Real Estate is HELL
Question: I’ve been landlording for over 10 years now, and can’t believe so many folks would be interested in getting in on this kind of investment. It is more hellish than ever.
Here’s what I’m dealing with:
Duplexes that will not sell. Tenants who have no respect for the upgrades and out of pocket expenses we’ve put into the properties. Tenants who don’t even keep a clean house. Tenants who leave ya with a mess that takes a week just to clean up (over 80% of tenants). Capital gains taxes that require a loan to be taken out to pay if the properties DO sell (thereby also negating all the deductions taken over the past 10 years). Needing a loan just to counter the taxes on the deductions even tho I’d be selling *at a loss*. Having roaches destroy the quality of the home AND tenants that COMPLAIN about it even tho THEY ARE THE CAUSE OF IT. Tenants that threaten violence when they don’t agree with the rules of the lease. Tenants who treat you like shit because you’re kind and caring, and therefore easy to take advantage of. Tenants who treat you like shit because you command respect and are in charge. (You can’t win, either you’re too easy or too hard). Property values that plummett because of tenant’s trashing it. Tenants that sue for many tens of thousands of $ due to non-existing and therefore unprovable “negligence”. Overall lower quality of life worrying about a place that isn’t filled, and mortgage payments that can’t be made. Possible bankruptcy. Possible loss of everything else I’ve worked so hard for. All while most of these people get thier money for free.
Yeah, real estate is definitely hell. The only saving grace is when one is lucky enough to find a gem of a tenant (one in approximately 100).
Answer: Wow! Sounds like you’ve had a bad experience with real estate! I managed 50 properties some years back and only had a few (very few) tenants who were anything like you describe. True, I got tired of 3 a.m. calls about “my pipes are frozen!” But overall they were good folks.
Hope you find your way to Purgatory from that Hell! Well, yes. Of course, your tenant might have “connections” as well. I guess it’s a question of whose brother is bigger. As a landlord, I invariably have more to lose (assets, income) than a tenant. If it goes to court, I could lose everything, but the tenant probably has nothing to lose. Not great odds. But I’m not above behaving “worse” than the tenant.
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