Landlordism
Today was the pinnacle of a torrent of activity around the "little house" (our new identifier for the rental house we're buying in front our property). We've had the place re-roofed, painted inside and carpets cleaned. We've personally cleaned or replaced all the light fixtures, fixed the mini-blinds, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, unclogged the bathtub, reinstalled all the closet doors, hauled away the piles of trash, swept the walks, pressure-washed the exterior, and numerous other little fixes, patches and improvements.
We took these before and "during" pictures for you to appreciate our wallpapering job. Honestly, we didn't have the time and energy to do a great job on it, but you can see that nothing could have made it worse than the wallpaper that was already there. It must have been on sale cheap in the 1970s. 
The end result of all this work: a newspaper ad to bring in the "lucky" new tenant...
ELMIRA close-in country living, 2 bdrm, large yard, woodstove & elec. heat. Pets possible. $695
"Country Living"... Don't you love that? That bit came to us through my mother.
It must have worked as we showed the house to 8 potential tenants today and got 4 applications back already. It's coming down to a dead heat between an urban widow/widower couple who want to move out to the country together before they get married and a rural Goodwill trainer/long-haul trucker couple who want to move closer in from a house far out in Veneta. It's going to take a call to references and some deep thought to make a decision. Or maybe an even better application will come in tomorrow. We're not going to make a decision until Monday or Tuesday since we won't actually own the house until Wednesday or later...
Basically, we're flying by the seat of our pants.
You should rent it to Ben.
heh.
-ajb
Comment by ajb — 05/22/2005 4:18 PM
[...] Well, after the holiday, today's mail did not fall short! First, a bill! Then, two letters from SunTrust bank saying that they've taken over the two mortgages on the little house. It turns out that SunTrust got my name wrong on both mortgage accounts and got Anne Marie's name wrong in two different ways! I'm sure that SunTrust is a very careful and accurate mortgage company, so I'll have to give them a call to let them know about their crooked-fingered, inebriated monkey's data-entry error. [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » Mmmm... Mail — 07/05/2005 9:59 PM
[...] But, that's not the biggie. The renters in our little house have 2 dogs that have been barking constantly. We talked to them about it previously, but it's just been getting worse and worse. So, I discover that they now have 4 dogs and have to go tell them that they have to get back down to 2 dogs and keep those dogs reasonably quiet. I don't like having to "babysit" them over this stuff. [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » A crisis at every turn — 10/01/2005 4:57 PM