On Friday, I snuck out of work to meet the Craigslist handymen that I found to fix the porch railing and the bedroom door of property Charlie’s vacant unit. They called and said they were gonna be late for our 10am appointment due to the snow, and showed up at around 10:36am. I was pretty pissed off at that point, but figured it was best to just get it over with instead of firing them on the spot for lateness. The two guys called themselves Pencom, which is their DBA (Doing Business As) name. So I walked them through and told them what they had to do. I also mentioned that, if the price was right, I would have them clean the entire place to get it all rental ready. I was expecting a price of around $400, followed by a negotiating period that would bring it down to $300. Their price after about 10 seconds of contemplation? $125. No, not $1,250. Not $125 per room. $125 to do the whole thing. I pretended to check the “budget” for the property repairs on my phone and agreed to the price. I left them there to sneak back to work, and then went back to see the finished product at around 3pm.
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| Broken Porch Railing |
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| Repaired Railing by the Pencom guys with wood they supplied for free |
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| Paint residue scrubbed off the wood panel |
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| Ugly but Clean |
By Friday afternoon, at 3pm, the vacant unit is officially RENTAL READY. And all for $125! Damned Alfonso would have charged me three times the amount and would've taken two or three days to do it. I was very happy and am now ready to rent out that damned apartment. But there was one more thing I had to do.
The Africans called me about a leak in the middle of the week, so I told the Pencom guys to meet me at property Chi on Saturday morning. They called early Saturday morning to say they couldn’t make it, but I decided to go over there anyway. I wanted to check out the leak and I was really anxious to let the Africans know that they are being thrown out. So I go over there to check out the leak in the basement, which thankfully turned out to be very minor and something that can be taken care of when I throw everyone out. As I was leaving, I finally told Omarion that I’m throwing everyone out. He looked at me weird and then took the information in stride. And that was that. I actually expected a much angrier reaction, but they’ve been verbally notified and that’s what’s important. This week I send out the 30 day notices and I’ll be African-free by the end of March. Sweet!
You know, I got be careful with Pencom. I notice that the more frequently I use a handyman, the less reliable he is. It’s like I can use them once, and then I have to wait a month to use them again or else they’ll start ignoring my calls and missing appointments. I really don’t understand why, as common sense would say that someone who needs money will work for it all the time. But that seems to be the nature of the handymen in Smalltown, so I’ll stick to the rules and act accordingly. I’ll take pictures after work today and then post the ad Wednesday morning. Looking at the pictures, one can clearly see that this is not my ideal apartment rental. There's carpet, ugly wood paneling, and an very ugly bathroom. But I have to stick to my plan and rent this out the way it is, so I'll be honest with the pictures in the ad and phrase the apartment as "basic living standards" or something like that. I’m not sure how I’m gonna do appointments during the week, as both jobs have me working long hours, but I’ll find a way. And as far as Alfonso goes… fuck him. I’m not sure why he’s not answering his phone, but Pencom proved that Alfonso isn’t the only handyman in Smalltown.
P.S.: A former co-worker from the shipping depot (who is also a landlord) texted me last night with 3 more handymen that I can use for various property management issues. My handyman Rolodex continues to grow...
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