Mike, Greg downgraded from platenum to gold on the airlines (or something like that) and I’m all excited…

Twelve years ago, my husband and I bought a duplex in my hometown that was in great shape. Our experience has been excellent; in fact, we have recommended it to several couples who were looking to buy their first home. We lived in one unit for the first year, moved to the other unit for the second year, then bought a house of our own, just down the road, and have continued to rent both units. We’re not making any money yet, but the house is paying for itself. It won’t be long before the monthly rent cheques are income for us - just about the time we start sending all these boys off to further their education. We never expected to make a lot of money at it, it was always intended to be a long-term thing. I guess we’ve been fortunate, not only for the fact that it hasn’t cost us anything, but that we’ve always had good tenants, a few long-term tenants, never had a unit trashed, and have never had anyone not pay us. I think a few cheques came 8 or 9 days late. Most of our tenants have paid by post-dated cheques, paying for two or three months at a time. We only had one guy that we didn’t like because he was obnoxious and had partying sons that we didn’t want around, but thankfully he only stayed two months. It would be worth noting that that was the only tenant that I interviewed alone, wanting to take some responsibility off my husband’s shoulders. I leave it all up to my dad and my husband now. They are both pretty good at reading people and reading between the lines. My dad has also worked in local corrections for 30 years. That experience is invaluable when interviewing prospective tenants.

I’m sure it helps that we live nearby and, being a rural area, if my dad doesn’t know whoever is wanting to rent from us, he knows someone who does.

This post will show up on a whole variety of searches.

I’m really enjoying this story. And by enjoying I mean often cringing and making that hissing noise when you inhale through clenched teach. What an experience!

I often look at people on the streets and think, “they are probably mostly just like me. They have some superficial differences, but deep down, we all want the same things. Not exactly like me, but mostly like me.” Then I read stories like the ones about your renters and realize that people really do run the gammut of desires and, uh, civility. When I thought about getting a rental I assumed that I would be renting to people “mostly like me” or at least like me when I first got married/got my first job/whatever. I don’t think I even considered the possibility of complete miscreants inhabiting my path to financial independence. In retrospect I would label that my unconscious incompetence. Tennants like yours would have wreaked havoc on my spreadsheets. And my bank account.

And I identify w/ Greg on the travel thing (and I’m sure my Amy identifies with you). I earned about 250K frequent flyer miles last year and will surpass that this year. Oh well, it’s expensive to fly our family of 6 anywhere so at least the plane tickets and the rental minivan are free. There’s some lemonade for ya.

I also sent a link to your blog to friends who are considering it. It may not change their mind but it will give them a better idea of what they are in for.

I have caught myself driving down the road thinking about your experience and others on here and being angry/frustrated for you; asking God where the fairness is in life.

Sometimes I think though that we have ideas of what we think would be good for us but God knows better. We may never find out here on earth why it wouldn’t be good for us, or the road is more difficult than for others. When I was growing up my mom thought about breeding Shih Tzus to help us financially. She had friends and it worked for them as an easy way to make money. We had 2 litters. First dog ate her puppies the day they were born and the second one got a uterine infection and passed it on to her puppies.

Sue