All Forum Posts by: Jim Shepard

I have just flown into Fort Myers yesterday and plan on going to see my 3 rentals in Cape Coral tomorrow. One finally got the power back on Saturday while the other two were down for a couple days. Albeit in 90 degree heat. I discussed with my property manager what we should do for the tenants. She said it was an act of God and we didn't have to do anything legally. I know they had to throw out everything in their refrigerator as we had to in our second home. I told the pm that we would like to check out the houses and give the tenants a $100 gift card each to a grocery store. She thought that was over the top. None of her other clients were doing anything for their tenants (they manage several hundred rentals in the area). We had thought about giving them a 50% rent reduction but the bank isn't going to do anything for me. Or the county on property taxes. Etc. I also told the pm to work with the tenants this next month if they can't pay the full rent without late charges. I personally felt more of a moral obligation to help the tenants then a legal one. If you live in Florida, hurricane season comes every year. My .02

I wouldn't file for a judgement since you would be throwing good money after bad. She has no money for rent so she won't care about a judgement. Time to move on and make money.

Water in the crawl space can be a serious problem. If the water is standing, it can rot the wood structures. The biggest concern would be mold issues. I'd get a couple more estimates on installing a sump pump. Hopefully the price included a vapor barrier and gravel?

Mathew welcome to being a landlord! I think you are getting your initiation! My wife and I just bought a house this Spring that had a smoker. It took us 2 weeks to eliminate the stains and smell. We wiped everything down with a product called tsp. Walls, ceilings, cabinets, doors, shower, etc. We then had to put two coats of Kilz on the ceilings and walls to seal it all in. This was a 850 square foot house and I'm glad it wasn't any bigger. Throw the carpeting away and then seal the floors as well. We wiped the lights with tsp to clean them. Install new bulbs or when they heat up they will start to stink again. I don't think we could of had the work done for less than $4000 in labor plus the cost of paint.

Just read yesterday that a landlord in Miami is facing fines of $20,000 because his tenant did short term rentals. LL wasn't aware of the problem until the fines showed up from the city. Friend or no friend, I would confront her now!

I know that grays are popular now but I prefer "rental beige" in my rentals. The color will go with just about any color of furniture that tenants bring with them. I think the beige would look much better with your color of tile as well. You don't want the expense of replacing the tile. Remember you are renting the location and not moving yourself into it. Good idea to keep one color of paint for all your rentals. You can then do patches without having to paint the whole room.

I feel your pain my real estate brother! It's great that we have a place to share our success stories, get / give advice but sometimes it's just nice to have a place to vent with people that understand what we go thru everyday. Just remember this, if it was easy, we would have a lot more competition.

I would let the lease go to month to month. If they continue to pay late, send them a 30 day notice. This way you get to choose when you want to have a vacancy.

If you charge yourself a labor cost then you will have to give yourself a W2 at the end of the year. So you will have an expense and an income washing them out. The labor is on you.

Is the vehicle a Ford by chance? As crazy as it seems Ford used vegetable oil during the production of their wire insulation a few years back. The mice love it! The wire insulation is a good food source and the hood insulation is nesting material. Nothing you can do about it.