Thinking of Starting Another House Blog
Jul/10/08 11:48 PM
Kristin and I have another house in Rogers, Arkansas
that serves as a rental property. It has pretty much
been a carefree deal until recently. Our "neighbors"
in Rogers called us a few weeks back to let us know
that our renters were terrible and that they were
destroying the house. We knew that the neighbors
didn't get along with the renters, but we assumed
there was an agenda on their part as well. Kristin
and I discussed it and I told her that we should just
boot the renters and sell the house and dump our
earnings into the Williams House. Kristin agreed, so
we ordered up an appraisal from the great guys down
at Boston Mountain Appraisals.
Basically there was only one photo of the exterior and the appraiser didn't even go into the house. After I saw the exterior of the house in the photo, I knew why... I think he was scared. This house, that was a beautiful house, that Kristin and I fixed up and rented out was no longer so. First of all there were toys on the roof, a giant inflatable snowman thingy in the front yard that had been there for who-knows how long and a six foot rebel flag hanging from the front porch. Kristin and I gasped in horror as it had been about 4 months since the last time we had been up there. We followed up with the neighbors and apparently the husband had not one but FIVE pit-bulls chained up in the back yard (which has to be against some city code), and they also told us that the wife had been running a daycare out of the house. A DAYCARE (which also has to be against some city code)! As you can imagine grubby little hands touching EVERY single freshpainted wall in the house. My stomach churns thinking about it.
We evicted the renters almost immediately, which wasn't hard since they rarely paid rent every-other month or so. Then we went to survey the damage. Aside from the 5 billion flies in the house at first glance it didn't seem too bad, but as we looked closer it became apparent that the damage was extensive. They had put nails in almost every inch of the trim in the living room to hang baseball caps from, all the walls had handprints covering every inch up to about 4 feet, all of the door knobs had dented the walls even though there are doorstop springs, and for some reason had bubble gum stuffed in the holes like that was a suitable wall patch. I won't even go into bathroom detail, but trust me it'd make you sick. The back yard was destroyed and the dogs had ripped off the downspouts for the gutters, METAL GUTTERS mind you! I'll share this photo of the back yard with you because I find it strange, like a crop circle or a UFO landing site.
Anyway, we surveyed the damage and it appears to be in the thousands, luckily we can do most of the repair work ourselves. But it will take a lot of work, almost enough work to justify doing another blog, hence the topic of this post.
Do you want to hear the REALLY funny part about the whole thing? (Every time I think about this, I have to refrain from physically laughing out loud.) Get this: The renters called yesterday and ASKED FOR THEIR DEPOSIT BACK... Hah hah hah hah hah.
Basically there was only one photo of the exterior and the appraiser didn't even go into the house. After I saw the exterior of the house in the photo, I knew why... I think he was scared. This house, that was a beautiful house, that Kristin and I fixed up and rented out was no longer so. First of all there were toys on the roof, a giant inflatable snowman thingy in the front yard that had been there for who-knows how long and a six foot rebel flag hanging from the front porch. Kristin and I gasped in horror as it had been about 4 months since the last time we had been up there. We followed up with the neighbors and apparently the husband had not one but FIVE pit-bulls chained up in the back yard (which has to be against some city code), and they also told us that the wife had been running a daycare out of the house. A DAYCARE (which also has to be against some city code)! As you can imagine grubby little hands touching EVERY single freshpainted wall in the house. My stomach churns thinking about it.
We evicted the renters almost immediately, which wasn't hard since they rarely paid rent every-other month or so. Then we went to survey the damage. Aside from the 5 billion flies in the house at first glance it didn't seem too bad, but as we looked closer it became apparent that the damage was extensive. They had put nails in almost every inch of the trim in the living room to hang baseball caps from, all the walls had handprints covering every inch up to about 4 feet, all of the door knobs had dented the walls even though there are doorstop springs, and for some reason had bubble gum stuffed in the holes like that was a suitable wall patch. I won't even go into bathroom detail, but trust me it'd make you sick. The back yard was destroyed and the dogs had ripped off the downspouts for the gutters, METAL GUTTERS mind you! I'll share this photo of the back yard with you because I find it strange, like a crop circle or a UFO landing site.
Anyway, we surveyed the damage and it appears to be in the thousands, luckily we can do most of the repair work ourselves. But it will take a lot of work, almost enough work to justify doing another blog, hence the topic of this post.
Do you want to hear the REALLY funny part about the whole thing? (Every time I think about this, I have to refrain from physically laughing out loud.) Get this: The renters called yesterday and ASKED FOR THEIR DEPOSIT BACK... Hah hah hah hah hah.