It been a while since I posted so there’s much to tell. But there’s also much to do so I’ll keep it brief. Most of the work these last weeks has been on a single vacancy in the student ghetto. The place was so totally trashed by the last tenants it was uninhabitable. It’s been vacant for a year.
That’s not unusual, as tenancy in that neighborhood follows the college calendar. If a place isn’t rented by June or, at the latest, September, it’s unlikely to be occupied before the following June.
A 12-month vacancy hurts. It’s 1/4 of the revenue that is 1/2 of my total income. That’s 12.5% of OLL’s current annual salary.
Anyway, the long vacancy was an opportunity for a needed facelift and, since I’m doing it myself, time to learn a few things that come easily to most handymen. Things like hanging doors, as posted earlier.
I hope all the people who grew up helping their dad or someone else skilled in construction, mechanics, plumbing, wiring, etc., appreciate the free education they got. These would mainly be guys. I had none of that, although I do appreciate the traditionally female skills I acquired from my mom — sewing, cleaning, mending, cooking, heck, even ironing. Guess some people don’t even learn that stuff now.
However, as an aside, I have observed that the people — women — who know how to sew, clean, cook, etc., get called on to do those tasks, while the ones who don’t end up with household help. Wonder if it’s the same with guys who can and can’t fix things.
Just curious. I need all those skills now, the girly ones I have and the macho ones I don’t. The student ghetto duplexes, generically remodeled with sturdy, basic materials devoid of architectural distinction right before I purchased them in 1987, are perfect classrooms for me to learn all that stuff I need to know to be any good at the landlord biz.
I find as I dismantle the busted-up work of many handymen I’ve hired over the years that a lot of the work I paid for was real crap and some of it was good. Probably paid about the same for both.
It’s April 6 today and still cold along the Eastern Seaboard. Still running two furnaces. But I can tell that spring is coming and I know I’ll want to work outside when it does. Many outdoor tasks await at the stone house and the brick house, which both have large lawns with lots of trees. And at the student ghetto, the end of the semester approaches. Not one of the four units is rented for next year, which begins June 1, and tenants are running out of money and flunking out of school. Rent is drying up.
But I know I don’t like to share a kitchen and bathroom unless the rooms are super clean. People have a right to expect that. I don’t wanna see a shit schmear in a toilet I’m sharing with two guys or find a hair in the tub.
Old Lady Landlord 