We spent our vacation kicking out our renters!

[hlmr]

What a horrible way to spend your vacation Tawn! That is nasty stuff!

You should be so proud of the amazing makeover job you guys did......it looks beautiful now and your efforts paid off with that offer!

I hope you get another vacation soon that is much more fun for your family!

 

[Sparkster]

I''m very sorry this happened to you.

I had an investment property which I sold a few years ago. We used a rental agent to collect rent and to organise repairs. They did six monthly inspections to ensure the property was being maintained. And we hand tenant insurance - it cost us about $250 per annum which was tax deductible. This covered any damage caused by the tenant''s to my property during their tenancy. I owned the property for about 4 years and luckily, had very good tenants during that time. It was good to know that the insurance would have covered the cost of repairs though. This is something we have in Australia - not sure about the rest of the world.

 

[bookworm21]

Oh Tawn, I can sympathize. Some tenants are the absolute worse. I''ve never had the misfortune of having to clean up after them though, the property management company had to take care of that, since it''s out of state.

But our tenant never threw out the garbage. She did what yours did and stacked about 50 garbage bags in the backyard. You couldn''t walk through the garage because there were clothes all over the floor, unwashed, dirty, and piled knee-high. The kitchen was all greasy and gross. Keep in mind that this was a BRAND-NEW house when she moved in. BRAND NEW, just built and she trashed the whole place. The worst part was that she had two kids living with her in those conditions.

Being a Sect. 8 tenant, she was under obligation to keep the unit in good condition, and she clearly violated that contract. I gave instructions to my management company to start the process of kicking her out, but then they said that she will keep the unit clean from now on, because if she gets kicked out, she''ll lose her government subsidy. Well, I haven''t heard anything so far, so I''m keeping my fingers crossed that everything''s okay. If this happens again, I''m going to start the process of having her evicted.

How can people have so little disrespect for other''s property? I hope karma comes around and bites her in her behind.

And congrats for having an offer so soon after listing!

 

[FireGoddess]

As a renter I am just HORRIFIED by those pictures! I can''t believe some people actually live like that. They give tenants a bad name. We certainly have never left a place looking anything remotely resembling that! Horrific.

You did a great job fixing it up Tawn - it looks gorgeous.

 

[movie zombie]

ok, while i admit it is not a fun way to spend a vacation and these people were irresponsible, it is part and parcel of being ''in the business'' of having rentals to run into this type of situation....even worse. anyone that thinks having rentals is ''easy'' and will make them lots of $$$ is in for a rude awakening. it is just another business and with it comes risks. we are either prepared for those risks or we aren''t, but either way they are only what they are: a business risk. personally, i find it easier to deal with in a house that i have NOT lived in. so, while i admit it wasn''t as fun a vacation as you might have liked, you did assume the business risk when you decided to become a landlord and the ''vacation'' time was wisely used to shore up your investment. such is business: investment of time and money with the hope of making a profit.

did you have a property manager or were you managing it yourself? either way, its still your investment and your responsibility. however, if you had a management company who didn''t properly screen these tenents, i''d give them an earful!

movie zombie

ps it certainly was a lovely mantel!

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 7/17/2006 7:22:10 PM
Author: movie zombie
ok, while i admit it is not a fun way to spend a vacation and these people were irresponsible, it is part and parcel of being ''in the business'' of having rentals to run into this type of situation....even worse. anyone that thinks having rentals is ''easy'' and will make them lots of $$$ is in for a rude awakening. it is just another business and with it comes risks. we are either prepared for those risks or we aren''t, but either way they are only what they are: a business risk. personally, i find it easier to deal with in a house that i have NOT lived in. so, while i admit it wasn''t as fun a vacation as you might have liked, you did assume the business risk when you decided to become a landlord and the ''vacation'' time was wisely used to shore up your investment. such is business: investment of time and money with the hope of making a profit.

movie zombie

ps it certainly was a lovely mantel!

yep....i have friends that wish they never got into rentals. they tell me many horror stories.

 

[lizz]

What a pretty house. You did such a good job with the renovations. Looks great. Glad the story has a happy ending!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 7/17/2006 7:43:39 PM
Author: Dancing Fire

Date: 7/17/2006 7:22:10 PM
Author: movie zombie
ok, while i admit it is not a fun way to spend a vacation and these people were irresponsible, it is part and parcel of being ''in the business'' of having rentals to run into this type of situation....even worse. anyone that thinks having rentals is ''easy'' and will make them lots of $$$ is in for a rude awakening. it is just another business and with it comes risks. we are either prepared for those risks or we aren''t, but either way they are only what they are: a business risk. personally, i find it easier to deal with in a house that i have NOT lived in. so, while i admit it wasn''t as fun a vacation as you might have liked, you did assume the business risk when you decided to become a landlord and the ''vacation'' time was wisely used to shore up your investment. such is business: investment of time and money with the hope of making a profit.

movie zombie

ps it certainly was a lovely mantel!

yep....i have friends that wish they never got into rentals. they tell me many horror stories.

so far ::knock wood:: we''ve had really good luck with renters. The secret of success for us has been craigslist. We got 5x more response from craigslist and all of the people were far more qualified (computer-savvy filtering I guess lol) than the responses we got from the paper. We got no less than 50 responses in less than a week from craigslist, and about 10 from the paper - none of which I''d want to rent to.

 

[tawn]

Date: 7/17/2006 7:22:10 PM
Author: movie zombie
ok, while i admit it is not a fun way to spend a vacation and these people were irresponsible, it is part and parcel of being ''in the business'' of having rentals to run into this type of situation....even worse. anyone that thinks having rentals is ''easy'' and will make them lots of $$$ is in for a rude awakening. it is just another business and with it comes risks. we are either prepared for those risks or we aren''t, but either way they are only what they are: a business risk. personally, i find it easier to deal with in a house that i have NOT lived in. so, while i admit it wasn''t as fun a vacation as you might have liked, you did assume the business risk when you decided to become a landlord and the ''vacation'' time was wisely used to shore up your investment. such is business: investment of time and money with the hope of making a profit.

did you have a property manager or were you managing it yourself? either way, its still your investment and your responsibility. however, if you had a management company who didn''t properly screen these tenents, i''d give them an earful!

movie zombie

ps it certainly was a lovely mantel!

We didn''t actually have any intentions of being landlords at all! Definitely not something that we would have intentionally chosen to do, especially in WA state with the landlord/tenant laws that they have there!

We bought the house for ourselves to live in and did for 4 years, but after 9/11 my husband got super patriotic, felt the need to serve his country and went to work for the Navy in CA. We didn''t have very much equity in the house at that point and property values were actually less than when we had purchased it and houses were staying on the market for up to a year without selling....so we didn''t have much choice but to rent it out. Our family had already been separated for 6 months at that point and we didn''t want to wait for another year, so we rented it for the exact amount of our mortgage and moved to CA. That was a huge lifechanger, and we gave up a lot (including my cute little house) for my husband''s career change!

The people we rented it to are nice people in general, just irresponsible and obviously hideously unclean! Their goal was to eventually buy it, but they couldn''t come up with enough money to pay the rent or water bill, and that''s why we finally ended up giving them notice to vacate. We had a close friend (a guy who thinks all is good if the garage looks alright!

) watching the house, and the front didn''t look too bad...and since we had known the people for several years, so we didn''t really worry about them doing too much damage!

Boy were we ever wrong!

Fortunately for us, the town has had a huge economic turn around in the last year and things are really hopping there...so it''s all worked out in the long run with it selling so quickly and we learned a few valuable lessons along the way!

However, it has damaged my faith in people a little...I always expect people to do the right thing and then I''m shocked when they don''t? My husband is the opposite, he always expects the worst of people, and then is still suspect when they do something good! So, I guess we balance each other out!

I get the twin to my eternity band more quickly this way!!

 

[MINE!!]

wow tawn,,, I am so sorry to hear that this happened. That really sucks. As a renter myself (until recently) I always treated my rental like it was my own home.. I cannot imagine living in such filth as that. That is just horrible. I just do not understand people....

But you did an amazing jib fixing it up.. Wow... girl.. you should be flipping houses!!!!

 

[fire&ice]

We have been both renter and landlord. We always left our rental in BETTER shape than when we came. Also, we have had only ONE bad experience w/ renters - the couple were attorney''s aka - pigs - they even left broken glass in the bathroom - go figure that one.

 

[CaptAubrey]

Date: 7/18/2006 9:50:26 AM
Author: fire&ice
Also, we have had only ONE bad experience w/ renters - the couple were attorney''s aka - pigs - they even left broken glass in the bathroom - go figure that one.

The Capt''s parents once bought a rental property when he was still in high school. We had a similar experience with that house, though with less damage (the tentants did abandon a junked car in the driveway). I spent one summer painting and repairing the place after the sheriff finally came and threw them out (landlord-tenant laws were a bit different back then). My parents gave up and sold the place after a couple of years.

 

[fire&ice]

Date: 7/18/2006 11:39:57 AM
Author: CaptAubrey

Date: 7/18/2006 9:50:26 AM
Author: fire&ice
Also, we have had only ONE bad experience w/ renters - the couple were attorney''s aka - pigs - they even left broken glass in the bathroom - go figure that one.

Didn''t mean to imply that *all* attorney''s were pigs

It was tradition that the duplex be rented a law clerk. We had no issues until the last ones ruined it.

 

[movie zombie]

your scenario reinforces that home ownership really is a busines transaction. proof in point is that we make decisions based on our personal circumstances v. the real estate market at the time we''re contemplating buying/selling. its still our choice: take a financial loss on a down market or become a landlord and take a chance on renters. either way its still our business decision.

sometimes you don''t know people until you do business with them. your situtation just proves that point to me: they were people you knew and you had decided were nice; however, in a business deal [renter/landlord] they weren''t so nice and ended up costing you your vacation. ditto re your friend who was watching the place....nice guy but not a property manager. its hard enough having rental property locally, much less out of state. and believe me it could have been worse!

in some ways perhaps, you''re lucky: the market has gone up and the time you spent now restoring the place to saleable order has paid off. good timing, if you will. otherwise, you might have been tempted to hold on to the house and perhaps may have missed a window of opportunity to catch this upswing.

congratulations on the quick turnaround....many areas are starting to see a down swing and property is stayiing on the market longer. and seeing price reductions as well.

movie zombie

 

[asscherisme]

Maybe she had OCD?? One of the few times I caught Oprah was an episode on OCD and they had this woman on that was perfectly groomed and looked very together on the outside but INSIDE her house was just as you described. Filthy, cap poop everywhere, rats, etc.

Just gross!

Glad you sold it. You did an amazing job.

 

[tawn]

Date: 7/18/2006 2:29:20 PM
Author: asscherisme
Maybe she had OCD?? One of the few times I caught Oprah was an episode on OCD and they had this woman on that was perfectly groomed and looked very together on the outside but INSIDE her house was just as you described. Filthy, cap poop everywhere, rats, etc.

Just gross!

Glad you sold it. You did an amazing job.

I wonder if it was her!

 

[tawn]

Date: 7/18/2006 2:09:41 PM
Author: movie zombie
your scenario reinforces that home ownership really is a busines transaction. proof in point is that we make decisions based on our personal circumstances v. the real estate market at the time we''re contemplating buying/selling. its still our choice: take a financial loss on a down market or become a landlord and take a chance on renters. either way its still our business decision.

sometimes you don''t know people until you do business with them. your situtation just proves that point to me: they were people you knew and you had decided were nice; however, in a business deal [renter/landlord] they weren''t so nice and ended up costing you your vacation. ditto re your friend who was watching the place....nice guy but not a property manager. its hard enough having rental property locally, much less out of state. and believe me it could have been worse!

in some ways perhaps, you''re lucky: the market has gone up and the time you spent now restoring the place to saleable order has paid off. good timing, if you will. otherwise, you might have been tempted to hold on to the house and perhaps may have missed a window of opportunity to catch this upswing.

congratulations on the quick turnaround....many areas are starting to see a down swing and property is stayiing on the market longer. and seeing price reductions as well.

movie zombie

We''re considering ourselves lucky at this point, since the market was is good at this exact moment, and that the tenants didn''t level it completely.

Makes me wonder at the differences of what people find acceptable behavior to be!

We, in turn, are going to invest in at least one parcel of land in Maine where it is just starting to experience an upswing and hope that it continues to rise over the next 10 years or so! No renters though, and my in-laws can keep a close eye on it for us!

 

[movie zombie]

moving on to land speculation?!

its good you have family to watch it for you. but i do hope this is land you plan to live on eventually. land speculation has its own set of problems for the professionals much less the novice............good luck!

movie zombie

 

[Sunni79]

Wow Tawn-
You and your husband did an AMAZING job in the house! It looks so professional!!! I''m glad you got those deadbeats out! Stories like that make me very hesitant about being a landlord. I''m glad you were able to fix up and sell the house so quickly!

Christine

 

[tawn]

Date: 7/18/2006 9:49:54 PM
Author: movie zombie
moving on to land speculation?!

its good you have family to watch it for you. but i do hope this is land you plan to live on eventually. land speculation has its own set of problems for the professionals much less the novice............good luck!

movie zombie

Yup, but not for 3-6 years...and then we''ll build our dreamhome in Maine! Then, I''ll start looking for a nice sunny warm place where we''ll spend the winter months!

We''ve bought, renovated, and sold 4 homes over the last 10 years (and renovated another for someone else along the way).... and have always done well for ourselves. We''ve always have done our research and made good choices, so I''m not too worried.

We just made bad (and reluctant) landlords!

 

[tanuki]

My parents had an experience with a renter that forever put me off being a landlord

Our family moved to Atlanta from Louisiana and my parents decided to keep the house they owned there as a rental. The house was rented to a married couple who seemed nice enough - except for the domestic violence problem. They would argue and she would lock him out of the house. So he would try to intimidate her by breaking his way back in to the house. These two didn''t leave an unbroken window or a door which wasn''t damaged.

 

[movie zombie]

Date: 7/19/2006 12:39:55 AM
Author: tawn

Date: 7/18/2006 9:49:54 PM
Author: movie zombie
moving on to land speculation?!

its good you have family to watch it for you. but i do hope this is land you plan to live on eventually. land speculation has its own set of problems for the professionals much less the novice............good luck!

movie zombie

Yup, but not for 3-6 years...and then we''ll build our dreamhome in Maine! Then, I''ll start looking for a nice sunny warm place where we''ll spend the winter months!

We''ve bought, renovated, and sold 4 homes over the last 10 years (and renovated another for someone else along the way).... and have always done well for ourselves. We''ve always have done our research and made good choices, so I''m not too worried.

We just made bad (and reluctant) landlords!

yep, rennovation and turning homes over is very very different from being landlords, albeit reluctant or not.

so you''re not really doing land speculation but purchasing a property to build your dream house down the road! not much to worry about since you already know you want to live there. i call that advance planning and laying the ground work rather than land speculation.

happy snowbirding to you!

movie zombie

 

[yeewl]

Hi tawn

thanks for sharing with us yr terrible experience. As me and hubby will be relocating to australia (melbourne) in a few months time,
i had to convince him it''s best to sell our flat instead of renting it out. I heard lots of horror stories similar to yrs.
We had pumped in well over S$80 000 (US$50 000) on renovating the entire flat (103 sq feet) and it does not justified renting it out and let other people destroying it.
The rent money you received doesn;''t even cover all the damages they caused.

We have been tenents too while studying in mel and we take good card of our landlord''s property. sometimes we even babysit their kids too.
They were very sad when we had to leave for S''pore after completing our studies. Last time I heard from them, they stopped renting the unit out.
Turns out the next 2 tenents are from hell and they had even owe them rent $$ etc.Trashed the interior too..

 

[Sparkster]

Date: 7/19/2006 9:23:03 PM
Author: yeewl
Hi tawn

thanks for sharing with us yr terrible experience. As me and hubby will be relocating to australia (melbourne) in a few months time,
i had to convince him it''s best to sell our flat instead of renting it out. I heard lots of horror stories similar to yrs.
We had pumped in well over S$80 000 (US$50 000) on renovating the entire flat (103 sq feet) and it does not justified renting it out and let other people destroying it.
The rent money you received doesn;''t even cover all the damages they caused.

We have been tenents too while studying in mel and we take good card of our landlord''s property. sometimes we even babysit their kids too.
They were very sad when we had to leave for S''pore after completing our studies. Last time I heard from them, they stopped renting the unit out.
Turns out the next 2 tenents are from hell and they had even owe them rent $$ etc.Trashed the interior too..

You''re moving to Melbourne? Yippee - it''s the best city in the world, but I think my opinion my be just a tad biased!

 

[yeewl]

Hi Sparkster

Yep, me and hubby will be moving over soon since we had obtained our PR in April 2004.
I will be leaving end of Nov after completing my suzuki studies while hubby has to settle the house issue and also my MIL house too.

He decided to take up his Masters at Monash (Clayton). Not too sure when he needs to confirm everything with the lecturer.
As for me I will need to look for a job asap when I arrive.

Still haven''t decide where to stay, may just bunk in at hubby''s friend place till i get my bearings.

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 7/17/2006 3:44:45 AM
Author: tawn



We ended up basically paying them to get out. In the end, we only ended up losing about $1000 in rent, $650 in unpaid late fees, and about $5-$6000 in damages! But, it could have been worse, in WA state, landlords have no rights. Best thing is to pay them to get out, because they can just stay forever until you lose your house!I''m still amazed that it sold the same day it went on the market! That made up for a lot of the anger I was feeling over spending my vacation cleaning up their disgusting filth!

HI:

Sounds like my sisters experience in Squamish BC--tenents became squatters and and and........their place looked similar in before and after pictures. BTW, you did an amazing job!!! Enjoy your ring!

cheers--Sharon

 

[tawn]

Date: 7/20/2006 1:02:54 PM
Author: canuk-gal

Date: 7/17/2006 3:44:45 AM
Author: tawn





We ended up basically paying them to get out. In the end, we only ended up losing about $1000 in rent, $650 in unpaid late fees, and about $5-$6000 in damages! But, it could have been worse, in WA state, landlords have no rights. Best thing is to pay them to get out, because they can just stay forever until you lose your house!I''m still amazed that it sold the same day it went on the market! That made up for a lot of the anger I was feeling over spending my vacation cleaning up their disgusting filth!

HI:

Sounds like my sisters experience in Squamish BC--tenents became squatters and and and........their place looked similar in before and after pictures. BTW, you did an amazing job!!! Enjoy your ring!

cheers--Sharon

I''m from BC originally...the Okanogan Valley which I consider the sunny side of the mountains! Just got back from BC...and our afflicted house is a couple of hours south of the border!

We got a back-up offer on the house, so that''s 2 offers in a week!

I can''t wait until we close and I can order the twin!

 

[portoar]

I love those after pictures . . . you did an amazing job! Sorry you had such horrific renters. . . but it''s over now!