"You gonna get another job?"...

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Ugh. Property management in California (or running any business in California). I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. At the risk of offering unsolicited advice, John Schaub's "Building Wealth One House At A Time" and Mike Butler's "Landlording on Autopilot" are excellent. And if there's a local chapter of the Real Estate Investors' Association (REIA) that isn't a bed networking tool (at least the Kentucky one is good). Robert Kiyosaki also did a "The Real Book of Real Estate" a little over 10 years ago. It's a little dry and goes into more stuff like restaurants, shopping malls, and apartment complexes. And one of the contributors (each chapter is written by a different expert) got convicted for fraud or something, but I enjoyed it.
 

Oerdin

Active Member
The irony being that the two section 8 tenants have been absolutely fine, never missed a rent payment while HUD paid the rest right on time. It is the third bitch, who had been there for seven years so you would have thought she’d be ok. Yet she hasn’t paid in four months, $3200 x 4 plus late payment fees, for a luxury townhouse in Scripps Ranch (a very nice and very white part of San Diego). She has worked the whole time and never claimed her income was effected by COVID 19, the bitch had the money to pay and even hired a lawyer for $2000-$3000, she’s just a grifter who heard there was an evocation moratorium and decided to stop paying.

All the courts were closed due to COVID 19 so I couldn’t evict her despite her not officially qualifying for the moratorium as her income was not effected. That changed on the 1st of the month but due to horrible state laws she can grift for another six months at least. She is just taking advantage of the situation and ducking my family and I out of money. The state changed the law so that after Jan 1st I can sue he in small claims court but the capped at $10,000but her back rent will be around $21,000 before late fees and legal fees so the state is screwing me out of more than half of many money. Fuck Democrats.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
It's fascinating that she wouldn't see the consequences of this action. I mean, unless she's planning to buy a house, it's going to be very interesting to explain where she's lived for 7 years when she has to find a new place to live. But even buying a house, it seems like it would be hard to get a mortgage with something like this on your credit.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Cant you start the eviction proceedings at least? That will make sure it's on her record. I also thought they had means testing in California? If she didn't pay you before the moratorium i'd sue her for 10k now and again when you can?
 

Oerdin

Active Member
We hired an attorney and wasted time on the back and forth. At first she claimed she didn’t think we were the legit owners so we served her with proof that we were indeed our father’s heirs and legally owned the place. She then simply stopped communicating. Last Friday we had a 3 day notice to pay or quit taped to her front door and supposedly today she called my sister trying to deal. We shall see.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Just make sure she knows that in a situation like this, she pays the legal fees and it's about to go legal.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
My "supervisor" for the census (who I've never met) is an idiot. He may have missed that I work another job Monday and Friday nights, but we submit our work availability via govt.-issued smart phone, so he should be able to figure out when I'm available.

Well he calls and texts me frantically around 8pm Friday--when I'm in the middle of assembling dishwashers. Obviously I choose not to lug my Etch-a-Sketch-sized census phone with me. So I call him around 9am Saturday and get his voicemail. Later that morning, while I'm walking my dog, He starts group texting the contact info of other supervisors because apparently he doesn't work Saturdays. I mean, he didn't say that--just texted 3 contacts. I considered texting him about the messages from Friday night, but you know what? I already left a voicemail. He's clearly on his phone. I'm not the supervisor in this equation.

By Monday I still haven't heard from him so I leave him another voicemail. Still nothing...until 6pm. When I'm in the middle of assembling dishwashers. I'd say more, but I've got a lot of shit to take care of in the next 24 hours so I should wash myself and get unconscious fairly soon.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
OK. In fairness, my supervisor probably isn't an idiot. The people who hired him are idiots. He has a 9-5 job. How can you manage people in the field if you can't take any calls between 9 and 5 M-F?
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
In fairness, my boss isn't an idiot, the people who made him a boss are idiots. Apparently he has a M-F 9-5 day job. So he can't take any calls until he gets off work. It's a clusterfuck goat rodeo. But allegedly there's only a week and a half left, so I'll try to hang in there. 6 working days for me. Anyway, said boss just quit today. So apparently he realized how unworkable his position was too.

Coming back to an earlier subject, I'm not at all worried about the 'rona. But you know what *does* have me worried? Fleas. Bedbugs. I'm worried I'll be in one of these shitty apartments where people don't fill out the census paperwork and I'll bring parasites and pests back to my house. I think I was in a building with fleas yesterday, but once I got out, I found a breezy spot out of sight and vigorously dusted myself off as best I could.

Today I had 37 addresses in a bloc of 4-plexes. They came up not long before lunch, so I decided to skip them and tackle a smaller apartment instead. Came to them after lunch and they are terrifying--where the white people that live in hellholes live. Saw this in all the signs driving up. Found a place to park but realized I was right against a driveway so I pulled up a bit--and immediately almost stepped on a couple heroin needles. The first address I went to, I almost fell through the floor inside the front door (OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but for a 165# man, there was a pronounced softness to the floor in the doorway. I could have kicked through it if I wanted. Well, the first place I had to go to was missing its doorknob. So I looked in and the place was gutted and clearly uninhabitable. At that point the fun-meter had been pegged and I decided it was time to call it a day. I had 2 more addresses in that building, but I decided to leave because I was afraid I'd knock on a door and someone would be at home.

I'm boggled that people live like that. And that other people allow people to live like that. As a property manager, there's no way in Hell I'd take money from a human to live in those conditions. I could say more, but I really don't need to. And I don't know what I'd say anyway.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Yesterday everyone was freaked out about the Breonna Taylor indictment announcement, so The Powers That Be decided to pull all the census workers in for the day. Fine by me. I like the money, but knocking on doors is tiring work for an introvert. I'm literally counting the days until this wraps up (2 more working days for me, tops). Anyway, today I went out. And they sent me into what, by rule of thumb, is the War Zone. Actually it was't bad and I had lots of nice conversations with people before heading home for lunch and a nap. Really had a hard time getting going, but eventually got back--and my dog, who rides along and sits in the backseat with the windows down, decided she needed to go for a walk. FINALLY, I was ready to head out and do another visit when I got a text from my boss to head home because they were still worried about riots and violence. *shrug* Fine by me. But it kind of makes me wonder why no one said anything this morning when I texted the boss to find out if I should do an on-the-spot interview (a maintenance guy I'd asked for directions said he hadn't done his census yet and wanted to know if I could do it--I had to be sure he wasn't on someone else's schedule).
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
...meanwhile, the factory I also work at--nights--is like "Fuck it, get in here. The 9pm curfew doesn't apply to people driving to and from work."
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
That Breonna Taylor thing has turned into a hot mess. Wonder wtf really happened? Seem to be so many different stories about it...
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
DISCLAIMER: This will ramble.

OK. Plans are interesting. Because so much can change between making them and the execution. A boss once had a 4 sided chess board. It looked a bit like a Swiss cross; regular board, but with an additional 2 rows extending out from each side. So instead of you making a move and then your opponent making a move and you getting the next move, you moved. Then the guy to your left moved. Then the guy across from you moved. Then the guy to your right moved before you got another move. Pieces obeyed regular chess moves. Pawns could only move forward across the board. But they could be attacked by the pawns on the left and right, that were moving forward, relative to their position. It was...complex. Trash talking was valuable, because if you could convince 2 of the other players that the 3rd player was the biggest threat and everyone went after him for a round, a lot could happen.

Anyway, the point is, a lot can happen in Life too. The Plan, circa July 1, was to buy another house to fix up and rent out. I could, conceivably, live on the rent from 2 houses (although that wouldn't be ideal). Unfortunately the housing market went bananas at that time and I couldn't have bought the kind of rental property I wanted even if I'd been willing to pay what people were asking for them.

So I decided to get a short-term job and park my money in the stock market until winter, when prices would likely taper off. For this reason, working for the census seemed ideal. Pay was pretty good. Hours were flexible. It would wrap up right around the time I wanted to start looking for another house. And The Dog could ride along in the car when I drove to different locations. Never heard back from them. So I applied for part time M & F backup work for 2nd shift at a local factory. People get sick or take vacations or find other jobs. And if you don't have a person to be at every place on the assembly line, you can't run the factory. So, since people are most likely to miss Mondays and Fridays, they have people like me that can get plugged in wherever they're needed to augment the regular workforce--it's a bit like the National Guard, supplementing the Army. They moved very quickly and I think I was working in under 2 weeks.

Well after my first week, the Census Bureau finally got around to offering me a job. Since it had been billed as less than full time with variable and flexible hours, I took it. Of course with the 'rona and everything, they were playing catch-up and flying by the seat of their pants, so they actually wanted people to work as much overtime as they could (which was a bit of a change from the training that, if you worked overtime you would almost certainly be fired).

IN THE MEAN TIME... A house came on the market. Not really a great rental. It was a long narrow huge lot with outbuildings enough for, say, 6 cars. Although it had a sketchy gravel driveway and dirt floors in said outbuildings. The house looked good in pictures but the roof needed work and the pictures hid a lot of things like damage to a corner of the kitchen cabinets, a mismatched and badly installed tub and surround (shower curtains are a great thing), laminate flooring installed directly on top of 1960s/70s era loop carpeting. The "tile" floor in the kitchen and bath was actually linoleum sheet. But everything worked and the furnace and water heater were relatively new. Plus, the place was part of an estate so the executor wanted to get rid of it so she could get back to her life. Made an offer and got it for a fair price. The new Plan was to move there, rent out my place, and fix this place up while I was in it. Since the census was legally scheduled to end before October--possibly earlier if the work got done--it seemed like a viable plan.

Of course 2 things have happened: Because of the 'rona and shutdowns during all the recent protests, the court system is backed up and the probate judge hasn't approved the deal yet, so I again find myself in limbo regarding a house during October--the time you really want to be getting tenants into any empty rentals. Meanwhile, the NAACP has successfully sued the Census Bureau to force them to keep working through October because not counting all the black people would be Racist. Anyone care to guess who doesn't fill out the online form when told about it, doesn't fill out the mailed form when they receive it, doesn't answer the door when someone being paid a pretty good amount of money drives to their home to interview them personally (and we won't even go into the managers, IT, and office staff supporting this), and refuses to do an interview even if they do answer the door? So yeah, shame on the Racist Federal Government for deliberately undercounting minorities. :/
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
How is it that people just keep functioning--day in and day out, on and on? Is it just that the alternative is death? I'm in a poopy mood today. I generally like my renters and think I did OK on them, but even so...

They have an online bakery. When they were applying, they gave the impression that they were working out of a commercial kitchen. Well they're not. They're working out of the kitchen in my house, which really wasn't designed for that level of use. But I grumbled and looked the other way because evicting them would be expensive and challenging in the best of times, but with the coronavirus stuff, it's even worse.

The other day their garage door opener gave out. It's probably 30 years old so the teeth on the carriage that links the door to the track had worn out. A $15 part and a skinned knuckle and they're back in business. But while I was there, I noticed A LOT of firewood in the garage. Now they do have a wood smoker, but I suspected they planned to use the fireplace in the house. The fireplace I unexpectedly had to put around $5,000 into just to keep it from falling apart. There are still things that need to be done to get it rated for wood fires. I'd planned to put a gas fireplace in it when funds were available, but for now it is just for show. There isn't even a grate to stack logs on. That's part of why I didn't clean the black paint off the glass and put handles on the doors, to discourage its use. And I'm sure I explained a number of times that the fireplace wasn't safe for fires and I'm sure at least once they told me they understood. I mentioned the firewood and the wife confirmed that the plan was to use the fireplace. I reminded her that it isn't set up to have fires in but I probably need to re-address this in a more firm manner.

I also saw those black plastic commercial rodent traps around the outside of the house. Turns out they have a mouse problem. I checked the screens on the crawlspace vents and one had gotten pried up in a corner and had mouse droppings next to it so I fixed that. I also popped under the house to look for any other holes. While I was there I found standing water on top of the vapor barrier, right under the bathroom plumbing. As I'd been getting the house ready to rent I'd found a leak in the bathtub pipes, up in the wall, If I'd tested more thoroughly when I was repairing the tiles it would have been easier to get to but now it was going to involve cutting a hole in the dining room wall to get at the plumbing from behind. Came in the next day, cut the hole...and couldn't find the leak. I counted myself lucky (but not so lucky that I wouldn't have to repair drywall for no good reason) to avoid having to deal with it and got it closed back up. (I'd taken the spigot off the faucet during the troubleshooting of the previous day and hoped that it had been on improperly and gotten fixed when I replaced it.) Well while I was down there I bailed out the water into the sump pump so I could see if the puddle came back or if it was just from the rains we'd had this summer. On the plus side I confirmed the sump pump still worked. On the minus side, the sump had filled up with enough silt that the pump didn't shut off when it was done so I had to fuss with that.

Next day I came back. No rain. New puddle. :/ Had them turn on the water in the bathroom. The thing I'd forgotten during my testing was to test with the shower knob pulled up. So today I get to go over there again and cut another hole in the wall and try to figure out what's going on. I could just call a plumber right off the bat, but they're going to do basically what I'll do--for a lot more money--so I'm going to take a shot at it first.

Meanwhile the house I'm trying to buy is in limbo so I can't put my current house up for rent yet and my Dog has decided if she's left alone at home for more than 3 hours, she needs to start destroying things. So yeah, I'm tired. But she's an 11 year old dog and I have a soul so I can't just give her up and say she's too much work. I had a family back in Oregon that said they would adopt her, but then if they decide she's too much to handle, it is out of my hands. I don't really like the term "rescue dog," but I have definitely saved her.
 

Anna

missmanners' favorite toy
I've gotten a temporary job with the census bureau. About two months in duration give or take, supposed to start in August. Wish I was teaching and coaching again but I don't know if that will happen. One of my sisters says that I should write a book. That sounds great but I have doubts about my level of talent.
Honestly, with the way things are run in schools and your condition, you should be glad no school will have you :|
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
OK. I see that I covered the "being in limbo on the new house" bit. But seriously. Every day that this doesn't happen is a day harder to finding good tenants for my place and a day that my money sits in the bank doing nothing. (When I moved here, I had all the extra money between selling a house in Portland Oregon and buying a house in Louisville Kentucky--literally enough to buy another house just sitting in the bank because I was gonna buy another house "any day." Missed out on making a lot of money if I'd plugged it into the stock market during that time as the stock market took off under Trump.

The bathroom leak was maddening--because not only was it my fault for not catching it when I was finishing up the house but it was my fault in the first place. The spigot for a bathtub? It's just a copper pipe sticking out of the wall. Then you stick the pretty thing that you see every day over that. The pretty thing has a diverter that blocks water from coming out the faucet, which forces it up the pipe to the shower. I could've got the $40 Moen spigot, but the Acme spigot does the same thing and is only $22.

So here's how the Acme one is installed: Slide this threaded plastic sleeve over the pipe. Roll the included O-ring onto the pipe and up to the plastic sleeve. Slide a *second* plastic sleeve that is threaded on both ends onto the pipe and tighten it down against the first plastic sleeve. Then slide a metal ring with a captive screw over the whole affair and tighten the screw down so it locks the whole assembly to the pipe. Then screw the spigot onto it all. And if this whole Rube Goldberg seems unnecessarily complex with multiple potential points of failure, you'd be right. Whatever else was wrong, the O-ring was horribly deformed. I headed down to Home Depot and picked up another O-ring, but I also bought the $40 Moen spigot. You know the steps to installing the Moen spigot? Slide over pipe and tighten with Allen wrench.

So on the plus side, it was a simple repair. On the minus side, I wouldn't have needed a repair if I got it right in the first place. And while I wound up cutting a new hole in the wall to figure out what the problem was, it really didn't matter, because water's been spraying in there since July 18 so I had a bunch of soggy drywall that needed replacing.
 

Knight Templar

Registered User
Honestly, with the way things are run in schools and your condition, you should be glad no school will have you :|

What's wrong with my condition? I'm in pretty fair shape. Certainly there are many teachers and coaches who have worked successfully whom are in worse shape physically than me.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Fuck. Me.

First I get a text that appears (I haven't had the time or energy to follow up) that the house I was hoping to own before October now may not be finalized until MID NOVEMBER.

Then I headed off to continue my plaster work on my miserable rental that needed EVERYTHING fixed on it. Oh, and I was doing plaster work because the garage door opener needed repair and while I was there I checked up on the crawlspace and found a bathtub faucet leak that needed fixing along with replacing all the soggy drywall. AND while there they told me they had a 14,000 gallon (2 month) water bill.

When I was there fixing the tub faucet, I could hear the toilet running and was all condescending that they didn't know to jiggle the handle but I went ahead and picked up a new drain flapper valve. The store had drain and fill valve combined sets, but I didnt' buy one. Because it HAD to be the flapper. While I was fixing that, I realized the top of the fill pipe was brittle and had cracked so maybe it WASN'T the flapper (or it was the flapper and the plastic fill pipe). Went home to gather supplies. As it happens, a rubber bicycle inner tube was the perfect size for a sleeve to go over the pipe. Problem solved. Turned on the water.

Toilet kept running. So at that point I had to run back to the store to get the fill valve and tomorrow when I (hopefully) finish the plaster work where the dining room wall got soaked from the inside by the bathtub faucet, I can replace that. And if that doesn't fix it, I said to the checkout clerk, I would probably cry and shoot myself in the head. To which she replied "or rip out the toilet completely and put in a new one." To which I quietly thought to myself "No, no. 'Cry and shoot myself in the head' is definitely the right answer."
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
So now it's after 4pm and I still haven't had lunch yet because I was running late and what I was going to do shouldn't take more than 30 minutes--tops. Oh well. Such is life.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
OH! OH! Perfect anecdote that perfectly sums up my life right now: I expected the Census work to wrap up Sept 30. Because that was The Plan and what was legally required by law. But the NAACP sued because it was Racist not to make EVERY POSSIBLE EFFORT to count black people. And they won. So the Census got extended to October 31. Whatever. I just bought a house and I need to get my house fixed up so I can rent it out and then get my stuff moved to the new house where I'll live while fixing it up. EXCEPT! There was a SNAFU on the deal so I was waiting for a probate judge to sign off on the deal before we could close. In the mean time, I got a call from my renters about a problem with their garage door opener. While I was there I found a leak in the bathroom. And while I was fixing the bathroom leak (which I'm still doing) I found another bathroom leak (which I'm also working on because apparently every internal part of the toilet is completely fucked, but that's another story).

Well today I got a text from the realtor saying "Good news! The judge signed off. Now we just have to wait 31 days before we can close."

Wait, what? So you mean the house I'd planned to move into before October now won't be available until November?!

"Oh well," I thought, "no one ever got back to me about not being able to do any more census work. I guess I'll start listing myself as available and make some more money there."

LITERALLY THE *SECOND* I HAD THIS REVELATION, I log onto FoxNews and see "Supreme Court supports Trump; overturns census suit." So now, apparently the census is done 2 weeks ago. Fucking awesome. Just keep fucking me in the ass.
 
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