Investor · Tucson, AZ · Member since 2013 · 116 posts · 22 votes
I spent a lot of time fixing up a rental, did all the work myself (with a friend), I considered the paint-job a work of art, apparently the tenant didn't think so, he not only primed the walls but also the trim now I'm worried about the colors and if he will do a good job.
Thing about it is: I specifically said in the lease, "no painting"! But his aunt is the one on the lease. I never met him until I had to go there to winterize the house, clean up etc.
I don't want to make a bad situation worse. Here's a pic of the room. If I had to do it over again, I would have painted one or two shades lighter.
I actually let a tenant slide being late so he could get his car fixed.
Okay, question now is: What colors should we choose?
Since I called the landlord's color choices eccentric on this thread, I'll tell you the colors I use.
Walls - color is called "Softer Tan" from Sherwin Williams, but that color can be mixed in any other brand of paint. When prospective tenants see the wall color, a typical comment is that they like the wall color and they are so glad it's not plain white or off white.
Ceilings - ceiling white, any brand will do.
Trim - white semi-gloss, pick your brand.
Do yourself a favor and look at other rentals in that area, even if it's only looking at photos online from craigslist ads; you will see what the competition offers and what prospective tenants will expect. If what you see isn't a shade of beige or tan on the walls, then my wall color I gave shouldn't be used.
I decided not to worry about it. I'm not even going to ask what color he's going to paint it.
Probably won't see or talk to him until spring when I service the swamp cooler. And I agree, it's probably a good thing he's painting the orange. When it's hot in there (before you turn the cooler on), it felt/looked like you were burning in hell!
I had a potential tenant who wanted to paint a lighter shade of orange and I turned him down. However, he wanted to move his business in there and I didn't think the lighting was good enough for his drafting business. The house is commercially zoned.
The way it works around here is any guest or visitor that comes to the rental home that does any alterations or damage to the home, the person on the lease is liable for it. That being said, you said he wasn't on the lease...if he's living there, you better get him on it. I've ran into this with "professional housing scammers" This is where: Adult 1 and Adult 2 move in, on the lease, then invite mom and dad and their other 2 kids to come live with them, they don't go on the lease. We let it slide, couple months go by and rent stops coming, we tell them to get out(legal steps, of course), they refuse, we have to evict them, they fight the whole way in order to maximize the time they get free housing. When the eviction finally comes through and they leave, guess who stays...that's right, mom and dad and their other 2 kids. They weren't on the lease, therefore weren't on the eviction order. So, now they have squatter's rights and we legally can't remove them from the property without going to court YET AGAIN, to remove them. Lost 4 months income off that property because of that.
We've since learned our lesson about that. 2 years ago, when we started this, we didn't have any mentors to advise us on things, so it's been a live and learn process.
If you think this is scary, wait until the furnace gives out in the middle of winter. No amount of Behr can fix that. :D
I think this is why this thread gets so much attention because really, we all had way worse things happen. I read the title and all I do is smile and think about the time the CO detector started going off in the unit with a small kid, the fire department showed up with the trucks and shut the furnace off (all before 10am while I was at work), I replaced the entire furnace a few days later a few thousand dollars later and was bringing jugs of water and a lego set for the little guy. All in the dead of winter. THAT, was scary haha.
Wow, glad you had CO detector! What was the problem? Was the vent blocked?
I used a CO detector for my ventless heater and it did not register any difference. The problem with ventless gas heaters is oxygen depletion, I cut hole in the floor next to heater and covered it with a vent screen to allow O2 to come in through the crawlspace. There is also an O2 sensor built into the heater. O2 detectors are expensive, like $70+