Adventures

Scrambled Thoughts About Rentals

Shelley

When you own rental properties like Mr. and I do, there comes a time when you’re ready to cash in on the bucket of work owning them involves and travel instead. Every time I mop a floor or clean an oven to ready the place for the next renter, I think, “I’d rather be somewhere else.”

On my bucket list for years was to take a trip to Australia. I say, was, because I don’t know that I’ll ever go. No fears, though, thank goodness I found a way to travel there and save $ at the same time virtually. Instead of heading to the Hotel Windsor for real, I check in on Brian’s photos at Bushboy.com. His recap of June was delightful. I wonder if he’d get a kick out of my arty photos for June?

Thanks for the financial savings, Brian, you saved us a bucket full of money! Maybe when Mr. and I sell the rentals, we’d splurge on a trip?! 🤔

Mr. and I have traveled back and forth from our rental properties (him more so than me) so many weekends of our 20 + years of owning them. Much of the past two years and all the not-so-cool things about the pandemic have taxed our emotions and desires to work as hard as we have in the past. We’ve been taking the tasks in small bites of time so that we can enjoy the summer weather too.

We’ve set time limits and work like mad when we’re there. Then walk away with a honey-to-do list for the next weekend. I then spend time reading in the tea house. Last week I finished Dan Antion’s book Knuckleheads. I can’t wait to read the other book reviews he’s shared on his website nofacilities.com. I enjoyed the book a lot – it was a nice escape to read. I’ll give it a proper review when I’m not scrambling for time. Stay tuned!

Last weekend was another tree-trimming and garden bed clearing at the rental. It’s been years since we trimmed the trees there. But when we Mr. installed a new mailbox, we knew it was time to trim the bushes too. While Mr. did that, I cleaned the appliances and the floors and paused often to take photos of Mr.’s handy work.

Before

During

I ended up helping Mr. outside while the floors were drying inside. I also ended up with a war wound on one of my fingers from one of the thorns on the branch of the possible culprit buckthorn tree or black locust tree? They’re both nasty weed-like trees. The boxelder bugs were shocked into daylight when I removed the debris they were hiding in. I quit my clearing the garden assistance when I saw them crawling everywhere and went back inside to finish the floors. Or I’m sure I dusted some dust bunnies that weren’t crawling so much.

After

As we were raking up the debris into piles one of the other renters stopped by to say “Hi.” And then said, “Hey, if the place isn’t rented yet, I know of someone who might be interested.”

Mr. and I glanced at each other and grinned, “Do tell…we almost have it ready to rent.” It’s always a good sign if a renter that lives there recommends someone and we don’t have to advertise, etc.

🤔😏😇

So now, with all our procrastinating and lackadaisical timelines…we’re scrambling to get the place ready for a new renter. Window washing and blind dusting have been happening. As well as more and more serious conversations about, “When should we sell and retire?”

Anyhoo, if I were to gamble on it, I have a hunch she’ll love the charm of the place and want to move in right away on Tuesday! Please keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “—amble.” Add letters to the beginning of “-amble” to make another word or use it as is in your post. Enjoy!

PS – Happy 4th of July weekend to my friends in the USA. What’s new with you over the past couple of weeks? Did you like my arty photos? If you’ve owned rentals and sold them, how did you decide when it was time to sell? What freaks you out more to clean – bugs, soap scum, or baked on food?

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

68 thoughts on “Scrambled Thoughts About Rentals”

  1. You two sure keep busy! Your rentals are adorable tho. Will be worth the work if they do get you to Australia one day–or at least Jamaica again! Since I’ve been on vacation, I’ve been terrible about blogging and responding to people’s posts. I’ve missed it! Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. My little town has a parade we watch from our yard and we have friends visiting, so more fun. Really, I’m anxious to get back to work on my finished novel manuscript. This summer I put together my list of agents to query. More fingers crossed!

    1. Hi Rebecca!!! I’ve been enjoying your Instagram stories and seeing all the fun you’re having on vacation. You have a beautiful spot to enjoy. I hope the parade and festivities were delightful. You’re right – I’d love to go back to Jamaica someday or Shelley Beach in Australia. I think Jamaica is probably more doable though. 😉 It would be nice if the funds from the sale of the properties could transfer tax free to travel plans – I think we’d sell in a heartbeat if that were the case! 🤔🤣

      I forced myself to sit and do NOTHING after we finished up some work. It’s harder than I thought it would be. After I read a memoir I just sat and reflected on it. I don’t sit in the quiet very often. I should do that more often.

      Aw, thanks – our weekend has been nice and quiet. We’ll see our girls next weekend to celebrate their birthday month. I’m so looking forward to seeing them again.

      Your FINISHED (YAY!!!) novel manuscript is ready to send out to agents, that’s wonderful news. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

      Thanks for stopping by – it’s always great to hear from you!

  2. Rentals are a lot of hard work. Renters rarely realize that. We had ONE for a few years, sold it after the second renter moved out (3 years we had it total) and were relieved to see it gone. My folks had 6 units, 3 duplexes. They were mostly retired and did all the work themselves too. I kept telling mom that there were certain things she could and should hire out. One of her renters shot himself in the bedroom. I told her NO she was not going to clean THAT up! And sometimes the places would be totally trashed, with holes in the walls and doors missing. Once even the oven door was missing. When mom and dad died my baby brother inherited the units. They have been his main source of income for 18 years, but he’s 62 now and he sold one building last year…will sell the other two in the upcoming years. He says he’s exhausted.

    1. You speak our landlording language, Dawn.
      Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Your first-hand knowledge and what your brother is going through is what we’re feeling now. Mr. is 62 and he’s feeling the readiness to let them go sink in. Your counsel to your mom is wise. We’re doing more of that “Let’s hire someone to do that.” thinking.
      Yikes a shooting, that’s bad! We have had a renter pass away in this exact place we’re working on – it was one of our more extensive remodels after that. We could write a book someday. 😉
      I hope you’re doing okay with your missing of Katie. It’s coming up on a year when we said goodbye to Copper – I still miss him, it’s a bit easier now though. 🤗😊

      1. Doesn’t seem like a year already for Copper! I saw Katie last night, walking down the hall to go to bed. Just out of the corner of my eye, just a shadow really, but it sure tugged at my heart. I want her to come home so much.

        1. It’ll be a year August 23. The month of July was the struggle to decide what’s best for him as he was declining. That’s a raw time in the journey and it takes a lot to get through it.
          I’m sure every memory of Katie tugs at your heart. Take care as you work through your memories.

  3. Sorry about the thorn injury, Shelley, but you did a great job on the bushes. I hope it turns out to be easy to rent and you can move on. I can understand your desire to walk away from being a landlord. The woman who was renting the house next to us, gave it to her ex-husband to rent. The house is in a trust for their kids, but one of them gets the rental income and maintains the place. She said she had had enough.

    I, too would love to travel to Australia, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen.

    I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed Knuckleheads. I am honored by the thought of you reading it in the tea house.

    I hope you can relax for the rest of this weekend.

    1. Thank you, Dan – the injury healed well once I discovered and removed the tiny (VERY TINY) thorn piece that was left in the wound.

      If our kids lived closer to us we might do something like that for the rentals. We could also hire a management company. We can definitely relate to the exhaustion stage. Passive income is wonderful when they’re all rented and no one is causing damages.

      Travel plans have definitely taken a backseat for us. It’s fun that there are bloggers around the world that share photos so ‘travel’ is doable from the comfort of our own homes.

      Yes – the tea house was a great spot to read your book. I listened to the birds sing and the rain fall while I was reading. It felt like I was right there with the characters listening to the conversations from the corner of the room.

      I’ve been relaxing – thank you. I hope your weekend has been enjoyable too.

  4. Mr did a fab job clearing all the overgrowth, nice work! Sorry about your punctured finger, Shelley, ouch! I’m sure it will heal up nicely. It’s been my experience through observation that many renters do not care for the property they rent, hence the place can get trashed which is sickening.

    I have renters in my HOA and strongly dislike them. I like the blurred bunny photos, very artsy! $9600 dollars to visit Australia? I have wanted to go there too but not for that much money, wow!! Have a great holiday, guys!

    1. Hi John! I rescued your comment from my spam folder. I need to figure out how to set it so that you’re always approved and not routed to spam!

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We probably could’ve done a more thorough job of clearing the underbrush, but we set a time limit and we met that 🤣😂 While we’ve been blessed with many long-term renters, we have also seen our share of those like you described. When that happens it is jaw-dropping amazing how bad it can get.

      Glad you liked the blurry photos – it was hard to get good photos through the window – I didn’t want to scare the little tikes off while I tried to get photos of them. It’s fun to play with the blurry effects though.

      Yes, that’s a lot for just the flight and hotel. And that was just for one person. 🙄

      I hope you’re having a great holiday. We’ve got rain so no fun outside this year. That’s okay – we’re relaxing and hope you are too.

      1. Rain rain and more rain, send it down here please! I’m hanging by myself today, no big deal. I called and text with the family and discussed my next trip up there in mid August. It’s probably a big decision to sell or keep a rental as I’m sure you like the income from them. I have to check my spam folder almost every day as too maby comments end up there and they shouldn’t be, thanks for rescuing me😂

        1. I wish I could send you some rain. I think the corn that is armpit high instead of knee high might fight me for the rain though.
          Yay for planning another trip home!
          Yes, it’s a HUGE decision for us, thus we’ve yet to make it other than keep them another year, after year, after year ;-).
          It’s so weird how the spam filter works. For the most part it captures plenty that I’m glad it does. But not when it’s your comments!!

  5. I understand the work involved in keeping rentals. With great relief, I recently sold the house in Ala. that I was renting. Too far a distance to do it properly. Good luck.

    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Anita. Congrats on selling and the relief you’re feeling now that the place is gone. We appreciate your good luck wishes. I’m keeping the faith that we’ll know when the right time is for us to sell or change up who is doing the work!

  6. I’d say the time to get out would be when you feel that the extra money isn’t worth the bother.

    Happy Independence Day!

    1. Hi John – that’s wise advice we’re writing down to consider. Passive income is very nice when all the places are rented and without issues.

      Happy Independence Day to you and Mary!

  7. I’m am so happy to be out of the rental business! Everyone has to make their own decision based on financial and personal considerations but selling the duplex several years ago was so freeing. It always seemed that even if there wasn’t a need to be working on the rental, my husband was worrying about it. My fingers are crossed that your renter will move in soon and will take great care of your property. Happy 4th!

    1. Hi Janis – thank you for sharing your thoughts and confirmations that when you and your husband sold it was a freeing event. That’s what I know we’ll love about it when we’ve finally made the decision to let go. We completely understand that worrying about things even when things are going fine, there’s always the lurking that something could go wrong.
      Thank you for crossing your fingers too! I love that you said hopefully the new renter will take great care of the property too!
      Happy 4th to you too!

  8. That’s a huge house Shelley! Is there just one renter for the whole thing? It looks really nice and well maintained. You and Mr. do a great job. I don’t want to think of the amount of work involved, even if the renter was considerate.

    1. Hi!! It is a big place with 3 units in it. It is a pride and joy property as it was remodeled originally by Mr.’s parents and they won a beautification award from the city.
      Your hunches on the amount of work are spot on 🎯
      I’m sad to report the potential renter was a no-go so we’re back to the starting point. She asked if we accepted pets and Mr. asked what kind. 2 dogs, one German Shepard and a Yellow Lab. Umm…we love dogs, but large dogs in an apartment of our is a big NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 😂🤔😏😥

      1. It’s a beautiful house. Can’t say that I blame you on the big dog situation. They need a lot of room! Plus their accidents are a lot bigger too.

        1. Thank you, we love the charm of this rental.

          Big dogs deserve proper space to stretch their legs and sniff the air. And, yes, big dogs = big 💩 🤣😂🤣

  9. Thanks for the shout out Shelley. I do like your arty farty photos. I don’t think I could have a rental, I have enough trouble keeping on top of my own place!!!!
    WP has sent me to purgatory. I am having trouble with some sites that don’t let me like or comment on the actual page but can do so from my reader, so go figure. A couple of site I have had to re-follow but when I look I am already following. It is so frustrating.
    I am glad that you….Mr…is doing a good job outside while you are taking care of onside. Lucky to get a recommended renter but make sure that she/they are good people. Don’t fall fro the recommended by someone else who lives inn the street unless you know them quite well 🙂
    PS Looking forward to seeing you over here soon. I am a long long way from Melbourne though. Fly into Brisbane, it’s just up the road (in Australian speak) 🙂

    1. Hi Brian – You’re welcome, I’m happy to share shoutouts to you. You share and link to fun prompts to keep blogging fun. I’m honored to hear you liked the arty farty photos. I was inspired by you to embrace them! 🙂

      Your comment about needing to keep on top of our own place is fitting. Every time I’m cleaning an apartment I think that I should be devoting the energy to our own home.

      WP has done that to me too. I think there was a recent update that isn’t compatible with my outdated computer?

      We make every applicant (regardless of recommendations) fill out an application and go through a screening process. The gal liked the place but didn’t even get to that point – she wanted to bring her two dogs (German Shepard and a Yellow Lab) with her. Um, NO!

      PS – In the meantime, I’ll have to make the trip to Australia via your blog as often as I can. Wow – a flight to Brisbane does look cheaper than to Melbourne… 🤔😉

      1. Goodness me!!!! Two huge dogs is definitely a no.
        I thought it was a a WP glitch 🤔😏
        I knew I shouldn’t have just willy nilly said heck, why not upgrade.
        I am about four hours from Brisbane plus it has better weather than Melbourne 😁

          1. I asked the WP happiness people. I had cookies checked in my Firefox settings. Untick and all fixed 🙂

          3. Yay for a successful adventure with the Happiness Engineers. And only a couple clicks to fix your issues!! Big WIN!

          4. I didn’t realise I had already told you that. Ignore previously answered in comment this morning 🙂

          7. Thanks for chiming in! I’ve found that the reader does work well for fellow WP bloggers, not so much for other blogs.

        2. You’re right – if that potential renter didn’t have dogs, we’d have the place occupied. Time to find a different lead.
          WP – my back up software JetPack just upgraded too and I don’t have a clue how to get rid of the error message it is showing – something about remote back up and FTP/SSH … blah, blah, blah.
          Thanks for the tips on a better place to visit. That’s probably a nice day trip for you to go between Brisbane and Melbourne? Do you do that often?

          1. No I don’t go to big cities often, only when I have to mainly. The last stretch of highway into Brisbane is a nightmare even if it is three lanes either way. I haven’t been to Melbourne since I was a kid. Think I still have distant family there but intend to get there. It would be a couple of days drive and would have to drive to Brisbane to get a plane so very off putting.
            Brisbane to Melbourne is around 1,800kms so a bit more than a day trip – 18hours non-stop driving?
            My error stuff fixed with help from WP was I had a checked a box in Firefox cookies. Unticked and all is fine now.
            They were very helpful and just an onscreen chat 🙂

          2. Thanks for sharing – I’m with you on the lack of interest in traveling to all the places I could go in the USA. When we decide to travel it takes us months to prepare and then we’re good to wait again for several years or more. LOL. We did an 18-19 hour drive from our house once. With our kids in the minivan and lots of coffee it was a LONG trip that we’re glad we took but we never drove straight through like that again.
            Yay for fixing your WP issues so easily!!

  10. You and Mr. have put a lot of work into this rental Shelley, just as you have the other ones you have featured in your blog in the past. I hope the prospective renter worked out for you and that will give you more time to enjoy your Summer before the snow flies. I’ve never been a landlord but I can picture how much work is involved. I am not a housekeeping whiz these days and soap scum would likely be something I’d rather tackle than bugs. Bugs and me are like oil and water. 🙂

    1. Thanks for remembering how much work we’ve put into the rentals. We’re getting wiser and possibly more willing to pay for assistance as we age.
      Bugs and bunnies are on my list of oil and water. I hope you’ve gotten your bug situation under control.

      1. At least the ants were not as bad this year – hopefully they don’t come back 2X worse next year. I’ve seen no more centipedes, but the rain tomorrow night may bring them in. Ugh.

        1. Glad your ants aren’t bad. Ours are crazy – they come in spurts through the cracks in the concrete. It’s amazing how they find ways to show up – we spray them with the STEM and they’re gone for days. Ugh is right!

  11. Good morning
    Enjoyed your play on words and fun sentences with buckets and bucket lists and like your writing style (food flow as usual)
    also
    I have a feeling you will make it to Australia and other places – but a sigh of your contentment is to feel the way you do – which seems chill and relaxed
    And that is a good place to be.
    —
    We almost went the rental property route – but knew it wasn’t for us – it might be someday (like if we get a Florida condo and use an agency to rent it out while we are not there) but that is years down the road – and not 100%
    But we would never want to be a landlord directly because of the work and if it ever came to eviction – that would be so tough – it takes a certain type to manage certain things
    Have you have many evictions?
    —
    – too bad it didn’t work out with the lady and her dogs – but in my mind it wound not have been too bad / both breeds are amazing dogs and as long as they are not puppies – I don’t see a lot of damage happening (pet hair and dirty floors / but they are such gentle breeds and amazing )
    But then again – you have to do what you know to do with all the experience in this area

    1. Good morning Yvette. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Time will tell on the travel. We are content at home for now, so that’s good.
      We’ve thought more about a place in FL if we sell these, so at least we have a place to go in the winter. But that sounds tough too. We’ll see. Yes, we’ve had one eviction and several, “move or we’ll proceed with eviction” renters. For the most part, we’ve had great and steady renters.
      Yes, it’s a bummer on the lady with the dogs. The apartment is on a busy street and big dogs (to me anyhow) need a space to run and do their business. We’ve made the majority of our places smoke and pet free. We do love GS & YL breeds too, but they deserve a space where they can play.
      Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!!

      1. Oh that makes sense in the dogs now
        And also / pets do change the apartment or home so much
        This is why when we used to get a rental to vacation with it was always smoke free and let free
        -/ so I understand now!
        —

        1. Indeed pets do change the home. I don’t know if you remember this one from before or not, but several renters ago the woman passed away there and it was days before the other renters noticed her door was open. She had ferrets and cats and the place was a disaster in so many ways. So yeah, no pets works best!

  12. At this point in my life, I can say with some degree of assurance I will likely never own a home or anything similar ever again. The main reason is that I don’t want the stress of maintenance, and I don’t care how old or new the place might be. That’s why I reluctantly sold my late mother’s house in So Cal. At this moment I’m in my daughter and SIL’s house while they are having work done on their outside pipes and sprinkler system which may or may not have been caused by cold temps and which they are not totally sure they’ll need in the future anyway. See what I mean?

    I have been a landlord a couple of times in the past and was VERY fortunate to have tenants who never bothered my about repairs, most of which, amazingly, they did themselves. I ended up selling those places to those same people, so clearly a win/win. Even so, I’ve always known I never wanted to do that again, either.

    Australia is one of the few foreign places to visit on my bucket list. If Mr. doesn’t want to go with you, I hereby volunteer as your traveling companion.

    1. Hi! You’ve thought well about the whole deal of rentals and home ownership. You were lucky to find good renters that wanted to buy when you were ready to sell.
      That is a huge WIN. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

      Ah…I’ve made a note that you’d travel with me. I’m sure we’d have fun and I have a hunch that Brian and his bestie would be happy to show us the sights worth investigating!

    1. LOL – that’s awesome. It’s so true too. AND the reason we don’t own a ‘summer’ home too. 🤣😁

      1. Hahaha
        Well any Effort in those rentals of yours will pay off when you sell them
        Also – I bet you were a huge blessing to many of your tenets – and that has much value!

        1. You nailed it. That’s what we keep hoping!

          Aw, that’s so sweet, thank you! I’m the behind the scenes party, Mr. gets all the credit for being a blessing to our tenants.

          1. Well it is still a package deal!
            Because you are probably crunching numbers and keeping good paperwork (which also makes a good landlord)

          3. And not to over chat this topic – but on the news recently they did an advocating story about an apartment that was falling apart and tenets were complaining – loose stairs even at one place (code?) and ac units not working etc
            So each time you prep a place and also even screen the right renters (saving everyone to from a mismatch and early departure) well that is part of the success here too – right?

          4. Yes, indeed. We’ve learned over the years that our desperation acceptance lead to the most damaging renters. We did show this place again, a referral from the other one who had the two dogs. They’re a nice young couple that want to be away from loud young kids. They fell in love with the place. They’re submitting the screening paperwork, so fingers crossed it works out for all of us. 🤞🏻

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