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bflbob

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What a couple of days...

As I sit here now, the rain is dripping through the ceiling of my recently vacated 3rd floor rental apartment. Well...I hope it's just dripping...and I hope the ceiling is still there.

Just before I headed to AZ, the tenant I was in the process of evicting left of his own accord. Unfortunately, he was about the only thing to leave. He chose to leave most of his clothes, several meals, a pile of cat crap, his last hair cut, tons of cigarette butts, $2.7 million in beer bottles, stained carpets, and much more.

While I was in AZ, I had someone go in and clean the place. An entire pickup truck full of garbage, plus another truck full of stuff I put in storage, "just in case". When I got back, I hired a painter to paint another apartment in the building, as well as the entire stairwell.

They finished the painting today, and let me know that the roof was leaking. They were nice, and put buckets under the leak, and mopped up a bit -- which they didn't have to do.

So, the ad to rent the place starts in the paper in the morning. And I've got to show the place with an obviously wet ceiling -- assuming it is still up -- this weekend.

It is supposed to pour all night long tonight. It is pouring right now. Not raining, but pouring. Flood warnings everywhere around us.

So, on top of two vacant apartments, the costs associated with going 60% of the way through an eviction, remodeling, painting, cleaning the vacancy, and having the carpets cleaned for the second time in four months, I have to replace a roof and repair a ceiling (less what insurance kicks in).

I don't think I'll get any sleep tonight.

I already have a meeting arranged with my banker for lunch on Friday, and I've already primed him for a roof repair loan, the financing for the 32-unit (including upgrades), and a loan for the self-storage land I'm looking at.

It makes me nervous that bad things come in threes, and I'm talking to him about three things!

Damn! I think a car just floated past the window! Time to go toss and turn!
 
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wildambitions

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LOL. Just remember...you don't have to stay where you are; and YOU are NOT! ;)

Life is great, learn what you can and grow from what you learn.

I think Yves has had a similar week-more broken pipes found, wall destruction to get at them (of course it was in the exact spot that had just been replaced), and many other incidentals that have arisen upon return. Not to worry, we took 6 bookings in the last 36 hours, all paid in full!:banana:
 

hakrjak

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Hey Bob,

I've been down this road before. In my case, I was able to bill insurance for a hail storm that occured several months back because a roofer found numerous hail damage on my roof (He said that the metal flashing all looked like it had been banged with a hammer, which is what hail damage can look like). Insurance paid for a new roof, and for the inside damage to the unit.

Since I have the "Common Cause" clause in my policy, I only have to pay my deductable for 1 property if damage to all properties are caused by a common cause. I had my roofing inspector check all of my properties, and sure enough they all had hail damage. I ended up getting all of my roofs replaced by insurance, and only having to pay my deductable 1 time.

Hope you have the same level of insurance and luck I had bud ;) I actually ended up pocketing about $2000 profit after all was said and done.

Cheers,

- Hakrjak
 

Runum

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Sorry to hear about your misfortunes Bob. The good thing is that I recall you are pretty tall so that means you will survive in pretty deep water.:smxB: I think you are getting the rain that stayed here for a couple of days. I promise there is an end to the rain. I really do know how you feel man. I like the insurance suggestion, any possibility of going that direction?
 
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ChrisS417

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If it makes you feel any better, yesterday not only did my Dad get laid off, but a tenant called and informed him of a bath tub pipe that has been leaking from the 2nd floor of his duplex to the basement soaking walls the whole way down and creating a nice funky smell in the 1st floor unit's closet.

Sorry to hear about the roof and good luck to you!
 

andviv

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Congratulations on getting rid of that bad tenant!!!
Finally you will get your unit in like-new condition and more than likely will get higher rents than before.
Plus, with the refreshing rain that has been falling lately, your lawn will look better than ever this spring and summer.
Oh, and I am 100% sure you will have a GREAT meeting with the banker and will get even-better terms than what you were expecting.
 

carlhuber

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Is it too late to nail a tarp down on that roof just in case? Tell them you're doing routine maintenance to ensure quality? - anything to keep a problem from getting worse (ounce of prevention, pound of cure)...
 
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hakrjak

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If there is water inside the home, the first thing the insurance company usually does is dispatch a water remediation team with dryers, and vacuum wet/dry suckers to get all of the water out of the carpets and off the floors. If it's still raining, they'll usually throw up a tarp for you also.

- Hakrjak
 

bflbob

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I'm marketing it as a "Self-Cleaning Apartment".

The ceiling made it through the night, and only leaked a couple of gallons of water.

Thanks for all the ideas...I'll put them to work and see how I make out.
 

Russ H

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Hey Bobbo-

Welcome to the wonderful world of passive investing! :smx4:

Just kiddin'.

It took us 3+ years (Nov 2003-Jan 2007) to get our business to the point where we are mostly hands-off. I spend less than 3 hours a month there (and about 2 hours total on the phone, answering questions). Sharon oversees the books and signs checks, about 2 hours a week.

We're still working "full time" on getting our other development deals fast-tracked. So far, so good.

Our B&B that we bought for $1.275M in Nov 2003 just got appraised (yesterday) for $3.4M.

Not too shabby.

It's less than we thought it'd appraise for ($3.7M), but this still allows us to borrow at least $1M against the equity to finish the other stuff.

And it's looking like Friday is the day for Sharon to get implanted w/new baby from IVF! Woo hoo! :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

Keep those plates spinning. It does get easier/less stressful.

In the past 5 days, we've dealt with 4 separate plumbing problems, broken items in rooms, unhappy guests, our best innkeeper telling us she's reached her limit, and we're all fighting some weird coughing/can't breathe thing. Sharon got about 5-15 min sleep each hour last night (she was in a separate room, trying to rest). And I got up at 3:30 w/KT, who had a restless night therafter (I've done that for the past 4 nights).

Andres is right-- look on the bright side. What if you had just gotten a great tenant, for a higher monthly nut, and the celing started dripping right after they had moved everything in? Some folks would have just moved out.

If the ceiling is made of plaster or drywall, you could get it replaced so it doesn't look like a problem (that's what we do). But not being there or seeing it, I can't say.

Funny thing about this life is, the more you do it, the easier it gets. The stress never goes away, as SteveO pointed out. But you just get better and better at handling it.

For what it's worth, with all this craziness going on in my life right now, I slept really great from 9:30 tp 3:30 (that's more than I've done all week!).

I'd say that I slept like a baby, but that wouldn't be accurate. 'Cause now I know how babies sleep! :)

-Russ H.
 
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Russ H

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:thankyousign::thankyousign::thankyousign:


.
 

CarrieW

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And it's looking like Friday is the day for Sharon to get implanted w/new baby from IVF! Woo hoo! :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

Congrats Russ and Sharon!

as we would say on the ttc website I used to belong too ~~~~~~~Sticky Vibes!~~~~~~
 

slim_jim

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a loan for the self-storage land I'm looking at.


Hey Tatonka-Bob

Would you discuss any particulars? How many acres? How many other self-storage facilities are near this land? Occupancy of the other facilities? I have been looking and there are many storage facilities in Columbus. So I started looking to smaller towns outside Columbus. There were still many other facilities. So the search continues.....

Sorry to hear about your rental difficulties. Remember... what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

:smxB:
 
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Russ H

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Thank you all!
 

bflbob

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a loan for the self-storage land I'm looking at.


Hey Tatonka-Bob

Would you discuss any particulars? How many acres? How many other self-storage facilities are near this land? Occupancy of the other facilities? I have been looking and there are many storage facilities in Columbus. So I started looking to smaller towns outside Columbus. There were still many other facilities. So the search continues.....

Sorry to hear about your rental difficulties. Remember... what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

:smxB:

Early phases on this one. It's about 2.08 acres, listed for $175k. Just off the interstate, and on a four lane highway. There are several other facilities around the area, and I still need to check on vacancies, but I might as well see how the financing is handled.

Time will tell...
 

slim_jim

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Early phases on this one. It's about 2.08 acres, listed for $175k. Just off the interstate, and on a four lane highway. There are several other facilities around the area, and I still need to check on vacancies, but I might as well see how the financing is handled.

Time will tell...


Thanks much Tatonka-Bob
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Early phases on this one. It's about 2.08 acres, listed for $175k. Just off the interstate, and on a four lane highway. There are several other facilities around the area, and I still need to check on vacancies, but I might as well see how the financing is handled.

Time will tell...

You might want to check zoning to see if you can put up a billboard if the acreage is viewable by the freeway. Billboards are big $$ and as passive as it gets.
 

bflbob

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You might want to check zoning to see if you can put up a billboard if the acreage is viewable by the freeway. Billboards are big $$ and as passive as it gets.

It's viewable, but the site is at the entrance to a residential area. I doubt the zoning would permit it, but I'll be sure to check. Thanks for the idea!
 

Yankees338

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You might want to check zoning to see if you can put up a billboard if the acreage is viewable by the freeway. Billboards are big $$ and as passive as it gets.
I've heard the zoning laws on billboards have become more strict recently. It seems like most billboards are already established, so it's tough to get new ones in. This could be different out on highways, but I thought I read this in some success story about a guy who built up a billboard advertising empire? Idk how accurate this is -- does anybody else have a clue about the legalities of this?
 
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hakrjak

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Yep, every time they try to put one up within 5 miles of my neighborhood, the home owners associations band together and take petitions to the city council. The billboards never see the light of day.

- Hakrjak
 

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