Some more rental house madness.

[fastfredracing]

The next chapter of my life begins tonight. Im going from landlord to a selldown, and re- investment .
Got my first set of tenants out . 6 months of no pay, stuck me with a $500.00 water bill, and a $300 plumbing bill a few weeks ago .
They are out . I am going down tonight to collect the keys. He had the stones to text me and ask if I will be bringing the security deposit with me, or will I be mailing it back .
I try to keep it professional, but there was vulgarity in my response .

[john70t]

Calm and polite. Let the weight of facts and the rule of law(lol) do the talking.
Congrats on your new life.

[look 171]

I discovered most renter don't understand what security deposit is. Most think they get it back no matter what because it is their money?

[pwd72s]

Having experienced what the OP said...

I'd rather be eaten by a goat and krapped off a cliff than ever be a residential landlord again.

(edit) I have a friend who owns over 30 residential rentals. "Because of covid", the state of Oregon is requiring him to give free rent.
He just turned 80. For years, I've been urging him to sell out. Oh, the State has a "program" that will pay a percentage of the missing rent...but reading the terms, it generally means the state owns his property when it comes to how it's operated...in other words, his efforts mean he'll be working for the state, not for himself.

[fastfredracing]

Im just hoping I time this right, real estate is still pretty hot, but if this moratorium, and all the other rental nonsense they have been taking about becomes law, this business will suffer , and the homes will become worth far less .
I cant believe I hung on this long . I finally did what I initially set out to do , get all the houses paid off, fixed up , get to 100% capacity for a few years, bank some money, then sell down , and get out , right at the top of the curve .
I think I am on target

[Noah930]

I've never gotten my security deposit back intact, despite the fact that I've always been pretty gentle on stuff. I'm a mechanically-sympathetic kind of guy, if you know what I mean. From my previous renter's perspective, I always viewed the security deposit as a way for the landlord (or mgmt company) to extort an extra month's rent out of me.

[fastfredracing]

Its been a pretty rare time when we give security deposits back . most times, the security deposit did not even begin to cover damages, or lost rents by the time we were tossing them out .

[look 171]

Now that made this money selling at the height of the market, Uncle Sam wants a piece of that pie. Is it worth it at the end? Will you turn it into a 1031 exchange for another property, maybe commercial?

[Brando]

Originally Posted by Noah930

I've never gotten my security deposit back intact, despite the fact that I've always been pretty gentle on stuff. I'm a mechanically-sympathetic kind of guy, if you know what I mean. From my previous renter's perspective, I always viewed the security deposit as a way for the landlord (or mgmt company) to extort an extra month's rent out of me.

I have to agree with you there Noah. Almost all of the places I rented from previously, they "require" one full month's rent as the security deposit. Almost every place would try to withhold over 50% of the deposit for cleaning, maintenance, etc. Then it turns into the fight of my documentation vs. their documentation on move-in and move-out. One even tried to stick me with utility costs after my move-out date because they hadn't got a new tenant into the unit soon enough. All the meticulous cleaning they say is done - inspect the unit after to find that nothing was done after my move-out. Same place tried to charge me for replacing carpet which was already 8 years old when I moved in, already had wear & tear (light carpet with visible wear). I had noted that on move-in walk-through and shared my copy after living there for 3 years.

I understand that most property management companies are trying to average out the costs of maintenance with security deposits. But it's a deposit - meaning if I've not damaged the property beyond normal wear & tear, I should be getting most (if not all) of that back. Most tenants expect it back for treating a unit like crap, most managers expect to keep it regardless.

[Rick Lee]

I lived in a privately owned dormitory in Germany in college. We all had to pay a security deposit. One girl in our group left school a few weeks early and went back to S. Africa. She was the cleanest, neatest, most meticulous person you ever met. You could do surgery in her room. The a-hole super kept her deposit, claiming he had to pay a cleaning crew to clean up her mess. Once that word got out, none of the rest of us lifted a finger to clean up before moving out. I packed what I wanted to take home and left the rest as it lay, not expecting to get a dime back, which I didn't. About 10 friends did the same. At least we made that jerk really spend money on a cleaning crew.

[fintstone]

Unless the home is totally trashed (appears vandalized), I almost always give back the entire deposit. If they stay more than one year, carpet and paint are generally considered fair wear and tear. Depending on location/lease terms...you generally cannot keep a damage deposit for anything else other than damage. Even if you believe they owe you money/rent. Of course, one might work hard find damage if they owed you money.

If one does not meet the terms of the lease (moves out early) and I cannot get the home rented quickly, I would attempt to get a judgement for rent and utilities during that period, but that is outside the deposit.

[Bugsinrugs]

One of our tenants moved after two years of occupancy. She really worked hard to clean the unit. She wanted to shampoo the carpets but we planned on remodeling the unit so we told her not to bother. She got her entire deposit back. If our tenants pay the rent on time and make a decent effort to clean when they move we give them their entire deposit back.

[Rick Lee]

I had some tenants who just wanted to repaint the place, said they'd take care of it all, wouldn't let me pay for it. You can bet I was happy to give them their deposit back. And I was sorry to lose them.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Bugsinrugs

One of our tenants moved after two years of occupancy. She really worked hard to clean the unit. She wanted to shampoo the carpets but we planned on remodeling the unit so we told her not to bother. She got her entire deposit back. If our tenants pay the rent on time and make a decent effort to clean when they move we give them their entire deposit back.

This. We do the same thing. Gave them back that money.

We use it as a tool to weed out the dead beats. We ask for first, and last months rent, and deposit. We are forced to take Section 8n in CA, no matter.

[Baz]

Congratulations, Fred! We have chapters in our lives and each one is different but they all provide perspective upon which we can build on.

I wish you & yours much prosperity as you move into your next chapter, my friend. You've certainly paid your dues!

[fanaudical]

Congrats on getting out.

My wife and I had considered (for a while) buying another home and renting our current home. Your stories as well as new Oregon laws removing a lot of landlord rights have convinced me otherwise...last thing I want is tenants.

[fastfredracing]

Annnnnnnnnnnnd. They left a huge mess . ha ha ha ha ha. THe one thing I have learned about tenants in our sector over the years, is that they are amazingly predictable

[jhynesrockmtn]

Wow, glad this is working for you to get out and it sounds like your timing is good. I've had single family and a small multifamily on and off for 35+ years first in Seattle and now in Spokane. I've rented to hundreds over the years and rarely had to hold back a deposit but the few times I did it was a battle or just a complete mess where the tenant walked and I never heard from them again.

I've currently got a small 6 unit apartment building. I've been incredibly lucky during COVID with rents. The way the state is trying to screw landlords all of the time my tenants could have just quit paying with no recourse. If I didn't already own this place I don't think I'd buy rentals with the laws changing so quickly.

[ckelly78z]

I made it clear to my wife, that if my daughter (currently paying rent-to-own) decides to move North closer to her job, that we will not be allowing any other renters unless my son wants it.

The property is 3 small town lots that equal 1 full acre, about 1/4 mile down our rural county road. We then installed a new well, a new septic system, and a 10 year old used 16x80 mobile home, that we then replaced the roof to metal, added a nice covered deck, and a woodstove.

My wife had mentioned the possibility of renting it out, after she moves, but seeing threads like this have made my mind up that selling it for cash is a far better option, and a nice boost to our retiring early.

[GH85Carrera]

When I got married I moved into my wife's house (she had a bigger garage!) and made my house into a rental. I really thought the lady renting it was great. She was not really that great. She had a male dog and never had him clipped so he hiked his leg on all the furniture inside. I had lived in the same house for over 20 years and never had the problems she did that I had to fix.

When I finally had enough of playing landlord I gave her 3 months to find a new place. I painted the house and put a new roof on it, while she was still looking for a new place. She finally moved out, and I stunned to see the areas were furniture was and the carpet was stained with dog pee. Even worse after a few seconds I felt bites on my legs. The house was full of fleas. I bombed the house with bug spray twice. Ripped out all the carpet, and left it with no carpet.

I put the house up for sale and had a notice I would have new carpet laid of the quality I had picked and the new owners could pick the color they wanted and it would be installed before closing.

I did a happy dance when it was sold. It was party time with all that cash, and it went right into retirement funds. I can really party big time.