I went to Tahoe, CA for 10 days, which was great, but I came home to kind of a mess (nothing I couldn’t handle however).  The tenant at Greeley St on the first floor abandoned the apartment.  I sent all the correct forms and tried to contact her but with no luck.  She later informed me that she no longer wanted the items and I should contact her ex-boyfriend to pick them up. HAHA that was a good one.  Well I cleared the apartment, and have stored all the items in a locked area until a time I see fit to dispose, donate, burn, what ever to them. 

Also while I was away a tenant at Greeley called me to inform me that the basement had flooded, possible because of the hard rain.  OK funny that never happed before?  So upon further review and the fact the first floor kitchen sink was over flowing I finally determined that it was not water but sewage that was over flowing into the basement.  This was due to feminine products, hair, straws, and popsicle sticks, in the drain, not sure why that in there but people do weird things.  So after paying $455 dollars to Gem (I know but it was short notice) the pipes were cleared and all water was flowing smoothly.

 Greeley st was now looking AWESOME on the inside and I was receiving lots of calls for renting.  I’m pretty sure I have a suitable renter, but I never know until the money is in my hand.

Basically around this same time, the renter on the second floor of Sandringham left which was sad.  She was a great tenant (my first tenant ever), who was quite, paid on time, and put up with my occasional antics (haha she will probably read this).  Her apartment was left in the best condition so far.  There were lots of nail holes everywhere and a few larger holes that needed patching but all and all it was in good shape.  I have had lots of calls on that apartment and it should be an easy rent asking on $990.00 for a 3 bedroom, 1100sqft in a REALLY nice area.  The kitchen and bathroom set up are lacking and are something I have big plans for in the future.  I need a tar driveway first then worry about the kitchen, but once it’s done will really improve the apartment.

Now for the big news………..drum roll please.  I was able to pick up another multi family next to the house on Greeley.  So I will now have Greeley 1 and Greeley 2.  Greeley 2 will be the new one, which is a bank foreclosure and was VERY cheap.  I was able to get the price down to $127,900, with the house being worth $258,000.  Not a bad difference, and should be great for a re-fi in a year or two.  This house has three bedrooms on the first two floors, a strange one-bed room on the third floor and then a nice 1 bedroom in the basement.  The house does need some minor work such as a few new windows, tile work, new appliances, new flooring here and there, and some new paint.  But honestly it’s in really great shape.  I’m meeting with contactors to go over prices and ideas.  I’m also going to be video taping the entire project from start to finish and make segments for YouTube, so look for those going up soon. 

Lots of exciting things will be happening in the springtime so keep in touch and make sure to check back often.

You can always reach me at UrbanAndrew@gmail.com

Happy Investing!

Two comments regarding the carpets:

1. Don’t rent a rug cleaner from home depot. The ones they rent do not work well and the one I rented leaked tons of water.

2. If you are installing a new carpet in Rhode Island call John the rug guy at 401-480-9943.  John does an amazing job at an even better price. 

You can check out the video’s of the apartment cleaning’s on YouTube which show just how dirty the apartment was and how clean it became.

It took around 3 weekends and a few week nights to get the place up and going to the condition I wanted. The apartment was vacant for two months which was not bad considering it was winter and there are more rentals then people. I also had to drop my asking price from $650 to $625 which resulted in many more calls and me renting the apartment.  The drop in price is not a huge factor for me as I really just wanted to get some well qualified, well behaved tenants, which I think I found.  Because of the apartment being vacant I have not installed a new washer and dryer but do have all the hook ups there and ready to go.  This coming weekend I’m going to just purchase a washer and dryer, and get it over with.  One big problem with Greeley St. is the rear parking has a large section that is still dirt and is making a huge mess.  With the snow thawing and the rain the drive way area is turning into a mud pit (which I usually won’t mind .  I’m thinking around $200.00 or $300.00 for the prep and paving of the drive area.

In the next edition I will be changing over the washer and dryer and also showing the updated electrical at Greeley St.

Until then, invest!

[where: 02908]

The third floor of Greeley is now vacant, which I was really dreading happening.  The third floor is older and with age comes wear and tear, and the need for a good cleaning overhaul.  I have been over there for 2 days so far and put in around 13 hours worth of work Its not today and I have had some help which makes it go quicker.  Some areas of concerns have been the gas on gas stove, the rugs, and the bathroom.  Because of the condition and age of the rugs I might have to rip them out and replace them.  My original thought was to steam clean them, but because of the pulls and discoloring that might just be a big waste of time.  The bathroom has a stand up tile shower stall, which hasn’t been cleaned properly since installed.  The grout is a very yellow/ orange color because of mildew and the hard water.  I sprayed the bathroom down with bleach and recently purchased an AWESOME grout brush at target for 2 BUCKS!  I have to say that I’m actually excited to try the brush, LOL, and hope it makes a big difference (I’m sure it will) the paint in the bath room is the other issue.  There is no exhausted fan so the steam build up has made the, none mildew resistant paint peel and crack in many areas.  It’s not to the point where I HAVE TO repaint but if I can't rent it out immediately then the going to repaint it.  The sweet 1970's gas on gas stove has many issues and is a horrible almond brown color.  I would like to replace this unit but I have not budgeted for that type of purchasing seeing as how I'm purchasing and installing a washer and dryer in the basement. hhmmmm.  If I have the stove serviced which will cost around $150 it will be in perfect working condition, so I will most likely go that rout.  I may take the casing off and just spray it all white, which would make it look a Ton better.  Here is a short video of day two of the clean saga, LOL.  Enjoy!

I feel as though every social situation where there is something given needs some type of exchange for that something.  If you constantly give give give and never receive eventually you will not want to give any more and may do something to justify all that you have given.  As a landlord I try very hard to ensure that I give back to my tenants, AKA not a slumlord.  I'm constantly fixing and updating items that not only increase the worth of my houses but also please my tenants greatly.  One example recently was cleaning out a storage room in the basement for a tenant of mine so she could move some AC units and a bike down there.  This was something that I needed to do eventually, but not right away.  I also had to replace a cracked window from a built in china cabinet.  The cabinets had been there for a while and people had painted over the hardware a number of times.  So what did I do, I replaced the glass, repainted both of the doors and the cabinet itself, replaced all the hardware and scraped all the paint off of the glass from people doing a half ass job the many times before.  This took me all of 2 hours, the hard wear cost about $5.00 and the paint was already there.  She is now much happier and my cabinets look about 10 times better a win-win in my book.  However the bigger win for me is having rent on time every month and not having to beg.  I gave movie tickets a little while back to everyone because they all paid on time.  This month having my birthday on Halloween, and my love for jack-o-lanterns I purchased 5 pumpkins and handed them out to tenants in the house I live in.  Pumpkins were $5 each (Shaws supermarket) I’m going to keep 2 so it sonly cost me $15 for the pumpkins and made some people very happy.