Yet another kick in the nutz
We've been renting out the house we bought my mother ever since we moved Patrick into our loft. The first tenants we had pulled a midnight move after about a year. We found new tenants pretty quickly, and they've been find. They're supposed to pay their rent by the 10th, according to the lease. Usually they pay by the 4th or 5th. Well, Mike called them last Friday to see what the hold-up was, and find out they're in the process of moving! Of course they didn't say anything to us.
A little back history: they've been excellent tenants for 2 years, paid the rent, haven't broken anything, and haven't really bothered us for much. Elderly couple, both on SS, with a son on SSD. We weren't gouging them for rent, $600 a month for a brick 4 bed/1 bath house with a fenced yard. Then about 6 months ago the husband got intestinal cancer, and had surgery. Then he fell and broke his hip. Now he's in a nursing home about 45 miles away, and the wife wants to move closer to him, which is perfectly understandable. She mentioned this last month to Mike, that they *might* be moving.
Apparently they considered that their notice!! So we went over there Sunday afternoon to see what was left for us to do, and they're still moving out. The house isn't in too bad condition, just 2 yrs of wear and tear. Nothing some spackle and paint won't fix. They told us they'd be out today (Wednesday). Only real issues were some places in the walls that they'd somehow busted out, but they've patched them well, so all we have to do is paint them.
So Mike and I went over there today to see what we needed to do. They aren't out!! Trash all over the place, pieces of furniture, kitchen floor not cleaned... The son called this afternoon and said they'd be finished and cleaned up tonight, but I wonder how well because he wanted to know if they'd get any of their security deposit back. Well, setting aside no notice, they wouldn't get any because they've been there rent-free for half a month, plus they tore up the Levolor blinds we had in there (almost brand new) and took them down without telling us.
So no, they won't get any deposit back. Sorry.
I just hope they don't trash the house because they aren't getting any deposit back. Mike went to the Home Depot today and got spackle and paint, painting supplies, and other stuff so we can clean up over there. We're planning to just try to sell the house -- we're over being landlords. This is the second tenant who's tried to do a midnight move on us.
Mike's been talking to a Realtor who works this area, and he said the market is fairly decent as long as we don't overprice the house. He's coming Friday to see the inside, but from the outside he thinks we could get $90,000 to $100,000 for it. That would be good -- we could then put this place on the market and find somewhere closer to where Patrick works. House prices closer to Atlanta are really depressed, and you can literally get huge houses for $35,000 or less. These are houses that before the housing market died were going for $225,000 and $300,000. Like this one. Or this one. (I actually wish we could get this last one now -- it's on 2 acres!!) It's crazy.
We want to get something on a little bit of land, further out in the country, with DSL, and a finished basement or an in-law/teen suite for Patrick. I'm finding literally hundreds of houses like that, all for less than $100K. It's insane.
So maybe it'll all work out, but until it's sold we're going to miss that $600 a month...
Lorri
GA 12/04
A little back history: they've been excellent tenants for 2 years, paid the rent, haven't broken anything, and haven't really bothered us for much. Elderly couple, both on SS, with a son on SSD. We weren't gouging them for rent, $600 a month for a brick 4 bed/1 bath house with a fenced yard. Then about 6 months ago the husband got intestinal cancer, and had surgery. Then he fell and broke his hip. Now he's in a nursing home about 45 miles away, and the wife wants to move closer to him, which is perfectly understandable. She mentioned this last month to Mike, that they *might* be moving.
Apparently they considered that their notice!! So we went over there Sunday afternoon to see what was left for us to do, and they're still moving out. The house isn't in too bad condition, just 2 yrs of wear and tear. Nothing some spackle and paint won't fix. They told us they'd be out today (Wednesday). Only real issues were some places in the walls that they'd somehow busted out, but they've patched them well, so all we have to do is paint them.
So Mike and I went over there today to see what we needed to do. They aren't out!! Trash all over the place, pieces of furniture, kitchen floor not cleaned... The son called this afternoon and said they'd be finished and cleaned up tonight, but I wonder how well because he wanted to know if they'd get any of their security deposit back. Well, setting aside no notice, they wouldn't get any because they've been there rent-free for half a month, plus they tore up the Levolor blinds we had in there (almost brand new) and took them down without telling us.
So no, they won't get any deposit back. Sorry.
I just hope they don't trash the house because they aren't getting any deposit back. Mike went to the Home Depot today and got spackle and paint, painting supplies, and other stuff so we can clean up over there. We're planning to just try to sell the house -- we're over being landlords. This is the second tenant who's tried to do a midnight move on us.
Mike's been talking to a Realtor who works this area, and he said the market is fairly decent as long as we don't overprice the house. He's coming Friday to see the inside, but from the outside he thinks we could get $90,000 to $100,000 for it. That would be good -- we could then put this place on the market and find somewhere closer to where Patrick works. House prices closer to Atlanta are really depressed, and you can literally get huge houses for $35,000 or less. These are houses that before the housing market died were going for $225,000 and $300,000. Like this one. Or this one. (I actually wish we could get this last one now -- it's on 2 acres!!) It's crazy.
We want to get something on a little bit of land, further out in the country, with DSL, and a finished basement or an in-law/teen suite for Patrick. I'm finding literally hundreds of houses like that, all for less than $100K. It's insane.
So maybe it'll all work out, but until it's sold we're going to miss that $600 a month...
Lorri
GA 12/04