Landlord experience - in Tenant years
- Thread starter Dazz
- Start date
Bought first IP, in 1976, which was the year I entered the RE industry. In own IP, the worst event was a tenant decided to repair his harley in the living room. How, I dont know, his TV?Video combination caught fire and damaged the interior on the house. In the business of PM, events have ranged from deaths to bashings to arsons to internal hydroponic farming. Sadly, I think the grey cells are past remembering things sufficiently to start writing a book.
Yes Dazz, whether you self manage, our use a PM, you are a landlord, and being a landlord is a learning experience. To add to my experiences, have been ones handing the managements back to owners. They are another story. I dont any one here would fit that category ..
Yes Dazz, whether you self manage, our use a PM, you are a landlord, and being a landlord is a learning experience. To add to my experiences, have been ones handing the managements back to owners. They are another story. I dont any one here would fit that category ..
How do you count years if you are a property manager - 100+ properties x 10 years = lots of experience
140 years for me.
Only 2 difficult tenantss in that time, and they were both single women with new partners moving in. Hallelujah LL insurance.
cheers
Only 2 difficult tenantss in that time, and they were both single women with new partners moving in
. Hallelujah LL insurance.cheers
Boy, started a bit of a discussion from a simple add on to the other post.
I only inserted it as a 'PS' because there was a lot of questioning and assertions of the various posters experience. A bit tongue in cheek on my part.
Anyway, our actual figure is 653 tenant years not including our com RE which is only 2 1/2 tenant years.
Have always used PM's except the one property rented to family (our longest staying tenant - 17 years) Our next longest tenants are around the 12 year mark of which there are 8. We have many tenants that have stayed with us for 4 years+.
In the last 2 months we have had 5 changeovers and still looking for 2 more tenants.
In the past we also had a tenant who has left one of our properties and then applied for another of our properties. We actually evicted them as the property they were in had a leaking bathroom and rather than fix it with a tenant in place asked them to leave.
Our shortest tenant stay was 6 months. These just left and this was unusual as our normal initial lease is 1 year. The reason for the 6 months lease was that we are planning to renovate this stack of 1 bedroom units and convert them to 2 bedders. Renovation plans have been put back but I wasn't happy with their interaction with the other tenants in the block so I had increased their rent by $30 pw and they left.
Be it that we use a PM we do all our own maintenance and are around in the area where the bulk of our property portfolio is located, renovating, cleaning or maintaining one or another unit.
We also vet all new applicants and will reject applicants and have an empty property rather than place an unsuitable tenant and clean up the mess.
The most notorious events in relation to our units was back in the Cabramatta drug dealing days (of the tenant - not me) where one tenant was shot in the stomach through his one way mesh druggy door (we still have the door with the bullet hole).
The other one was when we went to clean out another unit after the tenant was arrested just outside the unit complex. Thought it strange that he was camped on the lounge room floor and not using the bedroom until we went into the bedroom and found 2 bullet holes in the window of the bedroom and ricochet marks in the ceiling and wall.
Cheers
I only inserted it as a 'PS' because there was a lot of questioning and assertions of the various posters experience. A bit tongue in cheek on my part.
Anyway, our actual figure is 653 tenant years not including our com RE which is only 2 1/2 tenant years.
Have always used PM's except the one property rented to family (our longest staying tenant - 17 years
) Our next longest tenants are around the 12 year mark of which there are 8. We have many tenants that have stayed with us for 4 years+.In the last 2 months we have had 5 changeovers and still looking for 2 more tenants.
In the past we also had a tenant who has left one of our properties and then applied for another of our properties. We actually evicted them as the property they were in had a leaking bathroom and rather than fix it with a tenant in place asked them to leave.
Our shortest tenant stay was 6 months. These just left and this was unusual as our normal initial lease is 1 year. The reason for the 6 months lease was that we are planning to renovate this stack of 1 bedroom units and convert them to 2 bedders. Renovation plans have been put back but I wasn't happy with their interaction with the other tenants in the block so I had increased their rent by $30 pw and they left.
Be it that we use a PM we do all our own maintenance and are around in the area where the bulk of our property portfolio is located, renovating, cleaning or maintaining one or another unit.
We also vet all new applicants and will reject applicants and have an empty property rather than place an unsuitable tenant and clean up the mess.
The most notorious events in relation to our units was back in the Cabramatta drug dealing days (of the tenant - not me) where one tenant was shot in the stomach through his one way mesh druggy door (we still have the door with the bullet hole).
The other one was when we went to clean out another unit after the tenant was arrested just outside the unit complex. Thought it strange that he was camped on the lounge room floor and not using the bedroom until we went into the bedroom and found 2 bullet holes in the window of the bedroom and ricochet marks in the ceiling and wall.
Cheers
bit of a newb here about 10 years ... ask me again in 2 years i should be getting closed to middle aged.
In the spirit of learning, the one thing that took me tooooooooooo long to work out was the notion of offering a week or two free rent instead of dropping rent on a new lease to entice enquiry when market forces dictate some softening to rents from time to time and lower demand than previous letting periods. The cost to tenant may work out the same in the wash if ammortised over the first year, however at least there is a higher base from which to work from for ensuing rent rises.Thanks for that Player. Great idea! Will definitely take that on board...
I'm 32 in tenant years.
Bought my first IP in 2003 in Cairns sight unseen. Turned out it wasn't fully fenced (how could I have forgotten to ask that question!) Other than that it's been a pain-free IP.
I also bought my 4th IP (in Mildura) unseen but that one was fully fenced! lol... Actually asked the question this time... I've since sold that IP after reviewing my investment strategy.
Currently building a granny flat in Granville and planning to self manage that (as an experiment).
All the other properties are managed by PMs. Been pretty lucky with tenants, except for one who did a runner on my Merrylands IP last year. We claimed her bond and some malicious damage from the insurance company. Thanks NRMA! The PM was very slowwww in dealing with NRMA that I had to eventually finish the job myself.
Other than that it's been pretty cruisy
Thought I'd better pop my numbers down....a relative newb at this game compared to some on this forum ;
Over 17 years of investing ;
70 years of residential
54 years of commercial
We've had our fair share of highs and lows. The highs have definitely outweighed the lows.
The goal in the future is to have less Tenants, but the ones we retain will be higher quality and higher yielding with far less work involved. Still molding the mix to get the optimum.
Over 17 years of investing ;
70 years of residential
54 years of commercial
We've had our fair share of highs and lows. The highs have definitely outweighed the lows.
The goal in the future is to have less Tenants, but the ones we retain will be higher quality and higher yielding with far less work involved. Still molding the mix to get the optimum.
Only 11 years here. We have been investing for 5 years.
Gee Dazz, I thought you'd have had less residential and more commercial than that.
I shouldn't contribute to this thread because my authority is based on less years than Dazz, so my opinion doesn't count for anything.
While I see where you're coming from, I think it's rather elitist to suggest that because A has more years of experience than B, then A's opinion automatically carries more weight.
I think we are successful LLs.
We are fair with our tenants.
We obey all rules in the RTA.
We have learned vast amounts thru our mistakes.
We continue to grow and improve our leases.
We give most people a chance, until they prove unworthy.
We are quick to rectify and take control of a situation, as best we can.
Even after winning at tribunal, we attempt to give the tenant a chance to make payments, before ruining their credit rating.
We are not afraid of going to the tribunal.
We do not have rental arrear or tenant damage insurance available ..so we must make tenants liable for their damage, or wear the costs ourselves.
Most of our rentals are geared towards the everyday person. Whether they are on minimum wage or Assisstance.
I need to vent, at times, and appreciate being able to do it here on SS.Otherwise I may get an ulcer.
Do I like tenants? Generally, no.
Should they ever be made accountable for their actions, their behaviour will improve, and maybe then I could respect them as a customer/client
Great post, I love the fact that on this forum is the many stories and styles of many people. But something caught my eye....
Wot, wot wot.....
I didn't realise this, how come this Kathryn? Is this country wide thingy?I consider myself very fortunate to have at least the safety net of insurance should I ever need it...just, 'wow', for you guys.
Great post, I love the fact that on this forum is the many stories and styles of many people. But something caught my eye....
Wot, wot wot.....
I consider myself very fortunate to have at least the safety net of insurance should I ever need it...just, 'wow', for you guys.
We had a tenant do $15K of damage in a rental.
This is malicious damage, and our insurance does not cover that.
Tenant then sold her business, then declared bankruptcy.
We had a tenant burn down our house.
Insurance did cover that, as they deemed it accidental.
We had a steel shed blow over a year ago, and we decided not to put thru insurance. It would put our premiums up..across all of our properties.
It would be cheaper to just buy a new one.We rent the property without a shed.
We do have loss rental income insurance.This is only for when the damage is so great, tenants cannot live there...such as fire, water pipes exploding from freezing etc...until repairs are made.
If a tenant does any malicious damage, we are not covered.If someone other than a tenant does malicious damage, we are covered.
If there is insurance available for accidental damage, except for a tenant maybe accidentally flooding the bathroom, and the ceilings below, I don't know about it. Burning a hole in the carpet..no.
We pay enough in insurance every year, it would be a downpayment on a good sized rental.
