The issue is that the two groups of tenants can’t seem to get along with each other… they keep different schedules, have different lifestyles, and seem to keep butting heads over issues that I would think that reasonable adults could solve amongst themselves; but, alas, I keep getting dragged into the middle, having to play police (or perhaps more aptly, “parent.”)

I’m about to make the switch from owner-occupied duplex dweller to straight-up landlord — my boyfriend (who’s been starring in some of the latest posts as the uber-handy guy) has asked me to move in with him, and I said yes. With the current real estate climate, it’s a terrible time to sell a house. And, the plan with buying this duplex was to live in part of it for a while, but hold onto it as an investment when I eventually moved out into a single family house.

OK, so I called the plumber to check out the toilet upstairs, after it was still malfunctioning a few weeks later. He did the “bucket test” (pour a bucket of water into the toilet, and see how well it flushes on its own), and got a good healthy flush. This would indicate that the vent system was working just fine, and nothing was clogging the drain system. However, when we flushes the toilet using the handle, it went much, much slower. The water wasn’t getting into the bowl fast enough to create a big flush. I’d never realized this before, but all around the bowl of the toilet, under the rim, are a bunch of tiny little holes that let water into the bowl. These holes can get clogged, over time, with sediments from the water and other miscellaneous gunk.

A few weeks ago, I got a very disturbing call from my tenants. They called on a Friday afternoon, saying that their toilet wasn’t flushing at all, and hadn’t been for FOUR DAYS. They had already called a roto-rooter type drain person over, thinking that they had clogged the pipes, and a hundred dollars later, nothing was resolved. Also, the guy they called simply told them that the problem was that “the toilet was old.”

Or, what happens if the tenants conveniently “forget” to set up the gas bill in their name? This happened to me during my last turnover. My new tenants, previously apartment dwellers who were only responsible for an electric bill, set up the electric bill in their names, but not the gas bill. Of course, I had told them that they were responsible for both gas and electric bills (which aren’t provided by the same company in my area), and it was stated on the lease as well. However, assuming that everyone was set up properly, I had no idea that they hadn’t set up the gas bill in their name until the first bill came. To me….

I recently came across a blog post that detailed the ways that landlords should work at trying to keep tenants happy, and more importantly, keep them staying put. I definitely agree–it’s worth it to do little things that keep tenants happy, because finding new tenants can take a lot of time, money and effort.

I just bought a treadmill. Sort of on impulse, actually… It’s starting to get way too cold and icy for me to want to run outdoors, and with holiday eating approaching, I’m just not feeling like now is the time to give up running. Ironically, there’s a gym just three blocks away from me, but I seriously hate going to the gym. So, after Saturday’s icy run, I came home and scoured the internet for the best deal. I found one for about half-off (Black Friday deal), and went for it.

Now the next question… where am I going to put this thing?

Every time I’m downstairs to do my own laundry, there’s at least one dryer sheet wafting around down there. One the floor, on top of the dryer, on the ironing board, in the sink, what have you. There is a garbage can down there, and I know that at least one of them knows where it is, because they’ve put their empty laundry detergent bottles in it. This of course isn’t really any sort of valid complaint, it’s just kind of bizarre.