Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wednesday-Trashed Rental Update

I didn't get home until 10:30 tonight. Now I have to wait 30 minutes or more for my little RV water heater to heat up enough for a shower. I might as well post something while I'm waiting.

Here's what happened today:

-Exterior trim painted. It was peeling and looked bad.

-Patio scrubbed. It looks much better.

-Bathroom linoleum tile installation almost complete. I really like how it looks. Real tile would be better but this is better than carpet.

-Interior painting almost complete.

-Windows washed inside and out.

-Went to Walmart, Ross and Petsmart after work. I bought 3 gallons of pet odor neutralizer and a pump sprayer usually used to spray weeds. I hope it works. The smell is bad when entering from the garage. I don't notice it much once I am in the house. If this doesn't work I will really wish I had re-carpeted the stinky rooms. 2 rooms smell ok.

Found mini-blinds for $4 a piece at Walmart. They have slightly larger bracket so they will have to be changed. Bought rugs, mattress covers, a TV stand, etc.... Some people were asking why I am furnishing the place again. The people who are arriving this Sunday are here for 30 days only. They reserved my house as a furnished rental last year. They pay 4 times the normal rent in order to stay at a house instead of a hotel because it is cheaper. After these people leave I will either move back in and only rent my house one month a year to the same people. Or I will have a big garage sale and sell everything and rent it out unfurnished. I haven't decided yet. If these people weren't coming on Sunday, could have cleaned and repaired my house at a leisurely pace and saved money. But I needed the house ready in one week so I am using the money which my next short-term tenants paid me in order to fix it fast. I'm not sure I will make any profit at all after this is done but at least my house will be back to normal.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember seeing you mention it, but did you have a security deposit from your previous tenants?

I have a friend that has a few rentals, and he mentioned that he thinks the security deposit helps in a few ways... 1) a little protection for repairs, 2) possibly prevents damage b/c tenants know they'll lose it if they trash things, and 3) can filter out those that might struggle making payments, if they can't come up with a security deposit and first month's rent.

Just curious about your thoughts & experiences.

Thanks for the awesome blog - I enjoy reading it, even though I've never posted before. Keep up the hard work... amazing what you've gotten done this week!

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

Hi Daizy
You're getting there, honest.
Do you prefer living in the house or the RV or if you had the house on your land where the RV is, would that be best of all?
Lizzie

Anonymous said...

Do you ever feel like you're on a reality tv show doing all this with just one week?

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Hopefully you can recoup some of the cost in small claims court. It looks like you have a slam dunk case. Whether or not you can ever get them to pay is another thing altogether.

Sounds like you have made a lot of progress.

Daizy said...

gavin, the whole security deposit thing will be part of my future 'things I did wrong as a landlord' post:) Basically, I paid them to get out of my house!

Hi Lizzie, yes, a little house on my land would be best of all. I don't like the noise of the suburbs...loud music, squeeling tires, police helicoptors...ok, maybe that's just my neighborhood.

Saver Queen, I was just thinking that when I plugged in the tv's today and turned on HGTV. Of course the other show I felt like I was on was Cops.

Over the cubicle wall, I will file with small claims but I don't expect anything except that I will pay filing fees and have to give up my lunch hour to go down town. It is worth it if it shows up on their record though.

moocifer said...

Or you can rent a storage unit to put the furnishings in and rent the house unfurnished, see how it goes, and if it doesn't work move back into the house and rent it out furnished one month a year while you go live in the trailer. You can probably store everyting for well less than 1200 dollars a year.