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!
