4 posts tagged “rent”

So, the house next door sold, and out moved a family with kids about our kids ages.

In moved renters, with a dog, staked outside 24/7, who barks and growls every time we go outside.

His tie-out extends all the way to the property line, which he snaps taut every time I go outside with our dogs or kids.

We ask the landlord for a fence, to keep our kids from doing something a kid would do like chase a ball downhill, and wind up getting bitten.

We've wanted a fence for a while as the back of the yard ends in a cliff down to a ravine.

So far, the feedback we've got from the property manager is that the landlord's OK with it, as long as we pay for the fence he picks out, and our rent goes up because the property would now been improved with a fence and to cover maintenance for it.

On the other hand, we've got our own renters in the house we left behind in the relocation wanting improvements for their own lease extension/renewal.

I'm not only seeing both sides of the fence, I'm seeing it simultaneously and let me tell you; there isn't any green grass on either side.

Today I had to play goalie/keeper to keep a vigorous attempt out of our credit score net.

Who was the other side on the financial pitch, you ask?

My bank.

My own frakking bank!

I pay all my bills, exclusively, with on-line bill pay.

Well, OK, not so "exclusively" really, there are vendors here and there, especially during the setup after a move that want to be paid johnny-on-the-spot, but aside from that, all the paper bills in the mail or received via on-line notification I pay using the bank on-line service.

It's free and saves me a mint on stamps each month.

Above and beyond that, I can track everything on-screen.

I've never been conscientious with entries in the old check register, so that's a major benefit for me.

I can't think of a time that there's ever been an issue with it.

It's secure, it's reliable, it's efficient, and I've been able to trust it.

Until today.

Just received a notification that my rent check payment was rejected.

The rent check that is due today/tomorrow.

The rent check that I now have no way of getting to the rental agent on time, either through a replacement via on-line billpay or through an envelope via postal service...

Unless, I find my box of physical paper checks that I use so rarely that I often misplace from neglect, load the two young'uns into the car (after youngest's nap, but before lunch), and drive over to a neighboring city, to the rental agent office, and physically deliver the check myself, today before 3pm when they close.

I'm offended not because of the rejection, but because it took the bank 8 days to tell me it was rejected.

If told on day one of the rejected status, I had loads of time to initiate a replacement payment, on time (to spare actually.)

The rejection occured because within minutes of initiating the payee and the first payment, I modified the address to include their suite number.

The bank couldn't have just modified my payment and sent it on its merry way?

Or told me that the modification neccessitated a cancellation of payment right away, since the error occured within minutes of initiation?

No.

Let's wait 8 days until we credit the funds back to tell him that the delivery failed due to address modification, leaving him absolutely no time to recover, even though he planned ahead and initiated payment 9 days before it was due.

Well, take that!

I made the save/stop.

The checkbook has been found, the payment written and I'm only killing time until youngest wakes to be on my way and get my result.

The customer will prevail.

Also, took much pleasure in pointing all of this out to a V.P. of on-line banking operations.

Cages will be rattled.

Changes in procedure will be initiated.

More importantly, our credit history / score will not be tarnished with a late payment notation.

Sometimes it just costs extra to do what is right.

Take me, for example, and my dealings with my insurance agent.

Now that we're renting out our house in Michigan, I let the agent know that we should change our homeowners policy.

I'll admit, it was the greedy side of me, not the altruistic that made the call.

Here I am thinking that if we drop the coverage on the personal property, and just keep the dwelling/structure insured, that are premium rate would go DOWN.

After all, our stuff isn't inside that house anymore, so why keep paying the premiums to insure it against loss?

Fine, he cancels out the old policy and writes up the new policy, a "Landlord Protector" package.

Which arrives in the mail today and discover that I have arrived in adulthood.

I now have business liability coverage.  I have loss of rents coverage.  I have tenant personal injury protection. 

I even have terrorism coverage.

And the total annual premium for having a responsible insurance policy that accurately covers current circumstances, and trimming the fat of coverage that is now longer necessary, comes to $165 more than I was paying before I picked up the phone.

This, kids, is what if feels like to be a grownup.

What's to do when you are relocating and your local housing market slumps?

Well, we could man-up and sell our house for a loss, then cry a few tears into our beers in Nashville.

Or,

We could become landlords and rent our place out for a profit (albeit marginal) to tread water until the housing market revives back to break-even or above.

Yes, the notion rather appeals to me.

Afterall, the folks who can no longer qualify for mortgages for lack of down payments still need a place to live and some of them will prefer houses to apartments.

Ours already has a dog-run built in and everything.

I rather like the idea.

And the title "Landlord Groove Neuter" has a good ring to it (B-Flat, Hmmm?)

A full-service property management company only asks 8% of gross to handle all of the potential annoyances from advertising, to screening, to collection, to maintenance, so no 2 am broken water pipe phone calls.

Which means, and this is rather ironic, that although we will be living in a house, and still owning and renting out this one, we will not be responsible for any improvement projects in either.

That will be a blessed relief.

Back to my boxes and packing tape.