Update on new Triplex

[Jay Orlauski]

Hello everyone , I have been a little absentee lately as I've been dealing with the triplex we just picked up. Just wanted to update you all on what's been going on. Some of you may remember my " Awkward first visit" when I went to meet my tenants, but instead was met by a half naked kid who promptly shut the door in my face. I eventually got to meet the tenant, but she was just as dismissive and opened the door in her towel, expressing her inability to meet with me due to pressing time constraints. Well, eventually we served her 60 day so we could move in to the unit ( per FHA requirements to owner occupied) She paid her rent late and forced me to give her a 3 day notice , which she responded to and paid immediately.

The following month, she refused to pay rent, and says that her deposit should cover her rent. She also tried to say that my 60 day notice was null and was not legal because she claims " I gave her the notice before taking legal possession of the property" and requested that I send her another 30 day notice. I was not going to argue with her, she was 5 days late already, so she promptly received a 3 day pay or quit. She still did not leave, but this weekend she had a large truck take about 3-4 large loads of stuff , including mattresses. Also someone came and cleaned out about 1/2 of the garage the same day - she continuously avoided me and made herself very scarce - I was happy to see her moving her stuff out -
but I am wondering when and how I gain legal access to her unit. There is still a lot of her stuff there and she keeps coming back at odd hours to retrieve small things. Day before yesterday, a maintainence guy of mine was doing work and saw that she left her sliding glass door open ( in the closed back yard) and called me about it. I had him close it, but it was open again the next afternoon. I believe she is ducking me cause she does not want to receive her legal eviction. My suspicion is that by the 1st of next month , she will be completely in her new place. Based on the cost of submitting court ppwk , I am not interested in pursuing further unless there is major damage to the place.

I basically went through the same thing with another tenant last month, and he finally was out after two weeks. He strung me along with stuff like, " i will meet you tomorrow" or "can I have till this weekend" and "I will have your money in two days" , I will be moved out tomorrow , " I will be out by next weekend , I will be out by monday ..etc, etc. Thats how how he got by on me ....he even tried to say we didn't have an agreement cause he never signed anything with me, but with the previous owner. I said well if we have no agreements, than you are trespassing and can expect the police to show up soon. He finally got all his stuff out and left the place relatively clean the next weekend.

We have now done some remodeling , painting and what not and the place looks really beautiful. When we stand back and look at it we know that it is quality. Even the third tenants want to move into it , although it is already taken.

So anyhow, we cleared out one place and got it ready. We have the second about to empty and ready to renovate for me and my wife to move into and the third has tenants that are happy because I have taken care of all the problems that had been ignored by the previous landlord and they have decided to stick around for a while.

All in all, it has been very stressful and immediately riddled with problems - but overall, things are coming together, and I am once again reminded that the joys of property management & rental income are tethered by the responsibilities of tenant management & dealing with contractors .