The Confounding Case of the Rotten Renters [Part 4]
By: Ms. Lowball
In
part three of this saga, I talked about how our tenants left us high and
dry on rent, skipped out on a property we own and left us nothing but a bag of
trash and chickens behind. No notice, no forwarding address….nothing. Aside
from having steam come out of my ears, here’s what I did to rectify the case of
the rotten renters.
Step 1: Called the contractor to fix it
First, I called out go to guy, Rob, owner of RTM property services,
and all around cool dude. He went to the property and promptly gave me a bid.
Turns out, the rotten renters had not only done $4,000 worth of damage in
addition to stealing the stove we put in.
Thanks….thanks a lot. A**holes.
But, I digress. Rob had all the work done for me in a week
and I penned him a check for $4,000.
Oh the joys of investing….but that’s another blog.
Step 2: Advertised it for sale and for rent
While Rob was working on the house, I advertised it for sale
and for rent. Sale, as property values in San Antonio have been on a massive
upswing, so we could get out of said “shit hole” and rent to put some bodies in
the house so that we weren’t losing any more money. I also (to help recoup our
loss) upped the rent from $850 to $904, which was on par with current market
values.
Since we had owned the property for a year, selling without
having to use a 1031 tax deferred exchange just made since so we could put the
capital in our pockets and move on to bigger, better things.
An Aside from the Miss of Lowballing:
I never put a sign in the yard – never do either –
advertising the house. I did everything online, including take applications and
collect application fees. Within days I had over 20 applicants (at $35 a pop)
and began screening – more on this in part 5.
I also had massive interest from people wanting to buy it.
All in all, I was doing okay.
After all, I just collected $700 in application fees alone!
Step 3: Filed a police report
Seeing as our previous rotten renters had left me holding a
$4,000 bag, I did a little research and filed charges against them with the
police. I didn’t want to put a CSI trace out of my hate, so I let my tax
dollars do the walking.
Step 4: Found the renters on social media
Well, actually, they found me. All of a sudden, while I was
checking my LinkedIn profile, who’s name happened to pop up but my very own
rotten renter!!!! And guess who had updated their employment information. Ha!
And while I wasn’t going to go show up at her work, it was nice to have gotten
a small win by happenstance.
Step 5: Sold the house….sort of
So far, the house has been sold about three times, and
fallen through three times….but the fourth time is the charm! Until then, I’ll
just keep collecting application fees, am continuing to screen tenants in the interim and not worrying about it. After all,
there is a buyer for every house, and as long as we aren’t losing money, we
win!
Stay tuned for part five, where I talk about tenant
screening and the tools I use to automate everything.
Hugs and kisses,
Ms. Lowball
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