This has been a crazy year.
It really started, I suppose, late last year with an incident seemingly unrelated to RE. The senior pastor at our church left and we started looking for someone to replace him. After a few months, a good candidate was found, but not having a parsonage, we needed to find a place for him and his family (6 kids) to live. We considered buying and renovating a house to rent to him, but couldn't find anything suitable that we could afford. What to do?
Then a tenant whose lease was ending March 31 told us they were buying a house, but would like to stay another month if possible. This was one of only 2 houses we owned that would work for the preacher's family. Old tenant moves out end of April and new tenant moves in end of May. Plenty of time for the renovations that need to be done, right?
Except for that pesky out of state vacation we have scheduled for 10 days at the beginning of May . . .
And the house we bought in April and closed on 10 days before leaving on vacation . . .
And then there is a 3rd house that we bought for my brother to live in, but he changed his mind. We've been meaning to get it fixed up and on the market, but haven't had time. Now a lady wants to buy it, and she needs to move in in just over 30 days - the end of June. We quickly switch gears and start work. About a week later we need some papers signed, but can't get ahold of the buyer. Turns out she is in the hospital. It's not good. Another week and we get news that she has passed away. We've come this far, so decide to finish this house and list it before moving on to get house #2 ready to rent.
Oh, and just before we left on vacation, house #4 went vacant.
House #3 was built in 1895 and still had its original windows, #2, bought at auction, had many broken windows, and #4 had old, leaky, single-paned, aluminum windows. We decided to replace them all.
Besides the windows, #2 needed a lot of work. All new doors, paint throughout, all new flooring, new gutters, plumbing work, new water heater, blinds, sink & countertop, etc. We also had 8 large black walnut trees removed and the driveway reworked. We have a tenant ready to move in at the end of the month - and we're almost ready for them.
House #4 had an electrical problem right before the tenant moved out. 2 issues - the meter was completely full of ants (city's problem) and there was a break in the underground line between the meter and the house,(our problem) causing a voltage drop. So they dug up the back yard and left rocks everywhere and sent us a lovely bill.
We had another trip scheduled for 2 weeks last month, so we had our painter take care of house #4 while we were gone. But before we left, there was a big storm that blew down a tree at house #5, landing on the overhead power lines, damaging the weatherhead. We were able to get that fixed the next day, and there was no major damage to the house, so that was good. The electrician's bill for this one was less than $200, so we got off easy.
While driving around checking for storm damage at all of our other houses, we discovered that the tenants at house #6 had acquired chickens. The city has an ordinance about chickens, and the lot for that house isn't big enough, so it was a pretty easy fix. Told the tenants they had to get rid of them and they complied. They weren't happy about it, but too bad.
Oh, and in June we had to replace the compressor for the air conditioner at house #7. Kaching. Then in July the same AC was having problems, and it turned out to be the condensation pan was leaking, which caused water damage to relays and other mysterious AC parts. Who knew a pan could be so expensive to replace?
House #8 had a giant tree on the property line that was dropping branches as big as medium sized trees, so we split the cost of removal with the neighbor - our half was $800.
House #4 is also almost ready for a tenant, just need to clean the carpets and put the curtains back up, and little misc. stuff. We have a good prospective tenant for the first of next month. Just in time, since Hubby is having knee replacement surgery on the 5th.
And did I mention that we do most of the renovation work ourselves?
Skyline Properties