BigE_
Platinum Member
I was trying to find the right forum for this, Related Topics seemed appropriate enough.
I have a small quandary I'd like some advice on. A few years ago, for some long forgotten reason, I thought it would be a "good idea" to invest in some rental property. Long story short, I bought a small house, got some renters, rented it out for the last three years.
Well, now the renters have moved out and I went down to clean the house in prep for the new renters. I get down there, and the front yard looks great, with the exception that the lawn obviously had not really been watered this summer. I walk inside all set for some serious cleaning, and the house looked spotless! I was pretty happy at that point.
I get to the garage, and there's a 2x2' area where the drywall was all banged up, with holes and dents in it. Apparently the teenage son had thought the car was in reverse, but had it in drive.... So, there's that to fix.
I looked at the inside of the house closer, and I found a couple places with a LOT of wax in the carpet, and dripped down the wall. (Future paint jobs will be fun in that area).
I then get to the back yard. What was once a beautifully landscaped back yard was now thick with weeds, especially in the flower beds. My wife filled 6 of the large yard debris bags with just weeds. Also, I had put in new grass, and it obviously had not been taken care of. The thing is that for the first 2.5 years, it had looked great, but about 6 months ago apparently they started looking to buy a house, and all yard work stopped. I had gotten a bit lax in checking up on the place since they always kept it so nice.
Finally, the sprinkler system was damage and a head is missing. I didn't find this out until I was getting ready to leave and turned it on....
Well, the wife and I put in two full days worth of work cleaning up the place, putting in new plants, new bark mulch, cleaning the gutters, doing all the repair work (except for the sprinkler). I've still got to make at least three trips back: 3rd coat of mud on the drywall, primer, and then paint.
The question is, how much to charge? If they were bad renters, I would have no problem keeping the entire deposit, but they generally maintained the place well. They painted the walls (nothing wrong with the paint, they just didn't like the color), they painted the ceiling (again, nothing wrong), put in a new light fixture (wanted a ceiling fan) and were quick to notify me of problems that needed fixing. The house was always fairly clean inside, etc.
I figure I'll have a good 3+ hours into the drywall repair, not to mention it is a 50 minute drive one way on top of that (5 trips total). A contractor would probably charge $150 for that repair. The wax probably took an hour to get rid of (brown paper bags and an clothes iron). And then there was a good 10 hours into the back yard. (Yard maintenance was their responsibility per the contract.)
So, how much to charge? Do I charge them for the yard maintenance as well?
Any thoughts / opinions would be appreciated.
I have a small quandary I'd like some advice on. A few years ago, for some long forgotten reason, I thought it would be a "good idea" to invest in some rental property. Long story short, I bought a small house, got some renters, rented it out for the last three years.
Well, now the renters have moved out and I went down to clean the house in prep for the new renters. I get down there, and the front yard looks great, with the exception that the lawn obviously had not really been watered this summer. I walk inside all set for some serious cleaning, and the house looked spotless! I was pretty happy at that point.
I get to the garage, and there's a 2x2' area where the drywall was all banged up, with holes and dents in it. Apparently the teenage son had thought the car was in reverse, but had it in drive.... So, there's that to fix.
I looked at the inside of the house closer, and I found a couple places with a LOT of wax in the carpet, and dripped down the wall. (Future paint jobs will be fun in that area).
I then get to the back yard. What was once a beautifully landscaped back yard was now thick with weeds, especially in the flower beds. My wife filled 6 of the large yard debris bags with just weeds. Also, I had put in new grass, and it obviously had not been taken care of. The thing is that for the first 2.5 years, it had looked great, but about 6 months ago apparently they started looking to buy a house, and all yard work stopped. I had gotten a bit lax in checking up on the place since they always kept it so nice.
Finally, the sprinkler system was damage and a head is missing. I didn't find this out until I was getting ready to leave and turned it on....
Well, the wife and I put in two full days worth of work cleaning up the place, putting in new plants, new bark mulch, cleaning the gutters, doing all the repair work (except for the sprinkler). I've still got to make at least three trips back: 3rd coat of mud on the drywall, primer, and then paint.
The question is, how much to charge? If they were bad renters, I would have no problem keeping the entire deposit, but they generally maintained the place well. They painted the walls (nothing wrong with the paint, they just didn't like the color), they painted the ceiling (again, nothing wrong), put in a new light fixture (wanted a ceiling fan) and were quick to notify me of problems that needed fixing. The house was always fairly clean inside, etc.
I figure I'll have a good 3+ hours into the drywall repair, not to mention it is a 50 minute drive one way on top of that (5 trips total). A contractor would probably charge $150 for that repair. The wax probably took an hour to get rid of (brown paper bags and an clothes iron). And then there was a good 10 hours into the back yard. (Yard maintenance was their responsibility per the contract.)
So, how much to charge? Do I charge them for the yard maintenance as well?
Any thoughts / opinions would be appreciated.