Snow news is good news?

The winter storm that hit today only meant that we spent the day shoving sidewalks and driveways.  Actually we had asked one of the tenants in each building to shovel - and bought them a shovel.  We told each that we would pay them $10 per hour to shovel the walks. 

When we got to the 8 plex it was evident that Shane had, indeed, shoveled once already.  It was still snowing, so we shoveled again.  What a great surprise!  Maybe they'll use the money to go toward their rent.  Really, I'm sure they will! 

The other person that we asked to shovel was the one who was the Midnight Moveout yesterday, so we shoveled over there.

But, alas, it's been snowing all day and promises to snow all night so tomorrow will probably be a repeat performance. 

Midnight Moveout

That's what our property manager calls it.  Someone who moves out with no notice and doesn't tell anyone they're moving.  It happened to us again today.  Actually we kind of expected it since I'd talked with her last week, but really - not a word?  Don't return the keys?  Leave the lights on?  I dropped by the apartment today to touch base with one of the other tenants and discovered the moveout. 
And the key that I have to that apartment doesn't work, so now we either break into the apartment or have a $51 locksmith bill.  I have no idea what we'll find when we finally get in. The saddest part is that she was my favorite tenant and we tried really hard to take care of her!  Darn it.

Last time this happened we didn't realize that we needed to call the gas company and make sure the account was changed back to our name.  That was June.  When we had the furnaces checked for the winter season, we found the meter had been booted for lack of payment by the Midnight Moveout Tenant.  That meant we had to pay a turn-on charge to have the gas guy come out.  This time I'll call both gas and electric tomorrow just to ensure it gets changed. 

Then, tonight found that one of our new tenants have two 40 pound black dogs.  We've only recently relented and allowed small dogs.  But our concession was for one dog per apartment and no larger than 10 pounds.  It just doesn't seem to matter what you allow, people always want more.

Tenant drama equals vacancy

I've said it before, but our tenants live on the raw edge.  Sunday afternoon I stopped by the apartments to give the tenants a Christmas card and wish them a merry Christmas.  The first tenant I talked to said her husband was working in Texas and fell of a roof.  His harness wasn't tied well and he broke his leg and severly injured his shoulder and probably something else because he's still in the hospital in Texas.  So, now she's driving back and forth to Texas and decided to she needs to be there. 

She's talking about moving in mid-January.  I'm not sure how it's all going to play out, but darn.  Another vacancy means we have another apartment to clean and repair before we can rent it.  I'm not sure I have the energy for it, but then I suppose I'm just borrowing worry. 

Meanwhile, we framed the wall for a new closet in the master bedroom of Mom's house.  All went well.  Wiring is next.  The four feet that we took out of the living room will never be missed since it was pretty useless space.  Dad used to refer to it as the world's largest hallway. 

Rental Income - a misnomer

After Dad died we discussed what to do with the apartments.  Of course there was the option of selling them but how long would that take in this market and what kind of price would we get in this economy?    Another option was to keep them as the primary soure of income for mom.  We calculated that even at half occupancy there would still be sufficient income for mom and still meet the expenses.

Now that we've been at this for a while we realize that isn't necessarily true. We've been hanging in at about 66-75% occupancy.  Occupancy means nothing, however, if the tenants can't pay their rent.  So many are living on the ragged edge that an illness, car trouble, or even Christmas throws their financial world into chaos and they can't pay all of their rent. 

In the last several months our gross income should have been over $4,000 / month but collected rents were about $2,500.  What do you do?  If we evict them we are left with vacancies and all the same expenses.  Is half rent better than no rent?  Arrrrgggghhhh.