Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The reluctant landlord

I hate being a landlord.
I found myself playing the role by default. After the deaths of my parents, I found myself with an extra house on my hands. I got an appraisal as part of the estate settlement process and put it on the market. The Realtor showed it to a handful of people over the six months of the listing, but there were no offers. Operating under the mistaken assumption that the Realtor was a solid citizen - after all, he grew up the small town that was my home for my first 17 years - I took him on as a property manager and turned the house into a rental property.
The ensuing nightmare is chronicled in the archives of this blog, so I'll just sum it up by saying I fired the property manager and still ended up with the tenant from hell who sued me and then fled. I won the initial suit, then countersued for lost income, had to garnish her pay and finally recovered. Now I have a responsible, sane tenant who pays her rent on time and is pretty low maintenance.
But I still have the burden of owning the extra house, paying ever-increasing property taxes on it and spending money on surprise maintenance issues. Of the $700/month I get in rent, I figure I get to keep about $500 of it after property taxes and other expenses, but that's before the IRS takes its cut.
So this week when it came time to renew the lease for another year, I mailed her a renewal contract reflecting a $50/month rent increase to cover higher property taxes, and an offer to sell her the house at the appraised value at the time of my mother's death in 2000.
I briefly explained how her house payment would be about $150/month less than her rent if she got a 30-year mortgage, plus she'd get a bunch of money back on her income tax and would be building equity.
I rather doubt that she'll take me up on the offer because she's probably intimidated by the whole idea of home ownership and mortgages and property taxes. It's often hard to get someone to think a new thought.
If she doesn't take me up on it, I may list it with a more reputable and reliable Realtor and sell it anyway.
The whole thing is more hassle than it's worth.

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