The other day I got a text from Narish, the head Indian tenant of property Alpha’s downstairs unit. He wrote:
Narish: Hi Roger, My community people are looking for 4 bed rooms house, do you have any these days?
His English is a little rough, but easy enough to understand. I was going to tell him no, but then I instinctively replied with this:
Me: I may have a 4 bedroom, three bathroom house available soon, but the rent price might be too high. The price is $1200 per month.
I was speaking, of course, about property Chi—currently rented out by the Africans. The Africans pay a combined $1150 per month ($700 downstairs and $450 upstairs). Yesterday, Narish responded:
Narish: HI Roger. I told them about your 4 bedroom house, they want it see it once. When you want them to see that house. Could you please give the address so that they can look the out side compound plus location… else you can talk with them.
Me: Okay… the address is [property Chi], very close to where you are now. It’s a big white house. I can’t show the inside because the tenants are still in there. They will be gone in September or October. It is a 3 bedroom downstairs and a 1 and a half bedroom upstairs. There is also a two car garage.
I guess it’s safe to say that I’m thinking of being a bit of a sneaky bastard. For a long time I’ve been thinking about throwing out the Africans. They’ve always paid their rent on time, but too many things have gone wrong since they’ve occupied both apartments. The two refrigerators going bad, the furnace problems in the winter, the garage door, the sewer vent pipe… all happening in one year. I think I’ve spent over $6000 in repairs since they took over. But I can’t really prove it was the Africans that did anything wrong. Property Chi is an old 2 family house, built in the 1920s. Those problems (except for the garage door) could be easily attributed to almost an entire century of wear and tear. Can I really throw them out when I can’t prove they did anything wrong? Well… yes, I believe I can.
While it’s true that property Chi is old, all my properties are old as well. As a landlord, I look at the numbers. In the entire time I’ve owned property Beta, for example, I’ve spent about $6000 in repairs, including turnover repair. That’s 5 years of ownership which averages out to $1200 per year. In the one year that the Africans have occupied both apartments in property Chi, I’ve had to pay around $6,000! That’s just one year! The numbers tell me everything I need to know. I don’t have to prove a damned thing—they’re guilty by the stats. All the leases in property Chi are up so they’ve been living month-to-month, my favorite 3 words in this situation. I can throw them out with a 30 day notice, but it all depends on Narish. If his “community people” want the place, then the Africans are gone. I did this before with Belle and Sebastian, when they agreed to take the place even though they hadn’t seen the inside and Nicky was still living there. Belle and Sebastian trusted me because… well, I come off as a very trustworthy person. And I am so, at least when it comes to keeping my word. The downstairs Indians are great tenants who I rarely have a problem with. Narish definitely trusts me, so I’m hoping his people can go by my word that the place is nice. I'll have to wait and see his response but he should hurry. If they do want the place, I'll have to send the 30-day notice out the month before I throw them out.
I kinda liked being able to say that I have African tenants. And, to a certain extent, I liked the Africans. But I’m also tired of them and the repairs of property Chi. Besides, liking a tenant is no reason to lose $6000 a year. So I’ll throw them out, but only if Narish’s people take the place. Ego aside, I honestly don’t have enough confidence in my abilities to rent out property Chi without a tenant waiting to move in. I know I should, but I simply don’t have it yet. The exterior isn’t in the shape I’m accustomed to when showing apartments and I’ll need that done before I can throw the Africans out without a backup. One way or another, the Africans of property Chi are on borrowed time.
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