This is the least interesting story, but it was our first rental so I'll start here.

2 BR, 1 BA house, built in 1948, crawlspace, detached garage, dated throughout. We didn't do much to it since we were just getting started, just rented it as is...started at $695/mo back in about 2008.

We paid cash for the house and got it rented quickly. I was very new at the time, so took a couple classes from Brad20,000 and learned a lot, and started applying all I could. Back then I was doing individual showings, boy was that a pain! We got some good tenants to start with, and all went well. The house is on one of the busiest streets in our small city (40,000 people), so vacancies were easy to fill.

I got a Google voice number right away and when the first tenants moved out, I simply put a "for rent" sign in the front yard at 2 pm that day. By 3:30 I had over 87 voicemails LMAO.

So here's the best story about this house....happened about 8 years ago. Had the place up for rent, and one guy called and was interested. I told him the showing was at 2 PM Thursday. He said he works second shift and sometimes sleeps late, and asked if I could call and wake him up at 1 pm so he could be sure to make it. LOL. I thought quickly on my feet and I said "sure, glad to do that...but I need your help too." He asked me what help I needed. I told him that I had a very poor memory, and I was old, and sometimes I needed reminders. So I asked him if he could call me at 12:30 on Thursday and remind me to call him at 1 pm. There was a LONG silent pause on the phone...and he hung up. LMAO I think he got the message.

Another tenant came to look at the house with a woman. I guessed him to be about 40 years old, but the woman appeared to be more like 16. He walked through the house with the woman following him. He asked lots of questions, but she did not say a single word, and kept her head down most of the time. He filled out an application. On the app, we asked if the applicant had any criminal history, which he said "No" to. But when I ran his history, it showed NUMEROUS felonies. As I read the details, I saw something like this (dates are made up)...

3/4/12 - Criminal confinement

3/27/12 - Criminal confinement

4/2/12 - Restraining order

4/14/12 - Divorce

5/2/12 - Kidnapping, assault

etc.

It was VERY obvious this guy was a wife beater...and I suddenly was feeling very sorry for this young girl that was now with him...I knew what was in store for her but there was nothing I could do.

Over the years we did some upgrades to the house, and it was always rented. Our last tenants were an issue however....

They moved in about 2 years ago...an unmarried couple in their late 20s. She was an Xray technologist, and he was a musician. Her income was enough alone to rent, but he showed zero income. During the lease signing, he asked if he could make the garage his sound studio. I said yes, as long as you followed some rules spelled out in the lease. For example, you must remove anything installed/attached so that we cannot even tell it was there, any disturbances that cause the neighbors to complain would result in eviction, and so on.

About 2 months after they moved in, I was doing a service round. Let me describe how I do service rounds....

About 5 days in advance, I send an email... "I will be coming to your house next Tuesday between 10 AM and 2 PM to do basic maintenance. No one needs to be home. If you have any animals, please cage them or lock them in a room." Then, on the morning of the service, I text them and say "I'll be there around 11:15." Then when I get to the house, I knock and wait 15 seconds. If no answer, I knock again and wait 15 seconds. Then I enter with my key and announce "Property Manager for maintenance".

I did all these things when I serviced the house. After I was done changing the furnace filter and checking furnace operation (it was fall), I locked up the house and left. When I finished all 5 houses, I went home and sent an email to each tenant stating what I had done.

30 minutes later I get a scathing email from this guy saying "How dare you come into MY house while I'm sleeping! You have violated my rights and I am considering contacting the authorities. In the future, do not come in without my permission."

I was stunned! 15 minutes later I got a call from his girlfriend, and she apologized profusely and said he overreacted, and said she would talk with him, and how she appreciates me taking care of the house. The guy later apologized to me and said he was "having a bad day". Wow!

Then, about a year later, I got a call from them saying the shower valve wouldn't work. I went over there and when I looked in the shower I found the handle on the wall that you rotate for water temp had no handle at all...it had fallen off. He had taken a pair of vice grips and clamped them to the brass splined valve and ruined it so badly that you could not use it. I asked how long ago the handle had fallen off, and he said "a few months". I asked why they didn't call me, and he said he "didn't want to bother me". I hired a plumber, and $425 later (I had to cut into the drywall in the room behind it to access it) the shower had a new valve...and they paid for it!

Fast forward to about 2 months ago, and she texted me saying she moved out, that he was threatening her and being verbally abusive. She said she'd pay next month's rent, as he still had no job....but that the lease would be terminated after that.

I then emailed him and her with the move-out instructions. He responded by saying he wanted to stay there and have her taken off the lease. I told him he could not stay, as he had no job. He said he had "just landed a lucrative position" and had plenty of money. I told him I'm sorry, but the lease was approved with both of them and I would not be able to rent to him only due to his lack of employment history. He was furious and sent another scathing email, accusing me of violating his rights, being a horrible landlord, and so on.

He did move out as planned, but left so much stuff that his girlfriend came over the night before the final day of the lease to drop off her key, looked in the windows and saw all the belongings and trash, and felt horrible for me that he had left the house that way, so she called a "clean out" company and gave them her credit card number and agreed to pay to have them remove everything the next day...which was VERY nice of her. I met them there the next morning, but was concerned that he would later say I should have stored his stuff...so I had the female tenant meet me there, let the clean out company in, and SHE directed them to remove everything and discard it...and I took photos of her opening the door and talking to the workers....just in case.

Obviously they did not clean, so I still kept their deposit and they still owe $750 for damages...he pulled 9 electrical boxes out of the wall LOL.

We sold this house "as is", so did not have to do any further repairs or cleanup.

Fourteen years ago I bought my second rental property via a 1031 exchange from my only sfh to a 6 unit in a, unknown at the time, hysterical -- I mean historic -- district.

Started to make some needed repairs and got a stop work order from the hysterical commission, aka as the "Preservation Nazis" in the neighborhood. I met with said commission twice, the first meeting I thought maybe everyone was just having a bad day and we can come to an agreement later. On the second meeting I was disappointed. So I told said hysterical commission in colorful, ex-sailor language what I thought, and, what I would do to them. Repeatedly!

One month later after conversing the neighborhood, talking with the prisoners in the hysterical gulag, and working with a sympathetic city councilman, I was able to get ordinance 54-06 passed which would allow said hysterical ordinance to be dissolved. Oh the many happy moments at the next hysterical commission meeting :) Still using my ex-Navy language, I told this local hysterical politburo what I would now do with such a sweet smile on my face :) :)

The head hysterical officer then quit and all "charges" brought against me via this rabid kangaroo court was dropped, which I got in writing.

Sold this building several months ago when the cost of repairs would have succeeded income potential. Learned alot, made some money and lost money on this place but the "sweet" smile on my face while wearing my "Socialism "aspirates" t-shirt telling the new hysterical officer I sold the place to someone just like me was worth the look on his hammer and sickle face. Especially as he was on the loosing side and I was on the winning side of not increasing property taxes a few years ago.

Thank you for the house story and pictures.