You know, eventually I’m not gonna suck at this real estate thing. Someday, I’m gonna be really good at it and be smart and proactive and know what to do in every situation. Unfortunately for me, that time hasn’t come yet and I… really… really… suck.
Having not been able to contact Homo Andy, I tried to track down his voicemail. I remembered that every time someone calls my business phone and leaves a message, a copy of the message is sent to my email. Sure enough, I found it and called his new number. When I told him that the pest control guy will be there between 2pm and 4pm, he sounded confused. He said that, because I didn’t contact him in time, he believed that I wasn’t going to take care of the problem. After he sent that legal letter, he found another apartment and already gave them the first month’s rent and security deposit. When I told him that he was supposed to give me a 30-day notice, he said that he thought the letter he sent me WAS a 30-day notice. He also said that he wrote in the letter that I can use his security deposit as September’s rent.
I started explaining that, even if a tenant tells a landlord that he can use the security deposit as that month’s rent, the landlord doesn’t have to accept it. A security deposit is to ensure that when a tenant moves out, he/she left it in good condition. If a landlord chooses not to accept security deposit as rent, the tenant is still liable for that month's rent. I also started explaining to him that nowhere in his letter did he say that it was in fact a 30-day notice. The letter basically said that he’s withholding rent until the roach problem is taken care of, and that if it’s not taken care of then he’s moving out. That will lead a landlord to believe that, once the roach problem is taken care of, the withheld rent will be paid immediately. As I was explaining these things to him, I realized one very important fact that all the explanations in the world will not change. That fact is this: I am fucked.
Homo Andy has already found a place to live. He’s moving all his stuff out this weekend. This means that I have no choice but to accept the Africans’ terms of rent for Hanna. They want to do $500 security deposit with $450 rent. That $500 will cover September’s rent and I won’t have to take a $500 hit, which would be devastating. My plan was to go to the Africans today and say that Hanna must pay $500/month in rent, but I won’t charge her a security deposit. Instead, I would split the security deposit for the downstairs apartment that they’re currently living in in half, making the deposits $300 and $325 respectively. I didn’t want to take the $50 a month hit that would add up to quite a lot if they plan on staying as long as they say. But now, with no money coming from Homo Andy this month, I have no choice but to agree to their terms. The Africans have me by the balls and I can’t do a thing about it.
One of my main business philosophies is that if something goes wrong, then somehow it’s my fault. Sure, Homo Andy made errors and maybe he’s just using it as an excuse to get away from the Africans. After all, if you're truly happy in your apartment, you're not gonna run for the hills at the first sign of trouble. But he’s not the one that’s in the real estate business. I am. I am responsible for everything that went wrong here. My main mistakes were not keeping communication open, a lack of organization, and not taking care of a problem quickly enough. I should have remembered that my business line sends a copy of every voicemail to my email address. And even before he changed his number, all I had to do was call the pest control people and get an appointment set while I was there checking out the problem. We could have set up a time and it wouldn’t have mattered if he changed his number.
I was in a bad mood until I started watching Chicken-Boo and some really funny Cookie Monster interviews on Youtube, and then I was okay. It doesn’t take very much to get me out of these "I-screwed-up" moods anymore, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the great Cookie Monster (oh boy oh boy oh boy!!) since I was a kid. Besides, I think I’ve truly learned that whole “don’t cry over spilled milk” lesson that I had such trouble with last year. What’s done is done. Learn from it and move on. From now on, whenever I’m at a tenant’s place inspecting a situation or a problem, I have to get the ball rolling on a solution right then and there. Call the numbers, make the schedule, and set the time. Don’t make it so easy for a tenant to find reasons to move out. Don’t get me wrong, I was gonna throw him out at the end of winter anyway. He's a filler tenant after all. But at least it would have been on MY terms, and done in a way where I can profit from it. Another lesson learned, I guess. I just hope I don’t have to learn this lesson twice. I don't like it when everyone BUT me gets what they want. That's just bad business.
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