I spent this afternoon working on a two bedroom apartment in the Pink Elephant for a new tenant. This apartment needed a lot of work to make it clean and safe and I completed a lot of that work today. One of the main projects was to install a new door (the old door was in horrible shape and locked with a padlock). I installed the new door, including a normal door knob with lock and then replaced a bunch of electrical outlet covers that were missing. I also patched some holes in the walls and did some other general work.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice sunny day and I'm hoping to do a little painting on the exterior of the pink elephant along with some other work. I also want to do a little mowing.

Again, another day in which dozens of tenants did just fine. I had no calls from tenants today. I turned down another two applicants for rental units this afternoon, one for an extensive criminal history and another for lying on her application.

After taking a 3 day weekend trip with my wife (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday), I'm back home. With the transition period between Winter snowboarding season to summer camping season, I haven't been taking as many days off as usual. However, we decided to make this weekend the first weekend of our summer season and we took a short 3-day getaway. If the weather cooperates, we'll take another 3-4 day weekend next weekend and for most of the weekends between now and the end of summer.

Being able to take a lot of time off is one of the greatest benefits of operating a rental property business. During our 3-day getaway, I only had two calls from tenants and both of these were wanting me to pickup the rent early. I'll start picking up the rent tomorrow.

Nothing too exciting today. I installed 7 sheets of drywall to complete the wall at the house that I'm converting to 3 bedroom. Mission accomplished! I will still need to mud, sand, and paint the drywall. I may work on that later next week.

I also went to the post office today to collect the mail. I received the paperwork from our local government jobs office for a new tenant that is moving into the Pink Elephant. The government (you and me) is going to pay her first month's rent and security deposit.

No calls or problems from any of the tenants today.

Multi-tasking - I HATE THAT TERM. It reminds me of something some silly guru would say. Maybe some silly guru even has a $5,000 bootcamp on multi-tasking!

Having said that, multi-tasking is an accurate description of my day. I headed into town with the intention of starting my day tuckpointing a section of one wall of the pink elephant (my latest apartment building). However, before I even got into town, I received a call from someone wanting to look at an apartment. Within one minute of that call, I received another call from someone wanting to see another apartment. Then, another one. In the span of less than 5 minutes, I had appointments to show apartments to 3 potential tenants.

The third showing happened to be at an apartment building where the grass needed cut. So, after showing the apartment and receiving my third application of the day, I spent a few minutes mowing the grass.

At this point, I was getting hungry, so I headed to McDonald's for lunch. Next on the schedule was my tuckpointing, which had originally been scheduled first. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on the tuckpointing. As I was putting away my supplies, one of the tenant informed me that she had a leak under her kitchen sink. So, I went to her apartment to take a look. Sure enough, the previous landlord had installed a jumble of fittings that were leaking. To be quite honest, I've never seen such an inept plumbing job. Fortunately, this wasn't difficult to fix and only about a half hour later, the plumbing was corrected and dry as a bone!

My next project for the day was to complete the framing of an interior wall I am installing in one of my single family houses. The addition of one wall is allowing me to transform a very large 2 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom house (and to get more rent). Within about 1 hour, I finished the wall and was on the way home.

Tomorrow I am planning to install the drywall onto the framing.

BTW, no problems with tenants again today (as with most days).

I'm sold on carpet dyeing! This decision was a couple of weeks in coming after initially getting mixed results on my first attempt to dye one of the carpets in a rental.

Here's what happened. Included in the 11 rentals that I bought in January were a 2 bedroom house and a 3 bedroom house. The two bedroom house was vacant when I took possession and I began working on it within a few weeks of taking possession. The carpet was BADLY stained but didn't have a lot of structural damage. When the carpet is in this condition, I call a professional carpet cleaning company to steam clean the carpet in an effort to save it. The carpet cleaning company did their best, but the carpet still didn't look very good. The carpet was a tan color and had some stains that wouldn't come out.

Since I really didn't have anything to lose, I decided to try dyeing the carpet in an effort to get another year or two out of it. I did some research on the internet and ordered dye and other chemicals from Americolor. Because I was only trying to dye the carpet, I didn't want to spend $1,500 on a dyeing machine. I decided to apply the dye with a small pump-type sprayer. I bought the cheapest sprayer at Lowes (about $10) and started applying the dye. Until today, I was unimpressed with the result. The dye that I applied to the carpet in the 2 bedroom house did improve the look of the carpet, but the color was not uniform and the carpet was only marginally acceptable.

Today, I had the same carpet cleaning company attempt to clean a very large 3-bedroom house that just recently became vacant. This carpet was VERY BADLY STAINED, and I didn't think much of the carpet could be saved. This carpet was a very light beige color. After the carpet cleaning was complete, I determined that the bedrooms were acceptable but the large living room, large dining room, and hallway were completely unacceptable. There were still some stains; cigarette burns, and even some red colored stains that didn't come out. With nothing to lose, I decided to try dyeing this carpet. However, this carpet was so large, that I decided to buy a better sprayer to apply the dye. So, off I went to Walmart and I found a relatively fancy 2 gallon sprayer with multiple nozzles for $20.

Arriving back at the house, I mixed the chemicals and started applying the dye. The difference between applying the dye with this better sprayer was DRAMATIC. The cheaper sprayer applied a much smaller pattern. My new sprayer applied a very large amount of dye via a large swath of about 12 inches. Even with one pass, the change in the color of the carpet was dramatic. I was pleasantly surprised when the stains virtually disappeared before my eyes. After applying the dye to my 3 bedroom house, I went back over to the 2 bedroom house and applied more dye there with the new sprayer. Again, the change was significant.

After my experience today, I'm sold on dyeing carpet. In fact, I'll be ordering more dye and chemicals tomorrow! By the way, dyeing the carpet in 2 rooms of the 2-bedroom house and 2 very large rooms and a hallway in the 3 bedroom house cost a grand total of $44! MONEY WELL SPENT! The color I used was called Apartment Dark Brown.

90-9-1. What is it? A secret code? A date on the Mayan Calendar? Coordinates for a hidden fortune? No, nothing that exciting. It's the ratio of good tenants - fair tenants - bad tenants.

I've gotten a lot of comments from readers of this blog that I seem to have a lot of bad tenants. I don't. In fact, about 90% of my tenants are very good, causing no problems at all. Another 9% to 9 1/2% of my tenants require some attention (such as calling about personal problems, complaining about their neighbors; or being a whiner). These tenants do not present problems that warrant evicting them. Finally, I evict about 1/2% to 1% of the tenants.

Why don't I write more about the good tenants? That's very simple. There isn't anything to write about the 90% of tenants that are good tenants. What could I say? "Sally was a good tenant again today". Quite honestly, the good tenants don't occupy much of my time or my thoughts. The same is generally true of the 9% that are some minor annoyance. They may call to tell me about their personal problems, but that's usually not worth writing about. The final 1/2 to 1% that I do evict are the tenants that are worthy of note and the ones that occupy my time and thoughts.

Today, I did a little work painting the pink elephant (my latest apartment building). Nothing too exciting.

Motorcycle season has finally arrived! I've been anxiously awaiting the warm weather and more importantly dry weather here in Ohio. This has been a long, cold, and EXTREMELY wet winter that seemed to last forever. So much for global warming!

We have had a handful of good days the last couple of weeks, but one other thing that was holding back my motorcycle riding has been all the sand on the roads, and more specifically the roads in my subdivision. Around here, everytime it snows, they spread sand to make things less slippery. The sand is relatively effective, but it is also quite slippery on the dry asphalt. At the end of winter, the townships go around and sweep up the sand, making the roads much safer for motorcycle riding. That has finally been done and to motorcycle season is once again finally here.

Since today was Sunday, of course I didn't do any work on my rentals. However, today was my day at Church to run the projection, so that took the first half of the day. After Church, the sun was shining and the temperature was warm, so I decided to get the motorcycle out and take my first ride of the season. Fortunately, the motorcycle started up without problem and I was soon on the road.

I had such a good time riding, that my wife and I also rode my motorcycle to small group at church this evening. All in all, it was a VERY GOOD DAY!

I was planning to do a little work yesterday, but was feeling lazy, so I took another day off. However, while I was in town, I decided to check in on the pink elephant. Even though things have now stabilized there (from a tenant perspective), I still like to stop by just to make my presence known. At any rate, it was a good thing I stopped by when I did. As soon as I opened my truck's door, I was immediately inundated with people wanting to rent apartments. These were friends and acquaintences of the tenants in the building.

I offer $100 cash to any tenant that finds an applicant that we actually rent an apartment to. So, my new tenants have been busy trying to earn that $100!

As it turns out, two of the three applicants were acceptable, so my momentary trip to the property may result in 2 new tenants. Not bad for a day off!

We're still a week or so away from the start of camping season, so I decided to get a little something done today. I decided to finish cleaning out the storefront and basement of the pink elephant. In a little bit of luck, I was throwing out some junk when a guy walking by asked if he could have the metal. There wasn't any copper or anything else very valuable, so I said sure. He took a whole pickup truck loan of old sewer pipes, gas lines, an old rusty water heater; and a bunch of rusty steel which saved me a lot of work. I'm fully aware that I could probably have gotten $60 for this junk at the recycling center, but I have absolutely no interest in that. I was just glad the junk was gone.

I also had another idea while I was there. I think I'll turn that old storefront into a coin operated laundry for my two apartment buildings. That could certainly bring in a little extra money and I'm going to look into that.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so I took the day off. It doesn't make good blog reading, but that's really why I'm in this business - so that I can do what I want to do!

Today, I'll be working on several roofs. I've got one metal roof to seal, one with a small leak, and two with a few missing shingles. That's about all that's on tap for today.

I must have looked like the Beverly Hillbillies as I took my truck and trailer to the dump piled sky-high with furniture; old water heaters; and a bunch of old toilets. At least that's the way I felt as people were staring at me as I made my way through town.

As you've already surmised, I trashed out a couple of rentals today. One was a three bedroom house that I bought in January. The tenants were pigs and judging by the sheer volume of dog excrement, apparently never let their dogs outside. They left in March and moved to another state (good riddance). The other was an old storefront that is located in the Pink Elephant (my latest apartment building). It hasn't been a storefront for many years, but had instead been used by the previous landlord for storage. He had a BUNCH of junk and trash in there. He apparently never threw anything away.

My day started with a trip to the post office before I headed into town to start rehabbing one of my 3 bedroom houses. One of the letters I received this morning was from "Community Action", which is an agency that helps those in need. The letter today was a promise to pay the rent and late fee for the tenant that I turned over to my attorney for eviction on Thursday. This is a tenant who moved in March 1 and then didn't have the money to pay April's rent (he spent the rent to bail his adult son out of jail).

As soon as I read the letter, I called my attorney to see if the eviction had been filed with the court yet. She said that the paperwork was done and that the eviction would be filed with the court today. I asked her to wait until she heard from me to file the eviction.

I would really like to have that rent money and really like to avoid the expense of an eviction. However, there was a sentence in the letter from Community Action that said I must agree to allow the tenant to stay 30 days from the day I signed the agreement with Community Action. I called Community action and informed them that I would NOT accept those terms, because the money they would be paying was for the April rent and late fee. If the tenant didn't pay the May rent on time, I would immediately evict him (again). The lady from Community Action suggested that I write in the agreement that I would allow the tenant to stay only until May 1st. That would be fine, but I would need her to sign the change, so that the tenant's low-life, legal aid lawyer couldn't argue that I agreed in writing that the tenant could stay until May 13th (30 days from today). She informed me that she was required to send that specific letter and she couldn't sign off on any changes.

I really wanted the rent money and late fee. I really wanted to avoid an eviction. However, I just couldn't do it! I'm not giving a deadbeat the upper hand by agreeing to adverse terms. The tenant had failed to pay the SECOND MONTH'S RENT and I therefore expect this to happen every month with this tenant. I'm simply not playing this game with the tenant. Therefore, I told the woman from Community Action that I would not accept their money and I immediately called my attorney to tell her to go ahead and file the eviction with the court today. It was a tough decision, but the right decision!

My shipment from Americolor Dyes arrived on Thursday and I attempted my first carpet dyeing yesterday. I'll be looking at it tomorrow or Monday to see how it looks after it dries. However, my initial impression is that it will meet my goal, which is to extend the life of carpet in my rentals after they have been uglied out by the tenants. As any landlord knows, tenents are VERY HARD on carpet. Carpet often lasts only a couple of years and normally it "uglies" out before it actually wears out.

The carpet I attempted to dye was just such a case. The carpet was generally in good condition but it was badly stained even after being steamed cleaned. Therefore, the choices were either to replace it or to try dyeing it. I decided to give the dye a try.

After talking to the folks at Americolor, I found out that carpet dye is normally applied with a $1,500 machine. However, as I understand it, the machine heats the dye and them pumps it. The same basic task can be accomplished by using hot water to mix the dye and then using a pump sprayer to apply the dye. While I'm sure this isn't as good as doing it with the correct machine, I wanted to give dyeing a try before spending a bunch of money on a machine.

Americolor has two dyes designed specifically for rentals. One is called "Apartment Dark Brown" and the other is a gray. I chose the apartment dark brown and ordered the appropriate dye and chemicals. The cost was about $44 for enough dye and chemicals to do the entire 2 bedroom house.

I'll report back after I see how the carpet looks once it has dried. I'm really anxious to see the result, so I may go look at it tomorrow after church.

In another little bit of good news, I did receive the rent from the tenant who was injured while on the job. As I previously posted, due to the circumstances, I gave him a few extra days to pay the rent, which is something I almost NEVER do. His worker's comp check did arrive and the rent is paid. I didn't even charge him the late fee because I am convinced that he was late due to the incompetence of others. Anyway, this situation ended well for everyone.

Unfortunately, I had to file an eviction yesterday. Yesterday was the first day that I could legally file an eviction against a non-paying tenant. This is a tenant that I screened and that only moved in last month. When I went to collect the rent on the 4th, he said that his son was arrested the night before and that he used the rent money to bail him out. I told him that he should have left the criminal in jail and paid his rent. I posted the 3-day notice on the 5th, which after the 3 (business) day period, allowed me to file the eviction yesterday.

I also have another potential eviction pending. This involves a man that resides in one of my duplexes. He was apparently hurt on the job, but hasn't received his worker's comp check yet. I know for a fact that he was hurt because I can see the pins sticking out of his thumb. I also know that worker's comp is a pain in the butt and the payment could easily be late. Therefore, I'm giving him a few more days to get this all straightened out. However, I won't allow this to go indefinitely.

The reason that I won't allow this to go too long is that I can't force the tenant to turn over the worker's comp check once he gets it. If I allowed him to go two or three months without paying the rent and he then got his check, he would probably choose to simply keep it and move elsewhere. He would definitely be money ahead by doing so. I know this sounds like I don't trust anyone - I DON'T! (at least when it comes to low income tenants) I wish I could trust low income tenants, but EVERYTIME I have trusted them in the past, I've gotten burned.

It finally happened. Yesterday, I had my mugshot and fingerprints taken at the Sheriff's office. No, I didn't finally lose my temper and assault one of my tenants. Yesterday was my appointment with the Sheriff's office to renew my concealed carry permit. To do that, I took in the paperwork from this weekend's concealed carry class, got fingerprinted, and had my mugshot taken (I won't be framing that picture). The background check and processing takes a couple of weeks and then I should be good for another 5 years!

What about the blood? This involved a stabbing, albeit one that won't be on the evening news. I was replacing the siding on the rental that was damaged in a small fire (see the recent post if you don't know what I'm talking about). I was just about done with this project, but needed to cut a rectangle in the vinyl siding for the electrical outlet. As I was cutting this rectangle, I slipped with the razor knife and stabbed myself in the thumb. OUCH! After a little impromptu dancing around; rinsing the wound with water; and putting on an appropriate bandage, I finished the siding - not much worse for the incident.

In addition to the siding job, today's projects involved installing a handrail, changed a lockset, and signing the lease with a new tenant.

All of this work took about 3 hours and with that I was done. However, I do plan on working another hour his evening - on my taxes: YUK!

On Saturday, a friend and I spent the entire day (12 hours) at a concealed carry (handgun) course so that I could renew my concealed carry license and my friend could get his concealed carry license. It was an extremely long day as the course was nearly 2 hours away and the course was 12 hours long! We both completed the training and qualified on the shooting range (and had a lot of fun doing so).

Today, I spend about 3 hours repairing a sinkhole in the sidewalk at one of my apartment buildings. The sink hole opened up as a result of all the flooding rains we've had lately. It didn't swallow any large vehicles, but it was about 3 feet deep. After mixing and placing 24 bags of Quickrete, the job was done and I won't have to worry about the tenants or neighbors disappearing into the sink hole as they walk down the sidewalk!

A lot has happened in the past few days. I've rented several vacant rentals and am close to being full! Yeah!

I have also started painting the Pink Elephant, which is what I call my new apartment building. If I was being more accurate, I'd call it the Titanic instead of the Pink Elephant. It's absolutely huge. If it were straightened out instead of being U-shaped, this building would stretch half a block. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you paint the Titanic? One brush-stroke at a time.

I actually started the painting yesterday. It was a BEAUTIFUL, SUNNY DAY and I was thrilled to be able to work outside! I couldn't imagine being cooped up in an office (like so many 9-5ers) on such a beautiful day and I feel very fortunate to be able to spend nice days outside. Since the building is so large, I wanted to start with a very small section and paint it to check out the colors. My intent was to have a deep, but glossy gray with gloss white for trim. I matched (or tried to match) a house down the street that is painted the color I wanted my building to be. Unfortunately, my deep gray turned out to be a blue-gray. It is a nice enough color, but not what I really wanted. So, back to Walmart for another try. It rained today, so I didn't get to try some of the new paint on the building, but I did paint a single brick and I think the color will be better!

Today was day 3 of my monthly 4 day rent collection period. I've collected a lot of the rents and will finish up tomorrow. So far, I don't know of any tenants that will need to be evicted.

Even though I've evicted all the drug dealers from the pink elephant, I still have various druggies coming around. Today, I kicked one of the local drug dealers off the property. He's a real trouble maker, having been arrested 63 times including one felony for theft and dozens of misdemeanors including drugs and carrying a concealed weapon! I won't be turning my back on this loser!

Tomorrow, I'll finish up the rent collection for the month and then Saturday I'm off to the shooting range (and classroom) to get recurrent training for my concealed carry permit. When you're working around drug dealers, you need a little protection!