After going through two mediocre handymen, I am happy to report that Property 2’s vacant apartment is officially rented out.
As expected, the quality of prospective tenants are much better at Property 2’s neighborhood than anywhere else. I had calls from nurses, doctors, even an associate professor at a local college. I still had a few welfare bums call, but they didn’t bother showing up and I was glad. After 5 days of showings, it came down to three prospective tenants… all of which came on the very first day.
Prospective Tenant #1
A young girl (20 years old if I remember correctly) came with her parents to check out the place. The girl was nice but the mother was a pain in the ass, questioning everything about the place. I understood that she’s a mom and all, but she really caught me in a bad mood and I wasn’t ready for her bullshit. She kept asking for a business card which, in hindsight, makes sense. Maybe I should get one. Anyway, the girl would be moving in with her fiancé and they both worked decent jobs. The only downside of it was that her mom really pissed me off, and I felt that renting to them would mean dealing with her mom on a regular basis.
Grade: B- (would have been a B+ without the mom)
Prospective Tenant #2
Tyrell is a single man who works as a window installer. His personality was awesome and was excited about the place. When he told me that he was looking for a place that costs between $700 and $800 a month, I had an idea. I told him that the pet deposit fee was $100, and that there’s a monthly $15 fee for the dog. I don’t usually charge a monthly fee, but I felt that he wouldn’t care and I was right. He had no problem with it. I would be getting an extra $180 a year just for thinking on my feet!
Anyway, he lived in a two family property that he was fixing for his friend, kind of like a work-for-rent deal. Before that, he owned a house but fell on hard times and had to sell it. His verifiable income has him making a little over $900 a month. But he works for another guy on weekends who pays him under the table, and that brings in another $2500 a month. Tyrell said that he uses his job to pay all his bills, and his weekend job to pay for his living expenses. Should he gets the place, he wants to link our bank accounts so that the rent becomes another bill that gets automatically paid every week, coming out to $178.75 every week. I called his weekend job boss who verified everything, and said that Tyrell was a good guy. I… I don’t know. I wanted to disqualify him due to the lack of verifiable income, but I couldn’t. I don’t know why.
Grade: D
Prospective Tenants #3
A welfare-ish looking couple came to see the place. They came in sweatpants which bothered me. The boyfriend makes $9.00 an hour part time at a diner while the woman makes $24 an hour full time working at a rehab clinic. I don’t necessarily mind it when a woman makes more than her male spouse, but there’s something wrong with a man who seems comfortable making $9.00 an hour part time. They had decent enough personalities, but the reason why I’ll always remember them is because of their dogs.
Aww man... I LOVED those dogs! One of them looked like a big hot dog too. You know, I remember in my old blog saying that tenants should be treated like dogs. But that can’t be true because I love dogs and would treat them very well. In fact, if the dogs could somehow get jobs to pay the rent and their human counterparts were house broken, I would definitely rent to dogs instead of people. Anyway, I verified their jobs and they had good references. They were also very eager to get the apartment, calling me a few times during the application process to see if they were approved. My only issue was they'd just moved from South Carolina, and I haven’t had good experiences with people that just moved from another state.
Grade: A-
So who did I pick? Take a wild guess. Yep. That’s right. I picked Tyrell, the guy I graded with a D. Now why would I pick a guy whose verifiable monthly income is less than half of the required $2000 needed to qualify? Well? I dunno. Something felt right about the guy so I decided to take a chance. And it kinda has to do with a post I wrote a short while ago.
I work my ass off at these jobs, especially now with all the overtime I’ve been doing. One of the only things I like about working these jobs is that I have a kind of safety net. Should I make a bad decision, my jobs cover my expenses so that I don’t lose too much money. This allows me to take risks and go with my gut when I feel something is gonna work out well. I won't be able to take such risks when I retire, so I figure it's best to take them now and gain as much experience as humanly possible. Now look, and I say this to the Ahkenaten Kor that will be reading this post three months from now:
“Hey man. If you’re pounding your head against the wall right now because Tyrell turned out to be a bad choice, I’m sorry. But the situation felt right to me. The tenant felt right to me. So I went for it. That’s the best explanation I can give you. Sorry man.”
I went by there last night because he said the hot water tank wasn’t turning on. I took him and his father down to the basement and showed them how to turn it on. After that, Tyrell showed me that he had already put in a couple of new windows.
It’ll cost me $200 per window, including material and labor. Not a bad price, especially considering that the windows are all different sizes. By the end of the year, every window in the entire place (upstairs and downstairs) should be replaced. That’s a HUGE relief for me, as the windows were the only thing people complained about. Tyrell’s parents were there, as was his cute dog. They seemed nice, like “Cosby-nice”, and I left the place with a smile on my face. I’m also eager to try this whole bank account thing, as I’ve never had a tenant pay directly from his/her bank account to mine. And, just in case he screws me over, I’ll have his bank account number, routing number, and his job’s address to garnish his wages. Call me crazy, but I think this might just work out.
P.S.: As drove from there last night and headed back to work, I was really happy about fixing that hot water tank issue. A tenant called about a situation and I fixed it without calling a handyman. A handyman would have charged maybe $20. A property management company would have charged me about $100 and made up some bullshit about what the problem really was. It felt good to do things on my own. Real good. For the rest of the drive I grunted like Tim the Toolman. Much man, I am.
P.P.S.: I may start charging a monthly fee for dogs, maybe something like $20/month. I usually don't charge because dogs never cause issues when I have to get a place rental ready. But an extra $20 a month would be quite nice, and I really do like money.
As expected, the quality of prospective tenants are much better at Property 2’s neighborhood than anywhere else. I had calls from nurses, doctors, even an associate professor at a local college. I still had a few welfare bums call, but they didn’t bother showing up and I was glad. After 5 days of showings, it came down to three prospective tenants… all of which came on the very first day.
Prospective Tenant #1
A young girl (20 years old if I remember correctly) came with her parents to check out the place. The girl was nice but the mother was a pain in the ass, questioning everything about the place. I understood that she’s a mom and all, but she really caught me in a bad mood and I wasn’t ready for her bullshit. She kept asking for a business card which, in hindsight, makes sense. Maybe I should get one. Anyway, the girl would be moving in with her fiancé and they both worked decent jobs. The only downside of it was that her mom really pissed me off, and I felt that renting to them would mean dealing with her mom on a regular basis.
Grade: B- (would have been a B+ without the mom)
Prospective Tenant #2
Tyrell is a single man who works as a window installer. His personality was awesome and was excited about the place. When he told me that he was looking for a place that costs between $700 and $800 a month, I had an idea. I told him that the pet deposit fee was $100, and that there’s a monthly $15 fee for the dog. I don’t usually charge a monthly fee, but I felt that he wouldn’t care and I was right. He had no problem with it. I would be getting an extra $180 a year just for thinking on my feet!
Anyway, he lived in a two family property that he was fixing for his friend, kind of like a work-for-rent deal. Before that, he owned a house but fell on hard times and had to sell it. His verifiable income has him making a little over $900 a month. But he works for another guy on weekends who pays him under the table, and that brings in another $2500 a month. Tyrell said that he uses his job to pay all his bills, and his weekend job to pay for his living expenses. Should he gets the place, he wants to link our bank accounts so that the rent becomes another bill that gets automatically paid every week, coming out to $178.75 every week. I called his weekend job boss who verified everything, and said that Tyrell was a good guy. I… I don’t know. I wanted to disqualify him due to the lack of verifiable income, but I couldn’t. I don’t know why.
Grade: D
Prospective Tenants #3
A welfare-ish looking couple came to see the place. They came in sweatpants which bothered me. The boyfriend makes $9.00 an hour part time at a diner while the woman makes $24 an hour full time working at a rehab clinic. I don’t necessarily mind it when a woman makes more than her male spouse, but there’s something wrong with a man who seems comfortable making $9.00 an hour part time. They had decent enough personalities, but the reason why I’ll always remember them is because of their dogs.
 |
| I actually stopped the prospective tenants from leaving just so I can take pictures of their dogs |
Grade: A-
So who did I pick? Take a wild guess. Yep. That’s right. I picked Tyrell, the guy I graded with a D. Now why would I pick a guy whose verifiable monthly income is less than half of the required $2000 needed to qualify? Well? I dunno. Something felt right about the guy so I decided to take a chance. And it kinda has to do with a post I wrote a short while ago.
I work my ass off at these jobs, especially now with all the overtime I’ve been doing. One of the only things I like about working these jobs is that I have a kind of safety net. Should I make a bad decision, my jobs cover my expenses so that I don’t lose too much money. This allows me to take risks and go with my gut when I feel something is gonna work out well. I won't be able to take such risks when I retire, so I figure it's best to take them now and gain as much experience as humanly possible. Now look, and I say this to the Ahkenaten Kor that will be reading this post three months from now:
“Hey man. If you’re pounding your head against the wall right now because Tyrell turned out to be a bad choice, I’m sorry. But the situation felt right to me. The tenant felt right to me. So I went for it. That’s the best explanation I can give you. Sorry man.”
I went by there last night because he said the hot water tank wasn’t turning on. I took him and his father down to the basement and showed them how to turn it on. After that, Tyrell showed me that he had already put in a couple of new windows.
 |
| Brand spanking new, and much better than those nasty old wooden windows. |
It’ll cost me $200 per window, including material and labor. Not a bad price, especially considering that the windows are all different sizes. By the end of the year, every window in the entire place (upstairs and downstairs) should be replaced. That’s a HUGE relief for me, as the windows were the only thing people complained about. Tyrell’s parents were there, as was his cute dog. They seemed nice, like “Cosby-nice”, and I left the place with a smile on my face. I’m also eager to try this whole bank account thing, as I’ve never had a tenant pay directly from his/her bank account to mine. And, just in case he screws me over, I’ll have his bank account number, routing number, and his job’s address to garnish his wages. Call me crazy, but I think this might just work out.
P.S.: As drove from there last night and headed back to work, I was really happy about fixing that hot water tank issue. A tenant called about a situation and I fixed it without calling a handyman. A handyman would have charged maybe $20. A property management company would have charged me about $100 and made up some bullshit about what the problem really was. It felt good to do things on my own. Real good. For the rest of the drive I grunted like Tim the Toolman. Much man, I am.
P.P.S.: I may start charging a monthly fee for dogs, maybe something like $20/month. I usually don't charge because dogs never cause issues when I have to get a place rental ready. But an extra $20 a month would be quite nice, and I really do like money.
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