Any Home Owners Here?

[svosen]

I'm singing the "my shingles suck and need to be replaced - but only a little more than my 1953 windows and peeling paint" blues.

The original plan was to have all this maintanence work completed before having kids.



So much for that, I guess.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if anyone else here gets to deal with this type of junk.

What's even better for me is that I actually own a duplex, so there's always twice the cost involved with these things...

(sob sob - poor me, etc. etc.)

[Gabriel013]

Not at the moment but I'd love to. My top end mortgate of around £75,000 isn't going to get me anything worthwhile so I'm staying put.

I know you have to pay for repairs but at least you have a say in whether they get done or not. Living in a council house, unless the repairs are for something dangerous then we have to just put up with it.

[hawkster]

I feel your pain Svosen, I am currently in the 'damn this fence, you are so useless' stage. Luckily though I only have to deal with a small part of it as the rest is my neighbours who does not seem to bothered about it

At least we have got over the window blues though. they can be very expensive indeed to replace

[farfus]

Been living in my place 19 years in October, i bought it about eight years ago. While admittedly there is a lot of things to do, i dont spend a lot because its not really something i want to invest that much in. Probably within five years i will be living somewhere else so cant really justify a huge remodeling project. My place is a duplex also, i live on one side and just use the other for storage at this time....

[svosen]

Being a landlord is a pain in the butt.

The only reasons we decided to go for it:

1) the rental income would help us to keep my wife at home with the (future, at that time) children

2) the "duplex" is actually two separate houses, each with their own foundation/basement; the two houses are connected by a two-car garage which is split in two - one for each side. So, the only noises we hear from the renters is that of their garage door opening & closing, peiodically.

But I definitely am tired of taking fixing things, screening applicants, harassing renters about watering the lawn & smoking on the property, etc. It's a pain.

[farfus]

Ive known many landlord/owners over the years who simply threw up their hands and sold their properties because of all the frustration. You almost have to own several properties and have someone else managing them, and doing a honorable job, for it to be worthwhile. Most former landlords ive talked to over the years say that its simply not worth it anymore to them, which im sure is true...

[svosen]

I think you're right, Farf - you'd have to have several of them.

If I owned enough of them such that the rental income was sufficient to be my sole-source of income, it'd be fine. In that case, it would be no big deal to manage the fixes (assuming there weren't TOO many units).

Trying to balance the hassles of being a landlord along with the hassles of being a full-time worker and a father to two little monkeys is just about too much.

But, like I mentioned earlier, it is paying some dividends.

In short, I grudgingly admit that it's probably worth it, considering my situation...