Experience of a landlord, owner of 1 unit (Fortuna: real estate, rental homes)

[Wallace Diehl]

As a landlord, with a property manager, I had the unfortunate experience of having a bad tenant. They didn't clean in 4 years in our townhouse. The tracks for the Milgard patio door (screen and glass door) were so dirty that the track for the screen door was damaged beyond repair, along with the sliding glass patio door. Because it was a Milgard door and when it was manufactured Milgard did not design a way to replace the tracks separately the whole door had to be replaced, costing over $3000. All the filth that collected on the track ended up on the carpet. It was literally black in some areas. I provided the tenant at the time of lease a can of silicone lubricant for the tracks, which they apparently chose not to use and instead used some sort of petroleum lubricant which attracted dirt.



Their children put stickers and markers all over the walls and outside, causing me to have to remove what was on the exterior to avoid a fine. We are hands on owners of the rental, so my wife and I had to do all the cleaning. I had to scrub all the walls before the painter arrived to assure that nothing on the walls would show through after painting.

Then the tenant sued me because I didn't return the deposit. Jeez Louise. Fortunately my property manager took copious photos to document the damage, which I took to Small Claims Court. The tenants were informed of what was required to correct the above issues, but didn't do so. The photos had the attached metadata on some of them. The tenant's attorney (my property manager was my witness) tried to claim that the photos were taken in another unit, since many of the units were exactly the same. But my property manager's iPhone had the Google geographic metadata coordinates, which I countered with in court to the attorney's claim. There was no way the attorney could dispute this.

I'm still waiting for the judge’s decision, but at this point believe the tenant will have a bill coming his way that will make him think twice before living in this way in another owner's rental, unless he's chosen to live under a bridge instead. He was employed and probably had good income, so please no one take his side as the poor downtrodden tenant. We are not big property managers, and this was a new experience, having rented for over 30 years without results like this. This property was formerly our residence until we moved to a single family residence we could afford with the income from the rental.

My property manager suggested an inspection service, so I"ll be contacting these services to learn the extent of their inspections. I"ll be wanting the service to take photos before occupancy, after 6 months followed by another inspection a year thereafter. I'll be requiring photos with metadata, which will go into a binder along with any receipts for required expenditures in case I have the unfortunate experience of having to go to court again.

[Mr_Geek]

Just go in every 6 months to check on things. You are allowed as long as you give the proper notice.

[jghorton]

I once rented-out a house 60-miles away from where we were living. I offered an additional $50 to take care of simple maintenance items - which they took, but, never did any maintenance (to some extent, I guess it kept them from calling me about every little thing).

As time went by, I never really knew who was living in the house. The neighbors told me there were always 4-6 cars parked in front, plus the tenants often drove/parked on the front lawn. One time, the street flooded and one of them drove through the yards of adjacent neighbors, leaving deep ruts.

I subsequently rented-out an in-town condo, with no problems; however, have often seen that condos with a high number of rentals show considerably more damage and wear-and-tear, than those who allow no short-term rentals. (In Florida, that's why some condos have considerably higher HOA fees).

-- Since I'm not good at fixing things and don't want the hassle of irresponsible tenants, I've concluded that I'm simply not cut-out to be a Landlord.

[Wallace Diehl]

At this point I prefer an inspection service. I believe they probably are more acceptable if it becomes necessary to take a tenant to court. The tenant didn't show on the first court date due to a postponement, but was served by the sheriff prior to the date of the trial. The judge at that trial appeared to favor the tenant. so I didn't allow Judge Emily Uhrig to have the the binder with all the documentation and photos, fearing that it wouldn't be returned.


Milgard, by the way, was my only choice of a replacement door, due to "architectural" restrictions by the association. I consider this ridiculous since other manufacturers' doors are virtually identical. Initially Milgard technical support stated the screen door track was replaceable, but when Milgard service finally came out about a month later I was told the whole door had to be removed to get a new screen door track. So I went to Home Depot for replacing the Milgard door, since Milgard only provides doors through their dealerships. After about 2 months the door was ready, but the Home Depot installer couldn't install the screen door because it was the wrong size. The sliding glass patio door also came without a lock, which was part of the contract. Home Depot offered a discount in what I paid in advance, but it was all verbal and I never got confirmation. So I've gone through an attorney to have them respond in writing for my request for a 20% discount in what I paid. The attorney is part of the Parker Stanbury law firm supplied by Legal Shield. My information is that I should be getting a response from them soon, but have no idea if Home Depot is going to make good on their verbal promised discount from their home office in Atlanta, Georgia, which was made over 2 months ago.



We have California Deluxe Windows in our residence. They are an excellent company. We've had 2 problems and they both were fixed in under 2 weeks. The first appeared to be possibly a settling of the track due to the door weight, which caused the latch not to engage. The second time the rollers on the door needed to be replaced. That was done in about a week. Additionally I've taken screens that needed new screening to them and it was replaced without charge, also within a week. Milgard is relying on their name recognition to sell their products, but anyone reading our experience should go elsewhere and California Deluxe Windows has been excellent from our experience.

[ryanms3030]

This is why I invest in the stock market and not real estate

[(901)]

You got jammed by the contractor on fixing that door track. Carpet and painting you can expect to have to change every 5 years (or less). My rental homes only have hardwood and/or tile all throughout to avoid this

If you had $750+ of deposit I don't think you have much of a loss

[(901)]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

This is why I invest in the stock market and not real estate

Funny. I won't put a nickel into the stock market but will invest every extra dollar into real estate

In real estate you make your money on the front end. Stock market is like Russian roulette

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by (901)

Funny. I won't put a nickel into the stock market but will invest every extra dollar into real estate

In real estate you make your money on the front end. Stock market is like Russian roulette

How do you make money on the front end in real estate? All of the numbers I've run show that most people are lucky to break even every month for the first several years if they have a mortgage on the rental property. And you have tons of liability like bad tenants, having to evict people and not getting any rent payments for months, unexpected repairs etc.

I mostly sell option premiums in the stock market. Done properly you have a 80% or higher chance of success and you can easily make 20% or more return every year. If you were lucky enough to have $350k cash to buy a rental property in greater LA are you could instead invest that properly and make $50-70k/year conservatively. How much can you make per year renting a condo that cost $350k?

Not to mention we have been in a 10+ year bull market and even my more passively invested retirement accounts have been compounding at 10% or more every year.

[V8 Vega]

I had a small single family house from 88 to 2012, I was poor at screening tenants and had to evict two for non payment of rent. Sounds like you had a nice place mine was a low end rental. Everything went wrong with this place you could imagine, it was a constant headache.

[Vic Romano]

Who screened the tenant? Is the property manager the issue? I would think a good property manager wouldn't allow this to happen. That's why you pay them an 8-10% fee.