To Landlord or Not to Landlord

We bought a duplex in St. Albans in 2005 for $155,000. It seemed like a good idea -- buy a house that needed a lot of work, buy it at a low price, fix it up and rent it. We put in $15,000 in the first few months, rented it and made a positive cash flow of about $300 each month.

The house was in rough shape but not terrible. When we bought it, there was a goat in the living room. Yes, a goat. When the goat was gone, we refinished the wood floors, painted walls, fixed holes in the plaster, and put in new carpet.

With each changeover of tenants, we had to go in and do varying amounts of work. One set of tenants left the apartment so disgusting, we had to rip up all the carpet and put down new, put new floors in the bathrooms, and hire someone to clean it for about 8 hours.

One set of tenants stopped paying and we had to go to court to evict them. We lost $3,000 in rent and legal fees, not to mention a lot of sleep. It was very scary because I built the situation up to being a horror movie in my mind and thought the tenants would come kill me! Dramatic, I know, but I had no other experience and so my mind went to a dark place.

The last tenants did $1100 in damages with a $750.00 damage deposit. Worse, the police came to the apartment often, my neighbor called constantly complaining about the noise, and the fire department came for an oil fire that happened by accident.

I thought this duplex would be a great investment but real estate in St. Albans has gone down . We would break even on the price we paid but not for all that we have invested in repairs and updates. Plus, we have to get new tenants nearly every year. This is taxing and expensive.

Would I do it over again? No, I wouldn't. I don't think I have the personality anymore for being a landlord. I don't know how people who own multiple properties do it.

So, as soon as the market recovers in St. Albans, we're putting a for sale sign up!