We've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog. The weekend after we were up in Maryland, I had to go up again for my tenant's walk-out inspection. If you're my friend on Facebook, you probably know all there is to know about this! If not, the short story is that I've had these rather high maintenance tenants for 3.5 years. My grievances haven't been so much with them than with my management company. In the last couple of months, the tenants have paid their rent in installments and broken their lease (military transfer). My management company did not tell me any of this. And on top of this, they overcharged me both months for the fees! There was no mention of late penalties to the tenant, no notification to me about the lease, etc. Needless to say, I was pretty peeved and didn't think they would have my best interest in mind during the walk-out inspection.
So, Gabe agreed to watch the baby while I went up to Baltimore from Sunday to Tuesday. While up there, I got to visit with Kitty, Tommy and Jill. Tommy is Gabe's cousin, and he and Jill are expecting their first baby at the end of September. I also visited with an elementary school friend's family. The Daly family lost their youngest son Ted a few months ago, and the whole family has been struggling with their grief. I was best friends with Ted's older sister Gloria, and he was like a little brother to me. We lost touch after 8th grade, but found each other again on Facebook. It was nice to see the family and share stories about Ted.
The walk-out inspection wasn't too bad. I was disappointed in the condition of the house because I would never leave a rental house in that condition. However, 3 people told me that it wasn't that bad, especially considering that a family of 2 adults, 4 kids, 2 dogs, and probably a cat lived in my 3 bedroom 1.5 bath tiny rancher.
We will definitely need to do some work to refresh the house, and the plan is for us to go up to Baltimore (3rd time in 4 weekends!) during Labor Day weekend, rally the troops (Namu and Nikhil for babysitting, Leslie for painting), and DIY (clean, paint, landscape, etc). I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but we really can't afford to have the house sitting around without tenants.
But another part of me is excited that we have a plan.
So, Gabe agreed to watch the baby while I went up to Baltimore from Sunday to Tuesday. While up there, I got to visit with Kitty, Tommy and Jill. Tommy is Gabe's cousin, and he and Jill are expecting their first baby at the end of September. I also visited with an elementary school friend's family. The Daly family lost their youngest son Ted a few months ago, and the whole family has been struggling with their grief. I was best friends with Ted's older sister Gloria, and he was like a little brother to me. We lost touch after 8th grade, but found each other again on Facebook. It was nice to see the family and share stories about Ted.
The walk-out inspection wasn't too bad. I was disappointed in the condition of the house because I would never leave a rental house in that condition. However, 3 people told me that it wasn't that bad, especially considering that a family of 2 adults, 4 kids, 2 dogs, and probably a cat lived in my 3 bedroom 1.5 bath tiny rancher.
We will definitely need to do some work to refresh the house, and the plan is for us to go up to Baltimore (3rd time in 4 weekends!) during Labor Day weekend, rally the troops (Namu and Nikhil for babysitting, Leslie for painting), and DIY (clean, paint, landscape, etc). I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but we really can't afford to have the house sitting around without tenants.
But another part of me is excited that we have a plan.