All Forum Posts by: Chris Hughes

I have a cash cushion.  Plenty actually.  I’m just frugal and if I can mitigate using it I will.  I also have other properties, one of which is being tented and fumigated for dry wood termites in January and that is costing big bucks also at the moment.  $15,000 in cash can go quick when you have a few properties, believe me I know.  And it won’t be something I can build back up very quickly.

Also the tenant has caused damages to the interior of the home that pretty much void their security deposit.  Drywall and paint repairs in several rooms need to be made and they have destroyed a few door casings that will require a lot of work to repair or replace.  So saying I can use the deposit for rent won’t matter much since I’ll need to use it anyway.  It’s just a frustrating situation.  

Thank you for the replies.  How long would the deceased tenants have to remove the belongings and furniture etc (hypothetically speaking)?  

I have a tenant in a rental property  in Florida.  They are about 6 months into their 1 year lease.  I found out a couple days ago that they suffered a heart attack and are in the hospital.  They are elderly and in poor health generally.  

What happens if they pass away while renting my home?  What happens to any damages that they’ve done to the property while renting it?  My family is dependent on the income from this home to pay our bills.  Will I be able to let their family in to remove their belongings and get the house re-rented quickly?  Anything more than a 2 month lapse in rent would hurt us financially.  

Thank you for your replies...

That is a great point @Stephen Akindona ... I’ve already seen regulations “change the equation” for some in communities that went from zero to, “no less than 90 day leases”.  That obviously can make a huge impact on the ability of a unit to be rented.  

I guess we’ve been doing the whole LTR thing for a while now and have been interested in something a little bit different with some upside potential.  The market is grossly inflated right now as well so buying another LTR locally isn’t as appealing at the moment.  

What would you do in our shoes?  We are in our early 30’s and own 2 very lucrative rental properties that we manage ourselves.  One was purchased using a 15 year mortgage and the other a 30 year and we have about 13 and 28 years left respectively.  We owe about $225,000 on the mortgages currently and have been considering paying them off over the next few years.  Would be the most conservative use of our funds.

That being said, we are still young and I’ve always been relatively aggressive with our investments and it has paid off.  We’ve been really considering getting into the vacation rental market.  We have met people who tell us about earning $75,000+ /year on properties they spent $300,000-$400,000 on initially.  That seems like really great income potential and perhaps a better (if not potentially riskier) use of funds.  

If we went the vacation rental route, something near us would have its appeal (we live a few blocks from the beach in a nice little Florida beach community) because we could manage it ourselves much easier.  But to me at least, part of the allure of a vacation rental is to have something my family can go spend time at when we want to as well.  Markets we are familiar with and have considered are: Sanibel Island, Florida Keys (Sugarloaf it Key West most likely), and the USVI (specifically St Thomas and St John).  Open to suggestions though!  What would you do!?

Thank you for the replies all.  I discussed the issues with the tenants and we came to an agreement.  

That is where my frustration lies.  In my opinion they are responsible from anywhere between $3000 and perhaps $3500 in damages in my opinion.  Yet their deposit is only for just shy of $2000.  Pretty big gap.  

I have had some interesting tenants in the past, but these take the cake as far as damages are concerned.

The cost of the compressor by itself would have been almost $3000.  The compressor is the component that their negligence in over-looking a very clearly defined agreement in the lease was cause to fail.  They admitted they didn’t change the AC filter for almost their entire tenancy. I even reminded them at times and they did not accomplish it.  

I’m not a nincompoop.  I have flipped houses and done plenty of construction work in my time.  I’ve done high-end and “budget” remodels.  It could cost up to $800 to have the stained quartz professionally cleaned and refinished if it isn’t something I can accomplish myself.  And the paint is more of a time thing to me personally, I’m not that bent out of shape about it.  It’s  basically just the icing on the cake at this point.

Compressor and AC unit were a little bit older.  They were the ones that were installed when we purchased the home back in 2015.  But according to a couple different AC companies the compressor and air handler have been working great up until this.  Just a couple minor repairs here and there.  If I had to guess I would say they were about 10 years old when we purchased the home.  That being said, AC units (in my experience) can last up to almost 20 years if they are well maintained (which this one has been up until these particular tenants moved in) and by all accounts it has been running strong up until this happened.

Aside from the AC, the stains on the new quartz countertops are concerning.  If I can’t get them out myself it could be several hundred dollars to have a company come in to try and remove the stains.  Not to mention to the time and labor to fix all the paint that has been ruined.  They used the hangers that stick to the wall to hang stuff.  Every single one has pulled up a big patch of paint on removal from the wall.

Just an update... We decided to replace the entire AC system.  The tenants ruined the compressor by not changing the filter according to the AC company.  The cost to replace the compressor was almost $3000 which is way more than their deposit.  And it was around $5000 just to replace everything which is what we elected to do.  

The portion I feel the tenants are responsible is the $3000 for the compressor.  Not to mention staining on the quartz countertop in the kitchen and ruining the new paint in many of the rooms.

$3000 plus the other damages is well more than their $2000 deposit covers.  Should I let it go at that or is it worth pursuing further in your opinion?