All Forum Posts by: James DeRoest

 ^ what this guy says! Walk away.

If the drainfield is clogged there is no benefit in not replacing it. You won't get the clogged sections out (or the debris) without uncovering the field, you won't know where the clogs exactly are, you'll be breaking the old pipework as you go. You are probably spending more time trying to fix an old drainfield than just replacing it.

Frankly, putting in new pipes is probably the easiest and cheapest of all the options.

The reason the septic companies won't want to 'fix' and old drainfield is because it's far too open ended a contract for them, and frankly, if it's roots - you'll be having trouble with it in less than 2 years - roots grow back real fast.

HTH

I really think that people should be careful suggesting this.

I've seen it a few times on BP and in Florida for instance, a month to month lease will get you into trouble with the revenue department as month to month is considered temporary residence, and taxes are due - much like a hotel room.

I cannot believe Florida is the only state that does not allow the first year of a lease to be monthly.

I think the reason many landlords don't like S8 is because you are catering for a growing section of society that are the complete opposite of landlords.

On one side, the landlord is making prudent financial desicions, planning for the future, paying tax, etc. And then on the other side you have people gaming the system, contributing nothing to society other than huge numbers of fatherless children, getting paid to do practically nothing, and have an entitlement chip on their shoulder the size of Greenland.

We helped 2 of our S8 tenants get their voucher, we gave them lifts to the HA, we made sure their paperwork was perfect, we did everything to help them. They are nice people after all.

However, my wife was stuck in the HA waiting room one day and overheard a conversation between two sisters (one was there to support the other one) ; "you don't need to tell them how much you earn - none of their damn business to know your business - tell your boss that you need to put a lower amount on the income proof form".

As a landlord, I have no problems helping someone through the S8 program, but I do have a big problem when our tax money is given to someone who doesn't need it - and our house is used for that scam.

Almost sure it was built on Indian burial ground! Thing wouldn't even close right when I was trying to get shot of it.

And why do you think they couldn't afford the houses? When your income stream (eg tenants) dries up, you are left servicing the debt on your own, and this is where it goes horribly wrong. And this is where it went horribly wrong for a lot of people only a few years ago.

As for me flipping? Haven't flipped a single house. I sold a duplex once as it was cursed.

We are very careful with S8. We have 3 at the moment, really good relationships, although one might get a 3 day notice over the summer for never paying their portion of the rent ($80 or so).

The problem with our housing authority (I can't speak for others) is that it's actually very difficult to evict someone, it seems you sign away certain rights as a landlord when you sign the housing authority contract. Which in our opinion gives the tenant a little too much power over us - especially in multi-unit situations where one bad tenant affects the others. I have a responsibility to my other tenants that they are not housed next to a nightmare.

The 3 we have are very good, and all but one (we inherited that one), were good tenants before getting their voucher. 

Because when the economy stutters, your tenants will disappear in a heartbeat, your vacancies will go through the roof, and all of a sudden your income doesn't quite meet your financial obligations.

This is exactly what happened a few years ago.

But as I've made very clear, far be it from me to talk to sense to you people who finance everything, I made a ton of money buying distressed property sales last time round - I'll make a ton of money next you all go broke.

It's almost unsettling that so many people today are not learning what broke investors only 5-6-7 years ago. How short memories are.

Never ever use any shade of white in a rental. We're looking at a property at the moment, the retiring landlord has painted it brilliant white throughout.....sigh.

Some tenants have a habit of looking at rental property as if they own it, and white walls just encourages them to 'customise' the property to how they want.

Which is exactly a friends rented house ended up with 1 pink room and 1 blue room. Do you know how many coats of Killz is required for hot pink? Several.

We use two colours, one for living areas, one for sleeping areas. The corridor gets one of those colors depending on whether it's a light corridor or dark. They are related colors, eg one is darker than the other, but still on same color card.

Pick a builders beige in HD/Lowes. Any will do.

Valspar 4000 everytime. Goes on well but will need a second coat most times.