Today, the 1st of the month, I got a call from my tenant, saying that they wanted to move out. They want to save up some money, and have decided that moving to a smaller space in a cheaper neighborhood was a good way to accomplish that. They’ll be moving out in 90 days, per the terms of my lease agreement.
I recently met with my tax accountant — early this year, as I had a hunch I would have to pay in. I’m self-employed, and have been paying taxes through payroll, but hand’t been withholding quite as many as I should have. That, and I haven’t done much work on the duplex this year, so my “loss” from the duplex venture isn’t quite as great. One thing that could have helped a bit - keeping a better mileage log.
My house is over a hundred years old, 108 to be exact. It’s settled a bit over the years, and seems to be still settling, ever-so-slightly. I’m a bit concerned about it, but most of my house-savvy friends tell me not to worry about it, the house is 100 years old and it’s only settled this far already… Because of all this settling, though, my front door has always been a bit sticky. In the past year or so, it’s apparently settled just enough to cross over from sticky to the top of the door not closing all the way.
There are many electrical shortcomings in my duplex. Lucky for me, I have a friend who is an electrical engineer, and likes to work on houses. Of course, I don’t want to wear out my favors with him, but he’s started helping me with a few wiring projects here and there. I’m a bit sheepish when it comes to electricity (beyond installing new light fixtures, etc.), so it works out well for me.
Location location location. When I’m trying to rent my apartment, I’m not just trying to sell people on the space, I’m trying to sell them on the neighborhood, too. The last ad that I ran included a list of “neighborhoodhood amenities” — restaurants, coffeeshops, stores, bars, parks, etc., that were within 5-15 minutes walking distance. It helped catch the attention of people who were unfamiliar with the neighborhood, and made my apartment sound like it was right in the center of everything.
I recently found a website that lists that information for you automatically, and gives your location a “walkscore” - a rank between 0 and 100, 100 being th highest.
I have a friend who just bought a half-million dollar house on the lake for about $300,000. Why so cheap? The previous owners left it in sorry condition, and he plans to fix it up over the next couple of years, while living in it, and sell it for a hefty profit. The trouble is that he’s currently trying to sell his old house… and not having much luck in the current real estate market. Its been on the market for over two months, with only 5 showings. A second showing had him hopeful last week, but still no offers. Not even any low offers. And its a nice house.
My uncle recently bought a fourplex, using some inheritance money as a down payment. He’s a realtor, and this is his first foray into investment property. I saw him last weekend, and was excited to see how things were going. But my innocent (and excited) “How’s the fourplex doing?” was met with a good deal of defnesiveness… So, not so great, I take it?
Well, in the process of waiting-and-seeing about the duplex next door, it looks like someone else has swooped in and bought it. Not exactly swooped, because I wasn’t sure how badly I wanted it anyway. The new owners are a husband and wife with two dogs, who plan to owner-occupy the upper floor, and rent out the lower unit. They seem to have grand plans for renovation, too — they’ve cut down most of the scrub trees from the backyard, put up planters in the front, and have some lumber sitting out behind the house…
Am I a mean landlady for (politely) hassling (reminding) people for rent when it’s a day late?
On the one hand, they do have roughly 30 days ahead of the 1st on which they could pay me early… they don’t have to wait until exactly 11pm on the 1st to give me their check, if it’s difficult for them to remember…
Annie spencer will be moving to my very specific (yet undisclosed) city/state! She saw my nonexistent for-rent ad! Sounds like it must be for one of those scam deals where they send you a big deposit on the apartment, then ask you to wire a portion of it back (because some emergency takes place), and then only after you’ve done that do you discover that their original check was fraudulent…
I have a complex and relatively unhealthy relationship with plumbing. I understand most of the basic concepts of plumbing, and have successfully replaced “modern” plumbing fixtures myself, however, my house is 107 years old, and when pipes and fittings are that old, that corroded, and haven’t moved in a hundred or so years, they get a little more difficult to deal with. Often, I simply don’t have the physical strength to get the old pieces off. I’ve learned that its best for my mental health to simply hire a plumber…
So, given that, whenever receiving an email from my tenants having anything to do with water, panic sets in (plumbers can be expensive, especially in an old house.) Tonight I received one with the foreboding subject line “water troubles.”
In this video, from the website “Funny or Die,” Will Ferrell has an altercation with his (very short) landlord, Pearl. He’s late on the rent, and she’s threatening to evict him…
So, a friend’s sister wants to buy a duplex, and has friends lined up to live in the other half. A great idea? Probably not…
Last year, I spent $35 on what looked to be the best invention ever: the wall-mounted hose reel. It winds up the ridiculously long hose with a hand crank. genius. This frustration-saving device would prevent countless swearing fits throughout the summer. (And it did. It’s sooooooo much easier to use than winding up a hose by hand.)
I really don’t like it when I have to assume the role of mean landlord / landlady. If I buy more properties, I’m sure I”ll get used to it. but I’m not entirely comfortable with it yet…
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