Where did I go wrong? Section 8 Horror Story.

[Rob Barry]

So In late 2018 I bought a package of five of those small brick houses you see all over Georgia (less than $70k each) and had the brilliant idea to renovate them and rent them out via section 8. Today I got a $14,000 makeready quote for one that just turned over. Here's what I understand about what happened.

It all started with a leak in one of the bathroom's plumbing. Over some months of dealing with continued leaks, it was found that the old pipe laid in the slab foundation was leaking. When that was dug up the whole thing crumbled. What's more, when they were digging in the yard, we found that parts of this house's plumbing had been connected to the house next door by the cheapskate builders who built the neighborhood. So we had to put that tenant up at a motel while my property manager got the work scheduled and, surprise surprise, because of Covid, all the local permitting was at a standstill. We were working through this in May.

During and after that, the resident basically stopped paying her end of the rent, but because of covid the courts were shut down, so we couldn't do much. Finally we get a notice to vacate saying she was moving out on July 3. This turned into her actually leaving end of July, which the H.A. approved.

And then my P.M. inspected the place. Here is just a taste of what we found.

I held back some of the worst images, including a deceased dog in the back yard. Multiple pest infestations, abandoned cars, dogs wrecking the place (I have a strict no-dogs policy).

The 65-line-item makeready comes to $13,882.

So I'm told by my PM that the woman (who had five dependents on the lease) fell in with a bad dude who had a crack problem or something, had nasty dogs and was abusive. I guess when we put her up in the motel in May, she just left the whole place behind and once the workers left - I am told - the guy moved in with his dogs and wrecked the place. My PM admits that with covid going on, they haven't been doing as many inspections this year....

And so I'm out more than a year's revenue for that property just on a makeready. I'm going to have a long talk with my PM about screening and inspections.

Sure would love someone with more experience knocking some sense in me.