The recession has kicked my ass so bad that in the last 4 years I have not had a full tenancy at all, either I finally get the places occupied then several don't pay, or someone just moves out. I have had no less than four non payers and/or people splitting owing me money it is disgraceful. It takes sooo much work to stay on top of all these properties that it is literally killing me. I have heart palpitations and serious heart burn all the time, I chain swallow tums like they are m&m's. As soon as someone gets out it costs me a ton of money to fix it up and go after them for the money they owe or to pay for damage, and then the costs of vacancy. It's a double wammy every time someone leaves. right now this weekend was the first weekend that I didn't drive up to Oakland to desperately work on a house to get it rented asap so I can stop the bleeding. There is nothing I can do right now as everything is FINALLY rented. it has been about 4 years, I have kicked out or discovered someone had vanished 11 time in the last year and a half!! I usually on a bad year have to "rent ready" 4 properties, I have done 11 and 3 of them twice in the same year.
It has been very expensive and a total pain. But, if everyone pays then I will make a ton of money in rents. Plus I had to go get a job! So I am working now at Stanford Uni and it is the best most perfect job I could have asked for. I still have some issues I have to take care of, but at least there is nothing pressing and I can relax for a second. so a little advice for any would be landlords, first your insane, second make sure you pay all cash for the place so you maximize positive cashflow, or don't get more than a 40% loan to value loan K?
This way you can afford to pay for management and get all the heartache out of your hands.
On another note, I have been looking for the perfect place for over a year now that I can rent. I want space, I want cheap, I want parking for my two trucks and more, I want washer and dryer in unit, and I want at least 2 beds, and a private yard, and the option to get a pet or not. Well I finally found one, it was great, not in the greatest area but close to my kids, (I am divorced) and near work, and it was 40% cheaper than anything close to it's size. Well I called the guy and we chatted twice he was excited and I told him can we seal the deal tonight? He said he can't show it til sat cause that's the time he scheduled for the tenants. So I said ok, then I planned on showing up at the open house at 1 pm. Well, I had been to 4-5 other open houses and the routine was that they took all the applications during the open house period, then went home and looked for the best candidate, so on Saturday I was getting all the paperwork together they might want, but then my printer ran out of fuckin ink!!! I have no time left to go to the fuckin store buy ink, drive back, install the ink and then print everything and still make it by 1pm. AND while I was getting ink I saw the ex and my son and I snuck up on her and surprised her at the mall, weird to see her at the same spot that neither of us ever go to. Then as I was backing out I saw my friend James there too??? weird, so I honked and chatted with him for a second, I was thinking I have time because the open house is 2 hrs, and it's only 1 pm now, I will just go and print this out and then head over there. WELL!! I did that and when I got to the house no one was there, Steve wasn't there and the guy holding it open said it had been rented!! What?!?!?! We talked this deal was done! Then I called Steve and he said, oh yeah I really expected that you would be here, but then I found someone else and rented it, sorry. what?!?! he didn't wait to see all possible candidates! he just picked the first one and rented it to them. so I really fuckin blew it!! I should have said that I want to close the deal now, and I will give you the money then when I see it if I hate it, give me the money back and then you can give it to the next on the list. I am soo pissed I blew this, I was fuckin late, not knowign that that would be a problem, didn't expect they would pull the trigger so fast. it was a great place, not the prettiest but it had space and everything I was looking for, I can fix it up, it's what I do!!!!
so now I am looking for some dumps that are cheap and half the size of this place I missed. Can't stand it, it was in the bag and being late (which I NEVER am) made the deal disappear!!!
crap!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
latest landlord fun
I had a tenant tell me that he was going to pay me, he told me face to face and then we shook on it. Well, a week later I went over to collect and what do you think happened? He did not answer the door, I went in and everything was gone. Skipped out on me owing me $4500. so I spent $2000 on the painting and I will spend about $300 on the carpet, and another $300 on the cleaning. so that's $7100 I am out! Love being a landlord!
Also, if that isn't enough excitement for ya, a tree fell on the garage of another place. the tree is from the lot behind my house, there is no house on it, so I can't go over and knock on the door. No door to knock on! So I have been trying to find this guys number so I can make him clean it up. Also the tree is massive and it has split into 4, growing 4 seperate "trees" 3 have now fallen, the 4th and final is massive and leaning over my house, it is about to fall. I think the next big wind will bring it down onto the house. but i don't have th money to cut this guy down. I need the owner to do it. So yes great fun, in the mean time there is still a massive tree sitting on my garage.
Did I mention the pinhead in 708B? he is suing me cause he fell on the steps. After I have been flexible with this yahoo for years, never pays his portion of the rent on time and often pays a fraction of what it should be. He breaks the doorjams by kicking in the doors, he has destroyed the carpet he has broken all the window locks, he breaks the screens the same days I fix them, so I don't fix them anymore, and now he wants to sue me??? It's a give and take, he just doesn't get it. so I am going to make his life miserable. and then evict his disrespectful ass!!!!
the girl at Arthur place still has not paid me anything. things are bad. she is honest and working really hard to pick up the pieces of her life but I am not getting paid. I run a business, if I don't get paid then i can't pay my bills. I am afraid that I am going to have to evict her even though she is trying so hard to get me money, but it has been 4 months and I don't run a charity!! business is business.
I used to wonder why landlords did very little to make their places look really nice, and now I know why. When I used to fix a place up I would make it so nice, with nice blinds and nice lighting and nice fridge and stove, maybe nice tile, I would take my time and spend money, then a tenant would move in and fuck it all up in 4 months, stop paying me and then move leaving everything all fucked up, costing me more money to clean out their shit and fix everything, and all the nice things I put in were destroyed, so then I would only put in the cheapest thing that just does the job, no flare, no pizazz, no nothing, just the basics. I use to put in the nice carpets, now I put in something that is cheap, hard to stain and a color that you can't see the dirt, like brown or some dark color. No more granite counters! no more custom lighting, no more cool custom glass doors, no new windows cause they just break the locks, (so you have to replace the whole frame) assholes just don't give a shit! so no more nice stuff, it is this that turns well meaning lanlords into slumlords. I have a nice set of cabinets and the doors are all oak matched, and the tenant broke some of the doors off, split them in two somehow. Well the BIG problem with that is they don't make them anymore, so I can't go out and buy a couple of doors, I have to buy ALL the doors so they all match!! so a thing like this ends up costing way more than it seems. But the tenants don't care anyways.
Then when I say that they don't get their deposit back because I have to buy ALL the doors and not just one or two, they bitch and say the doors were cheap and they shouldn't have broken and it's not their fault. man I am so sick of excuses and the lack of accountability. so pathetic.
They break my windows and say, I don't know how that happened, must have been a rock that flew from the street over the house next door then bounced off the ground and hit the window. No you broke it ass! and don't want to be accountable! Can you sense how much fun I'm having???
More landlord fun to come I am sure...stay tuned!
Also, if that isn't enough excitement for ya, a tree fell on the garage of another place. the tree is from the lot behind my house, there is no house on it, so I can't go over and knock on the door. No door to knock on! So I have been trying to find this guys number so I can make him clean it up. Also the tree is massive and it has split into 4, growing 4 seperate "trees" 3 have now fallen, the 4th and final is massive and leaning over my house, it is about to fall. I think the next big wind will bring it down onto the house. but i don't have th money to cut this guy down. I need the owner to do it. So yes great fun, in the mean time there is still a massive tree sitting on my garage.
Did I mention the pinhead in 708B? he is suing me cause he fell on the steps. After I have been flexible with this yahoo for years, never pays his portion of the rent on time and often pays a fraction of what it should be. He breaks the doorjams by kicking in the doors, he has destroyed the carpet he has broken all the window locks, he breaks the screens the same days I fix them, so I don't fix them anymore, and now he wants to sue me??? It's a give and take, he just doesn't get it. so I am going to make his life miserable. and then evict his disrespectful ass!!!!
the girl at Arthur place still has not paid me anything. things are bad. she is honest and working really hard to pick up the pieces of her life but I am not getting paid. I run a business, if I don't get paid then i can't pay my bills. I am afraid that I am going to have to evict her even though she is trying so hard to get me money, but it has been 4 months and I don't run a charity!! business is business.
I used to wonder why landlords did very little to make their places look really nice, and now I know why. When I used to fix a place up I would make it so nice, with nice blinds and nice lighting and nice fridge and stove, maybe nice tile, I would take my time and spend money, then a tenant would move in and fuck it all up in 4 months, stop paying me and then move leaving everything all fucked up, costing me more money to clean out their shit and fix everything, and all the nice things I put in were destroyed, so then I would only put in the cheapest thing that just does the job, no flare, no pizazz, no nothing, just the basics. I use to put in the nice carpets, now I put in something that is cheap, hard to stain and a color that you can't see the dirt, like brown or some dark color. No more granite counters! no more custom lighting, no more cool custom glass doors, no new windows cause they just break the locks, (so you have to replace the whole frame) assholes just don't give a shit! so no more nice stuff, it is this that turns well meaning lanlords into slumlords. I have a nice set of cabinets and the doors are all oak matched, and the tenant broke some of the doors off, split them in two somehow. Well the BIG problem with that is they don't make them anymore, so I can't go out and buy a couple of doors, I have to buy ALL the doors so they all match!! so a thing like this ends up costing way more than it seems. But the tenants don't care anyways.
Then when I say that they don't get their deposit back because I have to buy ALL the doors and not just one or two, they bitch and say the doors were cheap and they shouldn't have broken and it's not their fault. man I am so sick of excuses and the lack of accountability. so pathetic.
They break my windows and say, I don't know how that happened, must have been a rock that flew from the street over the house next door then bounced off the ground and hit the window. No you broke it ass! and don't want to be accountable! Can you sense how much fun I'm having???
More landlord fun to come I am sure...stay tuned!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
crap ALWAYS happens!!
so the side affect of being a landlord is that you are constantly abused by the tenants
and all their problems. I am angry, frustrated and pissed off ALL the time. Every month
I am getting robbed by some tenant or another, and my repercussions of getting back are ALWAYS
costly. If someone deosn't pay me, I have to pay alot of money to evict them, then I have to pay alot of money to get the place back to a rentable state, then I have more time without income while I advertise and show. It is a thankless and horrible job. No matter what you do as a
landlord, you are at best "the asshole" Peaopl feel entitled to do what they want and when
you tell them or "ask" them to pay or NOT put bikes in everyones way or get rid of the 37 cats,
etc, you are a fuckin asshole! you are raining on their parade!!. You say no pets!! so they get
a fuckin pit bull that tears up yer fuckin house. and you're the asshole when you say get rid of the dog or get evicted!! which will cost you lots of money and lost rents.
I am snappy at everyone, my kids ask one too many questions I bark at them. they don't understand why daddy is always tense, they don't understand why daddy can't buy them nice things like their friend. They can't figure out why we fight over who has to pay for the kids sports
or not, because tenants don't pay me and so I can't make my payments, it really is heartwrenching when you do all the work, you buy a place you spend the money to get the place nice cabs, counters, floors, paint job, landscaping, you have spent alot of money, then you get someone in there and they decide after a few months they don't want to pay anymore.
so then you can't make your payments and you have to spend more money you don't have and even
more to get the place nice again, just to get some other careless fuckwad in there. So the horror is that you constantly have to juggle the costs with the little you collect in the hopes that one day all will be perfect, all units full, and everyone paying.
Here's some of the latest. I have a woman who is elderly, she is very nice and sweet. Well,
when I bought the place it was run down and there was drug activity and assfucks hangin in the back terrorizing the tenants. Well, I got in there and started making changes and calling the
police and hassling them putting in new high fencing, $$$, so much to make it safe for them.
Well the old lady was very very happy and wanted to show me so whe started paying me much more
to show her appreciation. She is under rent control, and I told her that legally you don't have to pay this much, she said that she can walk around the yard and back without worrying about getting attacked or killed and that I deserve to get more and that I needed to hush up and take it.
No matter what I said she insisted, she said it is "what's right" so she started sending me
more and more. Well, after a while she became senile. She is in her 80's and now she has
alzeimer's and dementia and she talks to peopl that aren't there. The daughter started paying the rent to the amount that the old lady told her, NOT the amount owed. She never asked me
what the rent is she was paying soley on what the old lady told her to pay. Well, now the daughter got a letter fromt he rent control board and now she is not paying at all. She says that she doesn't nave to pay anymore. So now if I go to court I could be forced to pay back the amount because she is wacked out now and cannot verify what she had said to me. lesson here is
to get it in writing!! I had no idea that wanting to give someone money was not allowed.
it is a mess, complete mess. So now with the rent I barely covered all the costs over the year.
now with this I will lose alot of money. And this property is now a HUGE responsibility without making a dime. whe would have ever anticipated this!! this is one in so many things that happen ALL the time as a landlord.
how about this one!! I had some strange lady claim that she went on to my property and slipped on the stairs and fell. so she filed a claim to sue me. none of my tenants knew nothing about
this lady or who she was. After an investigation my insurance decided it was a witch hunt and
denied the claim. OK? good right? Well, one of my tenants who was interview about the incident
decide, "hey, I want money too" so guess what I just got a letter in the mail that he claims he too has fallen and needs lots of money in compensation. WHATEVER! and this assfuck constantly is trying to scam shit out of me, he is always short with his portion of the rent (section-8 pays 90%) and he has completely fucked up the apartment, he has kicked in all the doors ripping out the door jambs, he has the carpet black, he constantly spills water from above onto the apt downstairs, he sells weed out of the house and thinks I don't know, he breaks, locks, and light covers, and leaves trash all down the side of the house he just throws out the kitchen window, he is a fuckin pain in the ass. And now he has the fuckin audacity to sue me!!! what a fuckhead.
his life as my tenant is going to change. He doesn't realize how powerful a landlord is, I can evict him for being a fuckin pig! I can evict him for changing the locks on my front door, I can evict him for not paying the rent on time, and for not paying the full amount. He constantly bugs me to fix shit he breaks. I cannot stand this fuckin idiot! so I am going toget rid of his stupid ass, once I evict him he will then be stripped of his section-8 voucher and will be on the street. I am SICK of fuckers ALWAYS trying scam shit out of me. sick of it.
anyways there is much much more. it makes me struggle to sleep at night, it makes me testy all the time, I have anxiety attacks all the time, I have severe heart burn now because of the
constant stress. it is a thankless fucked up job, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies.
and all their problems. I am angry, frustrated and pissed off ALL the time. Every month
I am getting robbed by some tenant or another, and my repercussions of getting back are ALWAYS
costly. If someone deosn't pay me, I have to pay alot of money to evict them, then I have to pay alot of money to get the place back to a rentable state, then I have more time without income while I advertise and show. It is a thankless and horrible job. No matter what you do as a
landlord, you are at best "the asshole" Peaopl feel entitled to do what they want and when
you tell them or "ask" them to pay or NOT put bikes in everyones way or get rid of the 37 cats,
etc, you are a fuckin asshole! you are raining on their parade!!. You say no pets!! so they get
a fuckin pit bull that tears up yer fuckin house. and you're the asshole when you say get rid of the dog or get evicted!! which will cost you lots of money and lost rents.
I am snappy at everyone, my kids ask one too many questions I bark at them. they don't understand why daddy is always tense, they don't understand why daddy can't buy them nice things like their friend. They can't figure out why we fight over who has to pay for the kids sports
or not, because tenants don't pay me and so I can't make my payments, it really is heartwrenching when you do all the work, you buy a place you spend the money to get the place nice cabs, counters, floors, paint job, landscaping, you have spent alot of money, then you get someone in there and they decide after a few months they don't want to pay anymore.
so then you can't make your payments and you have to spend more money you don't have and even
more to get the place nice again, just to get some other careless fuckwad in there. So the horror is that you constantly have to juggle the costs with the little you collect in the hopes that one day all will be perfect, all units full, and everyone paying.
Here's some of the latest. I have a woman who is elderly, she is very nice and sweet. Well,
when I bought the place it was run down and there was drug activity and assfucks hangin in the back terrorizing the tenants. Well, I got in there and started making changes and calling the
police and hassling them putting in new high fencing, $$$, so much to make it safe for them.
Well the old lady was very very happy and wanted to show me so whe started paying me much more
to show her appreciation. She is under rent control, and I told her that legally you don't have to pay this much, she said that she can walk around the yard and back without worrying about getting attacked or killed and that I deserve to get more and that I needed to hush up and take it.
No matter what I said she insisted, she said it is "what's right" so she started sending me
more and more. Well, after a while she became senile. She is in her 80's and now she has
alzeimer's and dementia and she talks to peopl that aren't there. The daughter started paying the rent to the amount that the old lady told her, NOT the amount owed. She never asked me
what the rent is she was paying soley on what the old lady told her to pay. Well, now the daughter got a letter fromt he rent control board and now she is not paying at all. She says that she doesn't nave to pay anymore. So now if I go to court I could be forced to pay back the amount because she is wacked out now and cannot verify what she had said to me. lesson here is
to get it in writing!! I had no idea that wanting to give someone money was not allowed.
it is a mess, complete mess. So now with the rent I barely covered all the costs over the year.
now with this I will lose alot of money. And this property is now a HUGE responsibility without making a dime. whe would have ever anticipated this!! this is one in so many things that happen ALL the time as a landlord.
how about this one!! I had some strange lady claim that she went on to my property and slipped on the stairs and fell. so she filed a claim to sue me. none of my tenants knew nothing about
this lady or who she was. After an investigation my insurance decided it was a witch hunt and
denied the claim. OK? good right? Well, one of my tenants who was interview about the incident
decide, "hey, I want money too" so guess what I just got a letter in the mail that he claims he too has fallen and needs lots of money in compensation. WHATEVER! and this assfuck constantly is trying to scam shit out of me, he is always short with his portion of the rent (section-8 pays 90%) and he has completely fucked up the apartment, he has kicked in all the doors ripping out the door jambs, he has the carpet black, he constantly spills water from above onto the apt downstairs, he sells weed out of the house and thinks I don't know, he breaks, locks, and light covers, and leaves trash all down the side of the house he just throws out the kitchen window, he is a fuckin pain in the ass. And now he has the fuckin audacity to sue me!!! what a fuckhead.
his life as my tenant is going to change. He doesn't realize how powerful a landlord is, I can evict him for being a fuckin pig! I can evict him for changing the locks on my front door, I can evict him for not paying the rent on time, and for not paying the full amount. He constantly bugs me to fix shit he breaks. I cannot stand this fuckin idiot! so I am going toget rid of his stupid ass, once I evict him he will then be stripped of his section-8 voucher and will be on the street. I am SICK of fuckers ALWAYS trying scam shit out of me. sick of it.
anyways there is much much more. it makes me struggle to sleep at night, it makes me testy all the time, I have anxiety attacks all the time, I have severe heart burn now because of the
constant stress. it is a thankless fucked up job, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies.
Friday, April 15, 2011
section-8 failure!
so section-8 always seems like it is a safe option when you need to rent your place.
But what we find in reality is the section-8 wants no part of the tenant they assign vouchers to,
no responsibility or accountability. they just hand out voucher's to anyone.
so you check out a "low income" applicant that wants to rent the place out. Fine. You get a few
calls and one of them seems ok. You make a deal and they have the sec-8 folks come out and do an inspection. the first issue comes up when sec-8 tells you that it will pay $1300/mo for the unit and not the advertised $1400/mo. ??? they say they did comps for the sec-8 units around the area
and this is the going rate, I say i am renting the same unit upstairs for $1400. that's my comp!
and they say this is what we will pay. then they say that I need to fix this and install that
and bring this or that into the sec-8 compliance. so two red flags right away.
but your desperate and you go for it anyways. and the tenant promises that she will pay the extra
amount to make me happy and so she can get the place.
She moves in and the sec-8 yahoos determine through their super high tech algorithm that the tenants portion is $124 mo and the state will pay the rest. Cool. But she said she would pay
the extra $100 so I could get the price I advertised for. Well, it is illegal to ask for more
than what was signed for the sec-8 contract. No one tells you that. But the section-8 quacks know that so as the first month comes around they pay $124. then you say that HEY! you said that you would pay the extra so it's $224 not $124. they say o well we don't have the money now, we are going to get some money next month from a state fund or whatever.
Then months go by and now they aren't even paying the $124. You think, these mothereffers!! you want to get them out, but it costs so much to evict over $400 of back rent because you know
you are getting the rest $1176 from the state automatically.
Here's the third problem with sec-8, you actually have 2 tenants when you rent sec-8. the actual tenant and the sec-8 office. they have inspections. See when a person moves in I feel it is up to them to fix anything that breaks because they broke it. If the power or the plumbing breaks, or the roof suddenly leaks or some such, ok I can take care of that. but if the doors are kicked in, or the knobs are broken off, or the shower valves are stood on and break, or windows are broken, or the carpets are never cleaned or there are roaches because they never clean and are total pigs, these kinds of things are on them, NOT me. but when you get the sec-8 inspection they will fail you because the door knobs are broken and you won't get yer $1176 now til you fix all these things. this is BAD!!! the tenants are like fuckin waterbuffalo in the house and I get abated because they trash the fuckin house, NO WRONG!!! but this happens all the time. It is a side affect of the "low income: culture, not to give a shit about anyone or anything.
I had a tenant that hoarded alot of crap. She kept bikes and books and cans and clothes bags and boxes of stuff in the back yard, doors would appear, suitcases, shoes and they would build up in the back yard. One day there was an inspection and the unit failed because of all the stuff in the backyard and they said it was my responsibility to get all the stuff removed. MINE??!!!
I didn't put that shit there. but apparently I have to go there everyday and tell them it is not ok to put that there and physically stop them. That is ridiculous!!
so this unit was part of a 5-unit building and guess what, ALL 5 were sec-8!! so I got abated for ALL 5 units. like $7000 a month til "I" cleaned it up. what a bunch of crap!!!! so I had to go there and remove it all, AND tell people they can't have anything in the backyard.
Well, they don't listen so they kept piling shit back there knowing that I would eventually have to pick it up and so they don't have to care about it, "that's the landlords problem"
so time goes along and now the tenants have built up maybe $1,500 in back rent or some such, and you have to weigh if it's cost effective to evict over this amount or just accept the $1176 a month and forget about it. If the tenant was neat and clean and made the property look better, maybe I would do this, but that is never the case they usually throw trash and wrappers all over the yard and keep junk all over bringing down the value of the property and making it less than attractive for any other person you want to bring in and rent to. It is a disturbing cycle.
so you decide to evict, now the fun starts, the tenant usually calls and swears at you up and down calling you names and whatnot because you are the asshole that is evicting, they have said to me "I didn't tell you to evict me" but in fact she did because not paying rent is the same as saying "please evict me" it is just a shitty process and needs to be changed.
anyways I delivered the eviction notice and she lashed out at me, then she did something I didn't expect. She called her buddy section-8 and told them I was not fixing anything for her.
She then broke everything in the house!!! the doors, windows, cabinates, doorknobs, tore the magnetic strip off the fridge, (that fails a unit), broke shower valves, and the toilet seat, broke all the window locks on the windows!!!! so I have to replace the whole window!!!!!!! 8 of them!!!!!!!!! she started complaining about mold and that her kids are getting sick... then they have an emergency inspection to verify her claims and sure enough all these things are broken, But not from wear and tear and there had not been any word of anything to me about anything needing to be fixed. so sec-8 sends me a letter asking that I fix these neglected items or they will abate me the rent!!!!! this is the sick fucked up cycle that sec-8 has for all these fuckin losers. so I did not fix it up i just evicted them. and now I am fixing it up for another potential asshole to break up.
Here's what section 8 needs to do.
first, don't give vouchers out to anyone that is not going to be enrolled in classes or vocational training or college or something. If they do not attend classes to become contributing members of society then they don't get the free money. next, make a limit on the voucher, give them 5 years to get some kind of degree and start working, otherwise cut them off.
next, have the state pay the ENTIRE amount of the rent, no portions, because 80% feel their portion is optional. Pay it all and get them in a program. this generational handout and sense of entitlement is ridiculous . Next make them accountable for their actions, make them take domestic classes to teach them how to clean and keep things nice and that breaking things is not ok in a unit owned by someone else.
as a result I will not rent to another section-8 ever again! I have been burned over and over no matter what they tell me.
having a lawyer and being in court all the time is not a good thing! it means that the general expectations of lower income folks are way different than the reality of the world.
But what we find in reality is the section-8 wants no part of the tenant they assign vouchers to,
no responsibility or accountability. they just hand out voucher's to anyone.
so you check out a "low income" applicant that wants to rent the place out. Fine. You get a few
calls and one of them seems ok. You make a deal and they have the sec-8 folks come out and do an inspection. the first issue comes up when sec-8 tells you that it will pay $1300/mo for the unit and not the advertised $1400/mo. ??? they say they did comps for the sec-8 units around the area
and this is the going rate, I say i am renting the same unit upstairs for $1400. that's my comp!
and they say this is what we will pay. then they say that I need to fix this and install that
and bring this or that into the sec-8 compliance. so two red flags right away.
but your desperate and you go for it anyways. and the tenant promises that she will pay the extra
amount to make me happy and so she can get the place.
She moves in and the sec-8 yahoos determine through their super high tech algorithm that the tenants portion is $124 mo and the state will pay the rest. Cool. But she said she would pay
the extra $100 so I could get the price I advertised for. Well, it is illegal to ask for more
than what was signed for the sec-8 contract. No one tells you that. But the section-8 quacks know that so as the first month comes around they pay $124. then you say that HEY! you said that you would pay the extra so it's $224 not $124. they say o well we don't have the money now, we are going to get some money next month from a state fund or whatever.
Then months go by and now they aren't even paying the $124. You think, these mothereffers!! you want to get them out, but it costs so much to evict over $400 of back rent because you know
you are getting the rest $1176 from the state automatically.
Here's the third problem with sec-8, you actually have 2 tenants when you rent sec-8. the actual tenant and the sec-8 office. they have inspections. See when a person moves in I feel it is up to them to fix anything that breaks because they broke it. If the power or the plumbing breaks, or the roof suddenly leaks or some such, ok I can take care of that. but if the doors are kicked in, or the knobs are broken off, or the shower valves are stood on and break, or windows are broken, or the carpets are never cleaned or there are roaches because they never clean and are total pigs, these kinds of things are on them, NOT me. but when you get the sec-8 inspection they will fail you because the door knobs are broken and you won't get yer $1176 now til you fix all these things. this is BAD!!! the tenants are like fuckin waterbuffalo in the house and I get abated because they trash the fuckin house, NO WRONG!!! but this happens all the time. It is a side affect of the "low income: culture, not to give a shit about anyone or anything.
I had a tenant that hoarded alot of crap. She kept bikes and books and cans and clothes bags and boxes of stuff in the back yard, doors would appear, suitcases, shoes and they would build up in the back yard. One day there was an inspection and the unit failed because of all the stuff in the backyard and they said it was my responsibility to get all the stuff removed. MINE??!!!
I didn't put that shit there. but apparently I have to go there everyday and tell them it is not ok to put that there and physically stop them. That is ridiculous!!
so this unit was part of a 5-unit building and guess what, ALL 5 were sec-8!! so I got abated for ALL 5 units. like $7000 a month til "I" cleaned it up. what a bunch of crap!!!! so I had to go there and remove it all, AND tell people they can't have anything in the backyard.
Well, they don't listen so they kept piling shit back there knowing that I would eventually have to pick it up and so they don't have to care about it, "that's the landlords problem"
so time goes along and now the tenants have built up maybe $1,500 in back rent or some such, and you have to weigh if it's cost effective to evict over this amount or just accept the $1176 a month and forget about it. If the tenant was neat and clean and made the property look better, maybe I would do this, but that is never the case they usually throw trash and wrappers all over the yard and keep junk all over bringing down the value of the property and making it less than attractive for any other person you want to bring in and rent to. It is a disturbing cycle.
so you decide to evict, now the fun starts, the tenant usually calls and swears at you up and down calling you names and whatnot because you are the asshole that is evicting, they have said to me "I didn't tell you to evict me" but in fact she did because not paying rent is the same as saying "please evict me" it is just a shitty process and needs to be changed.
anyways I delivered the eviction notice and she lashed out at me, then she did something I didn't expect. She called her buddy section-8 and told them I was not fixing anything for her.
She then broke everything in the house!!! the doors, windows, cabinates, doorknobs, tore the magnetic strip off the fridge, (that fails a unit), broke shower valves, and the toilet seat, broke all the window locks on the windows!!!! so I have to replace the whole window!!!!!!! 8 of them!!!!!!!!! she started complaining about mold and that her kids are getting sick... then they have an emergency inspection to verify her claims and sure enough all these things are broken, But not from wear and tear and there had not been any word of anything to me about anything needing to be fixed. so sec-8 sends me a letter asking that I fix these neglected items or they will abate me the rent!!!!! this is the sick fucked up cycle that sec-8 has for all these fuckin losers. so I did not fix it up i just evicted them. and now I am fixing it up for another potential asshole to break up.
Here's what section 8 needs to do.
first, don't give vouchers out to anyone that is not going to be enrolled in classes or vocational training or college or something. If they do not attend classes to become contributing members of society then they don't get the free money. next, make a limit on the voucher, give them 5 years to get some kind of degree and start working, otherwise cut them off.
next, have the state pay the ENTIRE amount of the rent, no portions, because 80% feel their portion is optional. Pay it all and get them in a program. this generational handout and sense of entitlement is ridiculous . Next make them accountable for their actions, make them take domestic classes to teach them how to clean and keep things nice and that breaking things is not ok in a unit owned by someone else.
as a result I will not rent to another section-8 ever again! I have been burned over and over no matter what they tell me.
having a lawyer and being in court all the time is not a good thing! it means that the general expectations of lower income folks are way different than the reality of the world.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Sitting duck!!
Here's the deal with being a landlord, if a tenant decides not to pay you are screwed!!!
So here's the scenerio. you have a unit and you are renting it out for $1500/mo. Great! life is so good right? WRONG!!!!! You have mortgage payments that are say $600/mo right? seems good.
so you get $900/mo free and clear, right? NO! you have prop taxes say $400/mo. ok so now you are
down to $500/mo free and clear, NO! you have maybe water to pay for, and that unit runs about $60/mo, and you pay for garbage which is $30/mo, and you have the generosity to have a gardner,
who charges you $100/mo, but you have respect for your place and the tenants and you want the place to look nice so you have that as a nice perq. so now you are clearing $310/mo. hmmm seems
ok. Well then you get a call for the stove it is failing. you call and have a repairmen come out, fixes it for $250. Then the fridge fails and same thing. $250. they seem to know that you won't pay $350 cause you might as well get a new one at that price, and that you need to fix it but don't want to pay for a new one, so they charge you that $250 amount or around there no matter what the problem is. So you were going to make $3720 on the year but now you have had a few costs and it's now down to $3220. Great! still going strong. then you get a call, the wiring blew out my tv the tenant claims. So you go and you check it out you do your best to troubleshoot what happened, and you can't figure it out so you call an electrician, all the while the tenant is saying he wants a new tv cause your electrical blew out his tv. So the electrician comes spends about 2 hours diagnosing the deal and then tells you that it was an overload on the cirquit and the tenant has too many things plugged into one line and it blew a wire in the attic and almost started a fire, he wants $1000 for his work. yep that has happened to me. So now you are down to $2720 profit for the year. But then your tenant makes you do alot of paperwork as he never quite pays the $1500, sometimes it's $1350, or next time it's $1435, then next time it's $1522, then next one is $1234, then $1567, Then on and on, you have to keep track and send notes to them showing what they owe every month and what the back rent is and when will they catch up etc. Because you won't evict unless they are not paying anything. Then they start paying less, some story about their father died and they had to pay for the funeral and fly everyone out from florida and they had to pay for all the flights so he can't pay this month but he will catch up next month for sure cause they are all going to pay him back, and next month he will get caught up. then next month comes and there is no check, now you are out $3000 and some change for all the other little short payments. Yes this shit happens all the time. Now you are at about -$500 for the unit on the year. But now you have to evict.
So you go ahead and pay the lawyer to start the eviction and he charges $1300 for the service. add that to your growing losses, now you are -$1800 on the unit for the year. the judge says ok yeah you win but the tenant is a poor tenant and there are free services provided by the state for folks and they want to go to trial, your lawyer tells you that it will be cheaper to settle because if we go to trial it could cost $10,000 dollars. So we then settle and they ask for one year of free rent to get their life together, I say no fuckin way, one month anyways it gets negotiated to 3 months and I don't get any rent for three more months because thats cheaper than the potential costs a trial could be. So at the end of three months you are out $4500 more plus the mortgage of $600/mo and whatever else the costs are, so you now are down to -$6300 on the unit for this year. and so finally the assfuck is out after robbing you, well, you're still not done, now you have to go in and fix the place back up again, paint, cleaning, maybe broken windows, maybe new carpet, anyways lets say you spend a minimum of $3000 on it to get it rent ready again, you are now out nearly $10,000 on the year. YES this happens all the fuckin time!!!!!!!!! Tenants don't give a shit what they cost you, they break stuff like blinds and ruin carpets and whatnot not realizing or caring how much that will cost you, they all think that landlords are filthy rich and have all the money in the world, well we don't we are often barely surviving because assfucks don't pay the rent, and I am in constant battle with tenants to get the fuckin rents paid, and that is hopefully enough to get them to pay, if they don't then you have the great "fuck the landlords" court system to fall back on. Landlords are sitting ducks and it needs to change. the laws need to change it is not ok that tenants get to rob for months and just walk away scott free. and all this would not be so bad in a growing economy, but in a recession where all your equity is collapsing and the rents become crucial in your economic survival, it is just all wrong. As soon as I get the economy back I am selling everything.
so ya want to be a landlord, you need your head examined.
So here's the scenerio. you have a unit and you are renting it out for $1500/mo. Great! life is so good right? WRONG!!!!! You have mortgage payments that are say $600/mo right? seems good.
so you get $900/mo free and clear, right? NO! you have prop taxes say $400/mo. ok so now you are
down to $500/mo free and clear, NO! you have maybe water to pay for, and that unit runs about $60/mo, and you pay for garbage which is $30/mo, and you have the generosity to have a gardner,
who charges you $100/mo, but you have respect for your place and the tenants and you want the place to look nice so you have that as a nice perq. so now you are clearing $310/mo. hmmm seems
ok. Well then you get a call for the stove it is failing. you call and have a repairmen come out, fixes it for $250. Then the fridge fails and same thing. $250. they seem to know that you won't pay $350 cause you might as well get a new one at that price, and that you need to fix it but don't want to pay for a new one, so they charge you that $250 amount or around there no matter what the problem is. So you were going to make $3720 on the year but now you have had a few costs and it's now down to $3220. Great! still going strong. then you get a call, the wiring blew out my tv the tenant claims. So you go and you check it out you do your best to troubleshoot what happened, and you can't figure it out so you call an electrician, all the while the tenant is saying he wants a new tv cause your electrical blew out his tv. So the electrician comes spends about 2 hours diagnosing the deal and then tells you that it was an overload on the cirquit and the tenant has too many things plugged into one line and it blew a wire in the attic and almost started a fire, he wants $1000 for his work. yep that has happened to me. So now you are down to $2720 profit for the year. But then your tenant makes you do alot of paperwork as he never quite pays the $1500, sometimes it's $1350, or next time it's $1435, then next time it's $1522, then next one is $1234, then $1567, Then on and on, you have to keep track and send notes to them showing what they owe every month and what the back rent is and when will they catch up etc. Because you won't evict unless they are not paying anything. Then they start paying less, some story about their father died and they had to pay for the funeral and fly everyone out from florida and they had to pay for all the flights so he can't pay this month but he will catch up next month for sure cause they are all going to pay him back, and next month he will get caught up. then next month comes and there is no check, now you are out $3000 and some change for all the other little short payments. Yes this shit happens all the time. Now you are at about -$500 for the unit on the year. But now you have to evict.
So you go ahead and pay the lawyer to start the eviction and he charges $1300 for the service. add that to your growing losses, now you are -$1800 on the unit for the year. the judge says ok yeah you win but the tenant is a poor tenant and there are free services provided by the state for folks and they want to go to trial, your lawyer tells you that it will be cheaper to settle because if we go to trial it could cost $10,000 dollars. So we then settle and they ask for one year of free rent to get their life together, I say no fuckin way, one month anyways it gets negotiated to 3 months and I don't get any rent for three more months because thats cheaper than the potential costs a trial could be. So at the end of three months you are out $4500 more plus the mortgage of $600/mo and whatever else the costs are, so you now are down to -$6300 on the unit for this year. and so finally the assfuck is out after robbing you, well, you're still not done, now you have to go in and fix the place back up again, paint, cleaning, maybe broken windows, maybe new carpet, anyways lets say you spend a minimum of $3000 on it to get it rent ready again, you are now out nearly $10,000 on the year. YES this happens all the fuckin time!!!!!!!!! Tenants don't give a shit what they cost you, they break stuff like blinds and ruin carpets and whatnot not realizing or caring how much that will cost you, they all think that landlords are filthy rich and have all the money in the world, well we don't we are often barely surviving because assfucks don't pay the rent, and I am in constant battle with tenants to get the fuckin rents paid, and that is hopefully enough to get them to pay, if they don't then you have the great "fuck the landlords" court system to fall back on. Landlords are sitting ducks and it needs to change. the laws need to change it is not ok that tenants get to rob for months and just walk away scott free. and all this would not be so bad in a growing economy, but in a recession where all your equity is collapsing and the rents become crucial in your economic survival, it is just all wrong. As soon as I get the economy back I am selling everything.
so ya want to be a landlord, you need your head examined.
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