Have you ever just felt like you were stuck in some weird situation where every turn you made somehow never got you out? Like some sick and twisted life labyrinth without the entertainment benefit of David Bowie.
A little over two years ago, we decided that we wanted/needed to move. I loved my little house in Southern Hills but it was just that little. Plus, development on the outskirts of the neighborhood coupled with the whole economy/foreclosure crisis had changed the flavor of the neighborhood for the worse. So, we did everything you're supposed to do to get your house in order and put it on the market.
We had lookers but no takers which in the beginning was okay because we had not found a place that we liked. Then, July 3, 2010 we went to look at two houses on the same street. The first one on paper was my house. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, basement and no rear neighbors. Unfortunately, once inside it wasn't workable. The bedrooms were okay, but the second bathroom was just a toilet and half sink in the basement...no walls around it, just sitting there in the basement. So, we walked down to the second house which was across the street and four or so doors down. On paper, I wasn't crazy about it. I think a lot of that is that it was a Cape Cod and it looked just like a Hillcrest house.
Once inside though, it was a different story. Four bedrooms plus a study, two bathrooms, no basement but it didn't really matter because there was soo much room for activities. So, we put in an offer and hoped that everything would work out.
In the course of everything that happened from that day to the day we closed, we were advised to consider converting our little house into a rental. There is a whole lot around that decision that I am not going to get into but we are wondering now about the quality of consultation and service we have received over the last 18 or so months.
Our tenant moved out at the end of March. The entire time we had a tenant we had a property manager, and I use that term extremely loosely. See, the whole point of paying a licensed real estate professional to act on our behalf was to tap into that professional knowledge and hopefully hedge ourselves against some renters from hell nightmare.
I can't really get into details because we are still exploring our options as far as how to proceed. As this ball of yarn unwinds we are finding that it's a tangled mess. We fired our so called property manager. I am entirely not sure what he effectively did or why he completely failed to inform us of things that we should have been advised of....like rental registration. It would have been nice to have known that when we converted to a rental we were obligated to notify the county auditor of the change. Why would it have been nice? Well, apparently the city has been to our other property repeatedly for violations by tenants. How did we find out? When my husband stopped by the other house yesterday there was a notice taped to the door.
There is a right way and a wrong way to deal with this. It is taking every ounce of my being not to post all sort of bad review all over this page and the internet at large. I am mad as hell. I am completely disappointed at the complete lack of integrity exhibited by our former real estate agent and the previous tenants. I wonder, actually, I am fairly certain that there might be an undisclosed conflict in terms of the relationship between the former agent and the tenants.
I feel better getting that off of my chest. Thanks for listening and pray that I don't do something stupid in the course of dealing with other people's BS.
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