All Forum Posts by: Carol Venolia

Me too!

@Lance Wakefield, any guidance on where to find these podcasts?

My fave landlord paint is Benjamin Moore UltraSpec. I love the colors, the coverage, and the cost. I didn't arrive there via lots of experimentation; BenjMoore is the only brand available at the building supply store near my rural rental property. But I've been delighted with it.

I was even more delighted with it after using the house brand at TrueValue. I can't even remember the name; not a major brand. The coverage sucks.

So now I look for Benjamin Moore UltraSpec anywhere I have rentals!

@Alex Rodriguez-Parra, thank you for more beautiful words from your head and heart!

@Christine Sykes, I'm happy to talk! Just know that, while I am in Sonoma County, CA, my investments are not. And do you know about the REI Meetup in Rohnert Park? I'd be happy to meet you there.

Thank you, @Charles Clayton! I did have a decent pest clause, but since "exclusion" was the main recommendation of the exterminators, and I didn't trust my tenants to do that job well, I handled that part. I then left future trapping (and keeping the dingdanged food off the counters!) up to the tenants. All has been quiet for months. Yay.

@Alex Rodriguez-Parra, you gave voice to so much of what I've thought and felt. Thank you!

I got into buy-and-hold (landlording) investing barely knowing what I was doing. I read a lot really fast, and applied it. Doing okay so far. But after taking over an inhabited, three-unit residential property, which had been sorely neglected by the previous owners, I had an epiphany, too. 

My new tenants were so grateful to me for actually caring about their homes--and, to a landlord-appropriate degree, about them--that they fairly glowed. I found that I loved finding out what was needed and taking care of it. I loved even better brainstorming with my new tenants about little extras they might want: a fenced dog yard, landscaping, better parking, raised veggie garden beds.

It struck me that landlording is a caring profession. Nothing I'd read had told me that. I grew into it with relish.

Of course, as time went on, I got to experience some of the downsides of this caring profession. We all know them, so I won't list them here. But I somehow get through them, and my heart is gladdened again every time a tenant tells me that I'm the best landlord they've ever had, that they really appreciate how I work with them.

Thank you for reminding me of the deeper whys!

In addition to the Nolo book Nathan recommended, I can highly recommend Landlording, by Leigh Robinson: 

http://www.landlording.com/

When I made an offer on my first investment property, I read one chapter a day of Robinson's book, and--voila!--by the time escrow closed, I was a landlord.

imho, Robinson handles the human side of landlording well (along with technical and legal issues), while Nolo is the gold standard for in-depth, up-to-date legal stuff.

Meanwhile, do get your head examined. Good luck!

As I understand it, tax liens and tax deeds are two different animals. Some states do tax liens, others do tax deed sales.

California is a tax deed state, and the process is fairly straightforward: If a property owner doesn't pay property taxes for 5 years, the county takes the property and auctions it off, with the minimum bid being the amount they're owed for property taxes. I've participated in many of these auctions.

Tax liens are a whole other animal, and somebody else will have to speak to them!

For reasons I don't fully grasp, most of my tenants (5 units) have turned out to be in their twenties. They're working parents, and noise and partying are never a problem. They do some things that make me shake my head, indicating a lack of understanding of how to treat curtains and other minor parts of the properties. But they're mostly good people.

I've avoided having partiers by checking out applicants on Facebook. If I see a lot of pictures of wild, drunken-looking behavior in groups, they lose points.

After having so many 20-somethings, I do find myself craving some 50-somethings. But they can have problems, too!

Wow, thanks for the cautionary tale! I inadvertently did an OCD test the other day. I was showing a mobile home for rent, and I said to the prospective tenant, "The laminate flooring looks pretty good, but it has a few scratches. [pointed them out] Will that bother you? Are you a Virgo?" (the latter said with an impish grin; it's not illegal to discriminate on the basis of Sun Sign, is it?  ;-)

The guy laughed and said, "Heck no, I'm a Libra. Nothing bothers me."

I think I'll do that again.  :-)