Good news, everyone, I survived!

[Cormac135]

Another good news, everyone!

A few months ago, I got served with an injury lawsuit. It is one of those ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits that they hope I'd settle just to make them go away. After consulting with my litigation lawyer, he agreed with me that they have ZERO chance of winning. I had 3 choices: (1) File a counter suit and keep pounding it to the end to make a big deal out of it, (2) write them a check to make them go away, and (3) file a counter suit and focus on the other side's lawyer to make him understand he has ZERO chance of winning. Personal injury lawyers only get paid if they win. If they understand they have zero chance of winning, there is no reason for them to drag it out. Nobody wants to work for free! I decided the choice that makes the most sense is #3.

Well, I just got off the phone with my lawyer. He has forwarded everything we have to the other lawyer. The other lawyer just told him that he and his boss will have a talk with their client where they will strongly advice their client to drop the case. If their client doesn't agree, he heavily hinted that they will drop their client. So, even the injury lawyer on the other side thinks they have ZERO chance of winning this.

It looks like I'm going to walk away from this unscathed (minus lawyer fees).

God, I hate people who file frivolous lawsuits to see what sticks.

What did you do to him ?

 

[Dominus]

So, I have a 2 bedroom apartment available. Taking applications now. I do a criminal background and credit check on all applicants.

I just did a check on one applicant and GOOD GOD! He/she/it (for privacy) is currently on trial for armed robbery with a handgun and a bunch of other charges. And I met him/her/it in person a couple days ago when he/she/it turned in the application. And I thought my life was boring!

 

[Rickrock]

Good for you.

 

[Dominus]

One way of saving money in this business is I offer my tenants work to knock off rent. For example, I got a 5 unit apartment building with a lot of trees on the property. Needed trimming. The cheapest quote I got was about $800. Good god! Just happens that one of my tenants is a tree cutter/trimmer. He is doing it all for $200.

How is he able to do it for a lot less than the quotes I got? Simple. Next time you get an HVAC guy that comes out to work on your HVAC system where the company charges you $80/hour for work, just know that the guy is getting paid $12/hour by his company.

There is a plumber among my tenants. Guess what he's been doing for me at my various properties for discounts on his rent

 

[Dominus]

edited... double post

 

[Cormac135]

One way of saving money in this business is I offer my tenants work to knock off rent. For example, I got a 5 unit apartment building with a lot of trees on the property. Needed trimming. The cheapest quote I got was about $800. Good god! Just happens that one of my tenants is a tree cutter/trimmer. He is doing it all for $200.

How is he able to do it for a lot less than the quotes I got? Simple. Next time you get an HVAC guy that comes out to work on your HVAC system where the company charges you $80/hour for work, just know that the guy is getting paid $12/hour by his company.

There is a plumber among my tenants. Guess what he's been doing for me at my various properties for discounts on his rent

Is he unclogging your drains ?

 

[rareboy]

One way of saving money in this business is I offer my tenants work to knock off rent. For example, I got a 5 unit apartment building with a lot of trees on the property. Needed trimming. The cheapest quote I got was about $800. Good god! Just happens that one of my tenants is a tree cutter/trimmer. He is doing it all for $200.

How is he able to do it for a lot less than the quotes I got? Simple. Next time you get an HVAC guy that comes out to work on your HVAC system where the company charges you $80/hour for work, just know that the guy is getting paid $12/hour by his company.

There is a plumber among my tenants. Guess what he's been doing for me at my various properties for discounts on his rent

Cleaning out your pipes?

 

[Dominus]

Just rented out a 2 bedroom apartment yesterday to a lesbian couple. When I bought this building a year ago, that same apartment was renting out for a little more than half of what I am renting it out now. Housing shortage is real. Fair market prices have almost doubled around here.

On my drawing board, by the end of the summer I will have added 5 more rental units to my portfolio. And I am looking at buying 2 more for the fall before the winter shutdown.

So, I am finally doing more than just surviving. Finally able to do real expansion again.

Housing market is stabilizing, which is good. The last few months of insane prices have been annoying.

 

[Dominus]

More good news. Everything went as expected. I added 5 more rental units to my portfolio by the end of summer as planned. All rented out to very good tenants. Got an electrician husband and teacher wife with 2 small children. Got a mortgage loan officer. Etc. In other words, I managed to fill those units up pretty quickly with pretty darn good tenants. Even got a call from one of the tenants asking if they could buy the house from me. I'm leaning toward no LOL. I think I have an emotional connection to these properties that I poured my sweat and tears into. I know it's not a good business practice to have sentimental value... but goddamn it I went through 3 years of hell for these babies.

The lawsuit has gone away for good. Their lawyer dropped the suer (is that a word?) as a client. She ended up having to call me and begged me to drop the counter suit. I had my lawyer forward the necessary paperwork to make the whole thing go away. It's been taken care of for good.

Just tallied my numbers and woohoo my revenue is now not only in the positive but is enough to cover all regular expenses, emergency expenses, as well as leave a really nice cushion at the end of every month.

I can actually sleep again without worrying if the numbers will go back into the red or not. Phew

 

[rareboy]

Don't get cocky.

But glad that you might actually be able to make enough to start to live a normal life.

A word of advice though. Don't brag about this to your ex. Unless you had a Wall street lawyer take care of your divorce and quit claims....sad to say, your ex really sounds like a vampire in the end and once he has to start actually paying for his champagne tastes (unless he has already found another host to suck dry), he may re-think the deal to leave you with all the assets.

Get a newer car FFS. But not anything that will make your tenants jealous. Just a nice serviceable middle class car or newer van that shows them you are stable and serious, but not sucking the lifeblood out of the people paying you.

We still have our 10 year old Pilot and there's no way I want our tenants thinking that they would be paying for a yacht. I remember being so pissed off when we were converting our 65 unit building into a Co-op to help seniors who were paying 80-100% of their income in rent and then the owner/property manager we were buying the building from would roll up in a Porsche.

 

[Rickrock]

Happy for you Dominus and rareboy is giving really good advice. (Just my opinion. I don't own any rental property)

 

[Dominus]

Don't get cocky.

But glad that you might actually be able to make enough to start to live a normal life.

A word of advice though. Don't brag about this to your ex. Unless you had a Wall street lawyer take care of your divorce and quit claims....sad to say, your ex really sounds like a vampire in the end and once he has to start actually paying for his champagne tastes (unless he has already found another host to suck dry), he may re-think the deal to leave you with all the assets.

Get a newer car FFS. But not anything that will make your tenants jealous. Just a nice serviceable middle class car or newer van that shows them you are stable and serious, but not sucking the lifeblood out of the people paying you.

We still have our 10 year old Pilot and there's no way I want our tenants thinking that they would be paying for a yacht. I remember being so pissed off when we were converting our 65 unit building into a Co-op to help seniors who were paying 80-100% of their income in rent and then the owner/property manager we were buying the building from would roll up in a Porsche.

What do you think about me driving the cybertruck around? I have a tenant that drives a $70k red Silverado. My cybertruck will cost $30k less. I ask because so far most people I talk to have the misconception that it costs like $100-120k. It looks like a rich man's toy. My 2001 Honda odyssey with 260k miles will be replaced with the cybertruck. But I'm not sure I will be driving the cybertruck to my properties.

 

[rareboy]

Don't pull your dick out in public.

While your cyber truck might be the thing that you see as validating you as a purchase, others will see it as the sign of a small penis or as rubbing their noses in what you have that they can't. Just get yourself a sensible, cheapish well running utility truck that you aren't afraid of getting some wear on.

 

[Alistair]

Good luck ever getting the truck. Tesla is known for not coming through with their designs. We still haven’t seen the roadster and that was supposed to be out 5 years ago.

You might also want to check out what owners have to say about the quality and reliability of Teslas in general before spending $40k. I’ve not seen a lot of positive reviews that aren’t from a paid shill

Added by edit: just a few days ago Car and Driver magazine reported that the production schedule for the truck has been removed from Tesla’s website and they don’t think that is a good sign that it will happen. The truck’s production has been pushed back to 2023.

 

[Dominus]

We still have our 10 year old Pilot and there's no way I want our tenants thinking that they would be paying for a yacht. I remember being so pissed off when we were converting our 65 unit building into a Co-op to help seniors who were paying 80-100% of their income in rent and then the owner/property manager we were buying the building from would roll up in a Porsche.

I remember a couple years ago I hired a contractor to replace a roof. I went to the property in the middle of the day to see how things were going. Saw brand new spanking trucks there. There was one rusty old truck and it just happened to be the company owner's truck. And I happen to know this guy is a millionaire. I've been to his house and it is a mansion.

I have been driving around in a beat up odyssey with 260k miles on it. Some of the guys who regularly work for me drive really nice shiny trucks. One guy just bought a new white truck.

So, I know what you're talking about. I'm not buying the cybertruck for validation or whatever. I've always wanted something. Big like a hummer but life always got in the way. Now that I am approaching the end of my life (late 30s), I'm thinking to myself when the hell am I going to get a car I actually want? Am I destined to always be driving crappy old rust buckets for the rest of my life? OK, that's a little dramatic, but after having gone thru a divorce I feel soooooooo old now.

Here's my plan. I will keep the odyssey and continue to use it as my work truck. When the cybertruck comes out (assuming it is not vaporware), I will use it as strictly a fun vehicle only. Will take my 160 pound dog and the 2 corgis on many road trips with it. I'll be driving across country with that baby....

 

[rareboy]

Apparently you won't be.

As you noted....it is vapourware.

 

[Latimer]

I'm happy to see you not only survived but back to living a normal life. I always figured you would, as you are obviously a very can-do sort, hard-working and inventive, and a guy who would treat a setback as an opportunity.