I bought a rental property in Jacksonville, Florida, with the idea of an easy income.
When I first bought the building, I invested considerable time, labor and cash into fixing it up. I cleaned up the yard, trimmed the trees and spruced up the gardens. I painted the front porch, replaced the Heating and A/C system and installed up-to-date plumbing and light fixtures. Any appliances that were in awful laboring order got replaced. The building includes three apartments. I was absolutely thorough about vetting potential tenants. When the renters first moved in, everything was fine. They paid their rent on time and seemed content. Within three months, they all started calling with several complaints and demands. I abruptly realized that it didn’t matter how much I did for them, they wanted more. I was also unhappy about the trash and litter left in the grass and on the porch. It became obvious that at least one of my tenants had a cat, even though they had agreed to my no-pet rule. They gradually were late with the rent. There were lots of excuses. When two out of the three tenants stopped paying rent altogether, I started the eviction process. It was discouraging and time-consuming. By the time I got them out of the apartment, they had completely destroyed the locale. There were holes in the walls, stains on the floors and broken windows. There was aged food caked inside the refrigerator, the microwave and oven. Just about everything needed to be replaced. They also left behind a considerable amount of belongings and garbage. I didn’t have the energy to take on the project. I just wanted to walk away from the building as painlessly as possible. Rather than deal with the contingencies and requirements of listing with a realtor, I chose to contact a cash property buyer. This simplified the sale. It expedited the hurdles and led to a closing within ten afternoons. The cash property customer accepted the property in as-is condition.