Real Estate Investor · Montreal, Canada · Member since 2008 · 34 posts · 1 vote
18y
here in Quebec if you go 2 years back it could've taken up to 15 months to evict a tenant that doesn't pay his rent. It was a real joke, some people would go from one place to another every year without ever paying! Thank god the law changed recently, now you can ask for eviction after payment is late for more than 3 weeks, and the whole process take 3 to 3 and a half months. Still hurts but it sure beats 15 months!
Real Estate Investor · liberty township, OH · Member since 2008 · 149 posts · 6 votes
18y
i bought a real fixer upper for $30K in a nice blue collar area of town. The neighbors LOVED that I (or anyone for that matter) was coming in and fixing up the eye sore... anyway, i was renting the top floor to my step daughter while rehabbing, and she had this boyfriend that she was trying to get rid of who kept coming around and hanging out (stalking) her at all hours... Well as luck would have it, the neighbors keep a watchful eye out for her and my property, and too boot one neighbor has a daughter that is a cop in the city where the house is.... Well we didnt see him any more!!
moral of the story... Be nice to neighbors of property that you do not live at
Investor · GA · Member since 2008 · 44 posts · 8 votes
18y
I dont mean to be morbid but will post up this story. I am saying a little prayer before I post this.
We bought our first quad and had closed the deal. I was not able to get the keys to the quad from the owner at the closing but she promised to get them in a few days. No problem.
4 days later I got a call from a very concerned friend who told me that one of my tenants - and her friend - had not made it to church over the weekend and wanted to tell me as that was not her nature. She was very worried about her as she had knocked on her door and noticed her car in the driveway.
I was very alarmed and went right away (it was about 8:00 at night). We got there and knocked on the door. No response. I had no keys so I nervously called a locksmith. He can in about 30 minutes and jimmied the lock. The top safety latch was latched - so you can imagine what that meant. She had to be inside because you cant latch a safety latch once your outside. The locksmith looked at me and said "I am done, it is yours from here". I leaned into the door and knocked through the safety latch and found the tenant had committed suicide by hanging herself. It was beyond horror. It was a very sad night.
It was my first quad apartment and I was new to the market. We rallied and got back up and going and now have 7 quads in that area. It was a very rough start and challenged our will to keep going. We are glad we overcame a horrible start and are now prospering.
Real Estate Coach · Oakton, VA · Member since 2008 · 695 posts · 43 votes
18y
All of my horror stories invlove carpet soaked in animal urine. Even though I have my employees do regular inspections, it still amazes me that some people can live in such filth, when a normal person would vomit.
Then again, when I walk into a property I am going to purchase and I smell urine, we all know that is really the scent of money.
Commercial Real Estate Agent · San francisco, CA · Member since 2008 · 50 posts · 0 votes
18y
mine is a bit horror. I used to live with my sister's apartment without knowing that the real landlord of that house she rented was dead...sometimes we hear of a child laughing at 12 midnight,we haven't any baby or child in the house and we even experienced that there is someone's watching us....our apartment has 4 bedroom, with basement. It happens every 12midnight and since we are all scared we all agreed to talk for the lady in charge as she confess that the real owner's grandson died in the basement....
Real Estate Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2008 · 46 posts · 3 votes
18y
I thought that I did my last rehab for before the summer and then I had the tenant leave the stove on while they took the kids out to Mickey D's. IF the fire department came 15 minutes earlier or later it would be a different story. The house will have to be gutted and rebuilt. Now I do not like copper theives but this is the one time they did some good. The house was broken into as we are still waiting on the insurnace money and everything that we would have to have thrown away was taken. Guess it makes for an easier demo and one less trash dumpster.