't happening all the time.

My next step was to try to determine what was leaking in the bathroom. At this point, it was obviously coming from the commode, shower, or sink. So, I decided to start by flushing the commode. That was all it took! After flushing the commode, water ran steadily out of the wall.

With the commode apparently leaking, that meant that I would need to remove the wall so that I could see what was occurring. I got my claw hammer and pry bar from the truck and started to demolish the wall. It didn't take long before the cause of the leak was crystal clear - the 4 inch cast iron sewage line inside the wall was split wide open vertically along almost the entire length of the pipe. By the time I got the wall demolished and all the mess cleaned up, it was about 2pm (I didn't start today until about 12:30 pm). I had a personal engagement at 3pm, which didn't leave me enough time to cut out the cast iron pipe and replace it with PVC. So, I used some furnace putty to fill the 1/4 " wide split in the pipe and I will replace the pipe tomorrow.

After my 3pm appointment, I went for a nice 7 mile bike ride on a new course. This course had one hill that was really a killer, which made for a very good workout. The weather is supposed to be good again tomorrow and I'm looking forward to another bike ride then.

BTW, today was the first official day of rent collection. I received all my Section 8 rents in the mail and I also collected a few private pay rents.

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.