One time too many

[goin' coastal]

That's a really nice gesture. If an owner did that for me, I would be very impressed and very much inclined to rent from them again. My rental history is probably 80 percent agency, 20 percent owner. Can't say I've ever had an owner show much appreciation for my business before. Certainly, agencies don't care if you rent from them or not. They know someone else will if I don't.

I would have a coronary if I received a Christmas card from say, Dune-Allen Realty. Heck, they always act like they are doing me a favor by allowing me to rent one of their units.

It would be wonderful to have guests like your family. I would not like a real estate agent showing the house especially unannounced. We were guests for many years before we were owners. I always left a house cleaner than I found it too.
I feel awful about nice people walking into some of the things that others leave. But unless you are there or have a lot of money to keep remodeling it is impossible.

 

[JB]

It would be wonderful to have guests like your family. I would not like a real estate agent showing the house especially unannounced. We were guests for many years before we were owners. I always left a house cleaner than I found it too.
I feel awful about nice people walking into some of the things that others leave. But unless you are there or have a lot of money to keep remodeling it is impossible.

I appreciate that. It's a tricky business. I know enough people who own places and see what they deal with. Unless you are really, really wealthy, I just don't see how anyone can own a vacation home and not put it on a rental program.

We should have acted to buy 10 years ago. We found a lot over on Big Redfish lake in 1995 or so. The asking price was right around $180K. Two years ago, it was stil for sale - for $975K. I could kick myself for not pulling the trigger. You figure about another $200K (at the time) to build it out, and we would have some pretty decent equity by now.

 

[goin' coastal]

If things do not change soon we may see those prices again.
I better say something about rentals or will be moved to another thread. Yikes.
We had to rent our house, but if it does not improve it may cost us to rent it.

 

[ktmeadows]

BR- don't beat yourself up. It is the same old thing- their mamas didn't raise 'em up right.

I agree. There's no excuse for violating someone else's property. I can't understand what these folks are thinking when they intentionally destroy someone else's belongings - particularly when they have been good enough to offer their home to them. Sorry to hear about your crummy renters, BR. I have a similar experience, and unfortunately it involves family members, so it's a sticky situation. This past weekend we had a birthday party at my home for my sweet 2 year old grandson's birthday. My ex passed away last year and my grown sons asked if I minded inviting that side of the family to the party. I said sure, though I had some reservation about my ex's sister and her family; she has 6 children, ranging in age from 14 to 24. The reason for my hestitation was the memory of those six kids when they were little - they could totally destroy a house in 10 minutes. I finally put my foot down and stopped inviting them 10 years ago when I ended up with broken lamps, food ground into the carpet and the house looking like a disaster had struck. Fast forward ten years to this past weekend. To my horror, these "kids" are still the same terrors they were years ago, only worse because they're much bigger! The 13, 15 and 18 year old got into a food fight inside the house while we were all outdoors. I didn't realize anything had happened until the door suddenly opened and these three terrors came flying out with yellow red and blue cake icing all over their face, hair and clothes, laughing and screaming and running down across the lawn. One of still had a chunk of birthday cake in his hand and the other had a sandwich chock full of mayo that he proceeded to throw at his sister! I jumped up and ran into the house and was totally horrified! I'm talking cake icing running down the walls, in my new beige living room carpet, on the kitchen cabinet - talk about wanting to throw up...aargh!! I looked over at my grandson's Nemo birthday cake and was further horrified! These teens had literally ripped chunks of birthday cake and grabbed huge hunks of icing from the tip of the cake. I was so upset I burst into tears. About 5 minutes later they came flying back in the door - the only thing that stopped them in their tracks was me in the doorway ready to slap each one of them! The 18 year old girl had the audacity to ask me (after a shallow apology) if I wanted her to help me clean up the mess! Her mother strolled in about 5 minutes later (the fact that it took her this long to react probably tells the story) and very non-chalantly told the three that it wasn't nice to act this way in other's homes and that they owed me an apology. That was it - she then picked up a dishrag and began to wipe down the wall. I was so upset I walked outside, where my entire family stood with their jaws dropped - they couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. To top it off, after cleaning up the mess, this group of terrorists stayed about three more hours, laughing, running around and acting like nothing had happened. All of this happened with ME there - as well as 30 other guests! Think what it would be like to have THIS family rent your place! Needless to say, I told my sons that never again in my lifetime would I invite these slobs to my house. My sons felt terrible for having suggested I invite the "other" family.

Make me want to go check on our condo to see what's going on when we're not there. But of course we won't. But we're definitely considering taking it off of the rental market. We've had a few bad experiences where we were glad we weren't there to witness it.

 

[dbuck]

Oh my goodness! I am speechless.

 

[Beach Runner]

In the beach house have already repaired washer full of sand, frig left open -- condensation damage.

It's all so maddening.

And my goodness, luvthebeach, what a mess! Actually the second time we ever stayed at our new home, relatives broke one of the hand-held shower sprays in a bathroom, put their feet on the walls and damaged the paint while playing video games, and broke the arm on one of our expensive Adirondack chairs. And this was family. I think if I saw what renters did, I'd

.

 

[Beach Runner]

Would it not be possible to check references on a potential guest?

I don't know what the standard rate is for having an agency handle your rentals (10-20%?), but it seems to me it sure would eliminate alot of headaches.

How does one get refererences for a renter?

Our agency charges 25%, but they missed the paint all over the house and pool deck and everything else. So what am I paying them for? It doesn't cost them $1000 to clean the house. The damage wouldn't have been noticed if we hadn't had an open week when we were there. And I have yet to get a dime from damage deposits.

 

[SHELLY]

Luv,

I just passed your name to the Vatican to start sainthood procedures.

Me?...I would have had the family clean up the mess and then issued their marching orders--party is over for them. While they were wiping down the walls, I would have colllected up all of their belongings and stuffed them in their suitcases along with what was left of the cake.

 

[JB]

How does one get refererences for a renter?

Ask them to provide the name of an individual or agency they have rented from in the past and call them. Sounds pretty simple to me.

Sounds to me like you need to fire your current agency and hire a better one.

As for the agencies themselves, no doubt some are better than others. Some just plain suck. I would just think that if you live far away, and regardless of the obvious drawbacks, it would provide a little piece of mind. Sure beats trusting houskeepers who may themselves not be particularly trustworthy.

But again, I'm not a property owner, so I have no idea what I would do.

Whoever threw paint around your house should be prosecuted, no doubt about that.

 

[Beach Runner]

Ask them to provide the name of an individual or agency they have rented from in the past and call them. Sounds pretty simple to me.

Sounds to me like you need to fire your current agency and hire a better one.

As for the agencies themselves, no doubt some are better than others. Some just plain suck. I would just think that if you live far away, and regardless of the obvious drawbacks, it would provide a little piece of mind. Sure beats trusting houskeepers who may themselves not be particularly trustworthy.

But again, I'm not a property owner, so I have no idea what I would do.

Whoever threw paint around your house should be prosecuted, no doubt about that.

Somehow I don't see our rental company asking for a background check - they seem reluctant to offend potential customers for fear of jeopardizing their other rental properties.

Is anyone out there happy with their rental management company? Anecdotal evidence from my conversations with other owners points to no.

You are right - the people who got paint everywhere should be punished. The rental company is in denial about this - no response to my requests for compensation.