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Just on a very small scale... Posted by DougM [Email]  (#211)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from DougM) on Thu, 28 Oct 2004 10:34:36
In Reply to: anyone doing property management?, Dean, Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:55:05 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I own a duplex> live in half and rent the other half out. I'm not the management type, and buying this place was not high on my list, but I had lived here a few years before buying, the duplex is solid brick and built to withstand a tornado, the back yard is huge and wooded, my neighbors are great, and the school admin building is across the street, so I will never have neighbors over there to deal with, not too mention the city keeps the streets maintained and plowed...OH! and I had a Saab up on blocks in the garage, so if I would have bought elsewhere, it meant I would have had to move it.
The tenants who I adopted when I bought the place were close to being the worst> always late on the rent, sometimes months behind in the winter(bricklayer husband), but they always seemed to get caught up come income tax time. I was making good money at the time, so I never worried about them, or making the mortgage payment. One thing I liked about them is that they NEVER came outside. They kept themselves and their two little kids locked up all the time, never even opened windows in the summer time. I actually felt bad for the kids cus they kept them in the house all the time. But since they never opened windows, the house became a mold/mildew farm. When I lost my job and they got really far behind in the rent, I kicked them out. I was not prepared to deal with the filth they left me, maybe that's why I ignored them for so many years. The house stunk, the bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in years, walls and floors took countless hours to scrub, the basement walls had alot of mildew damage. It took me 10-12 hours a day for two months to get the place liveable again, and all told I went almost six months without a rent check(old tenants stuck me for 4 months).
Now the place is rented to a very nice girl and her baby, she pays the rent on the 1st of the month, is a clean freak, and she has alot of young girlfriends who come to visit all the time.:) No complaints from me so far.
Rental property is great when you have great tenants, but it's the pits when you have the worst. I'm too easy going, but if you are strict and make them abide by the rules, then it can be a profitable business and good retirement income once the place is paid off....and your tenants will be buying the property for you.
My next door neighbors own about 20 rental properties, and they went through a rough summer with alot of move-outs. They were forever busy getting units ready for rent, but since they have been doing it for over 30 years, they seemed to be able to turn the units around quicker than it took me to do mine. They've been self-employed their whole career, so IT IS their retirement income.
posted by 68.68.16...
, Thu, 28 Oct 2004 10:34:36 <-- Viewing This Message
, Fri, 29 Oct 2004 04:09:37
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