All Forum Posts by: Rick Bassett

25 Single family homes, condos and an office building. Interested in purchasing (or trading some of these properties) for a small apartment building of 12-24 doors.

I just had a 6 year tenant leave one of our places with a similar list, he rode it pretty hard as well. I did annual inspections but it was hard to see the issues through the clutter. We spent $3,000 cleaning & repairing the aftermath. $1,600 was his security deposit and the rest from maintenance reserves. Still well ahead of the game as we had no turnover costs for 6 years. 

Your PM's prices seem to be high. Agree with others on trash hauling also we purchase blinds @ HD for $6 per window, a whole house costs less than $200.

12 Urgent messages is probably grounds for a retraining order :-) 

Imagine if you let her in and she had a problem, like seeing a mouse, that would probably generate 99 messages.

Rick

A motorized scooter, sold it on craigslist for $350

Washer / Dryer set (twice actually), sold them on craigslist for $200 (twice)

A snowblower in need of rehab, craigslist for $200

All things considered though, the trash far exceeds the treasure.

Rick

I did 2 transactions on the same day about a year ago of like rental properties. I sold a 2 bedroom SFH for $200k and later that day we closed on another 2 bedroom SFH for $180k.

We paid federal, state capital gains as well as the recapture penalty on the sale. It was a painfully expensive tax bill. 

We never received the proceeds (a check) from the sale (except the excess of $20k). $180k was held by our attorney (our Intermediary) in his trust account and used later that day to purchase the 2nd like rental home .

My question: Even though we didn't claim this as a 1031 Simultaneous (same-day) Exchange on our 2016 tax returns, I do think that it may qualify as such and be worth amending our 2016 tax returns for a refund. I do recognize that I have tax exposure on a $20k taxable boot as the purchase was $20k less than the sale.

Thoughts?

Rick

A lady pulls up in an SUV with a window sticker on it that says 'Proud Pit Bull Mom'.

Our ad says 40lb limit on dogs and none at that are on the  Insurance warning lists.

She looked at the place and loved it.

She claimed that her dogs are some mixed breed (never heard off) and that they are puppies under 40lbs. 

I said that I've got to meet the dogs and they have to pass the hand in front of face test and reminded her that 40lbs was the full grown limit. 

I asked her about the Pit Bull sticker, she turned bright red, then went into spin mode saying 'that's an old car with an old sticker'. 

Never heard back from her.

Our lease spells out how many keys that we give them and our expectation that we will receive all of them back or there will be a $200 charge. Same for the # of garage door openers. 

We generally get all of the keys back but not always the garage door openers for some odd reason.

We swap all locks between tenants and rotate the sets between properties. We also reset all garage door opener codes and reprogram the remotes.

Rick

You raise an interesting point here but I look at tenant selection as being much more than a simple financial transaction. Certainly their ability to pay is an important factor but so is: their track record of treating the property with respect, being drama free and getting along with the neighbors (or at least not causing conflict with the neighbors). By treating our tenants with respect (and not being a push-over) then they tend to stay a long time and take care of the property as it feels more like 'home' to them. This minimizes our turnover costs/time involvement and puts us in a more favorable standing with my lenders.

Rick

Cynthia - actually the theme of this thread is to share funny antidotes about the outrageous things that we as landlords encounter from all prospective tenants. It has nothing to do with bashing people on housing assistance, although a few here have clearly stepped into that arena.

If I were a prospective tenant reading this thread I would be noting the things that I shouldn't say to my next potential landlord that would get my tenancy rejected. I would also be noting what type of landlord that I might want to rent from in the future based on the type of responses given here. 

Rick

Applicant: 'How much is trash delivery?'

Me: 'I'm not sure how much they charge to deliver trash to you but the town does pick it up for free.'