Although I usually try to keep this blog pretty positive today I am using it for journaling my feelings. As many of you know we rent out our basement. It has been a huge blessing for us financially and has made it so I can stay home with D. We are so grateful for this $650 monthly income. Having said that being a landlord is tough. We have learned some hard lessons through this first year of renting our basement.
Back in the beginning of May we asked our current tenants if they wanted to extend their contract or leave the end of June as it was written initially. Since they are trying to go to law school they wanted to ensure they had a place to live and told us on multiple occasions that they wanted to stay through July. Even if they ended up moving half way through they would pay the rent for the whole month so they would be guaranteed time to find a new apartment where ever they ended up. Adam and I took their word, got nothing in writing as we felt they were our friends and would be honest to their word, opps!
Clear back in May I had an open house to show the apartment. I asked the lady tenant which Saturday would be best for her because I know that having strangers just walk through your house any day, any time can be a pain and stressful to keep the house clean. So considering her feelings we did an open house, 3 SATURDAY'S OUT, so it worked for her. By the way, I lost interested people because it was 3 weeks out. Then she calls me the night before the open house and asks me to call all 8 couples I have coming to look and cancel because she just isn't ready. She had been busy and it was stressing her out! REALLY? was my though? I told her I was not comfortable turning away potential renters who had been planning on this for 3 weeks. She was upset and threw a fit to the point where she told me it is her house and she wasn't comfortable with it. Frustrating!!!
After this we ended up starting to show the apartment only on Saturday because again it was easy for the tenants. Since we didn't find any applicants we felt good about at the open house we showed it about 3 more Saturday's. We ended up finding a family we liked with two kids and decided to sign with them. The very day we decided on them our tenants came up and told us they had decided to move to a new apartment on July 1st which was a week and 4 days away. They wanted us to see if the new people could be in the apartment by then so they didn't have to pay rent. At this point Adam and I are frustrated as we felt they did not keep their word. We showed the apartment the whole time and even though I had people who said they wanted to move in July I told them it wasn't available til August 1st since that was our agreement. I feel cheated because I kept my word and now was most likely getting ripped off because I was honest. Long story short the family we initially chose could get out by July 15th but ended up renting a bigger apartment so they back out. This happened while Adam was at scout camp, Gee Whiz, I was stressed! So I called our second choice which is a cute newlywed couple. They decided to take the apartment but couldn't move til Aug 1st as they are getting married the 6th. So Adam called the man tenant and told him we were sorry we tried to get someone in sooner but couldn't so they needed to pay all of the rent for July. Now, just ask yourself, do you think we were being unreasonable?
Then this Sunday they came up to make a deal. They wanted to only pay half the month because that was same as giving us 30 day notice. This leaves us $300 short. Short money that we NEED! Adam and I discussed it and talked to them later. We want to be the nice guys and Christlike but at this point felt that it had gotten us nowhere. We were nice about the open house and got dumped on. Nice about showing on Saturday and she came crying to me. Nice about letting them stay longer and we got dumped on. We honestly just feel/felt so frustrated. Why couldn't they live with the consequence of their own actions. They chose to sign a contract July 1st when they knew they had an agreement with us so they chose to double book themselves. If they chose to do that then they needed to be prepared to pay two rent payments. Are we right? Why is it our problem that they put themselves in that position? Why should we go without grocery money when we were the fair and honest ones? At this point our once friendship is gone. It is too bad but how can we trust them or why be friends with people who just dump on us no matter how hard we try to consider them?
WE sat them down and explained our situation. That we felt at this point the written contract was out the window since it ended June 30th. It was their word and our word, it was our agreement. We explained that we expected them to keep their agreement as we kept it. I said to the woman tenant, "What if I didn't keep my word and rented it to someone July 1st and told you last Sunday you had to move out in a week and 4 days? That is the same situation you are putting us in. You would have been in a bad situation trying to find an apartment in 11 days." She argued and said, "That would have been easy to do." Instead of being understanding and agreeing that they asked to stay longer and agreed to pay the rent. Many other things were said, upsetting, like you aren't seeing our side of it and how we feel.Also any other place would accept a 30 day notice. I explained, "We have done nothing but see your side of it since you moved in and treated you better than any other place would have."
Examples:
Open house (not to our benefit)
Saturday only showings (not to our benefits)
Extending contract when we had interested people for July (not to our benefit)
In December, basement flooded, slept in our bed (not to our benefit)
In December, paid for them to stay in hotel and go to dinner (not to our benefit)
In December, bought a new dish set since ONE bowl accidentally broke (not to our benefit)
In December, paid for brand new pad and carpet instead of taking a week to dry it out, like most landlords would do, again to consider them (not to our benefit)
These are just a few example I can think of now!
HOW DARE THEY SAY WE ARE NOT SEEING THEIR SIDE OR CONSIDERING THEIR FEELINGS? REally?
I felt so so so betrayed and lied to. All we were asking was for them to keep their word and treat us with the same respect we have always treated them. Is that too much?
Anyway, bottom line, Adam told them he wasn't going to feel good about them paying anything less then full month $650 because that is what we agreed to and we NEED that money. We can't afford to go with out it! Also he said, bottom line you guys are going to do what you want to do and what you feel is honest. We have nothing to hold you to we just wanted you to know our situation. They were clearly not please and clearly planning on getting their way. Clearly they didn't care about our feelings just their selfish choices and how they came out.
After venting on the phone to my Mother in law and calming down I crawled into bed and cried. I just felt so upset, pooped on, frustrated, lied to, and most of all disappointed.
Adam and I were in bed talking last night, "Well we learned our lesson don't be friends with the next renter." Adam said, "Yup, don't invite them up for dinner when they move in and have their kitchen packed. Don't give them a Christmas card. Don't go on walks with them or let them get close to Dayton. Don't EVER let them come up the inside stairs through the house if they lock themselves out. Don't try to consider them when showing the apartment or share our garden produce." And the list could go on.....
STRICTLY BUSINESS!!!!
Lesson learned... get it in writing and strictly business oh and don't trust anyone.
It's been an emotional roller coaster is all I can say. Please no comments about how we should have gotten it in writing, WE KNOW, oops. Comments of encouragement would be helpful though.
