The conversation started out with me lamenting the fact that the economy is totally putting a damper on my rental business and that I thought that with scale (more rental units) things would be better. It turns out that his vacancy rate is not much different than mine which was kind of comforting. By the way, another landlord friend in West Palm Beach, FL also mentioned that her vacancy rate was lower but said that hardly any of her tenants were paying on time and in short, she is having to do a lot more work to maintain her business. Also comforting to know that I’m not alone.

Here are a couple of interesting things I learned from my friend’s dad:

One thing that that struck me was that he handles all of the maintenance requests/problems himself. (!!!) I’ve heard stories of him taking phone calls from tenants while vacationing in the Andes mountains of Chile but I didn’t believe it until that day. He was dealing with a sewer problem in no less than 3 of his apartment complexes. When I asked him why he does it that way, he said that maintenance costs will eat you alive if you let them. He has a small maintenance crew which he directly employs in order to keep costs down.

Another interesting thing was his experience with the landlord/tenant court in his area. I mentioned the frustrating experience I had in court when trying to evict one tenant and he said that he sees the same thing. The judge basically does what he or she wants regarding the landlord/tenant code. He said that a judge once told him in open court, “In here, I’m the law.” Nice! It seems that the state statute is simply a guideline even though it specifies certain things in detail. My friend’s dad said that that’s why you need to have your papers in order or the judge will use it against you.

Despite these two things, he kept referring to the whole exercise as “fun” which was interesting. Hopefully in the future, I’ll get to talk with him again soon. It was truly enlightening.

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I should mention that a while back I did write a post about this exact thing but I think that it bears repeating. I should also mention that over time, the hate mail (in the comments of that post) from Pit Bull owners was amazing. Well, here’s a quote from the famous store of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

The American Staffordshire Terrier is a breed of dog. The breed is a relative of the American Pit Bull Terrier. Early Bulldog–Terrier crosses were brought to the US with the British and Irish settlers, especially after the Civil War, where they were mainly used as fighting dogs, but also as hunting dogs and farm and guard dogs.

You just know that lady spent all day combing the “for rent” ads systematically calling each landlord hoping to find one green enough that they would sign a lease with her.

Lady, my answer is the same as last time. “Thanks but no thanks.”

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This past week I had a situation where a relatively new tenant was again late with the rent. The last time this happened, last month, I ended up posting a three-day notice which, in Florida, is the first stage of the eviction process.

This month, the last day of the grace period was on a Saturday, so on Monday I posted a three-day notice. Later that day I got a call from the tenant’s neighbor telling me that the tenant was really upset and that the tenant’s husband had gone to the hospital earlier in the week with a suspected heart attack. The neighbor mentioned that the tenants were really good neighbors, the whole neighborhood likes them and she would appreciate it if I could “find it in my heart” to give them a break.

After the call from the neighbor, I got a call from the tenant, probably when she got the three-day notice, telling me that I would have the check the next day but to please not deposit it until the end of the week as the funds wouldn’t be available.

What’s amazing to me is that tenants think that getting someone else to call the landlord to plead their case is acceptable, legal and effective. It’s not in all three cases.

One time I had a tenant’s mother-in-law call me to complain about something or other. I let her know that I could not discuss the situation with her and to please have the tenant call me. The mother-in-law let me know that she was calling because the daughter-in-law, my tenant, was kind of a “hot head,” was very upset and couldn’t call. I just had to laugh at that one.

Another landlord I know told me about an instance where her tenant’s father called requesting her to release deposit money back to his son after he had basically wrecked one of her rental houses.

Tenants should understand that this kind of behavior is not very adult, responsible or effective. In fact, behavior like this raises a big red flag for me and subjects them to even less “wiggle room” than I would normally offer.

I mean, I’m compassionate when it comes to family emergencies but knowing these people, the next excuse will be a “dead grandmother” or a “dead pet” or some such. Well, to them I say, “good luck with that strategy.” Live up to your responsibilities and we won’t have a problem.

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I can not think of a worse occurrence than for Wells Fargo to purchase Wachovia, and here’s why:

A few years back I had a very bad experience with Bank of America where for some years prior their credit card department was completely abusive and refused to provide any semblance of customer service. They were rude, unresponsive and pretty predatory with their credit card policies to the point that I vowed never to use another Bank of America credit card.

At the same time, I had personal and business bank accounts with Bank of America only because there was a branch two blocks from my home. Well, that experience was another “worst.” The tellers would yell (and I’m not exaggerating here) at me through the drive through when the DEPOSIT slip was not “in order.” When I went in to get some extra deposit slips, I was told that, “We don’t do that,” among other rudeness.

Fast forward a couple of years down the road: I sold a property in Singer Island, FL at the start of the big housing bubble run-up, paid off the credit card and transferred about $150K through Bank of America to my new smaller, regional bank.

Within one day, I had a Bank of America customer service rep calling me on the phone to let me know that they could help me invest my $150K. Ya! Thanks but no thanks.

Soon after that, I was sitting in front of a loan officer at Wachovia closing on a mortgage. She mentioned that I could get a “free checking account” with Wachovia because I now had a mortgage loan with them. I replied that I didn’t want to have a checking account a large national bank due to my previous experience with Bank of America.

She took the time and effort to explain that Wachovia did not do business like that and that I would be pleasantly surprised. And she was right. Despite being a big bank, the customer service was great, the bank’s corporate policies were non-intrusive and decidedly customer centric.

This is a  COMPLETE 180° turn from the way Wells Fargo operates. They are, by far, the worst bank I have ever had the displeasure to be a customer at in my life. Every department from their mortgage department to their depository services to their corporate headquarters to their human resources department is run with the bank in mind and not the customer or employee.

I personally will be closing my checking account with Wachovia/Wells Fargo and if at all possible, refinancing my mortgages with them. I will also be telling everyone who will listen about my experiences. In my opinion, life is too short to deal with such an abusive company.

Oh, and I can’t wait to join the class-action lawsuit that will inevitably be filed against them for basically treating cusomters like they’re lucky to be doing business with Wells Fargo.

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• The repair looked like complete crap (for lack of a better term)
• It would have to be repaired again in a couple years
• Apparently the construction of the shower stall was unusual (according to my tile guy)
• The third remaining wall will need to be repaired sooner than a couple years time

Apparently when the house was built, the builder poured a separate slab for the shower stall which is slightly elevated from the main slab of the house. I have to admit that I’ve never seen a shower stall built like that myself either.

Also, in this house, the builders put down a thick rubber liner between the shower floor and the main slab. This rubber liner presumably is supposed protect the slab and more importantly, the surrounding drywall from moisture should the grout between the tile start to leak.

I guess back then there were no products like Greenboard or Durock and so they actually tacked up two layers of drywall since the wall studs are about 1.5 inches away on all sides from the weird elevated shower stall mini-slab. When the last tenants moved out, the leaking moisture got both those layers of drywall and the drywall on the other side of the studs nice and moldy.

The tile guy intends to do the repair so the shower stall is serviceable for years to come but he did mention that for it to not have to be repaired again, it would need to be rebuilt to the tune of around $2500. Um, ya, not this year anyway.

That job will definitely have to be done by a professional because I personally have never rebuilt an entire shower stall and I don’t think that now is the time to attempt it.

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Also interesting is the occupancy of the large national banks in these buildings. My hotel room faced a building having at least 40 floors with the name Wachovia emblazoned across the top. If banks are failing left and right, how can they afford to occupy enough of a 40-story building to have their name on it?

I know that Orlando is a major city in Florida and the big banks feel the need to have a presence and all major city centers but business is business. According to the Orlando Business Journal , “Wachovia posts $8.9 billion loss, will cut 10,7500 jobs.” I guess it’s better for the company’s bottom-line to cut jobs than relinquish real estate in a major city center.

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Well, it’s been a little under 2 months since they left but it feels like F-O-R-E-V-E-R and I just can’t get the place ready to show. It feels like there are just a million little things that need to be done. Here’s a partial list of what I can think of off the top of my head:

• Hang 2 sets of window blinds which they destroyed
• Remove their cheesy drapes from the patio windows
• Remove various stickers and decals they stuck to doors and walls
• Replace all the bi-fold door floor brackets (don’t ask)
• Clean the bi-fold doors (louvers)
• Repair shower stall tile in the master bath
• Repair a leaky A/C drain line
• Repair a bathroom towel rail
• Replace most of the light-bulbs
• Remove the cheap-a** ceiling fans they installed
• Repair most of the bug screens
• Clean out the rain gutters
• Cut the grass
• Trim the massive oak tree in the backyard

There are a number of reasons for the delay including: General procrastination, 90°F weather, various tropical cyclones, Work needed on other properties, the city turning off the water, etc.

I’m happy to say that most of the above items are done but in my opinion, I don’t think that the place (any place) should be shown to potential tenants until it’s good and ready. So, for now it’s a game of inches. I just wish it would go faster sometimes.

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Here’s the background: Basically, the tenant called me to tell me that because of a recent tropical storm that affected our area, both she and her husband lost two days of work. As a result, they would not able to pay the rent on time.

I should mention that once before she called freaking out because her rent payment was due and she thought that it would be late. She wanted to “come by” to drop it off.

As an aside, under no circumstances am I allowing tenants to come to my home (where my office is) to drop anything off. I reiterated the payment terms including late fees and then … let her off the hook. THAT ONE TIME ONLY.

This time, she asked me to let her know what the late fees would be, even though it’s plainly stated in the lease….and that was it.

Then she mentioned how the neighbors were very happy with them because they were cutting the grass regularly and were nice people, etc, etc. My thought is that she was trying to get me to cut her another break on the late fees.

From now on, there’s a new policy in my properties: EVERYONE PAYS LATE FEES.

Sooner or later, these people will learn to keep some cash in reserve for a rainy day, no pun intended. And they will also figure out that I can’t go to the bank when my mortgage is due and say, “Well they’re really nice people….so I cut them a break….can you cut me a break?” Duh!

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When they first told me about the situation, I immediately called the A/C company who installed the unit about 2 years ago. They’re usually pretty good and reliable. This time however, they gave me an ETA window of between 10am to 12 noon. They didn’t show up until 5:30pm. When the A/C tech did show up he quickly said, “Oh, all you need is some freon.” There was no improvement in the cooling of the system.

The next morning at about 8:30am, I called the A/C company back to let them know that the problem still was not fixed. They again put me on the schedule and again the same A/C tech showed up at 5pm. This time, he said that the evaporator coils (that actually do the cooling) were clogged and needed to be removed and cleaned. I let him know that I need to be put on the schedule for first-thing in the morning.

So now, Friday, the day before the Labor Day weekend, I called at 10am to ask what time a tech would be on-site. I was told by the office staff that they are behind two days due to Tropical Storm Fay and they would try to make it but they couldn’t make any guarantees. Would I like to set up an appointment for next week Tuesday. WTF?!! We ended up calling another company who came on-site, fixed the problem and didn’t even charge for a Saturday visit.

Edit: The company that did come out on Saturday is a small outfit called Freedom Air & Heat Inc. They don’t even have a web site to my knowledge.

I should mention that this screw-up of a company,  Weather Engineers is one of the largest A/C contractors in Brevard County Florida. They are too busy to service a “little guy” and their office staff can’t even say, “Listen, we’re backed up due to the storm. You may want to call another company.”

Well, all I can say is that they just lost another customer. Nice work!

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you’re not supposed to make posts like this but here goes anyway. Sorry for not posting lately but… I’ve just got a few unrelated things to relate today and they’re all so small that I thought one post should do it:

First, I recently moved Landlord-Success.com to a new web host due to the S-C-A-R-Y weather we’ve been having here (read more in the next item.) I had been hosting it out of my own little data center here in the house but no more. So, if anyone sees anything that doesn’t work or looks weird, please feel free to let me know. Much thanks.

Second, here’s a lovely quote from the National Weather Service describing Tuesday this past week:

...INLAND FLOODING...
THIS IS A HISTORIC AND HAZARDOUS RAINFALL EVENT ACROSS THE AREA!
LIFE AND PROPERTY ARE IN JEOPARDY!

THERE IS AN EXTREME THREAT TO LIFE AND PROPERTY FOR THE LOCAL
AREA FROM HEAVY RAIN...WITH THE LIKELIHOOD FOR LOCALLY HIGHER
RAINFALL TOTALS TO WELL EXCEED FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE. THIS IS
ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR BREVARD AND EAST OSCEOLA COUNTIES.

Whaaaaat!?? Historic and Hazardous? From a tropical storm? We did after all, get 25 inches of rain yesterday in a 24-hour period due to tropical storm Fay. It sat over Melbourne and the surrounding areas churning for like, 2-days straight. Thankfully none of the properties were flooded.

And Last, I recently read a post from Trisha Allen over at “Building An Empire” saying that she’s going to be discontinuing her blog. She says that she’s changing her focus so she can get her life back. I would like to say that I COMPLETELY understand where she’s coming from.

There are times when I want to say, “Screw it!” and give the properties back to the bank and then there are other times when I want to sue the tenants out of existence because they’re idiots and will never get anywhere in the world with the way they behave.

Neither of the above are healthy feelings to have but, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger right? I like strength and experience and wisdom so for now, I’m going to stick with it and lucky you, get to read about it. Thanks for reading!

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