Saturday, February 22, 2014

The accidental landlord.

I finally got my rental back yesterday. It's like I've been trapped in a bad marriage, and I'm really happy to put this part of my life behind me. I started having problems with this guy right out of the gate, but I had that exploding mortgage that I carried around like a 20 ton boulder. Even though I had two years left - you just feel trapped by it all the time. Like you are stuck in concrete and can't move. All of a sudden you become super "risk adverse". Sure my guy paid around the 15th most months, but at least he paid eventually. I never wanted to drive by my place because I knew I'd be pissed. I'd tell myself "you don't want to be aggravated today". So I just waited until I was in a stronger position. Which turned out to be many years.

Finally when my refi went through I wanted to get the rental appraised so I could get PMI off it right away. I think prices might soften up. And I never expected I would be able to get it off this quickly. When I told him I wanted to meet about the house there - he flipped and gave notice. Which I thought was the best gift ever. It was an evictory! I've wanted to get rid of this guy forever! I mean, it's harder legally to get someone out who is paying. The place was decently effed up and that's probably why he freaked.

Turns out I'm not all that bitter. The hard lessons you learn - you learn the deepest. I gave that guy a lot of the benefit of the doubt. When I knew him he lived in a more than million dollar house. It's why I let him move in in the first place. I figured if you could convince someone to lend you a million bucks, you might take care of the place. Looking back in hindsight, that guy probably got a liars loan. He lost his house but managed a short sale during the housing crisis.. His house cost more than both of my houses! And I'm in a pretty decent neighborhood. I have broken doors, broken windows style damage. It could have been worse though.

The bright side is - rents have gone up enough that I'm just going to hire a property management company to find and yell at people. That isn't really my thing. I mean - I will. But I just hate it.

I never meant to be a landlord. I got trapped in that place. The stupid thing is I refi'd it at probably the lowest interest rates I will see in my lifetime. So.... now I guess I am a landlord.

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