All Forum Posts by: Michael Jones

I would be more concerned about that green tile!!! 😂 I'm joking. I would just hit it with appliance paint as mentioned above.

Go to the rental and turn the oven on. Once it heats up past 200 degrees open the oven door. If you look at the bottom of the oven compartment you will see the element bright red. If you look up at the top of the stove you will see another element that will be bright red. They are bright red because they are hot. Don't touch them. If both are red hot the oven is working great and your tenants brain is the issue. If one of the two elements is red and the other is not, the one that is not red is a bad element. Go to applianceparts.com and order the element for under $25.00. It will be two bolts and removing the back of the oven cover to replace. And you can YouTube how to replace if needed.

I would call a local plumbing company that specializes in drain clogs. Something does not add up here:

You have a duplex that is two units in one building. Trust me, there is little chance that this building has "two" main sewer lines going to the street or city sewer pipe. That means that both units have sewer drains that tie into the one drain that connects to the city's main line. 

Since one unit is flushing fine and no back up and the other unit is backing up into the tub it indicates that the clog is localized at that unit and should not be far beyond the actual toilet drain seeing that the other unit is not affected.

So if this is the case, that means you probably have no issues with tree roots or a collapsed line but rather some type of substance that is clogging up the immediate drain.

Was an auger (snake) ran through the line? If not, call a local company and for a couple of hundred to three hundred they will open that clean out and run the snake towards the road, then towards the house to open up the clog. And they may take the toilet up and run the snake right through the hole where the stinky stuff goes in the floor.

Great post and lots of great replies with good reading.

I am seeing that a lot of you are saying the repairs are higher and turnover is higher on low income rentals. 

I will assume that the turnover is due to tenants mismanaging their finances and having to make a change or are there other factors that drive the turnover?

Also, regarding the higher repairs, is this generally in the area of painting and carpet or do low income renters create repair issues in other areas of your rentals? It would be easy to assume that a roof doesn't care what part of town it is in, or a HVAC unit inst going to break down quicker because the bad part of town gets hotter or colder. So other than the cosmetics and the rental not being treated well by the tenants, what repair issues will there be that do not exist in a high income area?

@David Weintraub

Maybe it is time I started smoking again.

An eight unit trailer park in the Midwest? If you are going to keep out anyone that has or does smoke weed recreationally in your park you should go there on a Friday night after payday around 10:30 and start knocking on doors. Take about five notices with you for violation of leases because my bet is more than half of your current tenants are lighting up already. Especially if they are not elderly tenants. Look at it this way, if you are above the age of 30 and your skills and education have you peaked out at a career that will only provide renting a trailer in the midwest you probably are not making choices like where am I going to send my children to college, is our passports up to date for our summer trip to Spain, where can I get my BMW serviced? But, I just got paid and Randall text me and said "man I got some real funk here. You need to get some of this before it's gone" might be cause to get me a little excited. And, seriously, what is a pot head going to do? Sit on the couch and get full of brownies and smoke a little more and listen to bad music like the Grateful Dead. They are not gonna suddenly join forces and riot through the wheeled jungle of mobile homes leaving death and destruction behind them. Now, it it is heroine, meth, even distribution of pot......get serious and get them out. Stoners that have a job and one misdemeanor......sign the lease right here please. And before assumptions are made I have not smoked weed in 30 years. I am just a landlord that finds them easy to work with because the have no real agenda except getting high and relaxing.

Can you forward all of your tenants my name and number so after you tick them off and get them to move out I can rent to them? I am somewhat partial to renters that ask for a receipt after they have paid the rent. I am not that passionate about the receipt but boy that monthly rent payment really gets me in a good mood every time.

Will this crazy squatter answer the door? If so, meet them at the door with hundred dollar bills and a new lock set and a pre printed agreement that says they are moving out on that day. Have them sign, move their belongings out and hand you the keys. Change the locks immediately. Take a friend with you and record them agreeing to move out and handing you the keys and signing the form. Yes, it is going to suck handing this low life some real cash but you are going to hand it to them in lost rent, lawyers fees and not counting the stress of wondering if this person is destroying your property. Pay them and cut bait and get this behind you.

OK. Between the replies here as well as the private messages, we have interest from anywhere between five to eight. 

What times, dates and areas work for everyone? personally I have a full time job so an evening works well for me and I am centrally located so any area works as well. The Highlands area has been a suggestion so far.

Sounds good jay. I have a couple of folks that have emailed and stated they would be interested as well. If we can get five of us that wants to meet we can do it.