All Forum Posts by: Susan Maneck

 He paid faithfully for 11 years until he was laid low by the pandemic. How many of your tenants can you say paid rent for 11 years? 

My first tenant was a felon. There were a few occasions when he lost work but I was able to have him do various jobs on that occasion he was the fastest and hardest worker than I've ever hired. Sometimes the rent was slow but it always came, until Covid hit. In November 2020 because the rent hadn't come yet, I called them. He answered the phone but was coughing so much I finally said, "put your wife on the phone." When she answered she started giving excuses. I immediately stopped her and said, "Nevermind that. Your husband has Covid. Get him to the hospital now!" They both tested positive but this was before there was really any effective treatment. They sent him home with a bunch of BS prescriptions without bothering to see whether or not they had the means to fill them. They didn't. I sent my ex-husband over to pick up their prescriptions, get them some food, and buy them an oximeter. He left the stuff on their doorstep and I called the wife and said if his oxygen level went below 89 to take him back to the hospital. It did. He ended up in the ICU and nearly died. Afterwards the disease left him completely disabled. For awhile I would periodically receive rents from various agencies but they would never inform me ahead of time whether I would get anything or not, but finally when they were 5K behind I was told they wouldn't receive anymore. At that point I had to file for eviction. When the wife called she asked how long after the court case would she be able to stay before the constable came. I told her if she moved out before the court date and left the property in good condition I wouldn't show up in court, so the eviction wouldn't show up on their record. They did this and left the property in good order although, because they had lived there for 11 years, there was a lot of wear and tear. I'm sure I sound naive to you, but what happened was not their fault and you can't get blood out of a stone. The tenants I really can't stand are the ones who show up in court and lie through their teeth. 

They have about doubled since I bought property there. Still, unless it is an extraordinary property I wouldn't buy anything over 100K. 

Yep, the non-disclosure law in Mississippi is a pain. During the pandemic zillow was giving more estimates but IMO they were off. You can usually get something off of realtor.com. 

So the recession got you really bad? The house I owner-occupied was purchased from HUD and during the recession, I realized to my dismay it was under water. I could either cry about that or buy up the neighborhood. I bought up the neighborhood and made a killing. I guess that's why I have a more positive attitude about SoJo. I bought when the property values were at their absolute lowest and they could only go up.

 I've known relatively new and extremely fancy houses in Madison County that developed the same foundation problems. I figured if a house hasn't moved in 40 years it probably won't. 

You owned houses on Wooddell? 

 Oops, you are right. I mixed up east and west, but the zips were right. ;-}  I think most of your SoJac rentals were in the 39204 zip, at least the ones I saw. Also, as I understand it you gutted those houses, putting in practically new everything. As you found out, major rehabs generally won't pay for themselves here. I almost never bought house that needed more than 5K of work.  You are right you can't depend on appreciation. There are only two times when I've seen much appreciation in Jackson. The first was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans won't fit in Jackson) and the second was the aftermath of this pandemic. 

In South Jackson it is usually Cany Creek that floods, but it connects to Pearl River, so if Pearl River is full that creek fills too. Most of my houses are on Wooddell which backs up to it, but what I realized is that when the creek overflows it empties onto Longwood which is on the other side of the creek. All sorts of little things you know if you are local but hard for outsiders to navigate.