tenant issues

I served a notice of non-payment of rent on two of our tenants today.  They’re a couple who live in one of our units – the fully reno’d one that took us eight months or so last year to get finished.  They have a history of paying late.  They’re supposed to have the rent in the account on Saturday.  Well, they were good to start with, then they slowly started paying later.  And later.  And the original phone calls we got apologising changed into text messages ‘letting us know’ and then, nothing.  I don’t like calling or texting tenants to ask when the rent will be paid.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s their responsibility to remember.  Surely it’s not that hard to forget to pay for your shelter, whether it’s rent or mortgage payments?

Anyhow, they paid a week late the week before last, and I said to the girl that we would charge a late fee next time.  I served them with the notice this afternoon, after work.  They’re five days overdue.  I wasn’t sure about the reception I’d get, so I actually used a digital voice recorder from work to tape the coversation, just in case it gets nasty down the track.  It was a short but courteous interaction, so hopefully they’ll get the hint and start paying on time without me needed to hound them about it. 

One of the things I did include was a service charge of an additional $50 on top of their overdue rent.  This is specified in their lease, should they break the Residential Tenancies’ Act or their lease, and a notice be served as a result.  Finally I thought, no, it’s in the lease for a reason, and we’ve let it go before – it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve been late.  So I included it with the notice, and mentioned it to the girl when I served the notice.  (’Serving the notice’ sounds formal, but all it means it that I handed it to a relevant person as defined under the Act.)  She seemed a bit surprised, but I did kind of appear from nowhere with the paperwork, so that’s to be expected.  (I didn’t want to call in case they pretended to be out when I got there, which would prevent me serving her with the notice.)

Yes, so that is one to keep an eye on.  I’m so hoping they get the hint and just pay their bloody rent on time from now on.  Watch this space.

latest on renos etc

As per usual, it’s been a busy week and I’ve been slack with blogging.  However I’m sitting in front of the idiot box, full of food and coffee, and I have the time to assemble my thoughts into something resembling coherence.

Reno #4 is progressing nicely.  We have undercoated all but the walls of the living area, which we’ll do tomorrow.  SO and his dad have also painted all the ceilings bar the living area, so we can also start painting the two bedrooms’ walls and also the bathroom’s walls.  Really, the only major task to do after that is get the flooring installed, and move in furniture.  We’re currently discussing our approach to flooring.  I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about laminate flooring, so I’m hoping SO will give it the go-ahead.  Our other units have used carpet and vinyl (lino) flooring.  However, I’m not overly happy with how the lino flooring is going.  The end bits tend to get grotty looking fairly quickly, and we don’t want to have to replace it every other year, it’d be a hassle.  So yes, I’m hoping SO will go for the laminate flooring.  Best price we’ve been able to get, fully laid, is $39 per square metre.  As we’d only need about 45m maximum, that’s not out of our price range either.

Otherwise, we still have some furniture items to get.  We need a wardrobe for the second bedroom, a TV unit, and a cupboard for the laundry.  The laundry cupboard is easy; I’ve spied one at Bunnings which is exactly what we’re looking for, shelves on one side, empty space on the other for mops etc.  Perfect, and only about $200.  I’m thinking of getting a TV unit from Crazy Clarks as they sell inexpensive but attractive DIY units for around $90, in the lowline style we prefer.  Other bits we need to pick up include two chests of drawers, which we’ll probably source from Ikea.

Not much has happened apart from the reno.  The only thing of interest is that our oven at home has been broken for three weekends now.  I keep meaning to get someone out to fix it, but it doesn’t seem to be something I remember during normal working hours, so I haven’t actually made contact with an oven repairer as yet.  Whoops.

At this stage, I’m just so glad it’s all coming together.  I can’t wait until the end of the whole process, when I can post before and after photos.  That’s when you really appreciate how much work has gone into the whole thing.

reality check

My father in law is very good value. As well as being a lovely guy, he helps us out so much, both around our own house and also with our units.  We couldn’t have done half of what we have if it wasn’t for his help over the last couple of years.

On Tuesday night, before meeting our new tenants, we dropped by the current reno to speak to him.  He’d been there most of the day, painting on undercoat/sealant on the walls and ceiling of the smaller bedroom.  I was having a whinge about how tired I was from the night before (see previous post for boring details), and about how hard it was, and how tired I was, etc etc.  He paused for a moment, painted some more of the cornice, and said: ‘And just think, in ten years’ time, you’ll be told how lucky you are.’

Talk about putting something into perspective.  In ten years’ time, we’ll be financially set up for the rest of our lives.  Minor crap like doing the hard yards sometimes, working all day then painting ’til  midnight at the latest reno, dealing with problem tenants and regular turnovers, that’ll all be in the past.  We’ll be reaping the rewards for all that stuff, and it’ll be in the past, while our lives will be immeasurably financially improved from our hard work we’re putting in now.  Let’s face it, you get very little in this life without doing some hard work at some stage.  We just happen to be at that stage now.  And really, we’re already reaping rewards.  We got a great tax return last year, and we should get another great return this year, so even apart from the capital gains the properties will inevitably produce, the yearly returns are going alright too.  We’re making our own luck.

Next time I’m complaining, I’m going to remind myself that we’re doing okay.

rentals, rentals, and other stuff

It’s Thursday night already!  Where has the week gone?!

As per usual, it’s been a busy one.  Monday night we had an annual general meeting for one of our groups of units.  It was a good meeting, we got a quorum, and we decided on some capital works projects for the coming financial year.  We have a good group of owners in this block, which is good to see – all very concerned with maintaining the building appropriately.  That went from 6pm to 7:30pm, so it was basically straight after work.

After the meeting, I went to our just-vacated unit and did a clean.

the latest drivel

Wow, it feels like longer than a week since I last wrote here.  I must admit, nothing spectacularly interesting has been going on.  We spent every evening except Friday at the reno after work, sanding and patching, sanding and patching.  I think we may FINALLY be coming to the end of it.  I’d forgotten how slow and monotonous this part of doing a reno is.  Still, in a few days’ time we’ll hopefully be painting, which will speed things right up.

We had tenants move out today, and this is a first for us – we don’t have new ones lined up to take their place.

reno #4 – slowly progressing

Today was a good day.  The weather was beautiful, and SO and I had a lovely snuggle and sleep in this morning.  We so rarely do that, and it’s so nice when we do.  Normally as soon as I’m awake, I’m out of bed doing stuff, but not today.  It was great.

Then we got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then got ready and went to the unit.  I spent all day (about six hours) in the bathroom.  While the tiling’s finished, the walls and ceiling needed a fair bit of remedial patching, which took a while.  I had an extra special bonus when I was patching the ceiling – a huge chunk of plaster dropped off and nearly got my eye.  Fortunately I saw it coming and took evasive action.

SO spent the day sanding the two bedrooms which I’d patched a week or so ago.  He hates doing it, and I do some of it, but I’m just not physically strong enough to keep holding the sander for any length of time.   He did a fair bit, I think he’s finished the main bedroom.  We agreed tonight that all the walls and ceilings are going to need a coat of sealer prior to actually painting them the colours we’ve chose.  They’re in such poor condition, we can’t bring ourselves to just paint straight onto them without some preemptive action being taken first.

We’re probably going to go back tomorrow night after work to do some more.  Ideally I’d like to get the bathroom all ready for painting in a couple of days’ time, but that will take some serious work at night time, which is hard on the eyes (and the body).  However, we’re getting there, slowly but surely.

sleepyhead

So tired.  While I’m feeling better from the viral thing I had all week, I’m just so tired.  I have no idea why, either.  Last time I saw the doctor, he ordered blood tests for various things.  The test came back clear for everything.

At the same time, my depression is rearing its ugly head.  There are a few things going on at the moment which may be exacerbating my stress and causing it to play up.  We’re renovating one unit, and trying to find tenants for another.  Work is beyond belief in terms of how much stuff I have on my plate.  At home, our place is messy, needs a good clean, and it feels like it’s two steps forward, three steps back.  With all this going on, all I want to do is sleep for twenty hours a day.  Mmmm, sleep.

Today I actually felt other depression symptoms happening – mainly anxiety, feeling sick in the stomach from nerves (stress manifestation), and wanting to cry.  Not being able to read, as I couldn’t follow a train of thought.  Not being able to do simple stuff, like get up and take washing off the line.  Feeling overwhelmed.  I did feel better after a long afternoon nap of 4 hours, but I need to keep an eye on things.  Today reminded me how fragile my mental health really is – hanging by a thread.

renos, and a birthday

As per usual, it’s been a busy week.  I’ve managed to catch the first flu bug of the season, according to my doctor.  It’s a bit different to the usual flu – it basically inflames the eustachian tube in the ear, causing it to hurt.  Plus there’s the usual aches and pains, tiredness, swollen glands, etc.  I must confess it’s pretty manageable as a bug, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

That said, I wasn’t delighted that I was sick again.  SO and I had the following exchange on the way to work:

SO:  What’s wrong baby?

Me:  Ugh, I’m sick again!!  I feel like I’m sick all the time.

SO (patting my knee consolingly):  That’s because you are, baby.

It wasn’t funny at the time, but I can see the humour in it now.

The renos are going reasonably well.  The bathroom tiling is finished, and it looks good.  We’re both happy with it, although it’s taken longer than we’d been told.  But as I said to SO, you have to expect both time and money blowouts with renos, and three extra days isn’t a huge amount in the scheme of things.  Next we need to get the cabinetmaker in to measure up for the bathroom cabinet.  I personally can’t wait until there’s a toilet in there again, it makes spending all day there so much easier.

It’s SO’s dad’s birthday tomorrow.  We’re having him and SO’s stepmum over for a cooked breakfast.  I’ve also taken it upon myself to make his favourite thing, date loaf.  I haven’t made it in ages (probably years) but I suddenly remembered today how much he liked it, so I thought I’d make it for him.  He’s done a huge amount for us with renovating both the current and previous projects, and he hasn’t been very well lately.  It seems his chronic fatigue has come back with a vengeance, poor thing.  That said, he’s still doing a lot of stuff to help us out, which we appreciate even while it makes us feel guilty.  So yes, tomorrow we’ll be having bacon, eggs, lightly fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, then french toast and pikelets for ‘dessert’.  It’ll be the works, and no one will need lunch.

drugs

That which you see above is what I ingest daily, in the interests of attaining (or maintaining) physical and mental health.

From left to right – the large horsepill is a women’s multivitamin; the small round beige tablet is an iron tablet; the two little white oval pills are my 40mg Lexapro; and the innocuous tiny little one on the far right is the pill.  Yes, the pill.  Specifically, Diane-35 ED, a high-estrogen formulation designed for women with adult acne and ‘hirsute women’.  Luckily, I take it for the adult acne side of things.  I control my moustache through regular shaving.  (Just joking, folks.)

The hideous looking witch’s brew at the top, which I use to skull it all down with, is a Berocca, original flavour.   Oddly enough, when it comes out the other end the colour is remarkably similar to it’s original shade of orange.  It’s interesting, in a gruesome kind of way.

So yes, this is my good start to every day, my breakfast, if you will, of life-giving medicines.  The wonders of modern science, huh?

tax and paperwork

We had a much-needed day off from renovating today.  SO spent most of it out bike riding with his mates, while I got some housework done.  It was so nice to have a break!  As you may have gathered from the whiny tone of my last post, I’m looking forward to when it’s all finished.  That’s when you really appreciate it, it looks great, and it’s finally earning some income from tenants.

It’s rapidly coming up to the end of the financial year (30 June).  I dread this time of year, because for me it means Lots of Tax Paperwork.  I was really naughty last financial year, and didn’t get our tax stuff to our accountant until about February.  I’ve vowed that this year won’t be a repeat of that scenario.  Accordingly, I spent about two hours tonight organising paperwork.  This is a nice way of saying ‘doing filing’.  I can’t believe that there was so much stuff to be put into files.  I guess though, when you think about it, we have four units, plus our own house, all of which have their own paperwork and files; then SO has his file, and I have mine.  So really it’s understandable.

I haven’t even touched the data entry stuff yet.  Some of it I can’t do – we need to wait until the end of the financial year for our group certificates, and to work out how much interest we can claim.  However there are a lot of receipts which are sitting in a small but obvious pile which could be entered.  Hey, at least I know where they all are – that’s a step in the right direction.

Plus, tax this year will be easier as we only have one new investment property.  Last financial year we had three.  The amount of detail I had to find and give to our accountant relating to loan fees, purchase costs, etc, was unbelievable.  It really was a huge job.  This year I only have the one, which is a great relief.  It’ll be so much easier to manage.