California Targets Private Property With Latest Water Well Fees, Charges: Report

[WM75Guy]

Another reason I never became a landlord.... watching my grandparents deal with weirdos, thieves, abused/abusive couples, and the occasional nice old lady that would die in the apartment after 12 years of no problems.

One of the happiest days in our lives was when we sold our last rent house. The money wasn't worth the headaches.

 

[cqaigy2]

I know this isn't a rental thread but, a buddy of mine used to rent a house out in the country, had good renters for a while, then one of them sued him for pain and suffering because he saw a mouse in the garage.

Then there was the buddy that had a rental and the family canned peaches and left without paying, just disappeared, but they left a gift of 3 foot high pile of peach peals in the kitchen. I was dumbfounded when i saw the mess they left, pulled a wheelbarrow into the house and started shoveling. I know it seems sided toward the renter, but i remember back in the good ole days when people were getting ripped off by slumlords and trumped up charges/damages etc.

 

[not2old]

Another reason I never became a landlord.... watching my grandparents deal with weirdos, thieves, abused/abusive couples, and the occasional nice old lady that would die in the apartment after 12 years of no problems.

Having been self-employed, my rentals are my pension. Not only have they brought in $20,000 to $30,000 yearly for the last ten years, my initial investment of $135,000 has turned into equity of about $1,200,000. Not a real fortune these days, but will come in handy for our kids when the time comes.

 

[California]

Having been self-employed, my rentals are my pension. Not only have they brought in $20,000 to $30,000 yearly for the last ten years, my initial investment of $135,000 has turned into equity of about $1,200,000. Not a real fortune these days, but will come in handy for our kids when the time comes.

Yeah. That worked for me when I was a carpenter dispatched out of the union hall to various construction sites. With my tools on the truck and random down time, maintaining the units and cleaning up vacancies was a reasonable second job.

After a while the rentals paid for me to be a fulltime grad student. But then after after getting a real job it was time to sell. I no longer had time for one essential component of successful landlording: 'Show The Flag', that is, appear often enough that tenants know they can count on you for help, and know if they trash something you will know about it. Carrying back the sale loan at 9% interest paid most of the mortgage on the home we bought also at 9%.

 

[MossRoad]

Don't get me wrong. My grandparents made a decent living from being landlords. The bought a 2 story house, added external stairs to the 2nd floor, lived up there, and rented out the 1st floor. Grandpa had a barber shop in the garage behind the house. When it was paid off, they bought another 2 story and made 2 apts out of it. And a 3rd after that. They had a small cottage on an island in a lake north of us, and a trailer in Florida. The sold the cottage and built a small house next to my dad. Everything was paid for, so it worked out well for them.

However, when time came to sell them, they weren't worth diddly squat because of the neighborhoods they are in. They wouldn't sell and had to be sold on land contract. Those kept getting defaulted on and kept coming back. Grandpa died. My grandma spent a total of 17 years trying to get rid of those houses. Finally got it done in her mid 90s.

Looking back on the troubles they had with tenants, I'd never do that. He had his barber job and had to maintain 3 houses and a cottage and deal with the tenants. I have 1 job. 1 house. Few worries, and more income than he did. I'm OK with that.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Don't get me wrong. My grandparents made a decent living from being landlords. The bought a 2 story house, added external stairs to the 2nd floor, lived up there, and rented out the 1st floor. Grandpa had a barber shop in the garage behind the house. When it was paid off, they bought another 2 story and made 2 apts out of it. And a 3rd after that. They had a small cottage on an island in a lake north of us, and a trailer in Florida. The sold the cottage and built a small house next to my dad. Everything was paid for, so it worked out well for them.

However, when time came to sell them, they weren't worth diddly squat because of the neighborhoods they are in. They wouldn't sell and had to be sold on land contract. Those kept getting defaulted on and kept coming back. Grandpa died. My grandma spent a total of 17 years trying to get rid of those houses. Finally got it done in her mid 90s.

Looking back on the troubles they had with tenants, I'd never do that. He had his barber job and had to maintain 3 houses and a cottage and deal with the tenants. I have 1 job. 1 house. Few worries, and more income than he did. I'm OK with that.

I knew a guy who sold the same farm 6 times. 10% down and move in, give them an eviction notice when they fall behind. He raised the price each time he sold it. It was a very profitable scam.

 

[California]

... They wouldn't sell and had to be sold on land contract. Those kept getting defaulted on and kept coming back.

Got my first break like that. Our first home, a duplex, I put a month of sweat equity into renovating to meet the terms of an FHA loan.

Months later the broker who arranged that said he had a deal I might like: a 5-unit rental that a buyer had defaulted on after starting renovation. It was ugly - mounds of rotting carpet and a toilet in the front yard, a leaking water main making the parking a swamp, more.

But the beautiful part was the original seller had already gotten a substantial down payment from the buyer who defaulted to him so he didn't ask for a down payment from me, just sign a land contract promising the title later after getting the property up and running, and taking over paying the property taxes and the first mortgage that this original seller was still paying on to avoid foreclosure.

A month's work and the place looked respectable. Rents paid that first mortgage that the seller was anxious to get free of. After a few more months rents paid for renovating the larger unit that was such a mess inside. I had turned a month's labor and a couple thousand $ into a going business. After I paid off that bank 1st loan the seller gave me full title. That rental unit and later, the income on the financing I provided to the next buyer, paid our own housing cost for many years - net effect free housing, allowing us to bank our salaries.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’ve often wondered about passive Deed of Trust money carrying the note…

For decades I was on it but time catches up with family obligations making it hard to be hands on and management is only a stopgap in many cases.

 

[joecoin]

Thanks. I've mentioned here before that I collect current and former roundhouse locations in the US. Kinda a weird hobby, but hey, I could be drinking in bars.

Do you have Crestline Ohio?

 

[MossRoad]

Do you have Crestline Ohio?