Today, I am sick of being a landlord.
Awesome perfect tenant backed out of the upstairs unit. She had a good reason (and damn it I am not going to allow this business to turn me into the type of person who wonders if she was lying!) since her boyfriend in Ottawa got into a car accident and she's moving up there to help him recuperate. Still. Now I have to rent it AGAIN. At least she's paid two months rent. If I get someone in for April 1, I'll refund her a month.
That's what I'm doing right now - waiting around for the next potential to show up. So far, two nos, an application taken, and a no-show. At least she called and got stuck with her sister's kids or something. Usually they don't show up and I never hear from them again. 3 minutes until the 7pm appt is a no-show. I have three more appointments tonight and one on Sunday. Blah.
The apartment was filthy too, and needs re-painting. I'm offering colour choice as a perk to the viewers though. Hopefully that works out - but I need to show it now if I have a chance of renting it for April 1.
The re-fi on the Lottridge house is in process. I will be surprised if we get what we hope, but even $15K will be totally sweet and we can start looking again. Sigh. And have MORE tenants, more snow to clear, and more painting to do.
Seriously, it's worth it! :) I just feel that the last few months have been a constant revolving door. I mean - #1 Lottridge changed hands in January, #2 Lottridge in February, and #3 Lottridge and the upstairs here are both changing hands April 1. Craziness! No turnover for a year and then this happens!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Fully occupied again!
Yay! I rented the basement apartment!
My new tenants are a very cute little couple who actually LOVED the place. Seriously - it's a decent apartment, but it's not really a *LOVE* situation. It's just a basement apartment. They're young, but they both work and make decent enough money to afford the place. I hope they work out, and I hope they stay for at least a year. They're so cute!
Edited to add - an update on the triplex down the street. We went to see it that weekend, and it was nice. BIG. Solid, but not really updated. Found out that they bought it in 2005 for only $199K. All they've done is clean and paint.
They ended up selling it that weekend for $237,500. WHOA. Hard to believe it sold that fast, and for that amount. They made a tidy profit.
My new tenants are a very cute little couple who actually LOVED the place. Seriously - it's a decent apartment, but it's not really a *LOVE* situation. It's just a basement apartment. They're young, but they both work and make decent enough money to afford the place. I hope they work out, and I hope they stay for at least a year. They're so cute!
Edited to add - an update on the triplex down the street. We went to see it that weekend, and it was nice. BIG. Solid, but not really updated. Found out that they bought it in 2005 for only $199K. All they've done is clean and paint.
They ended up selling it that weekend for $237,500. WHOA. Hard to believe it sold that fast, and for that amount. They made a tidy profit.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Moving out and moving in
Well - it's been a busy weekend! My upstairs kids are finally out and OH MY GOD they were filthy pigs. Seriously. I have to clean the place tonight and it is not going to be fun at all. Roseanne the new tenant is amazing and luckily not moving her big stuff until the 15th of the month. Thank God. I have so much to do up there. Seriously - there is (was?) at some time a whole pizza dropped into the bottom of the oven and NEVER CLEANED OUT. It's a little pizza-shaped circle of charcoal now. Not to mention the layer of grime on everything. Blah.
My basement tenant at Lottridge has given notice. No biggie. He's my brother, so I'm trying to get a tenant in quick to get him some of his last months' deposit back. That $525 per month appartment is a whole 'nother ballgame for tenants than my usual upscale guys. People looking for a 1-bed basement are way different than people looking for a $900 2-bed. Not that that's a bad thing - it's just different for me. A LOT of riff-raff to sift through. My current #1 prospect is a great young couple who need a bit of a break, and it will be fairly intensive tenant management - they want to tie to their paychecks and pay twice a month, and pay their last months' rent in installments. Most landlords wouldn't do this, including me usually! But these kids knew what their credit scores are, are working hard, going to college to get a good job, and want to invest in property later. They are sincere and sweet and I got a good read off of them. We'll see later if this burns me!
Last night we met with our awesome super-dee-duper mortgage broker, Angela. She's going to get us about $30000 out of the Lottridge house equity so that we can buy another house. Basically it'll raise our mortgage payment to where the house has break-even profit for us. But if you put that $400 a month into savings, it'd take us 6.25 years to save up $30K. And that's foreseeing no extra costs, no vacancy. This way, we use up our profit on loan payments for the next property and by the time we retire the houses will be paid for and THEN they will all make money. Yay!
My basement tenant at Lottridge has given notice. No biggie. He's my brother, so I'm trying to get a tenant in quick to get him some of his last months' deposit back. That $525 per month appartment is a whole 'nother ballgame for tenants than my usual upscale guys. People looking for a 1-bed basement are way different than people looking for a $900 2-bed. Not that that's a bad thing - it's just different for me. A LOT of riff-raff to sift through. My current #1 prospect is a great young couple who need a bit of a break, and it will be fairly intensive tenant management - they want to tie to their paychecks and pay twice a month, and pay their last months' rent in installments. Most landlords wouldn't do this, including me usually! But these kids knew what their credit scores are, are working hard, going to college to get a good job, and want to invest in property later. They are sincere and sweet and I got a good read off of them. We'll see later if this burns me!
Last night we met with our awesome super-dee-duper mortgage broker, Angela. She's going to get us about $30000 out of the Lottridge house equity so that we can buy another house. Basically it'll raise our mortgage payment to where the house has break-even profit for us. But if you put that $400 a month into savings, it'd take us 6.25 years to save up $30K. And that's foreseeing no extra costs, no vacancy. This way, we use up our profit on loan payments for the next property and by the time we retire the houses will be paid for and THEN they will all make money. Yay!
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