Real Estate is still the way to go

Having said all those things in the last couple of entries. Real estate is still the way to go!

Baby C is now the $200,000.00 baby.
An excellent return on our $300.00 first insurance premium paid the month she went in to the hospital.

But 200k is small beans compared to our secretaries nieces. They are the Million dollar babies.
(Premi)

Additional learing

I also didn't get a break out estimate from our contractor on a line item bid prior to work beginning.

That is no one's fault buy mine.

Again, in thinking about it, I wanted to be liked.

A personal weakness of mine has turned into a priceless learning opportunity for me.

It DOES matter in doing it right.

It DOES matter to pay attention to those little, "hey, the sink is chipped, pay attention to that" voices and not write them off because another little voice chimes in, "the repairs I had made didn't hold up as well as I thought, next item".

Now I have to go back thru and do the job I should have done in the first place.

It would have been proactive and helpful to me to have prepared my tenant for the up coming bill. To have informed him every time something came up instead of dropping a bill on him.

Again, why did I let this happen?
New parent hood distractions and work.
It is wrong for me to blame my baby, wife, or work for my failure to act.

I'll apologize, list everything out, show him the items, the costs, the contract, and work out a deal.

Other wise this whole experience will lead to me suing someone in small claims court.

I never thought I'd be "one of those people".

I will not throw out the option.

But I will not make this same missteps again!

Mistakes as learning devices

As I watch Baby C trying out her new muscles and putting everything she can reach and pull to her into her mouth, I realize how much work we do as children.

Now that I am older and "know it all" I coast.

And it kills my spirit.

I was feeling bad about the situation with our tenant.

Back ground:
He is getting married and asked to be released from his contract early.
Cost to us $ 2925.00

Why should we let him out?
It is an advantage to us to get the house back so we can short sale our home and have a place to live.

It also practices Win/Win.
He wants out, we amend the contract so that we get the house back early, he pays a financial penalty and any repairs. He keeps 1,500.00 as a wedding gift.

We sent him the estimate last week and he has balked at paying it.
$3,100.00

We pushed, and now we are not on speaking terms.

Zelda is prepared to go to small claims over it.

The tenant is under the impression he is not responsible for the damage. (Because they are not on the list)

While I took photos of the items, I didn't list every thing on the walk thru move out list as I thought I had. (I was too busy photo graphing things and trying to make sure I was using the right column on the form)

There have been subsequent damages found by our contractor caused by the tenant.

I didn't prepare for the move out walk thru.
Why? I had to think back to what was going on at the time leading up to it all.

We should have scheduled a pre move out walk thru to get all the pick up items on the list for our contractor.
We were instead at the hospital.

The walk thru was on Sunday morning.
We were released from the hospital the day before and I was up that night taking care of Baby C.

I was lenient on some of the damages to the house because I was not prepared.
I did not know the contract. I had not memorized it and kept up with it.
I also under estimated the costs to repair them.

Contractually, the tenant is liable for the extermination of the bugs.
The replacement of batteries and light bulbs.
Leaving the property clean, neat, and as he received it.

He didn't.

Light bulbs needed replacement.
The bathroom had not been cleaned in two years.
The kitchen was dirty.
The vinyl flooring in the dining room/kitchen had been ruined.
The carpet in the living room had been damaged and then covered over.
The bathroom door was damaged by furniture along with the door jamb.
The closet doors had been removed from the bed rooms.
Items were left in the garage.
The tub caulk had severe mildew, had dried out, pulled loose. Subsequently two of the tiles came loose during the re caulking and had to be repaired.
The smoke detector battery needed to be replaced and chirped the whole time we were there.
And there were numerous little dents and damages to the sheet rock in all the bed rooms as well as the kitchen.
Kara was startled by a large roach.
There was a mysterious whole in the back splash which our contractor said looked like termites and our tenant later stated (in an email) that it was water bugs aka a 3" cockroach.
The back door stuck. (Which we attributed to an attempted break in and later realized was from foundation settling.)
The foundation was not watered (to prevent movement of the slab and is out lined in the contract) and sheet rock tape in two rooms came loose.

I did not list all items on the walk thru.

We didn't insist on getting pre move in photos of our work.

We backed off enforcing the contract.

In thinking on this and looking at the financial as well as emotional and personal impact, I have to admit to myself that I backed down in an attempt to be liked.

I wanted to be liked...

I am proud to say I am learning from my missteps.