Good Riddance

This is the thanks I received from the former tenants of Beta, Stan and Kris, for letting them out of the lease on short notice. The picture with all the garbage bags was taken AFTER all the garbage was bagged up. And that was just the garbage they left outside.

For the last four days I’ve been playing hookie from work, getting as much done as I could to help make the apartment rental ready. Tuesday was the worst day. After I bagged everything up, I had to work at the shipping depot job, and then do midnight runs back and forth to the Chase bank dumpster until 2 a.m. I bought two packs of 20 contractor bags, thinking I was going to use one pack for this job, then the other pack for Nicky’s apartment in Alpha. As it turned out, I used all 40 bags and still needed to buy more yesterday. We had to throw out dressers, mattresses, desks, sofas, even porn and dildos (needless to say we wore gloves). Stan and Kris even left their checkbooks and all in there—who the hell does that??  As Carver and I worked side by side, he was telling me just how dirty Stan was and how they would throw their garbage from the second floor out to the backyard. Carver helped out a lot, but his greatest contribution was introducing me to his friend, Handyman Stan.

Handyman Stan had asked if he could help out and get paid for it. He first started out by saying he has three kids and a wife to support—NEVER a good sign when a prospective employee freely gives out that information. But I took a chance and hired him and he is absolutely amazing. He has a van FILLED with tools, and he works long hours because he’s currently not working since his boss went on vacation. With him, I was able to get just about everything done and property Beta’s upstairs apartment should be ready for viewing tomorrow morning! As far as the costs go, I’ve paid about $550 for materials and Handyman Stan will get $300 for his work. I only gave the former tenant Stan $350 back of his security deposit because he still owed money from when he lost rent last year, although now I wish I hadn’t given him anything back. So I spent $500 out of my own pocket to get this place ready. Not good. I really have to have a system down when it comes to security deposits. I’m still going to try renting out apartments with a lower security deposit (a little over half the rent price), but I’ll also ask for full rent on the last month of the lease.

I wanted to call Stan or Kris and curse them out, but I learned my lesson about making things personal when it comes to business. I could have taken their checkbooks and their personal information and REALLY screwed with them, but it really isn’t worth the time. Stan and Kris are gone. I’ve made a necessary adjustment to my new security deposit policy. Now the time has come to get this place rented out, and I only have six days to do it!