Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I want my life back!

As some of you know, Jacob and I own a rental property. We bought a little house about a 2 years ago and decided to try our hands at being landlords. After all, you only have sit back and collect rent, right? Wrong. Oh. So. Wrong. In fact, my advice to anyone out there is to never have a rental property. Wait, where is the caps lock button? Oh, there you are. What I meant to say was NEVER HAVE A RENTAL PROPERTY!! Our latest tenant just moved out and we are now in the process of deciding whether a bug bomb or an actual atomic bomb would be the best option for what remains of the house. I won't go into too many details, because for one thing I would get horribly nauseous, and for another you would never read this blog again, but our little home has been reduced to a giant museum dedicated to observing German cockroaches in the wild, particularly as they live when in colonies of over 10,000 members. Honestly, I can't say much more than that because there are no words for it. Jacob and I and, bless her heart, Saint DeAnne, have been over at the home for two solid days removing debris, cleaning, and counting our losses. Among them being a fridge, an oven, a toilet, ceiling fans, screen doors and every shred of landlord dignity we had when we bought the place. We essentially have had our house turned into a flip house we would have bought for a nickel because of the shape it was in. Oh well. Onward and upward! We are repainting the whole thing, getting brand new appliances and tiling the bathrooms. We even cut down the big tree in the front yard today. These are all upgrades we needed to do anyway, so here is our chance to get them done. Silver lining? Perhaps. Just wishing that silver linings could actually be made of gold. Now THAT would be helpful.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, I have heard that buying cheap or run down places then fixing and reselling is better. But I have also heard Florida was hit pretty hard as far as foreclosures go.

Amy said...

Now that it's fixed up, maybe you can get away with charging more in rent?

Karin said...

All I can say is AMEN. And kudos to all of you. I don't think I could stomach the roaches. You are amazing.