Why landlords grow old so quickly: Chapter 43.

[Padraig18]

When we purchased the new bookstore, we also became landlords, since the property includes 3 apartments over the store and a pool room attached to the bar next door. All of the apartments are rented, thank God, and the tenants seem to be OK. In Apt. B we have 2 sisters and one of their girlfriends--- 3 lovely, long-haired college students who are very friendly, pleasant and prompt in paying their rent.

These 3 are living on their own for the first time in their lives, and it's an adjustment for them, of course; one suspects, however, that none of the 3 was ever deeply involved in the care and running of a home. Since they moved in, the following has happened:

1.) "Refrigerator isn't cold, and our food keeps spoiling".

---Solution: turn back temperature setting to 5, instead of 1.

2.) "Our toilet overflowed".

---Solution: removed Kotex pad, and instructed them in the use of a wastebasket.

3.) "Air-conditioning isn't working; the apartment is hot".

---Solution: Turned window a/c unit from 'fan only' to 'hi cool'.

4.) "The bathtub drain is plugged up". (just now)

---Solution: Replace hair-catcher/strainer, after applying Drano.

I fear for tomorrow...

:P

[redqueen]

1. Hahahahahaha

Oh, honey... I feel for you. Glad they at least pay their rent on time, but it would have been nice if their mommies hadn't been such maids.

[Padraig18]

2. Ain't it the truth????

:silly:

[DS1]

3. What a cool place to live!

Books, beer, and pool!

[Padraig18]

7. Tony and I may take one of the apartments next spring.

We like the idea, too.

:)

[TrogL]

4. Just wait 'til it gets to electrical or cooking

If you're lucky, they won't burn the place down.

[Padraig18]

8. LOL!

That's why the smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors are hard-wired in, with battery backups.

:)

[MuseRider]

5. OMG

I feel for you, I really do. I tried to teach my boys everything they would need to know so I am certain they would do much better than that. How could they be that age and not know better? Good thing they have you for a landlord, I am certain you are patient but doesn't it make you wonder and worry? I remembered yesterday that I forgot to teach my boys to mend or sew on buttons so for Christmas they are both getting a small sewing kit with instructions (I am just certain they will LOVE that LOL). Good luck, you have taken on an awful lot.

[Padraig18]

6. Hehehe...

Well, at least you tried to teach your sons. I suspect their mothers didn't (or didn't try hard, any way). We took on a lot, but we hope to reap the rewards, some day.

:hi::hug:

[Bill McBlueState]

22. ha, ha, you sound like my mom

She went back to work when I was 12, and every day there'd be a list of stuff for my brother and I to do. Her brother had never been expected to do anything around the house because that was "women's work," so my mom was going to raise boys who knew how to keep a house clean.

Of course, now, I'm the one who does all the dishes and scrubs the toilets in the evening while my wife watches reality TV. :eyes:

:)

[Demobrat]

9. I had a tenant who smelled gas and called the power company

to come out and check. They did. The place is all electric.

[Padraig18]

10. Oh, good lord!

:hug:

[liontamer]

11. lol

what good landlords you are! those girls are lucky

[Padraig18]

12. We try, but....

... when the phone rings, and it's them, I find myself thinking "Give me strength, Lord!'...

;)

[skygazer]

13. It's an experience, all right

I used to work for a friend who had several rentals. I ended up handling a lot of the issues that arose and it was an eye opener. The hardest thing to deal with was the amount of damage people caused and they never seemed to want to take responsibility for it. We had one guy who rented a trailer from us - he and his girlfriend got in a fight and he punched a hole in the wall. He was reluctant to pay for the damages because he felt it was our fault - the walls were not strong enough!

[Padraig18]

16. LOL!

Denial is not a river in Egypt, and that tenant is deeply in it.

:P

[hunter]

14. I used to refurbish apartments in a university town.

I don't know who was worse, the students who wrecked the apartments, or the managers and landlords who hired us to fix the decrepit places up.

I hope you can maintain your sense of humor, Padraig18. Some of the people I worked for were hardly human anymore. One landlord I knew left an apartment house full of young women without hot water for five days after the building's hot water main rotted out.

I was the very first guy he sent in, a full day after he got the bad news, and he didn't tell me how bad it would be... OMG. The tenants would have killed me if they didn't have some small hope I could fix the problem.

Unfortunately the owner wasn't willing to pay extra for any temporary or quick solutions to the problem. Instead he went into hiding. So did the manager.

Wow. That's a memory I didn't need dredged up... He should've given me combat pay, but of course he didn't. Often I had to pry my paycheck out of his hands.

[Padraig18]

17. We do our own maintenance.

Fortunately for us, Tony and I are both very handy with drywall, painting, rough carpentry, plumbing and electricity.

:)

[DancingBear]

20. This too shall pass

When you get to the point when you say "geez, just call somebody and have 'em fix it!" you'll know you've arrived as a landlord. :)

[Demobrat]

23. In that case I'm a pro.

The place I own and rent out is in another state from where I live. A friend manages it for me. When something goes wrong she's the one who gets the call, and she knows exactly what to do. Call a professional immediately. I just write the checks.

[hunter]

27. Drywall and painting.

I'm a doctor of drywall and painting.

So many people punch and kick walls.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. Ever think that they are just that blonde?

Because we have some doozies here in the dorms.
Duckie

[Padraig18]

18. Could be!

All 3 are blonde, now that I think about it.

:P

[DancingBear]

19. Oh, if you think THIS is fun...

wait 'till the commercial tenants chime in!

We had a nine unit building with two commercial spaces below (deli and video store).

When we finally sold it, it took me years before I could order a sandwich or rent a video...

:) :) :)

[Archae]

21. My Dad used to own two-apartment houses.

Oh, he had some dandies.

Mostly not paying rent or damaging the place then skipping.

But two of them stick out.

Number 1:
Thrown out for not paying rent, when we go in, there is garbage all over, and one entire living room wall is from ceiling to floor plastered with wads of chewed bubble gum.
Thousands of them.
We had to tear that wall off and re-drywall it.
(I really hate sanding drywall!)

Number 2:
Upper flat renter, lower flat tenants call my dad saying dirty stains are on ceiling dripping onto floor.
We go there and upper tenants have spread dirt all over one bedroom floor and are growing pot.
The soil was 5 inches (at least) thick.
Tenants arrested and evicted, we shovel the dirt out back window into back yard and throw it away.

[Demobrat]

24. You're not in San Francisco are you?

A friend of mine manages several large buildings here. #2 happened to her.

[Archae]

25. Nope.

Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Maybe the three guys we threw out were from 'Frisco. :-)

[ReadTomPaine]

26. Surreal! Esp #1. <n/t>

[TrogL]

29. Sounds like where I lived

One time I came back from a road trip and my dining room ceiling was caved in.

The neighbours upstairs had brought in a load of topsoil and installed a fountain and stream, which promptly leaked through the floor. The weight of water on my ceiling brought it crashing down.

:wtf:

[medeak]

28. air conditioner isn't working....."turn it to on"

It's not just young girls on own for first time. Have 40 tenants and today dealt with physician screaming he had no air conditioning...flipped the switch for him.

I bet we could write a book eh?

My favorite last winter was flood of building. Tenant said they didn't turn off heat to cause pipes to freeze and burst. Found sticky note on their thermostat "please turn off heat at 5pm"

[Demobrat]

30. I had a tenant who wanted an exterminator called

to get rid of fruit flies. I usually get things fixed immediately, but in this case we told her to put away the fruit and called it a day.

[medeak]

37. LOL

can relate....pesticide company called re tenant's ant infestation...said "perhaps if there wasn't half eaten candy bars everywhere you wouldn't have had to call me"

[daisygirl]

31. I once lived in an apartment bldg and there were

five guys living in the one-bedroom apartment above me. At one point, the ceiling in our bathroom kept flooding (and it was below their bathroom, so I knew this couldn't be good).

The super told me later that whenever the toilet clogged, they'd just keep flushing until it overflowed, apparently in hopes that the problem would go away. He explained the purpose of a plunger, but apparently it didn't sink in. It happened a few times (gross toilet overflow water! raining down into my bathroom! :puke: ) over the course of a couple of weeks until the super finally bought them a plunger.

[Demobrat]

32. Who on earth would rent a one bedroom to five guys?

After the way the last idiot, a single guy, left my place I don't feel like renting to men at all. Did the landlord know how many were in there?

[daisygirl]

33. I'm not sure if the landlord knew, but

the super did (at least after the toilet incident). I think only one or two were on the lease, and the rest were supposedly just staying temporarily. The whole lot of them moved out a month or two after that, so they may have lost their lease for having so many people living there.

[trof]

34. From the "It Could Be Worse" Dept.

During one year in college, my two buddies and I rented a converted chicken coop. I ain't kiddin'. It was behind the main house, and the guy had actually done a pretty decent job with the conversion. 2 BR, bath, kitchen and a good sized living room.

That winter we decided we wanted a fireplace. Somebody had seen an article in Popular Mechanics or somewhere about making one out of a 55 gallon steel drum. We found a drum at the dump and got a friend in a welding shop to cut an appropriate sized opening in the front. Got it in the living room, and filled the bottom half with sand. Got some metal drainpipe and made a 'chimney' with it. Ran it outside through the top half of an open window.

We started out burning twigs and limbs we'd pick up around the neighborhood. Our 'fireplace' smoked a little. Soon ran out of deadfall. Railroad tracks ran through the woods behind our place. There were usually hopper cars full of coal back there. We changed to coal.

Cut to the chase...by the time we moved out in the spring, our living rooms walls had changed from flat white to a nice, restful charcoal grey. Our landlord tried to chase us down, but we were able to duck him. I still feel badly about that.

[lazarus]

35. chicken coop?

I lived in a subdivided mobile home once for a few months. Three little "studio apartments" in one mobile home.

At least it was cheap. :eyes:

[trof]

36. Now that's 'tight'.

[lazarus]

38. yup

only in Dothan, Alabama have I ever even heard of subdivided mobile homes.

[trof]

39. Dothan? I was in Daleville.

Worked at Ft. Rucker and lived in a rented single wide for about 6 months. Had it all to myself. Didn't realize I was in luxury.

[lazarus]

40. Daleville?

I used to run the Radio Shack in Enterprise. Small freaking world, eh?

DemoTex was stationed at Ft Rucker back in the old days, too.