All Forum Posts by: John Lindemann

So, I've made a mistake that is very frustrating and I want to warn other investors.  I hired one of my tenants to do some work for me on a fence.  He currently does handyman work for one of the big RE companies in town and he regularly tells me how happy they are to have him.  I recently bought a house to flip and the fence was leaning over, it wasn't in bad shape...just leaning.  So, I had him out to quote the job of removing the existing fence, installing new posts and then putting the fence back up.  He quoted me $250 + supplies.  That is what I was planning to offer somebody on CL so I hired him.  Better deal for me...some of that money will be coming back to me in the form of rent, "keeping it in the family" so to speak.

Now, he put up the new fence and it is standing up straight but it is crooked as a dogs leg! Looking from above it would look like this: 

He also left all of his scrap wood, and trash at the house. He knew I had to have the trash removed because my mowers were coming.  So when I called him to discuss he said that he left the scrap wood because he thought I'd burn it in the fireplace...uh no, its treated wood!  He did come and pick up the trash...well, most of it anyway.  When I told him about it being unacceptably crooked he said that it wasn't possible to straighten it out because the ground was hard and he couldn't dig in some spots.  He said he would've needed a power auger.  If he'd just have called and told me that then we could've rented one.  No problem but now the whole fence is up and will have to be completely taken down to repair.

I believe him that the ground was hard but...the fence looks awful, you can see from the street how bad it looks.  I got zero ROI from the fence repair. As it stands, I would expect a potential buyer to ask for a fence allowance on the sale and it makes the whole house look shoddy.

I haven't paid him yet and I'm going to try to work something out with him but I feel like I can't be as assertive and demanding with him since he is a tenant.  I was very upset with him for making me have this awkward conversation with him.

Point of the story: don't hire your tenants.  If you do, write everything out to minute details so that both parties know what is expected.

This is in the Broken Arrow (Tulsa), OK market.

@Cameron Price to be honest I don't know why about the fridge thing. Some do provide it bust most don't in SFH's. Apartments do tho. I just followed suit and most haven't had a problem with it.

Fridges are just another maintenance issue and I would get cheap ones without ice and water in the door so I think most tenants would prefer to bring their own nicer one. I won't let a good tenant get away because I didn't have a fridge tho...all things are negotiable, maybe raise the rent a bit to cover the fridge or something. 

If you supply a fridge and stove...why not a washer and dryer?  ;)

yeah, probably not room for a microwave...vent hood time.  renters won't replace the filter but it's easier to scrub a vent hood than it is to scrub the ceiling.

as a side note...i don't put fridges in my rentals, the renters bring one or rent one from RAC or other rental place.  They are cheap on CL so they can buy on from there if they need to IMO.

welcome @Mike Posey!

Without knowing what your kitchen looks like it's hard to suggest but I generally prefer to install an over the range microwave instead of a vent hood. It clear counter space and makes the kitchen look bigger. If you have a cabinet over your stove it can usually be raised up to allow room for the microwave and that also makes the cabinets look better to not be all one height. Grease on the ceiling will cost you more than a vent hood or microwave! For the bathroom...just do the vent. That's a no brainier unless you have other issues to contend with.

@Russell Brazil

I think (unfortunately) you are correct that it would be a toss up win, I'm not sure however what they could countersue me for.  I didn't breach contract since we were not able to agree on the TRR and I was within my timeframe.

I like @Charlie Fitzgerald's suggestion of an attorney's letter.

I agree that a seller cannot feasibly list every defect however the disclosure form is meant to be a fairly thorough review of the property.  When the seller checked off that the hot tub was in normal working order that was in fact not true.

In my mind the inspections are there not only to keep the sellers honest but more importantly to find issues that the seller may be unaware of.  I recently sold my house and during the inspections we found that the a/c was a tad bit low on Freon.  I wasn't dishonest about it, I just didn't know about that issue.  We remedied the problem and sold the house.

@Charlie Fitzgerald, we have walked away and expect to get our earnest money back.  I'm wondering though if I have a case to ask/sue for my inspection costs since my inspections found issues that they knew about but did not disclose.

@Guy Gimenez, maybe somebody has been through this before.

I forgot to mention that this is in Broken Arrow, OK.  A suburb of Tulsa, OK.

My wife and I recently found a house that we wanted to buy for ourselves to move into.  The seller provided disclosures and we reviewed them then put in an offer and after some negotiations we got the house under contract.  I then spent several weeks lining up financing and inspections.  One of my inspections was for the pool and hot tub.  When I arrived at the house for inspections the seller was there and I immediately noticed water all around the hot tub.  I asked him if it leaked and he said yes it did.  He had not disclosed that but I know he had prior knowledge because he told me in conversation that he has had a company come out to give an estimate on repairing it...the company recommended that he not waste money on it but rather just replace it.

So...now I've spent nearly $900 on inspections and the contract is going to fall through because I asked him for a concession on the hot tub in addition to our TRR.  My question is do I have any legal ground to stand on for a small claims suit against them for the inspection cost?

To put things in perspective:

List price: $230k
1st offer: $210k
2nd offer: $215k
(then we said we were done but then when looking back at pictures...funnily enough we noticed the hot tub and that made us feel comfortable increasing our offer)
Final contract price: $220k

After inspections I asked for $3,300 in concessions to cover replacement of the hot tub and dishwasher.  Obviously that doesn't cover full replacement but in trying to be fair I valued these at what they meant to me when submitting my offer price.

Hot tub replacement cost: $5k
Other repairs expenses: ~$3k
TRR: $1,100

They also offered to do $1,500 in concessions. so of the approximately $8k needed in immediate repairs they are offering $2,600.  I'm okay splitting some of the cost but there isn't margin in the deal for me to cover that much of it.  As of now I have asked my Realtor to cancel the contract.

I'd be up for meeting too