net worth

Rental Work

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

We’ve owned rentals since February 2016. There have always been ebbs and flows on action needed by me to manage the rentals. Until this year. Suddenly we’re having a regular influx of maintenance needs; some are small like a leaking tub, while some are big like a tree falling on a house. So here’s the update of actions we’ve taken in 2023, with costs for each job (which is something I used to do and haven’t been on top of).

House 1

Roof Repairs

A wind storm came through at the beginning of March and caused extensive damage. There were shingles missing from this townhouse’s roof. The last update was that the roof was being repaired at the end of June, but I haven’t been by to see that yet. This is $0 to us, as our HOA insurance for the townhomes cover it.

Plumbing

The tenant called to complain that the tub in their second bathroom no longer would let hot water out. Hot water was coming out of the sink in that bathroom. I called a plumber, and he said it was going to be $600 to change the cartridge. Considering we’ve done two bathrooms and I had to buy a cartridge, I know that the cartridge is somewhere around $100. I called Mr. ODA while this man was in the house with the quote, and he agreed that was a crazy uncharge and labor charge. The man standing in the bathroom agreed with me and didn’t even charge me for the service call. ha! I called another company, and he came out to change out the cartridge for $245.

House 2

Burst Pipe

At the end of December, a pipe burst and the house flooded. This sounds like a really big deal. But it turns out, this big of a problem is handled relatively easily since insurance is covering the expense and there are companies that handle the whole ‘kit-and-caboodle.’

Our property manager had to manage the day to day activities for us. At first, it was finding a company to clean up the water. The water reached every single room of the house. The clean up of the water was about $22k.

Second step was finding someone to do the repairs and rebuild. The insurance company estimated the repairs around $40k. Our estimates came in well above that. One company said “give me your insurance agent’s contact, I’ll handle it.” That was amazing. They agreed to an amount for the work to be done, and the next we heard, our insurance agent said they’ll cut us a check for the remaining amount. The company was really easy to work with. I selected the flooring, cabinets, and paint color. Everything else was boiler plate otherwise (drywall repair, insulation, lighting installation). They quoted us to put sheet vinyl in the bathrooms, since that’s what was there, but they agreed to install the LVP all throughout the house (which was likely a cost savings to them anyway) at no charge. They also agreed to let our contractor go into the house to install new kitchen countertops (the previous tenant had burned our counters (drugs?!), but it was a hassle to replace them at that time.

We had a few hiccups along the way, but the company didn’t fight us on fixing them. For instance, they threw away the bathroom countertops, even though they were supposed to be put back in place. They painted the house with a paint bucket that was left over from our July renovation, even though I had given them a different color name to paint it (and then when I explained that in no realm would I have bought the paint for them to use when they’re charging me 10x the price of a bucket through the renovation because insurance is paying it); they repainted everything.

They allowed us to pay the first installment via credit card, so we received $340 worth of credit card rewards from that $17,000 purchase. Then our final amount paid (as reimbursed from insurance) was about $51k.

The insurance covered our increased costs for utilities (since we had to heat the house with no ceiling and insulation) and covered our lost rent for that period of time (I shared the tenant nightmare part of this in previous posts).

The cleaners the repair company used were awful. We waited to see what the new tenant thought about it, and she ended up complaining. So we called in another cleaner, which cost us $200. The refrigerator was disgusting and we ended up replacing it, for $760 (our choices were extremely limited to keep the cost down and to find something in stock since a new tenant was moving in 2 days later). We also had our handyman install new locks, new toilet paper holders, and two new blinds (none of that was covered by insurance), which was $180.

House 4

Tenant Turnover: Painting and repairs

We had a tenant move out of this house. She had lived there since 2018. She finally decided she needed more space (it’s a very small house) as her toddler was growing. I checked on the house a couple of years ago, and things seemed to be in order. She had said that she never wanted to move, so she treated it like her own house. She struggled to keep a job, although always seemed to have one to move on to. Well, over the last two years, she started making “improvements” to the house that weren’t improvements (like painting half the trim in the house black). We had to put a lot of work into that tiny house, and it isn’t even to my standard really.

Our handyman had to paint two coats on all the walls (after removing an excessive number of command hooks and such), 3-4 coats on all the trim to get it from black to white, install door knobs she had removed, and epoxied the bathtub and blue tile walls in the bathroom. That was $3,732.

House 9

Water Heater

The hot water heater stopped working. We had it installed less than a year ago. We called the company to come look at it, and they agreed. Then that morning, no one showed up. When our property manager called to ask where they were, they said they don’t do that anymore. We called another company to come fix it, and they pointed out that it was installed incorrectly and the wires were rubbing, creating a short. We had that company fix it, and then I called the original company and asked for a reimbursement. They agreed, but it was a two month process before I received the check. That was $200 out of pocket, but was then paid back to us in full.

House 10

This one. Goodness. They build up their maintenance needs and then lay a bunch of problems on us at once. It’s frustrating, especially when it involves leaking water. They also pay their rent at 2 am on the late day so it’s technically late, but not worth me fighting over. They don’t maintain the house very well, and we’re just ready to be done with them.

Ceiling Fans

I have our handyman going out to fix two ceiling fans. One has a screw missing from the blade, and one has disconnected from the ceiling. I don’t know his cost for those items yet.

Plumbing

There was an issue with water leaking from one of the tubs and following the pipe system into the basement. A plumber fixed the leak from the tub faucet for $425.

There was a back up in the HVAC condensate line that we had our HVAC tech go out for, and that was $125.

House 11

Pests

We had to have pest control come out to address swarming termites, which has been a longstanding issue in this house, unfortunately. That was $98, which was truly just the renewal for the termites warranty. Then we had another issue with powder post beetles, and that was $185.

Honestly, this is where having several houses creates a benefit – we use this company for all our houses and all our partner’s houses. We didn’t pay the termite warranty for a few years on it because I actually didn’t get that paperwork (the $98 fee), and they let me pay up the years I missed to cover treatments currently). I had called at another point to schedule an inspection, and they said I had a balance so they couldn’t schedule anything until I paid the outstanding balance. Again, an issue with paperwork getting to me. The lady even said “we know you’re good for it, and we’d get in touch eventually.”

HVAC

Over the winter, the HVAC unit wasn’t heating. On March 2, the HVAC technician went out and discovered a dirty filter and had to clean the flame sensor. That cost us $223.

Then the HVAC wasn’t cooling this month. The same tech went out and discovered the condenser needed replaced. He did that, but then he left town without invoicing us, so I don’t have that invoice in hand yet. But now we’re having an issue with the house “sweating” that he’s going to look at this week.

House 12

Storm Damage: Tree removal, shingle replacement

The wind storm at the beginning of March took shingles off the back of the roof. Mr. ODA got up there and replaced about 12 shingles, which is a new skill set! As part of that storm, a small tree at the curb of the house fell over, so Mr. ODA cut that up and got it ready to be picked up. That cost us our time and $37 at Lowe’s on shingles.

Wildlife Removal

When I first met this tenant, she told me about how she had a raccoon in the attic. The property management company came to remove the animal (supposedly) and patch up the entrance point. They didn’t do a great job; the animal came back. She said she hadn’t seen it, but she has 5 cats (yes, lease violation) that are very alert. We hired a company to set a trap. After a week, they didn’t find an animal, so they patched up the hole. Setting the trap was $279, and patching the hole was $150.

House 13

Storm Damage: Siding repair

During another March storm, a piece of metal siding came loose on the house. Mr. ODA was able to go put it back in place, so this didn’t cost us anything except the mileage and time.

Electric Work

The tenant complained that one outlet wasn’t working. That didn’t add up. I had Mr. ODA go check on the electrical box while he was working on the siding, but he also saw that nothing was tripped. I had an electrician go out there. Turns out, there’s a second electric box on the house, and that breaker was tripped. You win some, you lose some. He charged me $100.

Tree Removal

The tenant had a tree fall along the back fence line. It took down some wires. We had the power company go out to check on it all, but they confirmed they’re not power lines and they’re cable lines. Since her internet/cable is working fine, it’s not a priority to remove the tree. I had a tree removal guy go out and look at it. Most of the tree is on the other side of the fence. He tried contacting that owner (there’s a rental sign outside the house) to gain access to remove the debris, but they haven’t responded. We had a huge storm come through a few weeks ago, and that has put her tree removal even lower on the list. Plus, she was rude to the tree guy, wouldn’t put up her dogs, and wouldn’t clean up the dog poop in the yard, so it’s not high on my priority list to get her taken care of either. Be a good person.

House 14

Tree on Roof

That big wind storm at the beginning of March took a tree down at this house. I struggled to get someone to help us. I finally posted on the local mom’s group, and someone spoke up that her husband’s business prioritizes trees on structures and would get there tomorrow. And that he did. He had the tree gone in a few hours and cleaned up the yard great. We then had to wait for the insurance adjuster to come out. Once they cleared us, we were able to repair the roof and gutter. For how big the tree was, the twiggy branches at the top was all that hit the house, so the damage was fairly minimal. This was all covered by insurance, so it didn’t cost us anything.

Water Leak

The tenants reached out to me that their water bill went from $50 to $400. They’re pretty self-sufficient and handy, so it was definitely a problem. I trusted that they were able to diagnose a running toilet or leak under a sink. It turns out the link was at the main water for the house. The plumber had to excavate the front yard and replace the entire pipe from the street to the house. I just got the bill, and it was $3,060.

Others – With no costs incurred yet, but will need action

House 6 has repairs that are needed, but the tenant hasn’t been available for the repairs and she has 2 or 3 big dogs, so we really need her home for us to enter the property. I also received notice from the insurance company that they want a railing installed on the front steps, so our handyman will handle that also.

House 7 has a flat roof over the laundry room. Before we bought the house, someone built a room on a covered deck – very poorly. It has leaked several times, and we have tried to find a roofer to help, but they don’t want to handle flat roofs. Mr. ODA shoved a bunch of silicone at the roof line, and it actually held for over a year. It finally leaked again recently. We started making calls and very explicitly stated that we don’t want the flat roof repaired, we want it built as an actual roof (because no one will touch a flat roof, and I had someone come out for a roof replacement and we didn’t know enough at the time to realize he wasn’t going to touch that part of the roof). We finally got two roofers to give us quotes. One seemed to completely not understand the request, and the other said $3,800. So we agreed to that quote and will hopefully have this behind us in the next month or so.

The Quiet Ones

House 3 has had to pay rent late a few times, but they always let me know in advance and I always waive their late fee.

House 8 has required zero effort. They pay rent in the final hours it’s due consistently, but they never need a reminder or follow up. This house isn’t in great shape, so it’s mildly concerning that we don’t hear from them for months on end, but I have enough to keep myself occupied at the moment.

I plan to do walk throughs and address a few issues at some of the Richmond houses later this summer. The last time I went through some of the houses was July 2021, and there have been instances that say tenants need to be checked up on. While many houses have had our handyman in it recently, I want to be more consistent on checking on them and letting them know I care what is going on.

That’s almost $10k that I’ve paid out so far this year on rental properties, with more invoices waiting to come in.

Here’s to hoping the second half of the yard is quieter than the first.

July Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

I looked back to last year’s July to see what was going on.

We had just bought our new house, demoed the master bathroom, and started painting a bunch of the new house. We were transporting two toddlers back and forth for all the work to be done. I was also talking about a vacant house and being rid of a non-rent-payer. The tenant that moved in then caused tens of thousands of damage with a burst pipe, and now we have a new renter in there.

And now…

We had a big wind storm come through on the 2nd. It knocked down several trees, including one on our deck. We’ve had 4 companies come out for quotes for replacement, and we’re waiting on the adjuster this week.

I have a whole separate post regarding all that’s going on with the rentals, so I’ll leave that for a separate post.

Most interesting to me is that in the last year, without any major moves (like purchasing a new rental house or paying off a mortgage), we’ve increased our net worth by over $300k. Looking back at July 2021, we’re almost $900k higher than then.

Since last month, we paid out a $22k bill that was owed from January for cleaning up the house that got flooded (there were several delays in insurance agreeing to the company’s invoice), but the market increases have netted us a gain of $16k still.

June Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Gosh, where did I leave off?

Our savings account is still earning over 4% interest. Therefore, bills are being paid as close to the due date as possible, while we manage to keep the savings account balance higher. Back in December, we had a pipe burst in a rental house. The insurance quickly paid out on the estimated damages, but we didn’t need to pay the repair company in full until last week. Additionally, there was an issue with the invoice from the company that cleaned up the water, and so that was only just set to be paid today.

When we have large purchase(s) looming, we look to open a new credit card with rewards and 0% interest. We opened one last Fall, and I pay $500 towards it each statement cycle. I believe we have until October to pay in full before interest begins accruing. I’ll continue to pay $500 until I need to pay it in full in a few months (or if we need to reduce our debt usage because another house purchase is to be made … not that we have any plans to, but Mr. ODA is always looking).

We have a few projects lingering out there that will cost us a decent amount to accomplish (e.g., water main line repair, tree removal, new roof). We also don’t have any plans to make big financial moves in the near future (e.g., no home purchases, no loan pay offs).

The market has recovered in the past few months, so our net worth has made a jump. It’s the first decent increase in a while. Our cash has decreased, logically, since we were holding cash that was for accounts payable. Our credit card totals have decreased substantially since February as well.

Hiatus Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Over the past year, I tried really hard to stay on top of sharing content here, until I finally had to throw in the towel. It started because we were renovating a house while I was pregnant and had two kids to take care of, so my posts dwindled down to just the net worth updates. Then Mr. ODA started investing in treasury accounts. There was so much movement of money in so many different accounts, that I couldn’t quickly update our net worth anymore. Other than updates of the net worth and rental property work, my last post was August 2022. I feel like I have the bandwidth to finish several posts that I’ve started, so I’m back.

NEW HOME

In May 2022, a house went on the market in our desired area of town. We weren’t ready to leave our house since we hadn’t owned it for two years yet, but this was an opportunity that was hard to pass up. We closed on the new house in June 2022. We floated the down payment through a Home Equity Line of Credit that was paid off through the sale of our house.

We spent the whole summer traveling back and forth between our then-current house and the new house because we had a lot of work to do on the new house. We demolished the master bathroom and started rebuilding that. I painted almost the entire house. We did a lot of little projects. It was a tiring time that culminated in having to do the physical move in the Fall and get the new house organized and set up.

NEW BABY

I was pregnant through all of the home renovations and move. Our son came 3 weeks early on Thanksgiving day. He was generally healthy, but he required extra medical attention than we weren’t used to with the first two. On top of that, he wanted to be held to be asleep; babies sleep a lot. Mr. ODA and I were taking turns holding the baby and sleeping. The two older kids basically survived on tv shows and chicken nuggets during this blur of life. Going from 0 to 1, and from 1 to 2 kids was pretty easy, but this 3rd kid was a new ballgame. Once he was 5 months old, I started working on getting him to sleep independently. Now that he’s 7 months old, he sleeps well in his crib for his naps and through the night; he’s happy during the day and plays well; and now I feel like a new person for actually getting rest and not being tied to a couch all day everyday. Mr. ODA took a lot of time off to help me through that phase. As he started working again, it was an adjustment for me to learn how to manage all 3 kids and the household.

PERSONAL

We had several trips last summer on top of the renovations that we were working on. Those created delays in us having the house ready for us to move. Then our oldest got sick and it turned into an issue in his leg so he couldn’t walk at all for about 2 weeks and couldn’t walk right for about 8 weeks. It was a rough time. He got better just as I was about to have the baby.

As we started to get into the swing of things with all 3 kids and coming out of winter, my mom got sick. She went downhill quickly in March and ended up passing away on my birthday this year. That was unexpected and emotionally draining. We just got back from a trip to see my family, and I feel like I’m more put together than I had been over the last 3 months.

In April, we had to submit our taxes. This is always a several hour process. I had documented in the past, but I just didn’t have time to juggle it this year. I have to verify that I’ve recorded all expenses, that I haven’t recorded expenses that aren’t supported by documentation (e.g., receipt), that my summaries are logical, and then it takes Mr. ODA and I 5-6 hours worth of entering data to actually submit.

Then we added swim lessons and soccer for the kids. We quit soccer early because it just wasn’t fun for our oldest (or us), and 3 months of swim lessons are over. Now our only commitment is whether or not we want to attend library story time for a half hour each week, and I’m appreciating the open schedule.

BUSINESS

The rentals have required a lot more than usual attention from us in the past year. We had a house flood from a burst pipe, so that had to be cleaned out, renovated, and re-rented. We had several plumbing and HVAC issues among multiple houses, as well as a raccoon removal issue. We had roof damage to a house, a tree fall on a house, and another tree fall in the yard of three different houses, all because of storms. We had to turnover a house, where the tenant had lived there for several years, had made changes that were not appropriate, and would not communicate effectively on her status of leaving. It has been a lot more than usual, requiring a lot of time to manage.

On top of the maintenance requests and the usual management of the properties, I also took over the management of the properties that are in Central KY in February. I was spending so much time managing the property manager, that it was finally time for me to just handle it.

Not that you needed all this background, but I felt weird just jumping back into content. We’ve been very busy in general, but adding a 3rd kid into the mix was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I finally feel like I can manage everything again, and I’ve had more and more thoughts for things to share.

March Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

I purposely waited to update our net worth for this month. Two months ago, we had incurred a significant amount of expenses on our credit card. We purposely held off on paying that amount until today, which is that statement’s due date. Waiting to pay the card meant that $25k sat in our savings account earning interest during that time, as we “floated” that money. It was extremely stressful for me, so I’m glad those due dates are behind me, and I don’t have to manage that timing and coordination anymore.

Speaking of “floating” money, we also have our 0% interest credit card that we opened last Fall when we were incurring expenses on our new house. That still has a balance over $6k on it, but we just pay $500 towards it each month. We’ll pay it in full when the 0% interest runs out this Fall.

I don’t even know where to begin on what we’ve been managing with rental properties. We’ve learned the world of insurance claims. Prior to this month, we only had one claim because an intoxicated driver (on a Sunday morning) ran off the road, through a fence, and over our HVAC outdoor unit. I’ll have a separate post with the details that we’ve been managing, but here’s a run down.
– I still have a lease that needs to get out for signature, and then information on that house sent to our property manager so she can take it over.
– We had a tree fall on a house here in Lexington. The tree was removed, but getting the adjuster out to see the damage is taking 3 weeks, and we can’t do any repairs until he sees the damage.
– The house that had a burst pipe is nearing completion. Walls and ceilings are back in place, insulation is back in place, and cabinets are installed; they still need to do painting and flooring. We’re going to have our handyman install new counter tops when the insurance contractors are done with their steps, and then we’ll need to get it rerented.
– We had roofing damage on 3 of our houses in Lexington from that same storm that knocked a tree on a house. Mr. ODA fixed one roof himself. Another one is under the purview of a townhome HOA, and hasn’t been fixed. And we’re biding our time on the last one because it’ll end up being a full roof replacement; only a few shingles flew off, but the roof is so old and so steep that it wasn’t an option to repair.
– Frustratingly, I had 2 overdue tax bills. Our jurisdiction’s taxes are due by 12/1 each year. If you pay by 11/1, they give you a 5% discount. I paid the bulk of the bills in October. There was a supplemental bill due to an increase in the Board of Education tax. When I received the supplemental bills “off schedule,” I just filed them. It didn’t occur to me that there was a second tax bill in the year. They sent that one notice. Didn’t send a second to say “you didn’t pay early, but by the way, it’s due now.” So that was due by the end of February. I didn’t pay it and received the “delinquent tax notice” last week. There was a 5% penalty assessed on the balance due. So all-in-all, I cost us an extra $11. Not the end of the world, but kicking myself that I missed it. Also annoying, they sent it to our old address instead of our updated address that’s been in place since November.

We haven’t done any big projects around the house because of newborn life. I just painted the wood parts of our stair railing and treads black. I’ll then paint the spindles white (they’re already white but need touched up and a whole new fresh coat). I already had that paint on hand. We’ve also cleaned up the yard from that big storm earlier this month, along with some odds and ends that needed to be done in the landscaping. We got the first mow in and some new bushes with mulch in the front yard so that it’s looking nice for my family coming into town this weekend.

No net worth calculation update. I’ve done the majority of the account checks, but just haven’t been able to pull together the final bit timely.

February Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Well, Mr. ODA didn’t like that I shared I didn’t know where our money was last month. They’re all kinds of Treasury accounts, and I’n just logging the transactions and leaving him to it. 🙂 I don’t have a lot of bandwidth these days, but I’m learning to juggle 3 kids and our finances.

PERSONAL FINANCES

We bought a new van this month. We’ve been wanting a new one for a while now. We bought our 2017 Pacifica in September 2020. It was a great deal, and it was a necessity as we were about to spend 7 weeks “homeless” and AirBnB/couch hoping. The car had some defects. We decided we’d keep an eye out for a newer version. Suddenly, Mr. ODA found a good deal on a 2020 Pacifica that had more options than we were actually looking for. We drove to Ohio about 36 hours later. They made us a good deal for our trade-in, and we went home with a new van! We put some of the purchase on two credit cards and then the balance with a personal check.

We’re currently paying close attention to credit card deadlines and our savings account. Where I used to pay a credit card bill almost after the statement closed so that it wasn’t hanging out there and I wouldn’t accidentally miss a deadline, I’m now leaving money in our savings account as long as possible. Our savings account is now earning 4% on the balance, so we’re seeing a significant amount of interest each month. I’m juggling managing our bills as close to their due date as possible, while also projecting future bills necessary since there’s a limit of 6 transfers out of the savings account per month.

All that was to point out that our credit card balances are high right now because of the van purchase, but the credit card statement hasn’t closed yet. Instead of paying the credit card balances down right now, the money is sitting in savings earning interest for 4-6 weeks between the purchase, to the statement closing, to the statement’s due date. More directly, we put $3,000 on one credit card for the van purchase. That was on 2/7. That statement, once it closes, will not have a due date until 4/20. That means that the money put on the credit card can sit in savings earning interest for about 70 days.

We also had to pay the initial payment for the restoration services on the rental that had a burst pipe. So while the insurance company sent us a check to cover the cost of this work, it’s still $17k sitting on our credit card, not being paid until the last minute. I should also note that our cash balance is inflated by about $50k because it’s the money from the insurance company that we’re waiting to pay the contractor as milestones are completed.

Had I seemed nonchalant about the plan? Because I’m definitely not. 🙂 I need to stay on top of how many transfers happen per month out of the savings account (while Mr. ODA randomly pulls money for investments), and not miss any deadlines and cost us interest charges or late payment marks on our credit. It’s stressful! Since we’re not doing anything that requires our credit to be pulled right now, it’s fine. If we were having our credit checked, having multiple cards nearly maxed out would be a problem. But we know we have the cash available to pay off all the credit cards if we needed to.

RENTAL FINANCES

I finally got through to someone on the issue with the improperly installed water heater. He says he submitted all the paperwork to send us a check for $200 to cover the plumber we paid to fix their issue. I haven’t seen any paperwork, nor have I received the check, but I’ll keep it on my radar and follow up in a couple of weeks.

I made all the decisions on the restoration of our flooded house. We’re expecting to hear a timeline for work to start next week, and then it’ll take about 40 working days to get the work done.

I paid a warranty for termites on another house. We had an infestation when we purchased the house, but we didn’t pay the warranty information. Our tenants found swarmers, and when we called to ask about treatment, they said they’d let us backpay the warranty and invoke that. We have a good relationship with this company and appreciated that offer, so we’re staying on top of the warranty payments now. The payment is $98 per year.

We received a surprise in the mail – the tenant had turned off the electric in the flooded house back on January 12th. The power company is supposed to notify me. I received an email on February 6th notifying me of an action on the account. So this was in my name from 1/12 to 2/1 for me to be billed $255 without my knowledge. Not to mention, there’s a bill hanging out there from 2/2 until the present that I’ll also get billed for. Mr. ODA sent our property management excerpts from the lease indicating that the utilities must be in their name for the entirety of the lease, that they’re responsible for this bill, and that they must get it back in their name immediately. We’ll see how that plays out.

RENTAL WORK

I picked up the keys from our property manager for the 3 houses I took over managing. I also worked on a rental here in town this week, which took about an hour including travel time, and I have another to work on later this week, which will be about 2 hours worth of work.

I sent a prospective tenant the pre-application we have, which he passed, so I sent him the application to submit. If all goes well, we’ll have that house re-rented with no vacancy period.

We have 3 leases that end at the end of April. We put a requirement that tenants give us 60 days notice, or that we give 60 days notice of any changes. That means that these leases need acknowledgement by the end of this month. So I ran the analysis on those 3 houses. We decided to increase the rent on 2 of them by $50 per month, each, and we’ll keep another house the same since it was increased last year. One house actually had an increase last year, but that house is well below market value, so we’re offering them to continue the lease with an increase because if they were to move out, we could get even more from the house based on it’s size and demographics. The 2 houses we’re increasing have a property manager, so she’s responsible for notification and signing an addendum before the end of the month. But once again, I need to manage the property manager and ensure we have action on time.

NET WORTH

January Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Life is different these days. Our 3rd child was born on Thanksgiving, and we’ve been finishing up some projects around the house. We’ve had a few things happen with rentals, and, basically, I’m just tapped out to keep up with blogging. Mr. ODA asked me what our net worth is at these days, and so I’m updating our spreadsheet.

“JANUARY”

It’s January, so that means I have to create my two main Excel workbooks for the year: the paycheck to paycheck monitoring of our expected income and expenses, and the management of each rental property. The paycheck to paycheck spreadsheet is where I have a line item for each house’s rental income each month, each house’s mortgage payment (where applicable), and then all our bills owed (credit cards, utilities, investments). I break this down by paycheck because that’s the easiest way for me to make sure I have enough income to offset the bills owed during that two-week period. That worksheet in that workbook feeds my net worth calculations, where I also update loan balances. There is actually several tabs in this workbook, but those are the main two. I finally got that all set up today. I haven’t even started creating the investment property workbook.

January also means I have to go through last year’s investment property workbook to verify all the expenses listed are supported by receipts, that all receipts I have are recorded, and that my income is accurate. Then I read off the data to Mr. ODA, who enters it into an online tax portal to file our taxes. I haven’t started that daunting task either.

RENTALS

We had one of our properties flooded by a burst pipe. That’s a mess and is hardly making progress because the tenant’s renters insurance can’t get the tenant property out of the house. We had an electrical issue with a hot water heater in another property. That got fixed, but now I am in a position where I have to fight Home Depot about their shoddy installation a year ago and have them reimburse the cost of rewiring. I finally moved forward with the judgement against a tenant for destruction of property, and our attorney established that collections account.

Surprisingly, we didn’t have any issues with rent payments in December or January. Usually I hear from one or two houses that they need a couple of weeks to pay all of rent. While not everyone was on time, they communicated well and were only a few days late. One tenant reached out and asked if they could pay rent on the 6th (since that’s Friday, and pay day); I told them not to worry about the late fee and that would be fine. Little gestures like that can make a big difference for your tenant’s life.

I sent a letter to our property manager for the KY houses that we’re releasing them at the end of this month, so that’s a new development that is taking my time as well. You’d think my property management company would have a way to communicate this change with the tenants, but alas, that would be too logical. Wish me luck while I add 3 more houses under my own purview. While we moved to KY two years ago, it was easier to maintain status quo with having a property manager. Unfortunately, it has taken too much of my effort to manage the property manager and to fight for our money.

PERSONAL

We finished our master bathroom in the home we bought over the summer (and the room we gutted immediately… only took 6 months to get us to the finish line… and by finish line, there’s still paint touch ups to be had). We bought all the supplies to gut and renovate the basement bathroom in this house. Mr. ODA built a bench for our kitchen table so that we have more seating easier. We made the plans to get the mudroom bench and shelves in, and hopefully those supplies will be bought this weekend.

Truthfully, while I updated most of my net worth spreadsheet in December, I never posted it because I don’t even know where all our money is. When we sold our personal residence at the beginning of November, we were handed a large check. In the past, that check type mostly went towards a downpayment on a new house, but that wasn’t the case this time. Mr. ODA immediately started investing that money in short term treasury accounts that I can’t even begin to explain. Between that account, another savings type account, and our regular investment account, I can update what I see online, but I don’t know what I may be missing. I’m hoping Mr. ODA will chime in soon to describe the type of investment decisions he’s made.

NET WORTH

Several property value assessments declined over the last couple of months. So while our investments are on the upswing from November’s update, those updates to property values have caused a decrease to our net worth.

November Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Phew – 3rd month in a row of only a financial update. My apologies! Again, we’ve been juggling two houses, construction work on the new house, two toddlers, and my being pregnant (and exhausted).

At the beginning of the month, we closed on our old home. It wasn’t an easy process (as usual) with the title company, even down to having the wrong amount on the check at the closing table, but it all worked out. Being free of that burden has been lovely. We immediately cashed the check, but it’ll have to be a separate post for what we did (and are planning to do) with those proceeds.

RENTAL PROPERTIES

We had our court date on November 1st for the tenant that left a house with garbage and damage. She didn’t show (after providing us a fake address), so the judge ruled in our favor for the full judgement. She then has 10 days to appeal. We’re beyond that window, so I now reach out to her to establish a payment plan. If she doesn’t respond, then I file it with our attorney to proceed with garnishment.

We had a few small items to pay for with the rentals, but we have everyone’s rent that was due by now. I typically expect to see more late payments in December and January with the holidays.

NET WORTH

We’re still carrying a high balance on a 0% interest credit card. I did pay off a card that had a payment plan on it (it was free, and why not … except, I was tired of figuring out and managing new purchases versus the payment plan portion, so I just paid it all off once our proceeds came in; it was about $1100).

Our investments recovered in the market from last month, and we significantly increased the balance in our taxable accounts and cash due to investments from the proceeds of our sale.

October Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

I reviewed our figures, but that’s the extent of what I’ve done for this last month. We’ve had travel, sick kids, routine doctor visits, and managing both houses (as has become the norm) with projects in the new house. All this while pregnant, so my energy levels are not what I wish they’d be for how much we have going on.

We did host our first garage sale though. Impressively, the time flew by, we got rid of a lot of what we put out there, and made about $185. I have plans on newborn/family pictures for that money though. 🙂

We listed our house on 9/22 and were under contract in a couple of days. We have moved beyond our contingencies (as far as we know) and are slated to close on 11/9. We’re really grateful that we got a contract right away and that we’re moving along because a lot of houses are sitting for weeks and having to reduce their list price multiple times. At the last minute, our Realtor ordered an appraisal measurement of the house because we couldn’t find clear information on how big the house was. We were between 3600 and 3800 sf with the finished basement, but the appraisal came in at 4,179! We still didn’t feel comfortable listing at more than 500k, so we went for $499k and accepted the offer at $495k.

RENTAL PROPERTIES

Last month I mentioned the taxes that come due in October. I’ve either paid out or scheduled a pay out of about $6,200 worth of taxes on 4 properties at this point. I have $300-400 more to pay out at the beginning of November for local taxes on two of the properties.

I paid out $345 worth of HVAC repairs from September on a property (that I completely forgot about, and this company is usually a month or more behind on invoicing). We had another service call charge from our KY property manager that made no sense, and I’m ready to release them.

We have a November 1st court date for the girl that destroyed our house. I submitted the charges to her, and even though she questioned one of the line items, she didn’t respond on time. Our property manager is now managing the court appearances for that. We asked for an address for her, and the lady at the address she gave us said she’s never heard of her (basically exactly what I expected from this girl).

NET WORTH

Home values are steady or slightly higher, while the stock market has been abysmal.

September Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

Whew, we’ve been busy. Son turned 4. Lots of traveling. Kids started school. Managing two houses. Managing the rentals. Being 7 months pregnant.

We’ve been working on our old house to get a lot of the things moved to the new house, while keeping enough there to live. A slow move sounded great in concept, but dragging this out for 3 months now, with another 6-8 weeks to go probably, has been rough. We unload the car, put it in the new house dining room, and then I need to unpack all that and find it a home. Then we come with another dump of things right after I clear that out. It’s been exhausting. Meanwhile, I’ve been painting almost all of the new house, changing out light fixtures, changing out some electrical switches/outlets that were dated, etc. Mr. ODA has started working on the rebuild part of the bathroom renovation, so we happily have gotten all the electrical work that we wanted to do done (we need to hire an electrician to run a line for the dryer), and then got the shower framed. He’s also been working on the yard and landscaping, which is a big project because the original owner of the house put in a lot of landscaping, and then the people who owned the house for about a year before us didn’t maintain any of it.

We’re listing the house this week, and we’re hoping for a reasonable offer ASAP and a closing at the beginning of November. That closing will pay off our mortgage (~$265k) and our HELOC (~$82k).

RENTAL PROPERTIES

October brings a lot of rental bills. KY’s property taxes are due in October and November, and none of the houses we have here are escrowed, so I need to plan on about $6,500 outlay. Right now, we have a HELOC on our last primary residence, so I have that to fall back on. Typically, I project out 2 months of expenses, and I know how much I have “left over.” The “left over” usually is paid towards a mortgage or, currently, our HELOC balance; in the Fall, I plan to have that “left over” go towards the taxes. Luckily, our houses in Virginia that aren’t escrowed have the tax payments due half in December and half in June.

While our credit card balances are high (we’re carrying a large balance on one that’s 0% interest), we didn’t have a lot of expenses this past month. Mr. ODA’s work trip hotels and restaurants are on the credit cards that will get paid this week, and we’ve had higher gas expenses because of my driving to/from NY and then capitalizing on Kroger incentives so filled up one car. Other than that, we’ve only eaten at restaurants sporadically and have been focused on getting projects done, so haven’t gone out much.

This is the first month of the newly executed lease with a tenant who paid late every month. Their rent total increased for the convenience of paying twice a month (although the total owed now is still less than their rent and late fee they had been paying). They paid the first half on time, and they haven’t paid the second half, which if it’s not paid by the end of today will incur a late fee. Rent was $1450, so they were paying $1595 every month. Rent is now $750 twice a month. If they pay on time, it’s $1500 per month. If they pay half late, then it’s now $1575 per month.

I submitted the security deposit charges to the tenant that moved out. She asked a question about the charges on the list, but then didn’t acknowledge by the deadline. We need to have our property manager file the charges in court. Somehow it’s the 19th of the month, and we haven’t pursued that yet because we’ve been so busy.

Other than that, we didn’t have any service calls on any of the houses, and everyone else has paid their rent.

NET WORTH

We have a busy October planned. I hope we’ll finish the projects at the new house and be close to closing the chapter of our last house. Our investments have declined significantly (almost $91k!) from last month. Our cash is higher than usual because of the cycle timing for this update compared to the bill due dates. And finally, the credit cards are higher than usual, and they’re higher than last month, but that’s because we’re purposely carrying a balance on a 0% interest card. So while our overall net worth has decreased over $33k since last month, the stock market issues have been offset by paying down mortgages and increased property values.