the time i was sued

as i mentioned in this post, the house we are living in now isn't one we picked by choice.  this is something that is difficult to deal with emotionally, considering the people that used to live here.

once they were kicked out of this house by the city, i thought i would never have to deal with them again.  10 months later, as we were packing up our house to move and 3 weeks before our wedding, there was a knock at the door around 9pm.  had i been home alone, i would have ignored it, but jared answered the door and just like that, we were served.

the summons said that we were being sued by the previous tenants in small claims court for $7500.  which, not coincidentally i'm sure, is the maximum amount that you can sue for in small claims court.  this meant that if i counter sued for even $1, the case would get kicked into district court and lawyers would probably need to be involved.  they were suing me for 2 things.
They claimed:
*they did not receive their deposit back
*they were forced to move and lost all of their belongings due to a mold problem

right away, i knew they didn't have a leg to stand on because:
*they never paid me a deposit
*they were forced to move by the city - the mold problem was remediated.

the court date was scheduled for a day that we were on our honeymoon.  i kicked into high gear and got the court date changed and scheduled a meeting with an attorney.  he mentioned to us that we were going through 3 of the 5 major stressors that can happen to people, all at once.  getting married, selling a house/moving, and getting sued.  great.
he gave me some good advice, but also left me with this statement.
if you plan to be a landlord for awhile, this won't be the first time you're sued. 

like the nerd i am, i spent weeks googling what to expect in court and what to do and not to do.  i gathered all documents and pictures i could find, made copies, and organized them in a binder.  i prepared my opening speech and practiced it in front of jared.  jared actually made fun of me, but i told him that we shouldn't underestimate these people.  he was convinced that they would be completely unprepared, but i had a suspicion that this wasn't the first time they were involved in a lawsuit.

they day of the court date, we arrived 30 minutes early, prepared and dressed nicely.  30 minutes passed and the plaintiff still wasn't there.  we held our breath, thinking maybe they wouldn't show up.  the court told us that they would give them an extra 15 minutes.  we were livid.  if you can't show up on time to court, you shouldn't get extra time.  sure enough, 10 minutes later, we see the door open, followed by a baby carrier and the plaintiff*.

before we could go in front of the judge, we were required to go through mediation.  we met with mediators who told us that there was a $100 fee for the mediation.  the plaintiff refused to pay it.  the mediators tried to negotiate with her for about 20 minutes before they finally gave up and waived the fee.

after going over the details of the case, jared and i were a little worried about three things.
*even though she didn't pay a deposit to me, she paid one to the previous landlord that never transferred to me.  i didn't know if that was my responsibility to have it transferred or not.  if it was, i may be liable for 3x the deposit amount because even though they did not deserve to receive their deposit back, there was no letter sent to them itimizing the damages.
*we didn't know how the judge would react to the mold situation.  even though i thought i did everything the right way (working with the insurance and a contractor to take care of the problem asap), maybe i was wrong?
*we didn't know if the judge will feel sorry for the plaintiff since she is clearly poor, has a lot of kids, and is not educated.  versus us, who appear to be the opposite.   i had never been in court before, so i didn't know if there was ever a bias in these type of situations.

things got pretty heated in the mediation and the mediators, even though they aren't allowed to give us legal advice, were strongly encouraging us to settle because of the mold issue.  jared and i decided to offer them $1600, which was the amount of the deposit.  they didn't accept it and wanted us to pay them $4500.  we countered with $2000.  they declined and we went in front of the judge.

the judge asked if we had any witnesses and the plaintiff named her daughter.  i wasn't going to have a witness, but i decided to name jared.  what i didn't know is that they would send the witnesses out of the room during most of the trial.  so there i am, alone, scared and nervous at the defendant platform.  we start the trial and i have to listen to the plaintiffs sob story for a good 45 minutes while i am not allowed to say anything.  finally it's my turn to talk.  i say my part about not being paid a deposit and show the judge the signed lease i had with "0" clearly written in the deposit line.  the judge asks the plaintiff why she's not suing the previous landlord instead and immediately clears me of that charge. 

right then i think, oh wow.  maybe this WILL be cut and dry like it should be.  i relaxed a bit and we got onto the mold issue.  of course, i had all the documentation about how it was being remediated and the plaintiff had the option to move but they didn't want to.  i also had the piece of evidence that i'm pretty sure the plaintiff wouldn't want me to show.  i had the actual eviction notice from the city that said they were living in squalor and went into details about how they were feeding their dogs from the trash and there was a dead animal on the front porch, etc.

there were a few more details and we went back and forth and then the witnesses were called in and we went back and forth some more.  finally the judge said that i had acted appropriately and done everything i could and none of it was my fault.  she dismissed the case.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

that was one of the biggest rushes of my life.

it restored my faith in the judicial system. 

and i was thrilled that our greedy tenant could have had $2000, but ended up with NOTHING.  i would have liked to have sued them for the money it cost me to deal with this ($50 to the courts, $250 to the attorney, $12 for parking!), but there's no way i would have seen a dime from them even if i won the case.  not worth it.

it also made me hyper aware of the risks of being a landlord.  i am way more diligent about doing everything by the book, getting everything in writing, and covering all of my bases. 

because i really don't want to have to go through that again.  it was one of the most stressful times in my life.  i couldn't even FULLY enjoy my honeymoon because the court date was looming over my head for when i returned. 

i have faith that karma will catch up to these people.  they've worked the system and other people for way too long.  quite honesty, their lifestyle is probably punishment enough. 

*there was not a time that i had ever NOT seen this lady pregnant.  before they were kicked out, they had a baby and we didn't even know she was pregnant until after the baby was born.  sure enough, she was pregnant again, bringing the grand total to 10 children and another one on the way.  this is revolting to me on so many levels.

the vortex

here's the picture i promised.

right now we are using it for storage.  when we finally get the money, it will be a beautiful 1000 sq ft with a master suite (including 5 piece bath and walk in closet), study, and tv room.  i'm hoping this happens within the next 2 years.

heating the vortex

our electric/gas bill came in the mail today.  it was $171.18.  i am trying to figure out how it is so high, considering that we keep the house between 60-65 degrees and it has been a relatively warm winter.  right now i am in fleece pj pants, a long sleeve t, slippers, and a heavy duty fleece robe and i am still freezing.

i know it's because we are heating 2000 sq feet of house.  but since we're really only living in 1000 sq feet of house, it doesn't feel like our bill should be twice what i'm used to.

lost yet?

i haven't mentioned this house to the extent of it's importance in our lives, because it is the bane of my existence.  besides the wedding, it was my main topic of conversation in 2010 and i'm a little OVER it, but i will try my best to get you caught up on the story.

the house we are currently living in is a house i bought for the sole purpose of renting it and then eventually selling it.  it was purchased approximately 2 months before the housing market crashed.  luckily it was rented out to section 8 tenants, which meant that my mortgage was paid by the government each month.  things were great for a little while and then the asshole guy that was managing the property for me went crazy and decided that he didn't have to pay the mortgage anymore and we should all buy gold and move to the mountains and live off the grid. so my mortgage wasn't getting paid and i decided that i had to take over the management of the properties (yes, i had two with him - one is currently rented to college kids) and became a landlord overnight.  fun.

so i became a landlord and i thought i should get to know my tenants.  they. were. AWFUL.  11 people living in this house like pigs.  breaking everything.  crap overflowing out of the house.  way too many chihuahuas.  flies.  *shudder*

we had to come over every month to pick up their portion of the rent ($126 - the city payed $1474) and hated it.  these people were the definition of "taking advantage of the system".  the husband worked under the table, the mom was pregnant 24/7, and they were on welfare.  besides continually having children to get more money, they had: cell phones, internet, cable, elitches (6 flags) season passes for ALL of their kids, and there were always empty papa johns pizza boxes piled high on the front porch.  j and i both have jobs and even WE don't regularly splurge on the expensive take out pizza. 

one time when we were over there fixing something, one of their kids was bugging us and hanging on the towel bar in the bathroom, which of course broke.  i looked at him incredulously and said "stop it!  you just broke the towel bar!" to which he nonchalantly replied, "oh that's ok, someone will fix it".  to which i replied, "yeah!  that someone is ME!".

these people always had run ins with the neighbors and cops and i knew they were bad tenants and i didn't like being a slumlord, but if we kicked them out, we would have to find a bunch of money we didn't have to fix up the place before we could get new renters in.  so we just let it be and buried our heads in the sand.

over the next year, we had to deal with a mold problem in the basement which involved insurance companies and unsavory contractors.  a normal tenant might be a little concerned and ask to break their lease due to the mold, which i would, of course, allowed.  but seeing as though these people had been kicked out of 10 houses over the last 10 years, they didn't want to leave.

in july of 2009, i received a phone call from the tenant, crying about how the city was making her move.  the next day, i received a call from the city telling me that they were evicting my tenants for......drum roll please...

living in squalor (!)

yes, that is actually what was written on the eviction notice.

they moved out, we freaked out about having an vacant house and two mortgage payments, and had a few months of  not knowing what to do.  we finally came up with the plan to put our current house on the market (the one i bought in 2005 that i loved dearly but really was too small) and then use any money we made on that house to fix up the vacant rental and live in it.  because it was bigger and would be a more appropriate house for when we started a family.


we put our house on the market in oct 2009 and after 80+ showings, finally sold it in may 2010.  we also made $24k, which doesn't go as far as you think when you're having to completely gut  a 2000 sq ft house.  in fact, it really only gets you about 80% of 1000 sq ft.

then we made really smart decisions, like letting jared quit his (high paying) job to go back to school and were reduced to a single income family. 

it wouldn't be so bad if the basement was just old and needed updating.  but due to the mold problems, the entire basement was removed.  all the floor.  all the drywall.  all the fixtures.  everything.  then a french drain was installed to control the water-table problem.  and a bunch of gravel was shoveled in.  and all the windows were replaced (since we did all the upstairs ones too).  and then, with $8k still sitting in escrow with the mortgage company, everything was halted because we ran out of money and we don't have the $5k required to pour the new basement floor and install the rough in plumbing.

i call it the vortex.  i will take a picture soon and post it.

right now the upstairs of the house is livable.  it's not pretty or finished, but we have working appliances and essential things like doors*.  here is a partial list of the things we still have to do, just so you can get the picture.

• trim the office closet and install closet doors
• mud the inside of the hall closet and install shelf and bar
• install crown molding (moulding?) over the kitchen cabinets
• cover 2x4's in kitchen
• paint kitchen ceiling and window trim
• install doorknob and trim around pantry door
• fill all nail holes and paint trim/baseboard
• caulk around bathroom sink
• finish installing baseboard in kitchen and office
• install kickplates under kitchen cabinets
• fix broken tile in kitchen and regrout floor

that's just a partial list.  so you can see why i get annoyed when jared is watching judge mathis in the middle of the day instead of doing one of the things on his list that is clearly more important to the family.

a year after the house was vacant, you'd think that we would never have to deal with those tenants again.  that's what i thought too.  until i was served** and notified that they were suing me in small claims court for $7500.  more on that story later.

*we did not have interior doors for about 6 weeks.  no bathroom door does not a happy marriage make.
**one month before our wedding, because apparently i didn't have enough going on and had plenty of time to hire attorneys and reschedule court dates and file replies and all other sorts of legal-y stuff.

omg i suck

it's been a YEAR since my last post?  sorry... this year has been so full of changes and revelations and stress that i think the thought of writing about it (after discussing it with pretty much anyone who would listen) just seemed overwhelming.  but now i realize that instead of talking to *some* people about things, i really should just be writing them down so that i can get it out without subjecting people to listening to my issues.  at least i know that you can just skim the post or skip it if you're not interested!

so.. what has been going on that is so overwhelming, you ask?  where do i begin..?   wedding.  houses.  jobs.  family drama.  friend drama. money.  self esteem. 

wedding.

j and i were married on 5/14/10!   the wedding overall was good (at least people told me they had a good time), although of course it didn't go quite the way i planned.   i'm sure i'll go into more details later - but here's a quick summary.   it snowed and had to be moved inside.  some people created a lot of drama over silly things and it stressed me out.  there were family issues (apparently not attending my wedding is a way to get back at my mom for something she didn't even do).  i didn't feel comfortable in my dress.  BUT, when it was all said and done, i married the love of my life and that's all that matters.  

houses. 

at this time last year, we had 3 houses and one of them was vacant. the vacant one was also trashed and there was no way we could rent it out in it's current condition.  our only solution was to sell the house we were living in.  my first house.  the house i loved and still have a strong attachment to.  we put it on the market in october and after 7 months, 80+ showings, and an offer that fell through, we finally found a buyer.  the day after we returned from our honeymoon (barbados!), we closed and the cutest couple ever took possession of our house.  i was so happy that they were my buyers because they are exactly the type of people i wanted living in my house.   we then moved into the quitman house, which is the one we rent to college kids (it was vacant for the summer) and started fixing up the fenton house (the one that was trashed).   lost yet?  it was insane.  we lived in 3 houses within a 3 month time span.  i don't recommend it. 

so... long story short, we spent all the money we made on the house we sold to put in new windows, appliances, floors, doors, trim, fixtures, etc into the fenton house.  which is now our home.  which i am trying to make the best of even though i would never ever have chosen to live in this house.  it is such a big stress of our lives and one that virtually none of our friends can understand.  right now everything in the house is functional, but not finished.  and it drives me BATTY!  

jobs. 

my job is actually going fantastically.  after not making my goal last year and losing out on a bunch of $$, i am ahead of my goal this year.  which is extremely helpful because j quit his job in september to go back to school.  it a decision that both of us are on board with and one that had to be made.  he's getting his BS in construction management, so i know that it will be very beneficial to our future.  it's just another financial stressor that we have to deal with in order to set us up for success.  being the main breadwinner though... that's a lot of pressure. 

drama.

i don't really want to get into the friend or family drama on this blog because i don't want to add fuel to the fire should these people read this.  let's just say that i am focusing on surrounding myself with individuals that act as positive forces in my life and am disassociating with those who i think are bringing negative energy into my life.   

money. 

one income. too much debt.  2 mortgages. it all piles up and we're having to make some serious choices.  we are cutting back the extras like crazy and it's really hard on my ego to have to admit that even though i make decent money and have an engineering degree and my MBA, i still am not on par financially with my peers due to choices i made, some which were beyond my control. hopefully my frugal forays will be entertaining and useful to you all when i blog about them later. 

and lastly...self esteem. 

i have always struggled with my weight.. but even though i've always been a little chubby, i've been comfortable enough in my skin to not let it be too much of an issue.  that has changed.  i have gained so much weight since the wedding that not only do my clothes not fit, but i don't even recognize myself anymore in pictures.  it's bad.  i don't feel like i went crazy with the fast food or anything (because that's really not my style).. it's just the little things that ad up.  having to eat out because we don't have a kitchen in the house we're fixing up.  not exercising because i have to tile a floor.  being stressed in general.  the past 2 months we've been eating really healthy and i've been getting back into an exercise routine, but the scale hasn't budged. it hasn't gone *up* anymore, which is a good thing, but it hasn't gone down either.  my normal habits at the gym just won't cut it anymore.  the motivation is *almost* there and this will be something that i will try to blog about more so it keeps me accountable. 

so there you go. my 2010 summary.  

my goal for the rest of 2010 is to post at LEAST every other day in december so that i can get back into blogging.  it's good for me.

it's been an expensive year

so i've always thought that any anxiety or stress i felt was directly related to the events that occur in my life. i also always thought that when those events are over, the stress will go away. what i'm realizing now is that it's just replaced by something equally stressful. 2009 has been a very anxiety-ridden year so far. a little run down.

january-april: spent all our free time fixing up the quitman rental and maxed out our credit cards doing so.
february: huge tree in our backyard falls down in the wind storm, causing $8K worth of damage and a month of dealing with the insurance company.
april: jared proposes (yay!) - start planning wedding and figuring out where we'll get the money
leak in fenton rental leads to mold growth in basement and months of dealing with contractors and insurance.
may: j gets into a car accident and it costs $2k to fix his jeep. i find out that j owes 3 years of back taxes.
june: tenants in fenton house get kicked out by social services and the city says that the house is uninhabitable. this is a blessing in disguise, as the tenants were HORRID, BUT we can't afford to have an empty house right now.
july: j's jeep broke down and we were forced to buy a new car. we got a used subaru forester and now have another car payment. j finally gets his crotchrocket into the shop so we can get it fixed up to sell and it costs $1700 to get it running again.
july-august: months dealing with contracts and insurance adjustors lead to a $18K insurance payment, but the work still hasn't started because the check is made out to the mortgage company and i have to jump through all their hoops to get things fixed.
august: we decide to put the quitman house on the market, and have to deal with the annoyances of trying to sell a tenant occupied house.

do you see a pattern here?

some reasons why we appear to make good money on paper, yet have none.
*i have not yet received a commission check this year because i am about 40K behind my sales goal.
*j was forced to take a 20% paycut at his job
*we have been paying two mortgages for 6 out of the last 8 months.
*we have paid cash for the following:2 insurance deductibles ($1000 each), 3 separate vehicle repairs ($4500 total), an engagement ring ($3000), and wedding downpayments ($2500).

now we have drained our savings, maxed our cards, and have 2 houses, a jeep, and a bike that we desperately want to sell.

too bad no one is buying..

time to sink some money into the houses

i don't know if i ever mentioned that i am the landlord of two rental houses. the tenants in one of my houses just gave notice and they will be moving out this month, which means that i need to find some new renters. i put ads up all over and actually have a showing tomorrow, so that's great! anyhow, the house is old and a lot of the stuff in it isn't very nice, so we decided that we're going to put some money into it and make it a nicer place to live for the new tenants. here is what we need to do:

• replace carpet in 2 bedrooms and the basement


• paint every room


• install new ceiling light fixtures in bedrooms


• replace bathroom tile, toilet, vanity, mirror, and light fixture in both bathrooms


• repair showers in both bathrooms


• re-tile kitchen floor, install garbage disposal

it's a lot, but we're going to do it now and are looking at it like a practice house-flip. today we went shopping and found the carpet and light fixtures. the carpet place had remnants and we were able to find two matching high quality carpet pieces for the bedrooms. the basement is a different carpet, but the guy gave us a $0.50/sq ft discount. we also paid for installation, because we have no idea how to do it. total for ~400 sq feet of carpet + installation: $777

then we went next door to the lighting place that is moving and having a huge 20%-60% off sale. we bought 2 bathroom light fixtures and the 2 bedroom light fixtures. they were 20% and 40% off and we only paid $110! they would have been well over $200 at home depot, so i think we got a good deal.

i've been looking on craigslist, and between that and the habitat for humanity thrift store, i think we can get the bathroom vanities, cabinets, sinks, toilets, tile etc for pretty cheap.

then i started thinking.. you know, i really don't like the vanity, sink, and cabinet in my bathroom... so i suggested to j that we take those out and put them in the rental house.. then we can get nice ones for us! we might be spending more now than we would just buying cheap ones, BUT we've been wanting to replace ours anyway and now we won't have to buy other ones for one of the bathrooms. he thought that was a good idea, as long as we could find something we liked that was reasonably priced. we want one of those vessel sinks and cabinetry in a dark wood finish.

they are not reasonably priced.

here's an example of one i like.

$665! and that's just for the base.. it doesn't even include the sink.

to make matters more difficult, our bathroom is so tiny that the vanity can't be deeper than 15". that's not very big (standard is 22"). so what i would like to do is find a 15" x 30" cabinet in a dark wood with some drawers or storage space and then drill the holes to install a vessel sink (~$100 for a new one on craigslist) and faucet.

how do i do an internet search for that? i can't figure out what it would be called.. i've tried vanity base, cabinet, and a few other things. i'm not finding what i want. any ideas?

i could always do a pedistal sink, but we have limited storage as it is, so i wanted to avoid that option.

j is planning to take a woodworking class next year. i can't wait until he can just MAKE us what we want.