Alas, the good news stops there. I just found out I am losing two tenants this month. Even worse, one of the two has told me she won't be able to pay the already late November rent.
The first loss was somewhat expected as the tenants told me 6 months ago they wanted something bigger. At first I was going to work with them to buy another property, but when my other house didn't sell, the funds I expected to have for a new property never came.
The second loss is both unexpected and unfortunate. On the one hand, this tenant has had problems paying me on time for the last year, so I've even considered terminating her lease on my own. On the other hand, she is a low maintenance tenant, which is why I worked with her on her financial issues. Besides having to replace the air conditioner recently (which probably makes up for everything else when I think about it), I haven't had to spend any money maintaining this house in the two years she has been my tenant.
Of course, with this second property I will most likely have some deferred maintenance issues to deal with. While it's nice to not hear from a tenant for two years about problems, that also means there's probably some things inside that have to be fixed.
I suppose I should revisit my financial goals for November. The next few months are going to be a challenge.
Alas, I used to have so many problems with renters, that's why I gave it up! One even had a huge house fire! Even with insurance, I had to fork out about $12,000 of my own money to get it back to snuff. I do understand the non complaining tenant, sometimes rent late is better than complaints. Good luck, sorry about all of the misfortunes, but its bound to happen!
ReplyDeleteI place a good bit of value on low-maintenance tenants, even when they pay their rent late sometimes. Of course, the perfect tenant is one who fixes things himself AND pays on time. On the other end of the desirability spectrum, I have a tenant who calls me about something every single week. They pay me my rent and I don't have to worry about minor issues turning into major ones, but I find myself screening my calls when their number pops up. It seems like a tenant would be able to change a dead battery in a smoke detector without calling me to do it!
ReplyDeleteI had to change the battery in the thermastat, they didn't know how and didn't feel they should have to pay for the battery!
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