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.

[Diego Hodge]

@Rob Barry I don’t know where you went wrong but here are a few areas where you can go right (In my opinion):

-If the same PM is handling the other properties, you may want to have the other properties inspected immediately. Then determine if the long talk with the PM is worth it or if a shorter talk with them makes better sense so you can move on to another PM.

-If the other houses are in the same vicinity then I would possibly have a home inspector walk through them to look for similar issues if the inspection was not completed before you purchased it.

-Run the numbers to see if selling the property makes better sense, if not then get 3 other quotes on the make ready.

-Have the old PM or new one run through their process with you regarding tenant selection, maintenance and inspections and see if that makes sense for your objective before you move on.

-Whatever you think that you should have done to prevent this, make a note of it for the next hint that you get of a situation with one of your properties going left.

-Lick your wounds and save your frustration until after you’ve solved the problem. The good news is you still have an asset to work with.