Cockroaches vs. Cat Pee

Involved In Real Estate · Washington, Washington D.C. · Member since 2012 · 11 posts · 0 votes

Hello -
I'm a new investor and have a potential deal, but was wondering if anyone has dealt with cockroaches before.

I found a six residential unit + 1 commerial commerical unit which has a recent infestation of cockroaches. The owner lives out of town and is tired of dealing with the building. The whole building is in bad shape, and would probably have to be gutted anyway, but its in a great part of town and based on the comps, there's definitely a good amount of $ in the deal, either as a flip or rental.

I plan to get an exterminator in there to estimate the job, but would like to hear about any others experiences with infestations. (there's rats too! Yay!)

I've heard there's money in cat pee, hoping to hear the same thing about bugs.

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Dyna J.

Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 105 posts · 31 votes

13y

There were children involved? That breaks my heart....

Wow, you're a better person than me. I couldn't imagine spending months on that. I'm pretty sure I would have quoted the movie Aliens and ran away.

Originally posted by Ellen Ripley:

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

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Joel OwensBusiness Member
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Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
13y
How many units are vacant versus occupied??

Probably want to get the tenants out depending on how bad it is. If you are going to rehab definitely get the tenants out. If the infestation is huge better to rip down the sheetrock and treat the whole building. Probably could just tent the whole thing.

I would have to see the level of infestation to develop a plan. I have seen a level of infestation with a unit before that probably tops anyone else.

I opened the front door on a vacant unit and a waterfall of roaches came down from the top and they were everywhere. On the walls, floors ceilings. Could see thousands and thousands of them in plain sight.

Pest control said they would come back and film a training video for their company as it was the worst they have ever seen. They came in hazmat suits and respirators with a team of five people. For the thousands you can see there are 10 times that many in the walls breeding. Total treatment was about 6 months before getting into rentable condition and knocking the population down by so much percent each time. Most bug problems are caused by tenants.

Treating for bugs doesn't matter if the units have a water leak or drips from faucets. The water attracts them and so does food. Tenants eating on the carpet and not vacuuming right away. Not throwing away the vacuum bag so they do not breed in the bag. Leaving trash cans overflowed next to the building.

Not cleaning behind the fridge and letting grease build up behind the stove and on it. The pests in this case eat the food and leave the poison. This is why the unit has to be cleaned in addition to the treatment to be effective. The pest will either eat the poison then or they will migrate away to other units in your building. It will either kill them off cleaning and treating all units or they will move away to other properties.

What landlords typically do is they get it treated when it gets real bad and then just when it starts going away they cancel the contract with the pest control company. Then a few months goes by and it gets really bad again.

Pest control companies are expensive and can run 100 a month per 4 unit at least where I had mine at. What some landlords do is by the stuff themselves at Lowe's or Home Depot with a pump sprayer and have their maintenance guy go around the buildings one to two times a month spraying as it's cheaper.
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Bryan Stacy
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Involved In Real Estate · Washington, Washington D.C. · Member since 2012 · 11 posts · 0 votes
13y
Great point about needing to get the tenants out. I'm not sure what type of lease each tenant has, but them not wanting to move out could be an issue.

Sounds like at the very least, I need to build in some additional holding costs. (>6 months). I had no idea "tenting" the place was a real possibility.

Thanks for all the details on the infestation. "Waterfall of cockroaches". Gross.
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Dyna J.
Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 105 posts · 31 votes
13y
1000s of roaches? Hazmat suits? You can't be serious! Please tell me no one was living there.
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Joel OwensBusiness Member
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Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
13y
It's a long, long story but needless to say it is a property involving an owner financed wrap I did years ago.

Upon due diligence the tenants said the kids were sick so couldn't inspect that day or other days (always had a reason). The tenants were already in the process of being evicted by the previous owner. I only had the tenants there a few weeks after I owned it and showing them the writ made them move out quick.

They were bum tenants living in filth. Some of the nastiest tenants I had ever seen. When they left I opened the door to gain access and a waterfall of roaches came down and I jumped back 3 to 4 feet so to not get any on me. The walls had to be washed down along with the cabinets but that was a few months after treatment to knock the bugs down to at least a level where you could enter the place (not habitable yet).

If you watched Orkin and Undercover Boss this week on TV that was child's play compared to what I saw. Take that and go about 100 times worse. I am not kidding when the company filmed it and wore suits for the training video.

Luckily the other 3 units had minimal bugs and they were all mostly concentrated in this one unit.

From this property I gained a ton of experience and know when to buy and how to buy now years and years later. Starting out you just do not know how things area.

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Dyna J.
Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 105 posts · 31 votes
13y
There were children involved? That breaks my heart....

Wow, you're a better person than me. I couldn't imagine spending months on that. I'm pretty sure I would have quoted the movie Aliens and ran away.

Originally posted by Ellen Ripley:
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

1 Reply
Joel OwensBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
13y
Yes there were kids in there and some pit bulls (violation of lease).

The kids took tooth paste and wrote all over the walls in their bedroom upstairs and let it dry. There was also cigarette butts in the exterior sliding window tracks where I used a toothbrush and a shop vac to get them out so the windows could work.

They had plugged up the bathtub and the cockroaches were training for the swimming Olympics doing the backstroke and the butterfly. They had taken crayons and colored the whole room including the bathroom cabinets and had ripped half of them out. I had to take out the main drain pipe under the cabinet and take it outside to push out all the toys and other crap that was clogging it before re-attaching.

That was just some of the things I had to do with the unit. We plastic wrapped the fridge and threw it into the dump. The property was in an A location but among other building owners with crappy tenants on the same street. I later learned other investors called it the "armpit" of the city. So yes you can have a bad street in an amazing area.

I learned a ton over the years of what not to do. My next building I would have to have a scale and size so that I wasn't there everyday. I would not buy in a development with other investors that had buildings. I want size and scale so it runs itself and I want total control of the investment. Too many other investors have life circumstances that do not line up to the quality tenant you want to rent too or the standards for the area.
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