Me vs. Cockroaches - Round 1

[Roseann Koefoed]

I bought three 8-unit buildings in November.  Inspection revealed that one building had a cockroach problem that seemed fairly isolated to one unit where the tenant was really dirty.  Other tenants complained about seeing one here and there, but their units looked clean and they blamed the one dirty unit tenant.

I negotiated a credit from Seller and closed.  Immediately paid the dirty tenant to leave.  We gutted the unit and are doing a full cosmetic update.  But not going to lease it until cockroach issue is fully resolved.

 I've paid for a couple rounds of treatments from a specialist that owns his own company.  We cleared the building for six hours and fogged all units, put poison in every unit including inside walls and left all tenants with a do-it-yourself insecticide purchased off Amazon.

The specialist brought to my attention another unit that was pretty dirty.  They weren't the source of the problem, but he's a bit of a hoarder and there are too many places for the roaches to hide in his unit.  I'm also paying him to leave (he'll be out by 1/31).

I'm going to gut his unit as well and continue with the specialty treatments every 3 weeks or so.  

I should note this is a value-add project for me so I'm ok to spend money on cosmetic updates because it should merit a significant rent spread.

One positive is that the other six tenants have been very patient and have expressed gratitude that I'm trying to fix the problem.  But I don't think they will be so patient when I notice them in February of a rent increase effective 5/1!

Is there anything else that I should be doing that I'm not?  I'm pretty exhausted by all this and am looking for some assurance that I will be able to achieve resolution.  Have any of you successfully eradicated cockroaches?

[Gabe R. Gonzalez]

@Roseann Koefoed Roaches are very difficult to get rid of. You can do treatments every 10-days, but that's overkill. It sounds like you've treated heavily. I'd put the building on a monthly treatment plan with a responsive pest vendor. 

I will say every pest vendor I've dealt with have recommended against fogging. I'm not sure if your pest vendor is well reviewed. If you're still dealing with them, maybe look into another vendor. 

I've gotten a few quotes recently for monthly service, 12-month contract for around $15/unit. 

Another thing that will help is constant communication with your tenants. Let them know the next steps after treatment. "we're going to check these glue traps a few days after treatment to monitor progress" " I'll send a cleaning vendor out if you're still seeing them, dont worry, I've got the bill cause I value you as a tenant" 

Retaining these folks is cheaper than running ads, lease commission, and application fees. 

I have a great recommendation for a pest vendor in Chicagoland area if you're interested.