"Quick! Get me a soda! My sugar's down!" (aka Renting the Condo)
So you want to rent your condo?
Decided to try to rent the condo for a little income and so I could cover the mortgage and HOA fee while I'm up in those beautiful North Georgia mountains.
Oh yeah! Oughta be easy, right? Wrong. Though it's in Florida, the only state in the union except for Hawaii where it's warm right now, it has been a struggle. A true learning and growing experience!
After several ads placed on craigslist I narrowed the answers to some who seemed to have a steady income and began interviewing. Ads on craigslist in the meantime sold the bedroom furniture, really the only big stuff left except appliances (more on that later!). Grandma's bed went first and boy, was Daisy annoyed. She thought that was HER room and HER bed. She raced up and down the stairs during the moving process, yapping, threatening ankles and stairway stability.
The other bedroom furniture sold yesterday. Accompanying the lady who bought it was her elderly father, who staggered up my walk saying, "Get me a soda quick! My sugar's down!" I've dealt with diabetics before but he has no idea how lucky he was that I had a soda with Real Sugar in my fridge at all! Only because a neighbor's kids wouldn't drink them and she gave them to me was I able to supply his sugar need.
After helping them maneuver the bedroom furniture down the stairs, with a landing in the middle and a turn, so not an easy task, saw them safely off just as the new rental applicants arrived to look things over. Perfect timing, you say? Don't know how that happened.
The lease was hot off the printer and ready for signatures, I'd already signed and initialed but the process was halted mid-stream by, "We can't possibly pay a share of repair of the appliances if they break, we can't afford that!" I made a concession to help but they took the lease away to mull over. Talked to my daughter and she told me of a wonderful warranty given by a home warranty company that would cover all repairs or replacements for a year for around $500...what a dream. Except for me it was more like a thousand. Dollars that is.
So now I'm checking out other local sources for that type warranty. I'm ready to yank the washer and dryer out totally and rent like all the other landlords, "with w/d connections." But IF I can find the appliance warranty locally, and IF the people still want it, I'll rent it the way they looked at it, with washer and dryer. But what a hassle. I remember my mom saying, when she hit 65, "I'm too old to run rental property. Not gonna do it!" and sold off the old house (really old-- great-grandad built it in 1902). I hated the idea of her selling it but didn't want to do the work either, so...I end up renting stuff out anyway. What goes around comes around, unfortunately.
I'm still waiting for the "growing" part of this learning and growing adventure!
