The Gun Counter

"You're going to be a long distance landlord? You'll be sorry" HTRN

LOL

So it's been a month since (finally) closing on that property in Texas.
First month back into the landlord business after a 15+ year hiatus.

And it's been a month for the record books.
3 houses, 1.6 acre.
1 dead fridge (thank you HD home delivery, and a single guy IT guy tenant who was happy to eat out tacos for a week)
1 well shutdown, loss of water pressure (simple pressure switch reset, got a handyman lined up with a punchlist for doing some parts R&R/PM's)
1 tree trimming service cleaning up 30+ years of untended Oak and Elm overgrowing roofs, including removing several completely.
Just in the nick of time for the next day's occcurence of
1 wind storm = 1 lost chimney cap, 3 corrugated patio panels flew the coop, 1 6' feet section blown down, 2 neighbor dogs escaped through our yard
3 tenants contracts issued/updated long distance
3 formerly cash basis tenants coached through making electronic/long distance payment

and for the cherry on top:
1 ice storm with tenants in House #1 trapped in house with vehicles behind electric gate that is frozen up solid.


All that while B-in-law who put himself on the hook to step in for that stuff had to leave for SoCal to save his OC framing business and deal with son who was embezzling funds and d-in-law who decided they were just going to claim his house there and try to occupy long enough to claim squatters rights.

But on the upside, no toilet issues thus far.

I'm not saying nuthin'! Having been a long distance landlord in the past I can sympathize with all your problems. But, perseverance shall rule the day (maybe)!

Ray

We've got what we imagine is a good long term plan for this property.
There's a 3/3, 2/2 and 1/1 on the property.

This is in a town of ~950 pop that is a major weekend getaway location. It sometimes swells to 10K+ on big weekends with a shortage of shorterm rentals.
Thinking we may refresh the 2/2 and put it up on VRBO/AirBnB. Then keep it open for ourselves when we are back there. Might go so far to add a garage_shop and master.

The 1/1 has a lot of untapped value as a shortterm rental as well.

The 3/3 is a converted USAF barracks with an old USAF dayroom attached to one end. About 3800sq ft total That one may become a sober living/Oxford House type place.

I told you so.

I would sooner pull out my own fingernails then get involved in residential real estate. I have an apartment that had stood empty for twenty years, ever since my Aunt died, because I want no part of dealing with residential tenants. Between Section 8(I live in a state that mandates landlords accept it by law), the ridiculous amount of paperwork and legal issues, the amount of time it would take to actually evict somebody(six months to a year) the general impossibility of recovering damages and unpaid rent from destructive, deadbeat tenants.. Then there's the recent eviction moratorium, which went on for 18 months, and built up a huge backlog in the HUD courts .

No thank you.

Now commercial real estate, that's another story.

This property is our Free(r) State beachhead -- just in case. It made sense for us at this point. We turned some rapidly devaluing dollars into dirt while rates are low. Meantime it pays for itself -- mostly.

Longer term we've got some ideas for it. Including a close friend (couple) retiring and fleeing WA state who are interested in living in one of the houses and running the property. Idea is to do short term rentals (VRBO/AirBnB) out of the smaller units and a Recovery/Sober living type home in the "Barracks". He's got decades leading recovery programs, working in Rescue Missions, running kitchens/training_life coaching individuals in the program.

The town is a major weekend getaway location with biker rallies, rodeos etc bringing mobs of people to town looking for a Hill Country escape.

tfbncc wrote: ↑Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:37 pm I'm not saying nuthin'! Having been a long distance landlord in the past I can sympathize with all your problems. But, perseverance shall rule the day (maybe)!

Ray

Yep +1

Sorry your nephew turned out to be a POS and effed up your plans.

He married a world class entitled princess narcissist and now he's trying to keep it together "for the kids".

Fell into Adam's error -- listened to his wife when she wanted to do crazy.

BTDT, glad you managed to avoid the toilet demons