Chandler Properties Blog

Today has been a typical property management day for me.  I do most of my work on my rental properties on the weekends.  I’ll field phone calls and set up appointments during the week, but most of my meetings and work projects are done on the weekend.  Today, I mowed grass and signed a new lease.

My dad and I got up and mowed the triplex, duplex, and the vacant lot this morning.  This took a couple hours.  While I was at the duplex mowing a prospective renter stopped by to look at the property.  I told him I was supposed to sign a lease tomorrow with another prospect, but I was willing to talk to him since the person scheduled for tomorrow’s lease signing had cancelled last week and I wasn’t 100% sure he’d make it tomorrow since he cancelled last week.  The new prospect sounded very good and was willing to put a deposit down today so I told him I’d think about it.  Anyway, I called the original lease prospect and convinced him to move the lease signing from Sunday to Saturday.  This made me feel better.  I didn’t want to risk losing both tenants.  So now I sit waiting to sign the lease with the original prospect in about 30 minutes. 

It’s amazing how good prospects come in groups.  I will sit with a property open for weeks with no good prospects.  Then in the course of a day or two I’ll get 2 or 3 that are excellent prospects and all want the property.  I don’t know why this happens?

Overview 

I recently had an elderly tenant move out of my duplex and into a nursing home.  This is the first time I’ve been in that unit in three years.  The tenant suffered from dementia and I spent about the last year trying to get her family to get her into a nursing home.  She had disassociated herself from all her family, because she believed everyone was trying to steal from her.  Well they finally got her into a nursing home 2 weeks ago. 

The Smell

I had noticed the last 6 months or so that when I picked up rent that there was a strong smell of urine coming from the apartment.  My assumption was that it was due to lack of cleanliness or soiled diapers.  After getting the apartment cleaned out, (This is a whole story in itself.) I noticed the smell was still in the apartment.  It turned out that water heater had been slowly leaking for about a year.  The kitchen floor on the apartment is particle board.  When particle board gets soaking wet it breaks down causing a chemical reaction that gives off an odor-like smell.  It also expands and breaks down losing strength.  Since the leak had been going on for some time it has spread throughout most of the kitchen floor.  This is a good lesson for any landlord to recognize the signs of wet particle board.

Solution

To solve the problem I’m going to have to replace the entire kitchen floor.  This means the kitchen counters, new water heater, stove, refrigerator all have to be removed so that the floor can be replaced.  I will also have to put down new linoleum.  I’ve had a couple contractors come by and quote the job.  I’m thinking it’s going to be about $1,200 to get it all replaced.

The Lesson Learned

If I ever smell a “urine like” smell coming from one of my apartments I am going to be sure to immediately check it for leaks.  Since I did not take immediate action, it is going to take more effort and money to fix the problem.