My friend had to evict a tenant only to discover they stuffed dead fish in the air vents
I don’t think I have the fortitude that it takes to be a full time landlord.
One of my best friends inherited a small chunk of money from his grandfather’s estate and decided to turn it over into rental properties.
He had no experience and wasn’t a trained handyman like many of the fulltime landlords that we have met in the past while renting apartments in college. He wasn’t even sure how to advertise or what the laws were regarding renting out homes in our state. Needless to stay, things did not go as planned. It quickly became the primary focus in his life and forced him to quit his job from the constant demand. He had to be at one of his rentals one day and at the others each consecutive day of the work week. Things like HVAC and plumbing maintenance are necessities that our state requires for all renters by property owners or property management companies. He had one renter who kept complaining about her air conditioner going off. But every time he went out to the house, he found the thermostat set to 66 degrees while outside weather was hovering in the 80s. The last time resulted in a cracked evaporator coil and forked a large repair bill that my friend had to cover in full. Eventually this tenant quit paying rent altogether, forcing my friend to start the eviction process. When he finally came to the house to remove her things, he had to open a window because she had barricaded the front and back doors with chairs. But when he got inside, she was nowhere to be found. The house smelled like rotting fish, which we soon found out was due to the sardines she threw in the air conditioner return before leaving.