My eyes were tired, as was my body. My feet were sore and I couldn’t wait until Thursday was over so I could get some sleep. Wednesday was a roller coaster but I’m happy to say that, in less than 2 days, I rented out Gary’s old apartment in the upstairs of property Chi.
From the beginning I knew I was tired. Wednesday is the worst day for me to do showings because of my work schedule. I work Tuesday from 6:30am until midnight, get about 4 hours sleep, then come into the bank job to work another 8 hours. I was taking calls and setting up appointments throughout Wednesday morning while working the bank job. Finally it was 3pm and the appointments arrived. Walking into the apartment, I saw that Gary really did a phenomenal job taking care of the place. And that $40 of polyurethane that I talked about in a July blog, Cheaper Shine, really held up the last four months. It made the apartment look amazing, and everyone loved it. Here’s a breakdown of the prospective tenants:
3:00pm: The Homos. Lives in a decent area, but has to move because the property manager needs a place to stay. One doesn’t work but his boyfriend works at a bank, making 40k annually.
3:30pm: The Goth. Lives in a bad area on the south side. Wants to move because her roommates are being kicked out. She brought her idiot brother to come with her to take a look, but she will be living by herself. She works at a diamond store, making 275 a week.
4:00pm: The Blacks. It’s a couple with a small child. They live in a bad area on the west side. They want to move because they live in an efficiency and need more space. They both work making $9 an hour.
4:15pm: The Single Black. She lives in a bad area on the north side by herself, and wants to move because she wants her own apartment. She makes 1500 a month. (I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much. She came in, filled out an application, then left fairly quick.)
4:30pm: The Pregnant Couple. Lives in a very good area, the suburbs on the outskirts of Smalltown. Boyfriend works full time making $9 an hour.
5:00pm: The Waitress. Lives in a very good area on the north side of Smalltown. She wants to move because she wants a bigger apartment. She’s been working as a waitress for the last four months making 1500 monthly.
Right away, I had to eliminate the Goth, the Blacks, and the Single Black because they lived in bad areas. One of the things I look at is where a person is moving from. If they live in a bad area, they live there for a reason. I’ve had some shitty experiences moving people in from bad areas into good (decent, in property Chi’s case) ones. In every case, they brought their bad neighborhood with them and I’m done with that. Not only that, but the Goth didn’t make enough to afford the apartment anyway. Next, I eliminated the pregnant couple. They reminded me too much of my old tenant Annie and her situation. I wrote about Annie in April, in a post called Oh Annie. I don’t know what that boyfriend is going to do when that baby is born, but I don’t want to find out. If he leaves, I’ll be stuck with the girlfriend who will most likely go on assistance and then I’m back in Public Assistance hell. No thank you.
That left the Homos and the Waitress. In my experience, renting out to single women has been a pain in my ass every time I do it, so I decided to give the apartment to the Homos. Not only that, but her boyfriend is in real estate. One problem with her, and I can guarantee he’ll be coaching her on the wonders of code enforcement. I went over to their current apartment that night to sign the lease (and to see how they keep their apartment). They live true to stereotype: neat and clean. As I was getting ready to fill out paperwork, they then told me that they wanted a 6 month lease. One of them is working on his MBA and, when he’s done, will most likely be moving out of town. It caught me off-guard and I told them I’d have to talk it over with the “management company” (meaning that I had to sleep on it). As I drove home, I called the Waitress to let her know that, if she wants the place, she’d have to call me back before 9:00am the next morning. When she didn’t call, I called the Homos and we got papers signed and money received by 10:00am Thursday. (The Waitress called me later in the day but it was too late.)
The Homos will be interesting. I’ve never had homos as tenants before and I’m curious as to how this will go. I have early reservations because I don’t know how the downstairs tenants, the Africans, will perceive them. Africans, in general, don’t like being around any form of homosexuality. With their lease ending in January, it might be a deciding factor of whether they stay or go. Overall, however, I think I did a good job of picking the best tenants: two college graduates with one working at a bank making 40k annually as he goes for his MBA. I used everything I’ve learned from past experiences to make an informed decision. Not only that, but I was able to rent the apartment out in less than 2 days, my shortest time ever! Time will tell if I made the right choice. Once Gary leaves, the Homo Era begins.
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