Rant: home improvement shows

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AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Wow swirls that sounds terrible. Sorry man.

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Swirls
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Swirls »

Arthur Dent wrote:Sell low and walk away.
At this point I wouldn't mind taking a loss if I knew it would sell. Hell I would sell it right now as an "as-is" fixer upper type house at a stupid loss if I knew it would sell.

The problem is that the economy in Marshalltown is still kind of wonky. It crashed right before I moved away, as Lennox closed up shop and relocated their headquarters to Mexico, laying off something like 2,500 workers in the process. They still have a tiny plant in town, but not the behemoth they were 10 years ago. Once all those workers were laid off, the housing market in the city was literally flooded with hundreds of foreclosures that the banks reposessed. They were dropping selling prices $10-$20k per month just to get out from under the loan, so you can't fault buyers for paying $75k for a $200k house and ignoring my $75k house that was listed at market rate.

I'm hoping it's leveled off somewhat now, and in fact I heard rumblings from my neighbor over the weekend that the town is actually in a housing shortage now. Apparently the electric company is building a new power plant at the edge of town so there are several hundred new full-time employees trying to buy houses, but there aren't enough houses for sale at this point.

Hopefully I can get the cosmetic stuff for the most part finished up over the next month or so and get it relisted before Fall hits.

I think the worst part of all of this is that for the past five years that the house has been rented out, I've been paying a local property manager 20% of the rent. He is supposed to inspect the property each month when rent is paid, make sure the tenants aren't being unruly, handle repairs, etc. etc. But the agreement we signed way back when ended a year after it was signed and we never renewed it. He's just been continuing his "role" the entire time. His "role" is that once rent is paid, he affixes a stamp on an envelope and mails it to me. That's it. He has occasionally called various contractors to come out for estimates for whatever repair is required at whatever time. But that's it.

I pay him over $100/month to spend $0.49 on a stamp and like $0.02 for an envelope. If he had actually been inspecting the property or checking up on the tenants, literally NONE of this [expletive] would have happened. When I confronted him about it, he just said, "Well, since it was a lease purchase I've been kind of staying out of the loop. I figured they would have taken care of the property, too. It's a shame they didn't." Well no [expletive], Sherlock, but you aren't the one paying for your [expletive] up now are you? No, it's me.

I have plenty of grounds for suing him in small claims court for all the money he's been paid, because at this point the past five years worth of "work" is borderline fraud. But unfortunately I don't have a current signed agreement with him to prove that. Goddamnit. Did I mention I hate rentals?

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by GeddyWrox »

Wow. Just... holy [expletive].

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Swirls
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Swirls »

Mhm.

When we pulled all the trash out of the basement, in the closet we found all of the remnants of their pot operation. A few leaves here and there, specially crafted hangers for drying the plants out, special soil/food, etc. Everything but the UV lamps.

Oh! One of the things that came up during the housing inspection was that the tenants had actually been burning incense sticks in the walls. They were literally using drywall as an incense burner. When we were down there we found leftover sticks in every room in the house. The inspector also noted that the smoke detectors didn't work, which we found out was because the 9V batteries had actually been pulled out of all of them. As much as I would have liked for the idiots to burn the house down, it's probably a good thing they didn't do it because State Farm would never believe it wasn't arson... "You had smoldering/burning objects shoved into drywall all around the house and bypassed your smoke detectors."

I certainly could plead total ignorance, but I dunno if they would go for it.

Freed Roger
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Freed Roger »

I spent a good part of the weekend and a day off work yesterday re-doing my daughter's room. It was time to get rid of the little kid look. boy, do those projects mushroom into more work than a simple paint job.

Damn, I'm shot and sore at work today. For half a year I've had a half of oxycodone pill here for a desperate time. I just took it. It looks good, but sense of DIY satisfaction is outweighed by sense of relief that it's over (almost - ancilliary stuff - it never is over).

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Swirls
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Swirls »

Swirls wrote:Mhm.

When we pulled all the trash out of the basement, in the closet we found all of the remnants of their pot operation. A few leaves here and there, specially crafted hangers for drying the plants out, special soil/food, etc. Everything but the UV lamps.

Oh! One of the things that came up during the housing inspection was that the tenants had actually been burning incense sticks in the walls. They were literally using drywall as an incense burner. When we were down there we found leftover sticks in every room in the house. The inspector also noted that the smoke detectors didn't work, which we found out was because the 9V batteries had actually been pulled out of all of them. As much as I would have liked for the idiots to burn the house down, it's probably a good thing they didn't do it because State Farm would never believe it wasn't arson... "You had smoldering/burning objects shoved into drywall all around the house and bypassed your smoke detectors."

I certainly could plead total ignorance, but I dunno if they would go for it.
Update from this past weekend:

There was an interior wall in the kitchen that had been cut out and put back in place with drywall screws. About a 2' x 2' square - enough for a small window or something if it wasn't an interior wall. We were getting ready to patch the hole with drywall tape when we noticed that three of the four drywall screws weren't actually going into studs. They looked like they were from a distance, but up close they were basically just screws shoved into drywall with no anchor or stud behind them for support. Only one screw was properly screwed into the stud. So we unscrewed that one screw and pulled out the others in order to properly secure the sheet of drywall.

Once we opened it up to get it realigned with the neighboring studs, we discovered what it was actually for: more pot storage. There were a couple dozen tiny hooks placed near each other where you could hang some leaves for drying out or just hang a bag to pull out when needed. You'd only need to quickly pull out one screw since the rest were just there for appearance.

It's now been properly screwed in, spackled, and painted over. Although I'm honestly scared what else I may find when I get into other rooms now. Other than a few leaves that had been basically pressed into the concrete in the basement, we haven't found any pot yet. But who knows once we start really working on other rooms.

Goddamnit. Did I mention I [expletive] hate rentals?

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Swirls wrote:Although I'm honestly scared what else I may find when I get into other rooms now.
https://youtu.be/37K_bHu2NyA?t=2m13s

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by GeddyWrox »

Renting is a good idea, they said. It generates positive cash flow, they said.

Getting more and more glad I sold off my dad's house when I did. It didn't gain during the market rebound like I'd hoped it would, but I didn't lose money while renting it, either. And I didn't have near the horror-show as Swirls, so I'm counting my blessings now.

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33anda3rd
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by 33anda3rd »

Swirls wrote:
Arthur Dent wrote:I think the worst part of all of this is that for the past five years that the house has been rented out, I've been paying a local property manager 20% of the rent. He is supposed to inspect the property each month when rent is paid, make sure the tenants aren't being unruly, handle repairs, etc. etc. But the agreement we signed way back when ended a year after it was signed and we never renewed it. He's just been continuing his "role" the entire time. His "role" is that once rent is paid, he affixes a stamp on an envelope and mails it to me. That's it. He has occasionally called various contractors to come out for estimates for whatever repair is required at whatever time. But that's it.

...

When I confronted him about it, he just said, "Well, since it was a lease purchase I've been kind of staying out of the loop. I figured they would have taken care of the property, too. It's a shame they didn't." Well no [expletive], Sherlock, but you aren't the one paying for your [expletive] up now are you? No, it's me.
I was thinking "Swirls should hire a local realtor to be property manager" when I got to this point, then read this. Holy crap. Screw that guy. Is he a realtor? If he's a realtor, report him to the local realtor's association. That's so unprofessional and unacceptable. I'd demand every penny he collected from me to be returned, including any commission or fees you may have paid him for finding any tenants over the three years.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Unclogged a back up in the sewer line from the house to the main today. Pretty proud of myself. Not only for figuring out where the clog was and busting it up, but for shutting off the water to the house so mrs aw would stop ignoring me and using the water. The shower was literally .5" from over topping and she wanted to keep doing laundry. I was like......ahhhhhhhhhh, the water is backing up into the shower and will over top the ledge spilling onto the floor. I tried to explain but was too fired up and she was in all sorts of a mood so we didn't exactly communicate well. Nevertheless, other than getting drenched with sewer water when I took the clean out lid off, it went as well as could be expected.

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