All Forum Posts by: Tiffany Roberts

Thanks again everyone for the feedback.  For those wondering how I got myself into this position I've actually been doing this for 12 years-- my husband and I would just pick up a house every now and then. I used to love everything about rentals and houses and remodeling and thought this would be my casual way out of the rat race. In addition to the rentals we would always do a live in flip on our houses and have moved about every 2 years for the past 10 years. 

But a couple of years ago (2020) we refi'd the houses we've had a long time, bought another and remodeled it with the intention of making it an airbnb ----and the time and effort put into that remodel made me question what I was doing with these houses.  I have spent so much time on houses - remodeling and dealing with tenant issues--instead of  playing with my kids. And I just got kind of burnt out and I've never really gotten over that. 

all of them  seem like they should cash flow but the reality is our business bank account never reflects that, but it could be bc we are constantly in the process of remodeling something, I'm actually not sure. 

Finally, our W2 jobs pay well and don't leave time to focus on making the rentals into a business and with having lost the drive to do it I'm just feeling a bit lost since these houses were a big part of my retirement plan-- and now I resent them. 

Anyways, I appreciate all the feedback, it's given me a lot to consider. 

Thank you all for your responses. I'm still not sure what to do with these but your replies do help.

I'm looking for opinions on if I should sell my rentals. I have 5 single family homes and I hate them. They are under quasi-management (long story) and largely I don't have to babysit them, but every notice of an issue makes me hate them more. Most recently a tenant moved out and left the house full of roaches and another one just had an animal in the attic that somehow knocked down the ceiling light in the kitchen. My taxes are overly complicated and worst of all these houses really only break even for us every year. I know these are basic rental type things but I with a full time job and young kids and my own primary home that needs a lot of attention it just all feels like a huge strain to do anything at all for the rentals.

BUT, we have great interest rates on the mortgages, really good tenants, and the rentals won't always break even-- they will go up in value and in rent. My kids won't always be little and needing so much and maybe I'll even get to retire early with the income these houses make. 

Honestly I'm scared that if I get rid of them all now I'll be kicking myself in 10 years for how shortsighted I was. 

Right now though its just so hard.

If anyone has been where I am now with just being fed up with it all and you can let me know how you handled it-- or if you have any sort of perspective you can offer I would really love to hear it. 

@Nathan Gesner and @Randall Alan  thanks so much for the advice. I'll check out some other pest control companies and see if they have any faster options for me.  

We recently had a long term tenant move out of one of our single family homes and she left it absolutely covered in roaches- like falling out of the ceiling covered. I know our property management was NOT good on this one  we should have been checking on the house but she was there for so long and didn't used to be disguising so we fell out of checking on her. Lesson learned.   

Anyway, we are getting professionals involved BUT they say they can't just "bomb" the house (it's illegal in Michigan??) and it will require multiple trips and could take months or longer to eliminate this issue. So do I just have to sit on this house being empty while I wait to get rid of the roaches? Morally, I cannot rent to someone if I know the house has bugs. Has anyone been in this situation? What did you do?

Thank you for your input @Drew Sygit and @Eric Wilkinson I really appreciate it. 

Thanks @Eric Wilkinson I'll check Beal out.  

@Michael P. I see you are not a fan of Beal, do you have any companies you would recommend?  

It's really difficult to find mgmt in Adrian, MI so I'm looking for suggestions.  

I have 4 single family rentals in Adrian Michigan that I would like to have a property manager take over. Can anyone suggest a good property manager in southeast Michigan who works in the Adrian market?  It could be a manager out of Ann Arbor, MI or Toledo OH (both are 45 min away).

Thanks!

Congrats and thanks for sharing! 

I would never buy a home without seeing those areas. Never. And i would fire the real estate agent for saying it's not a big deal.