Im no longer a landlord !!

[fastfredracing]

You guys probably got sick of my constant belly aching about all the problems we had .
We closed on our last property today . Took me just a tick over 2 years to evict all the deadbeats, and give proper notice to our one remaining good tenant , clean the places out, quick and dirty rehabs, and list and sell .
We never really made good money, however, for a 2 year period, before covid, my partner moved out of state, and left the ball in mine and my wife's hands .
We evicted all the dead weight, rehabbed 3 houses, by our selves, with an infant in tow, and had all of the houses rented.
We were doing really good, and money was piling up in our accounts, then covid hit . All but one of our tenants, basically told us eat it .
I had to really bargain with myself not to do illegal stuff .
Last night, I emptied all my travel tool boxes and seemingly endless totes of supplies . Tossed it all, and started neatly organizing my tools in my home garage, never to travel again, hopefully .
I really enjoyed purchasing and rehabbing the houses . When we started, I had no idea what I was doing, but gave it my all. By myself, I replaced all the stolen plumbing in in our first 3 houses . I re plumbed and replaced 2 boiler systems by myself, with zero training . Auto mechanics, are like Honey Badgers ..
I used to love getting up early Saturday morning, loading my Dually full of stuff , and heading into the hood to work till I dropped .
I grew to hate landlording . We mostly did all of the repairs ourselves, for a long , long time, as we had no capital . Dealing with the section 8 tenants in the beginning really wore on us . We slowly made the places nicer, and got better tenants, but , still, location, location, location. We were never really in the right place to get great tenants, although we did have a few .
Near the end, we were hiring plumbers, and Hvac guys, but , general repairs still mostly fell on us . I will not miss those phone calls on the weekend from angry tenants with plumbing leaks, electrical problems, racoons in the walls and all the other nonsense . I bet I did no less than 12 evictions . I had to fill bullet holes in an entry way door, and got into a few heated arguments with some bad dudes . I'm probably lucky I don't have a few holes in me .
The one thing that is really eating at me, is that my wife is not here to share the windfall with me. We both sacrificed so much of our time together, and family time to make all this happen, and we were planning on the things we would have done together with our spare time , and money .
Oh, and I sold my 930 too. Loosening my load, heading into the next chapter of my life
I still have one house left , that I own by myself. I had this one before I got involved with my partner . My parents live there now. When they pass, I think I'll just Walter white it and make meth in the basement , in lieu of renting again . In all seriousness, That is probably when I will sell, and partially retire .
Thanks for listening, just thought Id share with my online buds !

[rfuerst911sc]

Congratulations on leaving that portion of your life behind you . Less stress and aggravation is a good thing . Enjoy

[Bugsinrugs]

Kinda in the same boat. However, we have had pretty good luck with out tenants. We keep the rent affordable and rarely raise it. We make money and don’t get greedy. I too do most of the repairs as I reward myself with a tool I want on each repair. I have a ton of tools. Congratulations on your new freedom and my condolences about your wife. Bittersweet I’m sure.

[LWJ]

Awesome. I did this grind for years. Finally had a tenant from hell that cause me to lose 15 pounds from stress. Sold that place. Hired managers. Now I yell at managers when I get around to it. Think I may sell it all and move into office/warehouse type places. Like where a plumber or HVAC contractor would rent. Congratulations!!! It is great to make a plan and move forward. You make me proud, Fred.

[Tobra]

congratulations

[unclebilly]

Congrats. Enjoy the sunset.

How did you sell the 930?

[Sooner or later]

Good for you.

[GH85Carrera]

Congratulations. I was very happy when I sold my rent house. I will never be a landlord again.

[pwd72s]

The day I rid myself of a rental house was a joyful one. Fred, you listed the reasons why...some of them, anyway.

[pete3799]

Congrats Fred....enjoy your free time.

wait.....you sold the 930?

[astrochex]

Congrats, Fred!

[billybek]

Enjoy your new found time and having all your tools unloaded and organized in your shop.
Congrats!

[Cairo94507]

We sold our rental home almost 10 years ago and feel like we dodged a big bullet. So glad we unloaded it.

[Evans, Marv]

Congrats! You porobably added ten years to your life span. I think most of us reach a point in life where it's time to let things go and let somebody else pick up the slack. I sold my rentals twenty years ago and never looked back. Now is the time to plan for more positive things in your life. Go for it.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

You guys probably got sick of my constant belly aching about all the problems we had.

Not me! I was enjoying your pain!
Now buy a boat.

[jhynesrockmtn]

Good for you for getting through this. It sounds like you learned a lot.

I've been in the landlording business since the mid 80's. I've previously had single family houses and now own a small 6 unit building that I bought in 2016. My approach is to only buy in neighborhoods and houses/buildings I would live in. It's a pretty simple strategy and has probably limited my upside a bit. Up until the most recent building, I always managed them myself. I've only evicted one tenant in all these years. That was a section 8 situation and was a disaster. I can't imagine doing it several times.

COVID did a number on small businesses of many types. I got lucky during this time. I know that was unusual. We helped a few tenants with some leniency on timing, but got 99% of our rent, if a bit late a few times.

With more regulation geared toward mega property owners on the horizon, I'm planning to sell at some point. Right now the laws are manageable, but if we see rent control become a reality and eviction gets any harder than it is now, I'll be done and glad to walk away.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Not me! I was enjoying your pain!
Now buy a boat.

Heh heh

Happy for you, Fred.

Best pain moment for me was the scary basement story.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by jhynesrockmtn

Good for you for getting through this. It sounds like you learned a lot.

I've been in the landlording business since the mid 80's. I've previously had single family houses and now own a small 6 unit building that I bought in 2016. My approach is to only buy in neighborhoods and houses/buildings I would live in. It's a pretty simple strategy and has probably limited my upside a bit. Up until the most recent building, I always managed them myself. I've only evicted one tenant in all these years. That was a section 8 situation and was a disaster. I can't imagine doing it several times.

COVID did a number on small businesses of many types. I got lucky during this time. I know that was unusual. We helped a few tenants with some leniency on timing, but got 99% of our rent, if a bit late a few times.

With more regulation geared toward mega property owners on the horizon, I'm planning to sell at some point. Right now the laws are manageable, but if we see rent control become a reality and eviction gets any harder than it is now, I'll be done and glad to walk away.

Pointing out why rent controls actually decrease available rental housing. As regulations increase, mom & pop landlords sell, and in the case of single homes, often to first time homeowners. Regulations imposed by politicians and bureaucrats out to get who they consider "greedy landlords" leading to the usual unintended consequences.

[fintstone]

I am still happily a landlord although all of my homes are ones that I have lived I myself (except one that was my parents after I was an adult). Great locations in good neighborhoods/schools. They are not painless, but the only ones that have been truly difficult are ones I have managed and maintained myself. I have the homes as close to perfect as I can before renting it out and then it just needs maintenance...although about every ten years or so, most need some major work/update.

Paid managers take care of most of the issues and their fees are tax write-offs against income. I have had bad tenants that required eviction, and they were. It has never been difficult (except I have always been too kind where I personally manage the property and will allow a tenant to sell me on their sob story for far too long (resulting in larger losses than necessary). The only real problem was during COVID when the government intruded and would not allow eviction of deadbeats. I cannot imagine having property where government intrudes on pricing and eviction.

I also cannot imagine selling most (long term rentals in service for decades) as the basis for capital gains for these is zero (or very low). The taxes would be murder. If not for this tax issue, under current condition (high interest rates), I personally cannot see how buying a single-family property to rent is a wise investment...and even a T-Bill returns over 5% and mortgages for investment homes is quite a bit higher (along with much higher taxes and insurance). If more rentals are good for a locality, state or nation, the current environment provided by various government entities sure does not encourage small investors to go this route.

[WPOZZZ]

This must be one of the happiest days of your life! I'm still fine as a landlord. The only headache I have now is insurance. Companies cancelled policies for my buildings and others are telling me they don't want to renew.

Apparently, that is happening nationwide because of all the hurricanes, fires and floods. I closed on one of my condos a month ago and a week prior, I got a notice that the insurance went up $800k and they would not renew next year. I left that for the new owner to deal with. lol