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Thoughts on being a landlord
- Thread starter spencer60
- Start date
I always heard every excuse about why they didn't have rent money. One guy's Grandmother died 4 times. Now Slum Lords make the best money but their property sucks.
I’m a commercial landlord at the moment and I would definitely not recommend it.
Phone number is key because they call you 24/7 otherwise
Doing it over 20 years with multiple properties n buildings.
It is NOT for the faint of heart.
You better put away a year of expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc) - which can be tens of thousands of dollars.
1. background checks are paramount, but no guarantee
2. get ready for calls in the middle of the night for nonsense.
3. be ready for excuses why they can't pay rent
4. get ready for repairs and to pay for them
5. more and more and more..........
I've had almost any situation happen in the past 20 something years. here are only SOME examples, definitely not all:
1. Tenants moving out in the middle of the night and trash the house, only knew this because I heard from neighbors.
2. Boyfriend kicking in the front door because she locked him out. Later in the day strangers walking inside and looting crap and trying to take my refrigerator.
3. while repairing a property between tenants, someone broke in and stole my commercial carpet cleaner and ALL THE LIGHTBULBS.
4. few months ago, tenant calls repeatedly at 2 am because she broke the bathroom faucet. and didn't know how to shut off the water. She had no plyers, wrench, anything. I drive over, shut off the water and she asks can I fix it by morning when she wakes up. yup. true story. SHE BROKE IT....let me get right on that. I have never broke a bathroom faucet handle, neither have my kids.
5. one tenant let their dogs stay in the house unattended for a week while he went to jail. His girlfriend cleaned it up the poop and pee with a garden hose on the hardwood floors. yeah. true story. Everything ruined. Including the subfloor. That was a nightmare.
6. Lightning struck one of my properties and caught fire. Dumb azz tenant didn't know what to do. I raced over and put out the fire. Heaven forbid they call the fire dept.
7. Tenant called when it was 95 degrees outside and said HVAC won't go down to 65 degrees inside. I told her that's correct, only designed to work 15-20 degrees cooler than outside for most units. Also said mine won't go below 76 degrees when it is this hot and humid. She wouldn't listen and kept asking me to come over. I check the system. it's blowing cold. I went upstairs to find the bedroom windows all open. I asked her why. Why would you leave all the windows open with the AC one. Ready for the answer. She said so the hot air would go out. I AM NOT KIDDING. TRUE STORY.
8. You will say NO DOGS in the lease only to be surprised at move out that most of your doors and trimming have been eaten away by the tenants new pitbull puppy.
9. HOA's sending you nasty gram letters threatening fines because the tenant did one of the following: Change the blinds. worked on their vehicle in the driveway. Has a dog. Tenants friends made too much noise. Tenant parked in the wrong spot. Tenant left a hose outside. Tenant has halloween decorations up because they have kids. ALL TRUE THAT I'VE DEALT WITH.
10. I gave another tenant every chance to pay and she kept making excuses. I filed eviction. She didn't show up to court. 20 days later I am at the house with 4 people and (2) sheriff deputies to evict. Nobody home. Gave deputy the key, they go inside guns drawn. Only dogs home. Dogs go to the pound. Her car gets towed. All her belongings are placed outside. People started looting it all. Fights broke out. Cops called. Buford City came by with a dump truck and loaded it all up and took to the dump. TRUE STORY.
AND YOU WANT TO BE A LANDLORD. SURE. GO FOR IT. JUST BE PREPARED FOR SOME THINGS NOT TO GO RIGHT. If you don't have 12 months of household expenses saved up for the rental (not your own house), i'm saying the rental. DO NOT DO IT.
If you're married, your marriage WILL SUFFER because you'll eventually get pissed off at the tenant and be a grumpy bastard. Wife will notice and won't be happy.
It is NOT for the faint of heart.
You better put away a year of expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc) - which can be tens of thousands of dollars.
1. background checks are paramount, but no guarantee
2. get ready for calls in the middle of the night for nonsense.
3. be ready for excuses why they can't pay rent
4. get ready for repairs and to pay for them
5. more and more and more..........
I've had almost any situation happen in the past 20 something years. here are only SOME examples, definitely not all:
1. Tenants moving out in the middle of the night and trash the house, only knew this because I heard from neighbors.
2. Boyfriend kicking in the front door because she locked him out. Later in the day strangers walking inside and looting crap and trying to take my refrigerator.
3. while repairing a property between tenants, someone broke in and stole my commercial carpet cleaner and ALL THE LIGHTBULBS.
4. few months ago, tenant calls repeatedly at 2 am because she broke the bathroom faucet. and didn't know how to shut off the water. She had no plyers, wrench, anything. I drive over, shut off the water and she asks can I fix it by morning when she wakes up. yup. true story. SHE BROKE IT....let me get right on that. I have never broke a bathroom faucet handle, neither have my kids.
5. one tenant let their dogs stay in the house unattended for a week while he went to jail. His girlfriend cleaned it up the poop and pee with a garden hose on the hardwood floors. yeah. true story. Everything ruined. Including the subfloor. That was a nightmare.
6. Lightning struck one of my properties and caught fire. Dumb azz tenant didn't know what to do. I raced over and put out the fire. Heaven forbid they call the fire dept.
7. Tenant called when it was 95 degrees outside and said HVAC won't go down to 65 degrees inside. I told her that's correct, only designed to work 15-20 degrees cooler than outside for most units. Also said mine won't go below 76 degrees when it is this hot and humid. She wouldn't listen and kept asking me to come over. I check the system. it's blowing cold. I went upstairs to find the bedroom windows all open. I asked her why. Why would you leave all the windows open with the AC one. Ready for the answer. She said so the hot air would go out. I AM NOT KIDDING. TRUE STORY.
8. You will say NO DOGS in the lease only to be surprised at move out that most of your doors and trimming have been eaten away by the tenants new pitbull puppy.
9. HOA's sending you nasty gram letters threatening fines because the tenant did one of the following: Change the blinds. worked on their vehicle in the driveway. Has a dog. Tenants friends made too much noise. Tenant parked in the wrong spot. Tenant left a hose outside. Tenant has halloween decorations up because they have kids. ALL TRUE THAT I'VE DEALT WITH.
10. I gave another tenant every chance to pay and she kept making excuses. I filed eviction. She didn't show up to court. 20 days later I am at the house with 4 people and (2) sheriff deputies to evict. Nobody home. Gave deputy the key, they go inside guns drawn. Only dogs home. Dogs go to the pound. Her car gets towed. All her belongings are placed outside. People started looting it all. Fights broke out. Cops called. Buford City came by with a dump truck and loaded it all up and took to the dump. TRUE STORY.
AND YOU WANT TO BE A LANDLORD. SURE. GO FOR IT. JUST BE PREPARED FOR SOME THINGS NOT TO GO RIGHT. If you don't have 12 months of household expenses saved up for the rental (not your own house), i'm saying the rental. DO NOT DO IT.
If you're married, your marriage WILL SUFFER because you'll eventually get pissed off at the tenant and be a grumpy bastard. Wife will notice and won't be happy.
Holy **** dude. You just won ODT. I feel your pain.
hahaha. I was not trying to win...! lol
I'm telling you, if I sit down with a couple beers and a group of y'all, I can certainly come up with more nonsense that i've dealt with being a landlord.
The absolute worst was in the 2008-2014 ish years. Bottom of the barrel tenants. Lots of lies, scams, and complete morons i have had to deal with.
I defer to someone who knows well what he's talking about because I don't. That said, aren't there some tax advantages to selling your primary residence and making a profit from it (now) versus trying to sell a rental property later, without having reoccupied it as a primary residence for 3 years?
GeauxLSU
(I defer to someone who knows about taxes.)
GeauxLSU
(I defer to someone who knows about taxes.)As a single person, you can have up to $250k profit on your primary residence sale. Married filing jointly, $500k that's tax exempt. After 3yrs that goes away.I defer to someone who knows well what he's talking about because I don't. That said, aren't there some tax advantages to selling your primary residence and making a profit from it (now) versus trying to sell a rental property later, without having reoccupied it as a primary residence for 3 years?
So if a person rented it out instead of just selling, he’d eventually lose a tax advantage?
