Renters - Why are some idiots!?!?!

Waiting,

Next time try Odor Mute. http://www.gundogsupply.com/odormute...ncentrate.html

I had a bad tenant when I bought the building that had male cats that sprayed in the corner on the oak flooring. By the time I got them out the odor was terriable. I had used the Odor Mute on the dog when he got skunked and it worked great so I tried some on the floor. Mixed up a batch and poured it on the floor do it ran under the baseboard like the pee did. Rinse and repeat. The smell was gone at least to my nose. The next tenant had a box trained cat that never tried to use the corner so the OM must have worked.

Sorry you had a bad experience renting. Absentee landlord is asking for trouble. Console yourself that it could have been worse. My sister's friend inherited her mom's house free and clear. She sold it on a contract for deed. Apparently the info was switched to the new owner at the courthouse. She never got any notices. The friend lived in the same city and would drive by occasionaly to check on the property. One day there was a notice taped to the door. It was a condemnation notice. The new owners had destroyed the inside, stripped the copper, sold the appliances and fixtures, and not paid the utilities. The friend was responsiable for paying the utilities and hireing professional electricians and plumbers to bring the house up to current code, and replacing the furnace. By the time she was done it sold for what she had into it. A nice inheritance reduced to zip. It could just as easily happen to a rental. Find a copy of the movie "Pacific Heights" if you want to have nightmares for a while.

Nimrod, that's a nightmare, alright..
Waiting 2 retire-You're right, of course, but how does a landlord know if people are as responsible as you?

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An absentee situation is a nightmare because the landlord has no idea as to what is going on. God willing, we will never be in that type of situation. While we are on our properties each month, we don't go through the entire property. Homes cost thousands of dollars and a tenant can do a lot of damage (dollar wise) with very little effort. A dripping faucet or a toilet that runs constantly can result in a $2000 water bill which will eat all of the profits away. As others have said, the last thing that we want is for one of our tenants to climb a ladder to clean out the gutters. That is an insurance nightmare waiting to happen.

We will be visiting one property tomorrow to swap out an outlet. The tenant told me about it on Saturday when we picked up the rent. Picking up the rent was the tenant's choice, not ours. Our rentals are all within 10 minutes of our house and we often drive buy them. We try not to appear to be too prying into the lives of our tenants, but being on the premises once per month isn't too difficult.

The prior tenant at that address did mow the lawn, though it wasn't required. In our city, owners are cited if the grass gets too high. We don't want to get cited if the tenant puts it off. The tenants are responsible for snow removal since there is no mechanism to cite the owner for not shoveling in our city. We did get a warning once for having a sofa on a rental porch, which is also against code. Luckily, they send a citation and tell you that you have 10 days to remove the offending item.

We don't allow pets, unless they are aquatic. Our methods work for us and our rentals are profitable.

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Wow...a lot of narrow minded folks here. I've rented many places in my life and because of my do-it-yourself, homesteader mentality...have put in massive amounts of unpaid labor and supplies. My husband and I have been late a number of times on rent. We are not lazy, bad people---just had unfortunate financial circumstances. Like...bounced paychecks. Joules I say, "all employers are idiots" because of that experience? No! Obviously not.
My experience is that the sooner (before rent is due) you notify your landlord, the better it works out for everyone. We have been charged twice for late rent, but have paid the late fee probably 5 or so times---just cause its the right thing to do. We have done labor exchange, paid a portion on time and the rest at next paycheck. We've tried hard not to borrow, cause that's a disaster waiting to happen.
I had a dog chew out a window to get outside. We hired a qualified person to repair it. When the dogs dig holes in the yard, we fill them and reseed.

Our landlord after inspecting a few times has said, "do whatever you want that will make yourselves more comfortable there." He's happy with any modifications we make. Most recent was to pull out the junk fireplace insert and put in an actual fireplace stove insert. He said we can have whatever animals we like, but we are to do all repairs, additions, modifications to housing/fencing.

To the poster that said two weeks is sufficient time to move...um...no it isn't. I invite you to come out here and move my household when we make the move cross-country in the next 2-5 years. Have fun!

And those that won't rent to folks with animals or children. Have fun renting to that "nice couple" that hasn't been through all the lessons that hopefully folks with children already know or are at least learning: clean up your own messes; tell the truth; be responsible; be kind; if you break something-tell the person it most affects-if you can, fix it-if not, replace it; be on time-if you are late, have the decency to inform the folks waiting on you; be courageous. I'm sure there's a ton more that I'm missing, but fill in your own blanks. My friends that are parents are WAY more responsible than those without. You have to be-your baby has 100% dependency on your actions.

I get that folks have bad experiences, but don't label us all. Our landlord would love to sell the place to us, but I don't seem to have a spare 600-800,000 laying around.

I'm starting a thread on renting homesteaders. I think there's a fair number of us out there and I'm interested in hearing what you all have to say.

To OP: I wish you good luck and I'm sorry for your negative experience.

Well, now that this thread has been resurrected, I'm wondering if the OP, Lazy J has any updates?

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

We went to Court last Friday, they have a 7 day eviction notice and must be out this Friday. If not Sheriff will remove them and we will lock doors.

They tried to tell the judge a sob story about how bad the place is and how they had been sick.

The judge simply asked "Did you live there and not pay your rent?"

He answered "Yes."

Judge said "Then you have to be out of there by next Friday. Next case."

We will have a hearing on Damages before a Magistrate later this month.

Jim

Thank you. We are actually considering bulldozing the home and replacing it with a machine shed/shop/office for our farm. That would eliminate the hassles of dealing with a rental property.

I know there are great renters out there, I just have not found them for our property yet.

Jim

Funny story, now that it's behind me.

I bought a house in a small northern NM town, a fine old residence and general store building, but with plenty of problems. It had a renter family in it, and I told them they could stay until May, when we would be moving in. Charged them the princely sum of $150 per month through the winter, with constant phone calls about them needing a new toilet, new plumbing, etc.

See, it happened that they were building a house for themselves nearby, and needed all that stuff, not for my house, but for theirs.

I told them that since the house didn't seem to be habitable, they needed to move out, NOW. They allowed as how they thought they could get by, but might need more time to finish their own house before moving out. I told them that I was still arriving May 5th, and anyting not out of the house by then would be mine.

May 5th, we arrived in convoy. They were still lugging stuff out and I gave them a couple of hours to finish, while I looked around.

In the kitchen, there were 4 refrigerators lined up. They had used them till they died, then not cleaned them out, but duct taped around the doors so the stink and water didn't leak out. When they were finished loading, I made them load the 4 fridges on their flatbed and haul them to their house. The other thing I had noticed was that the new water heater that was in the house when I bought it had been replaced by an old clunker.

A few days later, I stopped by their new half-finished house and knocked on the door. When he opened up, I said "I thought I'd just stop by and say hi"............I nodded at his utility room........."to my water heater." The look on his face was priceless.

Of course, I didn't get my water heater back, but that wan't the point. I just didn't want to start living there with everyone thinking I was stupid. Instead, everyone thought I was an unfeeling hardankle, which worked out fine......Joe

So, are they gone?

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

They are gone. Wool have a small bonfire to deal with a couple of pieces of furniture they left.

The wife tried to pull the typical "white trash" attack on Friday telling me the place was a dump and it stunk.

I simply asked"if it was such a dump why did you choose to continue to live in it?"

That shut her up.

Jim

At least you got rid of the renters, he's stuck with that wife!