Shocked Again!

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
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Just when I thought I’d seen EVERYTHING that you can see in the rental property business, I was absolutely SHOCKED today! Here’s the story.

A couple of months ago, I rented an apartment to a 19 year old girl. Although her boyfriend was not on the lease, she disclosed that he would be living there also. The girl’s mother works at a local government agency that I deal with on a regular basis. I did a thorough screening on the girl and her boyfriend and didn’t find anything derogatory. They are both relatively clean-cut young adults and I thought they would make good renters.

A few days ago, I received a call from one of the neighbors of the fourplex where this girl lives. She told me that this apartment was definitely a “crack house” and that the tenants were a “nightmare”. This neighbor is a member of the local crime watch and I had worked with her in the past to clean up this entire street (which contained many crack houses) when we started buying properties on this street two or three years ago. This street had four buildings full of crackers when we started buying the buildings and we have completely cleaned it up. Even after her call, I doubted that the tenant was involved in drugs. I hadn’t seen any coming and going of traffic (although the neighbor said she had) and the tenant certainly didn’t look or act like the typical drug dealer.

Yesterday, when the temperature warmed up, I stopped by the apartment building to shovel the ice, since there would be a narrow window of above-freezing temperatures. While I was shoveling, the next door neighbor (another neighbor) came out and told me that the tenants in this apartment were running a crack house. I was in the process of questioning him about what he had seen, when three very iffy looking people came out of the apartment. About two minutes later, a big stoner complete with dreadlocks and pants below his butt (that I recognized as one of the local druggies) came out of the apartment. I instantly went from being skeptical to being 100% convinced that the neighbors were correct. I walked straight over to the apartment door and knocked loudly. A man asked “who’s there”? I loudly said “landlord”, at which time I heard a lot of scurrying inside the apartment (probably as they hid the drugs). The tenant answered and I told her that I had seen several druggies come out of her apartment. I asked her who else was in there and she responded “NO-ONE”. Well, now I was really pissed because she was LYING. A man asked “who’s there” and therefore there was at least one more person in the apartment. I said “you’re lying, a man answered the door and I want to talk to him RIGHT NOW!” He came to the door and his eyes were completely glassed over. I said, “you’re stoned” and he said “I’m not going to lie to you man - I am”. Druggies are SOOOOOO STUPID!

At that point, I had heard enough. I told the druggie to GET THE HELL OUT! About that time, stoner Dreadlocks returned and I also told him to GET THE HELL OUT! Next, I told the tenant that her drug activities were over. She could either immediately leave or I would have the police and drug task force down here to bust her AND I would immediately evict her. I also told her that I would be calling her mother to let her know what a druggie her daughter was! She got in her car and left.

Now, if you’re thinking that this is what shocked me, you are wrong. Dealing with the occassional scumbag druggie is just part of the business and this isn’t even close to being the worst druggie that I’ve dealt with. In fact, it’s probably one of the easiest drug issues that I’ve dealt with.

Late yesterday afternoon, I received a call from the mother of the tenant. She asked me what was going on and I told her that her daughter was a druggie. I told her that if her daughter didn’t immediately leave, I would evict her AND do everything possible to have her arrested. She insisted that her daughter was not a druggie, but that her daughter would leave.

Today, I received a call from the step-father of the tenant. He said that he would be at the apartment at 5:30 pm to move her out and wanted to meet me there. I met the father there under the impression that he wanted me to look at the apartment after her belongings were out and that he wanted to hear the story first hand of what his step-daughter was up to. To my amazement, the mother, father, and step-father of the tenant were there and they wanted to know if I had PROOF that she was SELLING drugs. I told them that the druggie in her apartment had admitted that he was stoned and that he was so stoned that he could barely walk. I told them about the constant comings and goings at the apartment late at night, which are signs of a drug house. I told them that the neighbors and I had both seen KNOWN druggies go into and out of the apartment. Their response - “so you don’t have any proof”! I’ve got to tell you that I was just about speechless! I was absolutely shocked that the parents apparently didn’t care that their daughter was hanging around with druggies. They didn’t care that I had actually seen a stoner in her apartment and that he admitted to being stoned. They didn’t care that known druggies were coming and going. They didn’t care that she was on the fast track to becoming a criminal. I told them that I didn’t know what kind of parent didn’t care that their daughter was a druggie and then I left.

I’m still almost speechless! WHAT A BUNCH OF SCUMBAG PARENTS!

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The kids have learned to be scumbags from someone.

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The people we don’t rent to are more important than the ones we do rent to.

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Propertymanager,

That’s a terrible story! Denial is a powerful emotion. Those parents have all bought their daughter’s story. They will learn. You did the right thing in telling them and getting rid of her.

Furnishedowner

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You did the right thing in telling them and getting rid of her.

Yeah, when I was picking up the rent from the tenant across the street today, she told me that they tried to sell her pot. They told her that (my) apartment was all “hooked up”. What a bunch of scum. I’m glad they’re gone.

Mike

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This is an interesting topic. Did you know that San Francisco has more “medical marijuana” clinics than Starbucks coffee shops?
I suppose I’ll once again seem like the turd on the picnic blanket, but why are we allowed to drink bourbon and smoke camel filterless cigarettes until we are blue in the face, but smoking marijuana is a crime?
Believe me; our emergency rooms are filled with people who drink too much and smoke to much, who can easily afford a cell phone, a large screen TV, a Cadillac Escalade, but who can’t afford health insurance. What better reason to turn to socialism to solve all of our problems?
My take on this is simple: Who is the victim? If these folks want to smoke dope until they exhibit the intelligence and ambition of the average liberal, who really cares? I suppose that one could argue that the strength of a democracy is only as powerful as its weakest, dumbest voters.
Remember the “Rock the Vote” campaign? I have a new campaign: “Too careless, lazy passionless and undisciplined to live well? Then pleeeease stay at home the first Tuesday in November so the rest of us do not have to live with your bad judgment.” I’m getting weary watching new socialists learn the world’s oldest lessons.
I believe that California makes some of the best wine in the world, but there are too many people who drink to excess and cause all kinds of problems for themselves and everyone else.
All of this may seem contradictory, so let me summarize by saying: you can’t have it both ways. We should either make all mind altering substances legal or illegal. Why do we split hairs? It amounts to nothing more than dogma. If people were dying in the streets with syringes in their arms, perhaps the rest of the citizens would wake up and realize the danger of the denial of addiction.
Lab experiments show that a rat in the cage will dose itself with cocaine over and over again. Why? To unwind? No… in fact, he seems a little up tight. So don’t come home and drink 10-12 beers or 5, 6, 7… cocktails and give me that excuse. This amounts to the cultural abandonment of personal responsibility.
We cannot legislate victimless morality. I find it ironic that we let these scumbags crap out as many kids as they can, but then we will put the kids in jail for selling marijuana. We seem to have our priorities backwards.

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Funder,

I could care less about a person doing drugs. As far as I’m concerned they can inject themselves until they’re in a drug-induced coma. Or should I say I don’t care as long as I don’t have to support these morons and don’t have to pay for their medical care. Drug abuse sounds like a victimless crime, but unfortunately it is not!

The reality of drugs is that the people that take them are very often common criminals. Once the druggie moves past pot and gets into heroin or crack, they are almost invariably stealing to feed their habit. I’ve seen this countless times. These people are the dregs of society. They usually don’t work. They receive government (taxpayer) handouts in great proportion. They steal. They sell drugs to kids to earn money. They’re just about as worthless as a person can get. That’s my problem with Druggies.

Mike

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Funder, I can’t believe that SF has more medical marijuana clinics than Starbucks, just doesn’t seem possible. Where are your facts?

Why do you think that dope-smokers morph into Socialists? Maybe they just sit home inhaling, smiling, and nodding off to Rush Limbaugh. They like the idea of no government intervention.

Why do you accuse liberals of being weak, dumb, without ambition? Off the top of my head it seems like some of our most liberal-voting states (Massachusetts, New York, Washington, California, Minnesota) have HIGHER per capita incomes than many lower-achieving right-wing voting states. What ARE those conservatives doing, other than complaining? Why not actually SOLVE some problems?

Just an observation from a hard-working, ambitious and liberal liberal.

By the way…have you PRICED health insurance lately? It is not affordable at all for the average working family. It is not socialism to want to have health coverage for our workers, it is common sense.

Furnishedowner

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Just an observation from a hard-working, ambitious and liberal liberal.

But the question is whether you pay your taxes. It seems that most of the tax-loving rich liberals love for me to pay my taxes, but they don’t pay taxes themselves. If you’re a liberal AND paying your taxes, you might be in line for a cabinet position in the Obama Admistration! (you might be the only one)

Don’t forget your friends at REIClub when you get to Washington!

Mike

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If everyone wants health care, everyone should be willing to work. Don’t give free health care to people that already just sit at home and collect welfare. Hawaii currently requires all employers to provide health insurance to employees. That makes sense; if you have a job, you can join a company matched insurance plan. Hawaii also has the lowest unemployment in the country.

It doesn’t make sense for me, a non-smoking, average weight, physically active adult, to pay taxes to give medical care to people who refuse to take care of themselves. The government won’t require any sort of diet plans, work-out regimens, or anti-smoking campaigns to gain said health care, because that would be discriminatory, so I’d be stuck paying for other people’s self inflicted conditions. That is what I’m not comfortable with.

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Mike,
You and I share the same grievance about slackers and addicts. It’s a simple question of personal responsibility.
Furnishedowner
I have to admit, the medical marijuana clinic in San Francisco point was not obtained from a necessarily reliable source (Radio Media). It is big in San Francisco, here is a list of 15 of them…
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/articles/ca040609.htm
It’s probably too vague and controversial for me to use labels like liberal versus conservative. I do think that there are a lot of people who vote a liberal ticket because they receive and expect entitlements. I do think that there are a lot of people with lazy bodies and lazy minds and no fortitude for personal sacrifice, who smoke marijuana, drink too much, and vote for the candidate who promises to punish all the evil rich people who are obviously holding them down.
I would bet if a moderator sat a liberal and conservative down and asked specific questions about specific problems, we might all be surprised about some of the similarities expressed by each.
Similarly, when I meet someone with a political opinion that happens to fall directly along party lines, it always seems that they are a brainwashed ideologue without the ability to think for themselves.
Having said that, the circumstance of economic upheaval is definitely nothing new. Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, with the possible exception of countries with huge petroleum revenues.
The problem with “to each according to his need from each according to his ability” is that people will preach forever about their endless needs, but making personal sacrifices, in the name of developing to one’s fullest potential ability, not only defies human nature, it deserves to be rewarded.
We can print $100 bills for 3 cents each. The real solution to poverty is value. Value that comes from poor people who work hard in the name of bettering their lives. Value that comes from a business man in a free market who works hard to fend off his competition. Don’t you think?
I asked a person who was defending nationalized healthcare “what will inspire people to work?” He responded “humility.” It’s a nice thought, pretty utopian though, and history does not fill the books with humble people working for the greater good. People tend to get fat, happy and lazy.
It is pretty common, however to see philanthropy. To see people who have already proved their superior status in business and work, continue their commitment to excellence by demonstrating generosity…Rockefeller, Ford, Buffett, Gates.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were correct to point out the concern of a class struggle, they just didn’t come up with any answers that work. Ask anyone from Russia, China or Cuba.
People are more than willing to pay for cell phones, which they do not need, nice cars, which they do not need, home entertainment systems, which they do not need, definitely cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana, which they do not need, but they don’t want to pay for healthcare. Somehow they just think of that as some kind of right, which should be financed by someone else.
I respect your hard work and ambition; which appear obvious to anyone reading your posts.

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Yes, this liberal always pays taxes. I want those taxes to go towards health care

The Universal Health Care issue is the one I can get really steamed about. I just did an on-line search…

The US infant death rate is 28th in the world! Cuban babies have a better chance of reaching their first birthday! Our rate is about the same as Croatia, Lithuania and Taiwan!

The death rate amongst African-American babies is double white babies. Hispanic babies fare well because their culture is family-oriented and child-friendly with extended family helping each other. Indian babies also die at higher rates.

When I worked in hospitals I saw women leaving with their newborns within 24 to 48 hours of birth. The insurance companies wouldn’t pay for longer stays. The mothers were exhausted, having not yet recovered from labor and blood loss. The infants were not yet feeding or sucking. The whole thing made me enraged. I would tell those mothers secretly “Tell them that you are so depressed that you can’t eat. Tell them you are in terrible pain. Tell them you can’t go to the bathroom. Because otherwise they are going to discharge you!” This sometimes bought them an extra hospital day.

Mother/infant care is criminal in this country.

How will we pay for it? We CAN pay for it. I have lived in Denmark, Switzerland and Japan where health care premiums were deducted from my paychecks. Oh, those countries have very low death rates for babies. The society and government WANT a healthy populace, not just profits.

Health care premiums can be deducted from paychecks.
Alcohol, cigarettes and chewing tobacco should have large taxes to help fund health care. (Pres. Obama just funded some child health insurance with a cigarette surcharge, a good start).
Able-bodied people on welfare should be required to go to an assigned or chosen job in order to get additional assistance.
Free or low-cost childcare must be provided for working welfare parents.

I will vote for anyone of any political persuasion who will provide health care for the people.

Furnishedowner

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We live in a country where many people don’t value the life of the child before it is born. Could that have an effect on how children are viewed and treated by those people when they actually have them?

On the free health care issue. I don’t know about many of the cultures that you mentioned, but I grew up on a Reservation where all health care is free for Tribal people. Yet they are the ones that you mention are having a high infant death rate. Believe me, it is not from lack of free health care. They have only to walk into a clinic any time to get health care. The death rates are due to many other factors. Poverty (caused, in my opinion, by entitlement mentality), drug and alcohol abuse in many homes, high crime( when you don’t have to work, you have to do something), etc.

I know a lot of Native Americans, and they are a very gifted group. You wouldn’t believe the athletic skills and sheer endurance that many of them have. But it is hard to be motivated to do something when life is tough, and you can hit the snooze and get a check anyway. There are a few notables that have used the help from entitlements to become productive, but for each of these there are hundreds that the entitlements have kept them down. I honestly think that these people are being harmed, not helped by the government.

Many people say to leave morallity out of politics, but I pay a lot more tax to support people whose behavior is simply something that they should have to deal with the consequences of themselves. From dug users, to criminals, to the many vices out there that create medical conditions.

" Able-bodied people on welfare should be required to go to an assigned or chosen job in order to get additional assistance."

Nice thought, but a pipe dream. Entitlement breeds laziness.

Help the helpless, and let the lazy suffer instead of giving them welfare and trying to make them work. I can be swayed to your side when it comes to kids who don’t chose their situation, but for adults who can make their own choices, I have little sympathy

DB

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Help the helpless, and let the lazy suffer instead of giving them welfare and trying to make them work.

EXACTLY RIGHT! If we stopped giving things to lazy people - including food, shelter, and healthcare, I’d be willing to bet that most of them would choose to get off their lazy butts and work instead of starving, living under a bridge, or doing without healthcare! In addition, as fewer deadbeats were getting handouts, the tax burden on those of us that actually are productive would decrease, leading to further investment. That would start a tremendous cycle of growth. What we have now (a welfare state) is DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY and we’re just at the beginning of this financial collapse.

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I’ve said that all along to my mother who has in-laws on welfare that if we cut off their supply of money and benefits they would be forced to get a job which it should be.

It’s time the lazy stop becoming lazy and start doing something instead of sucking up tax payers money and doing nothing.

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Interesting and thoughtful post, DB.

Propertymanager, Anybody living under a bridge needs drug or alcohol rehab and mental health monitoring. Those people are so far from the working class that they can’t get back. They may not even be lazy, but for sure they are mentally or chemically impaired. It would be hard to get a job if you kept hearing voices in your head.

My sister was a county jail nurse in 2 different states. She kept talking about the inmates being so illiterate that they couldn’t write a note requesting health care. She said that there was no way most of them would be able to work on the outside or even to apply for a job. That they would have to fall back into stealing and drugs.

I am familiar with the entitlement mindset that DB mentions. I saw the same thing in Denmark. There the problem is compounded by a mindset that astonished me, something like–“Why are you trying to get ahead? Do you think that you are better than us? Oh, you are so smart that now you want to be a snob”…

I thought it was just me until I heard the Queen actually give a speech on this sad fact of the middle class squashing strivers. Like the Japanese saying: “Hammer down the nail that sticks up”.

How do we solve such huge societal problems?
Mandatory drug and alcohol rehab for violators. Mental Health Counseling and medications, illiteracy and job skill training for the prison population (WHICH IS HUGE COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES–WE ARE LOSING THE WAR ON CRIME).

No free able-bodied welfare. You gotta work. Health care and mental health care. And I would like to see money for schools put into the ghettos. We are losing a whole generation of brain power into the gangs.

What a huge job to help fix our country. A lot of the ills are cultural-based. We can see that the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese immigrants boot-strap their children and children’s children right into the ranks of educated professionals in 1 or 2 generations.

We have to stop complaining and do one little thing ourselves. Propertymanager Mike, is there one single smart kid that you could hire from your roster of tenants’ kids? One kid that you could teach painting, plumbing repair, landlording? One kid who you could teach a different set of values?

On that note, everyone go see Clint Eastwood’s film: “Gran Torino”. It’s filmed in Detroit. It shows the cultural clash of the new arrivals, the Hmong and their neighbor, the retired auto plant worker. It’s a 10. You will all relish this film.

Furnishedowner

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“not my kid” is nothing new… of course they are going to believe their daughter over a “landlord”. let’s hope they are smart enough to not come back to damage your property.

What we have now (a welfare state) is DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY and we're just at the beginning of this financial collapse.
whoa now. our country is being destroyed by people who have enough money and influence to make themselves rich at the expense of the rest of us. i suppose it is a welfare state, but not the type you are implying. there are, for sure, some drug users among those multi-millionaires who have run off with your tax dollars.