All Forum Posts by: Jeff Owens

I am in VA but I inherited some rental property once. Though I sold out my half of the properties I am talking about to my sister who also inherited it with me.

For us it worked like this. Our mother passed away and we both inherited the properties jointly 50-50. Tenants kept paying rent, and rent was neither paid to myself or my sister. Rent was deposited into our mothers estate. Both my sister and myself were named by the will as co-executors of the estate and we made choices together as to how to proceed with the properties while this was going on, as in we consulted on repairs etc, money to maintain the property also came from the estate.

In my case I wanted to invest in other property and my sister wanted the property my mother owned, so she bought out my half of the properties I inherited with her, and I am no longer part of that. But while it was going on neither of us received a penny of the rent, the estate did, and when the estate was settled we both received our share of the money that was collected during that time.

It sounds complicated but it's really not - just think of the estate of your mother as a person, instead of things you own. Think of it as a person with assets that you are assigned to control. It may ultimately be yours eventually, but until it clears probate and the estate is closed, it's a separate legal entity that you have guardianship over, not a private bank account for you,.

I think your worry about rules change is very valid and something you need to consider carefully. It can and does happen. Some HOA's are fairly benign, others are run more strictly than North Korean labor camps. It really just depends, and a HOA that's great now can quickly change when "Nosey Nancy" down the street gets elected to head the association and decides to rule with an iron fist.

Google "HOA Nightmare" if you haven't and would like a laugh. You may be amazed at how some HOA's are run.

I personally would never even consider owning property for any significant length of time in a neighborhood with a HOA. I personally find the entire concept of a HOA extremely offensive.

It's not a common floor in my area, I haven't seen it in any homes around here, not to say it doesn't exist, I just have not run into it yet. Around here people aren't too adventurous with flooring, it's mostly carpet, hardwood, or tile.

I have seen it in a condo a friend had down in Charlotte NC a few years ago. The building had a very industrial feel to it. Exposed brick interior walls with conduit exposed and running to electrical outlets. Exposed ducktwork running on ceilings, etc. Had an old warehouse feel, but was very modern at the same time. Looked very nice!

I know what you mean Rob. Some of the things we see and experience you have to be a landlord to appreciate. I consider my problems minor, I have a close friend with 41 low income units. The people he rents to are an interesting group no one would believe exist, his stories are beyond interesting. Because of him I now know where all the weirdos I see at the DMV sleep at night.

I just recently started going to a weekly Real Estate investors group meeting/dinner thing in my city. Good place for landlords around here to network with other local landlords, share info, keep up with whatever new ways to screw landlords Roanoke City has worked to come up with, help each other out with problems, and vent about problem tenants we face. I enjoy it. You may want to check and see if you have a similar group wherever you live, if you do, they won't be shocked by any stories you have to share, they have probably seen it before a million times.

Rob K. - Sounds a lot like what I am dealing with. There is certainly a high level of paranoia with this guy. For instance I questioned the other person in the building who lives next door to the supposed noise making tenants to see if he had any noise complaints, and he didn't. I explained it to the complaining tenant and he told me that the banging on the floor only happens when the other guy leaves. He said "Jeff they are smart, they know it's only me in here and it's 3 of them against me, they wait until there are no witnesses before banging and making noise"

I could write a book about this guy and I have only dealt with him for 17 days so far, not even a whole month yet. That's why I said enough, better to end it now, he isn't happy, I can't make him happy, he can go be another landlords problem.

Chris K., you may be right. I normally would never intentionally create a vacancy. That's $625 a month not going into my pocket during the hardest months of the year to rent out property, this apartment will probably sit for a couple months, so I certainly didn't make the decision lightly.

There is more too it than just the complaints and lack of respect for my time, certain mannerisms and things he has said that make me uneasy, things hard to describe and quantify. I never would have rented to him had I owned the building when he applied.

I recently bought a 20 unit building and closed on the 10th of December. On the 11th I started dealing with the complaints of one tenant on almost a daily basis. All of the complaints are noise related and all have been unreasonable and impossible for me to resolve in my opinion. Some of the complaints I can prove don't even exist. Skip to the last paragraph if you don't want to read in detail all the complaints I am getting, if you are bored and want a laugh read through.

The tenant is complaining about noise he hears from the people above him. We aren't talking about having people over, loud parties, music, TV, or anything like that. I am talking about stuff like the tenant below wants me to make the upstairs tenants not take showers before work because they work "Ridiculous hours". The upstairs tenants get up at 5:00-5:30am for work, and the tenant below feels it's unreasonable for them to walk around at that hour, or shower before work. He also complains about hearing thier washer and dryer run. One of the upstairs tenants has a respiratory problem and coughs a lot, the complaining tenant can hear it and wants me to make that stop.

He has even told me that people are breaking into the vacant apartment next to his in the middle of the night to use the washer and dryer as he hears the washer and dryer in the vacant unit running late at night. I know this is completly made up as while there is a washer and dryer in the unit, I haven't had it installed yet. It's sitting in there not even hooked up, still with the protective plastic on it, so it's impossible for anyone to use it.

He is also upset that one of the tenants goes out on the balcony and according to the complaining tenant goes out on the balcony every time he does. He has even asked me to "Come hide in the bushes and I will call you right before I go outside on my balcony so you can catch them going out on thier balcony when I go out". Another balcony complaint is apparently the people upstairs have spit off the balcony and the downstairs tenant finds it gross and wants me to make them stop.

Christmas mornings complaint was that the upstairs tenants are now following him around the apartment upstairs and banging on the floor. They somehow know when he goes from one room to the next in his apartment and follow him around and bang on the floor of whatever room he's in.

Before I took possession of the building he had the previous owner send the upstairs tenants a letter asking them not to use thier exercise bike in the morning as it disturbs him. The people upstairs don't own an exercise bike.

The complaining tenant has only been there 3 months, and the upstairs tenants have been there almost 4 years, they never had a complaint against them about noise before the complaining tenant moved in.

I offered to allow the complaining tenant to move into one of the vacant units I have in a different building, and he wasn't interested. I explained there isn't much of anything I can do as I can't prevent the upstairs tenants from reasonable use of thier apartment. He still wants to call almost daily to complain, when he does he keeps me on the phone for 30-45 minutes. Truth be told I think he isn't "all there", and I feel bad for him, but I don't have the time to deal with silly and or made up complaints every day. He is on a month to month lease and I decided yesterday to not renew it, and told him that I was ending his lease, and mailed out a letter for the required 30 day notice to end the lease. When talking to a friend who is also a landlord he told me to be careful as it may be considered retaliation to not renew a lease after he has been complaining about noise. I don't see how it would be retaliation, I am not trying to get even with the guy or anything, he hasn't harmed me other than just being a pest. I just don't want to continue to deal with silly wastes of time and would rather find a tenant who isn't going to be a constant hassle all the time. He clearly isn't happy, I can't make him happy, and I am not happy to deal with all his drama and BS. Seemed the best solution is to part ways.

Is there anything I need to be concerned about with "retaliation" in this situation?

@Bill S. had suggested that this was a troll reply, unfortunately it's likely not. Some people honestly believe things like that.

Here is a thread on a forum that will help to give insight to the entitlement mindset of some people who believe exactly as whomever sent the email claiming credit reports and evictions are discrimination. The way that email reads, it might even be the same person who was behind this thread. It's an interesting thread to read, no one can seem to understand why horrible credit, and drug trafficking charges would make a landlord not interested in renting to someone. To them it's clearly "bigotry" and landlords wanting to "contribute to the homeless population". It's good for a laugh anyway.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3828248

At less than 5% she would be better off buying an annuity with her retirement cash if she wants risk free guranteed income with no hassles.

You wanted advice on how to talk her out of it. I think trying to talk her out of it is not the best strategy. I think the best approach would be to show her why it's a bad idea, and let her come to the choice not to do it on her own. Run all the numbers, sit her down and explain them all to her.

She may think she has no expenses because the house is in good shape. Explain to her that she will be responsible for taxes and insurance, show her what that costs. Find out how old things like the roof, heating and cooling, water heater, and appliances are. Show her what they cost to replace, and the average lifetime on those things, show her how to budget and set away money from rent to replace them.

You mentioned she only plans to own as long as the current tenant lives there and if the elderly tenant passes away she plans to sell it. (A very unusual property exit strategy) Show her what she can expect to pay agents when she sells.