All Forum Posts by: Henry T.

Do not be a landlord in Seattle. IT's the worst place in the world to be a landlord and very high risk. If you have 50 houses, then ok, you have your risk spread out. But if you only have one rental and you get a bad tenant you are sunk.

Read the laws and talk to some mom/pop landlords with decades of experience. Did you know that in 2022 11,000 landlords quit Seattle?  There's a reason, too risky.  Here's just one example of the twisted laws of Seattle. If you rent to a family with kids in school, and they decide not to pay rent, you CANNOT evict them. Sell the house, forget being a landlord in Seattle. This is not a place for a beginner. Mom and pops have left, the corporations are moving in.

If you want to be a landlord, sell it and do your business in a more friendly state.  Or diversify with a ten unit multi professionally managed.

 That's right. and they would sit on the market forever. Beaters were 5-10k. Now that dirt is 500k plus. Ha ha, this reminds me of a buddy of mine who I worked with when I first arrived. He bought a piece-o-crap house for 5k. NEVER did anything to it except a roof. Most gawd awful ugliest thing you ever saw. I saw on zillow it was sold 3 years ago for 800k. Zero improvements. Those were the days.

This process makes sense from a plumber that wants to make more money.

Putting a cleanout at the lowest point (curb) is not recommended in most cases.  Lets say you have a backup and you open that cleanout, everything upstream is gonna come blasting out in your face.  There's nothing wrong with where your your present cleanout is located. Snaking 75 feet is nothing. A typical snake is configured for 100 feet.

Call another plumber and get a video of your sewer line. Shouldn't be more than $200 and see what he says. If you considering having work done you should have a minimum of 3 bids. My last one I got six bids. Top bid was 48k!! the company I went with was 12k and performed high quality work. But you need to educate yourself and know exactly what the remedy is, or you may pay a huge expense for nothing.

Any company that's doing a bid will video your line (no cost) so they can properly determine what the issue is. Play dumb, ask questions, and try to gain as much info as possible before choosing a contractor.  Some will pressure you to sign that day, tell them you have appointments for more bids.

no. 

I don't know what HELOC interest is (8 guessing), but I'm sure its much higher than a cd. That's crazy.

Find an eviction attorney and get him out. Follow the law and send the exact required notices.  Be firm and don't let things slide. Try to screen for a higher quality tenant next time. If the lease is up next week, then don't renew.  If its four months from now, then explain to him he's going to be evicted, will have a record, and it will go to collections for all court costs and rent money owed, to the penny. Or get out tomorrow.

For evidence, make a video of you standing outside with a decibel meter. You don't have to buy one, you can install an app on your phone that will accomplish the same thing. Tell the tenant (with a firmly written notice) to fix or vacate. Perform an inspection while you're at it. Maybe they removed the ceiling, who knows? Call their sec 8 case worker and tell them they're gonna be evicted. Defend your good tenants and and show you mean it.

There's charts showing jet airplane 120db, lawn mower 90db, and so forth.

PS. I just read a few other posts. if you don't know the difference between "eviction and notice of non-renewal" you have a lot of studying to do if you want to manage a property. Find yourself a good basic landlord book.

Hmmm. Old post.  I'm just being creative here. Public auction? Take pics of all the junk (I mean high class heirlooms, which is what you'll say in the ad) and put it on craigslist asking for offers. After one or two weeks close the ad and take it all to the dump, where it probably belongs. Document and keep pictures.

Its a good discussion, these stories always help to re-evaluate and discuss our markets, or whether or not it's worth staying in them. I would never cash for keys. I think if you gave them their deposit the exact same thing would have happened, AND you'd be out of the deposit. Like another said, your state may have the most to do with this problem. I'm in Seattle. I refuse to play under these anti-landlord conditions. I'm selling my sfr's and investing elsewhere after 40 yrs. Tough screening and letting your tenant know you don't f around. Have strong lease terms and enforcing them quickly is about all you can do in your state.  Because of Seattle's hidden criminal history I got stuck with a criminal. I evicted him and got a 10k judgement. He's still in the area and hiding under a rock for at least 7 years until statute runs out. A 60 year old man, probably sleeping now on couch, if lucky. If he pops his head up he gets a summons. He's never gonna try cash for keys, not as long as there's people like me around. No thanks necessary :)

You had a nice 3 bedroom. That's over. $1600 is not enough to justify the coming damage. The damage may already be done. Sorry you're going thru this. Getting rid of urine smell is very difficult and very costly. Either resign yourself to renting a stinking dump, or stick to your lease and get her or the animals out. It's sad, we all love our pets, but this is out of control.

Oh my, this is an old thread. 6 years ago.  Doh! And how much progress has be made? None. I think this ESA insanity eventually implode on itself. Hopefully in my lifetime.