The Successful Landlord Blog

I just read a post by my fellow blogger Clifford of ChangingMyDirection.com about how he just paid off his school loans and how happy he is about that.

I understand his glee as had I recently paid off a personal credit card that I have been using to rehab the rental properties we bought over two years. Now granted, the amount it cost us the rehab these properties was probably not as much as a school loan or mortgage but we did this with four properties and paid off the balance each time.

From my personal experience, paying off these balances was no less than of a pain-in-the-ass. My reason for doing it this way was to use parts of a chunk of cash we had for the down-payment on the various mortgages and use a credit card for all the small things needed to do the rehab. Well, those small things amounted to about 10K-15K per property.

As I mentioned, not fun at all in the long run to pay off. But now it’s finally done and I think I’ve had enough for a while.

Not to mention I’ve grown kind of bored with the property thing and am on to more interesting things. It’s kind of good because in our area there are just no good deals to be had.

It seems like the real-estate sellers around here are holding on to the idea that they will actually get their asking prices from the market that they would have gotten two years ago.

It’s good to dream.

Why oh why, is it necessary to beg, plead, cajole and socially maneuver to get certain contractors to come out to work here in Brevard County, FL? If this is typical, someone please let me know by leaving a comment.
I was recently out at a one of our rentals for something unrelated and the tenant mentioned that certain electrical outlets and light fittings were not working. After checking the obvious things like tripped breakers in the electrical panel and broken switches, I determined that I’m in need of the services of a professional electrician.

Getting an electrician to come out, however, is another story. So far, I’ve had electricians say that they will be there at a certain time and not show up. I’ve also had one electrician say he can’t make it out for a full month.

I mean really, I will pay for the services, on the spot if necessary, but this is getting pretty ridiculous. Brevard County is still growing and I think that when enough of the general public starts demanding decent service, the contractors will fall into line….hopefully.

OK, so this kind of sucks. One of our best tenants called the other day to say that he’s sorry the rent is late and that he needs to find a smaller place because things are not going so well for him.

His tenancy started when he moved to Brevard County from the county just south so that he could expand his construction contracting business. Things seemed to be going pretty well then the big real estate slowdown happened.

The rent checks got later and later every month because his business was dropping off. He always paid but sometimes his rent checks were written to us from other people. A sure sign of borrowing from friends and family to pay the rent.

The thing that pushed his situation over the edge was that he was recently charged with DUI and is dealing with that. Apparently getting caught up in that situation is a HUGE pain-in-the-ass and very expensive. The costs in not just money but time seem to me to be quite burdensome. But then again, I guess that’s what the government wants as many people have been senselessly killed by drunk drivers.

Thankfully, he said that he intends to honor the terms of the lease where he will pay the penalty and give up the security deposit.

Anyway, I feel for this guy and wish him luck with this situation. What really sucks is that we already have one vacant house for rent in Brevard County and now is not really the time to have another one.

Stay tuned for more on this situation.

So, yesterday I was over at one of my better tenants places to look at an issue with a new dishwasher that was not draining properly.

Unrelated to this visit, I happened to be in the laundry room and noticed that it was very “dusty” in there. The dryer was running and it seemed pretty warm in there. A sure sign of a disconnected (or broken) dryer vent duct.

I looked behind the dryer and sure enough the duct was lying on the floor spewing hot air and lint everywhere. The entire wall close to the dryer vent was covered with lint.

It baffles me that a person who uses a specific room to clean their clothes would not think of keeping the room itself clean. Once again, I don’t get it.