An update on my landlord situation.

We finished work on the rental house that my tenant had trashed.

The painting was done last week. The carpet was replaced on Friday.

Mike, John, Lorna, and I spent Saturday cleaning the vertical blinds — which had probably never been cleaned before — and fixing the broken things throughout: kitchen sink faucet, garbage disposal, exhaust fans, etc. We also cleaned out the storage closets under the carport. The tenant from hell had just stuffed both closets with things she no longer cared about — toys, games, photographs, clothes, trophies — you name it. The highlights: a 8×10 photograph of her mother (recently deceased) and someone’s service medal. Anything that looked as if it had value went to the local thrift shop. Everything else went into the trash. We filled the curbside trash bin for the fifth time that day.

The house looks absolutely great now. I’ve already gotten some calls from prospective tenants, but so far every single one of them has a dog. No pets. No exceptions. I’m not going through this again.

I also started the wheels turning on refinancing the place. My goal is to get a separate mortgage for the apartment building and the house. Right now, they’re on the same mortgage. Once they’re separated, I can sell each one individually. I’d like to sell the house and keep the apartment building. I’m pretty sure I want to put my office in Unit #4, which is upstairs and has nice views. But I got a call from someone who’s interested in renting it for three months and if she does take it, I’ll put off my office move until she’s gone.

Of course, since the whole property — house and apartments — are currently listed for sale, I might just sell everything off and be done with it. I just hope that if they do all sell together, it happens soon, before I pay over $4K in bank closing costs for the new mortgages.