A long-term tenant left this weekend. One of only 3 M2Ms, they gave little notice but within legal guidelines - it doesn't matter, we had people lining up to rent it. However, once we entered after they returned possession, the smell of wet dog hit us right in the face. And then we looked about. The place is not just tired, it's exhausted.

Our fault. We bought the place in 2019 in average rentable condition but not the way we would have done it if we were paying attention. It came with an existing ADU that was in rough shape as well, so we quickly rented the main house to existing tenants so we could work on the ADU. Then they stayed for 4+ years.

It's one of our only 3/2 places, a little 2-story farmhouse. Great location and looks ok from exterior: we had the exterior painted and all new windows and a new HVAC installed while the tenants were in place, but there we stopped.

We did not paint all the rooms. We did not strip out all the carpet. We did not do anything major at all to the place and we should have.

And now that has come back to bite us.

The old brown carpet is not only smelly, it's worn and shredded and has to come out. The walls - painted a variety of bright tenant-friendly colors - are all very much worn and rubbed and Tenant helpfully spackled and smoothed them all. He did a good job but now of course we have to paint, and if we are going to paint, we are going to re-do it our color scheme not just re-roll the existing ones (every room different, every room bad.)

If we had done our usual routine of painting all the walls semi-gloss grey, woodwork white, and Allure throughout back in 2019, it would be ready to rent already (they DID return it clean.)

Anyway, we are definitely losing September's rent on this one. So I can no longer claim "No Rent Lost Between Tenants" anymore.

Reusable, Tenant wear and tear for four years, now rolled into your rehab.

Four years of Tenant residue as now rolled into your rehab

Reusable, Tenant wear and tear for four years, now rolled into your rehab.

Four years of Tenant residue as now rolled into your rehab

Nice job!

So you put off the rehab for over four years and collected rents the entire time?

You would have had to work on it either way so I see no problem other than materials are a little more now.

You collected rents which in turn paid for the rehab.

Personally I would count this as a wash since it was needed before hand.

To me lost rents means the tenant trashed something. That doesn't seem to be the case here so my vote is the crown doesn't move.

You guys make me feel much better!! And you are all right!!

W,

We still bow to the Queen! Your title is still in tact.

zero beat me to it - Meh...you would have lots rent at the beginning so same as losing some time now. No biggie.

And you lucked out - pulling the carpet will remove a lot of the odor - two birds with one stone!

I had a hoarder house that had a lingering odor after move out so I rented it to someone with 2 dogs. Done!

BRAD

Seal those subfloors with whatever you have on hand: oil based paint, Mappei wet floor sealer, Kilz...