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Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 5:58:50 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Now I have to figure out what happens now. We have a spare house. It's a really small house but it is in supposedly a very good neighborhood. Not good enough I guess because someone stole all the copper plumbing out of it within the last week or so. That's as tight as we can nail it down because we just go there and maintain the place, mow the lawn etc.

We have been reluctant to rent it out but now it might be time to reconsider that position. It might be worth about $600 a month in a normal market, maybe a bit more, but usually that means we should be able to get more like $1,000 a month letting the place go section 8.

I can probably redo all the plunbing in about a day, and probably switch to PVC pipe. But it's getting old paying taxes and insurance on a place for nothing. I'll take care of this one way or another, but in a larger sense is a house really becoming a liability ?

Are things that much worse than I even thought ? I mean we have dropped the price of that house to the point where the payment would be cheaper than rent. Is it that nobody can come up with the downstroke or that nobody has good enogh credit anymore ? We will NOT go land contract.

I have always believed that a big part of the American dream was to own your own home. People strived for it, worked for it, and I think were better for it. When I got into this place I knew it would be too hard to move for quite a few years and my attitude towards neighbors changed. Not the best looking place on the map but all major systems were kept in good order, there was no landlord to call anymore. I think it changes a person.

But have we arrived at a point in history when you just have to give houses away ? And if you do, are the recipients going to see the value as I did 21 years ago ?

OK, this is more than a few pipes, but it is not the end of the world. The thing is, society must really be in the crapper now.

On a side note, I know a realtor and she said she went to do an evaluation on a house and found the gas on on the stove but unlit, and a candle burning a few feet away. You know what that means. And I know my personal house is worth three times as much burnt to the ground, but I'll never leave my neighborhood.

So if alot of people take to destroying their own property for the insurance money, what happens ? Then it will be time for our tax dollars to bail out the underwriters ?

It's like everywhere I turn I see more, and like none of it. This is ridiculous. People are so desparate it seems. In this town you actually now need a scrapper's license to take in metal for recycling because there has been so much theft. I mean they were stealing the manhole covers, people were getting hurt because of it.

Is this what we have "evolved" into ?

Maybe this is a bit of a rant. But goddammit, is there ever any good news these days ?

T
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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 6:55:28 AM   
sub4hire


Posts: 6775
Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline
So, what are you going to do?  Section 8 may net you the most money but it a very rough road to travel.  It a tenant puts a nail in a wall for a photo.  It is your job to fix that nail hole.  As you well know people who are on section 8 are not the type to take care of anything you own or anything they own.
They have extremely strict rules.  I've never put any of my property into that system yet.  Just fear it would cost me even more to maintain it.

We recently dumped another 12 grand into on of our rent houses.  I'd like to sell it at this point.  I'd like to get out of the landlord business.  The tax write off is not nearly what it costs to maintain anywhere in a given year.  Yet we are in a depreciated market.  Nobody can afford to buy.  For now I've got a 2 year lease with option to buy after that.  So, I'm hoping these renters aren't the typical derelicts of society and actually plunge the toilet if they clog it up. 

(in reply to Termyn8or)
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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 7:10:13 AM   
Aileen1968


Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
Status: offline 		That's funny...Shore just dropped off a box of copper pipes in my garage this morning.


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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 8:00:26 AM   
DesFIP


Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline 		Rental properties are best in a college town. The kids can be evicted easily, the parents will guarantee the rent, and there's always a supply of renters. With that said, it's worth waiting to get a good one, single female grad students are the best.

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 9:29:04 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Using FR

sub, that was exactly what concerned us about renting it. So it got rented to "friends". They screwed it up bad enough. Needless to say they are no longer friends. So the major idea was to sell the place, but you can pretty much forget about it in this economy. So this happens as it sits there empty and I wonder if I would rather do a bit of spackling and painting or this plumbing. Of course I know it could be much worse, but only creatures that are on their way poison their own well, so as long as they stay they would not take the pipes. The place has been vacant for four years, so we could have collected thousands of dollars and had to replace the pipes or have it how it is, collect nothing and replace the pipes. I know it could be worse though. The nice part about it is that there are only two bedrooms proper, so I don't have to worry about someone in there with 12 kids. I know things have changed but my Uncle used to go through houses like underwear. When the market was robust, he used to say "If it doesn't sell in a couple of months I'll rent it out". Back then though he made money on almost every house. That ain't happening now. This is new territory for me and I think I have some bad karma, when I was a kid I wrecked everything.

Aileen, just how kinky are you two ? I mean what can you do with copper pipes ? Enquiring minds want to know.

Des, yes a grad student would probably make a good tenant, or maybe a retired couple. It is a very quiet neighborhood and quite a few residents in the area are policemen and firemen. It is also hard to find, which alot of people see as an advantage. But our aversion to renting means we never advertised it for rent. People just don't realize how nice I can be to nice people. Back when I was going to rent the upstairs of this place as long as they pay, put up with me downstairs and don't wreck the place I would throw in free cable and internet. That means a tapoff for the basic only and a long cable running to my router, it would not cost me anything. However alot of people are real pricks, even if they don't realize it.

All in all I am not going to lose my sense of humor over this. I am firmly against using PVC for supply, but I'll do it. Try scrapping that ! Right now I am pretty much trying to think up how to make a loser into a winner. Maybe this is the impetus we needed, start collecting and stop paying an extra set of bills. Even with my health not being optimum right now, I think I can lay some pipe. (y'all with dirty minds shaddap)

Life is not going to take me out this way, it's going to take alot more to put me down than having to go do a bit of plumbing. But there are so many things hitting me at once I am getting a bit overwhelmed.

I'll be OK. Usually I am fine after I solve the problem.

T

(in reply to DesFIP)
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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 11:13:30 AM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		That sucks.   I thought copper thefts were fading away.

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 4:33:58 PM   
DesFIP


Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline 		Last fall they arrested a woman near here for copper thefts. She was doing this to buy her kids school supplies.

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 4:43:02 PM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		I would hate to be a landlord.

I think one comes out ahead- if you charge a lower rent so as to attrack a decent tenant.

Most tho .... well- it is not for me.

(in reply to DesFIP)
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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/28/2010 11:24:17 PM   
Chrisincuffs


Posts: 602
Joined: 12/7/2009
Status: offline
quote:

I know things have changed but my Uncle used to go through houses like underwear. When the market was robust, he used to say "If it doesn't sell in a couple of months I'll rent it out". Back then though he made money on almost every house. That ain't happening now. This is new territory for me and I think I have some bad karma, when I was a kid I wrecked everything.


I don't think it's karma so much as the market is bad everywhere. Right now there are so many foreclosed homes going for dirt cheap that everybody who is house hunting is looking for that diamond in the rough $500,000 home that they can buy for $100,000. Or then the few assholes I know that went to some seminar thinking they're going to flip $50,000 homes into $500,000 homes by putting in new cupboards. Bottom line when times get tough, more and more people are trying to get something for nothing


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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 12:47:14 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Absolutely Ms incuffs, no doubt.

Now we get to today. I had three roomates, two are gone. They took my DVD player, who knows what else and every dollar in my wallet while I slept. I took the day off work and notified the neighborhood to be on the watch. They were crackheads and I thought we were making real progress, and I do think so for a while, but they fell back into that hole and did this. I have no idea right now what else might be missing, and now that I think about it they knew where that other house was. What that means is that there is a possibility hat they took one of my pipe cutters (I have/had several) and used it to rip off my own family.

When it rains it pours, and when the shit hits the fan you never know how much there is. I can live through this, but what I have a problem with is the possibility that you can't trust anyone. I don't want to live in such a world. There has to be at least one person you can trust in life, and now I doubt just about everybody. There was about $80 in my wallet last night which is gone, my life savings destined to pay the gas bill, for them to stay here for free.

If that is normal I want nothing to do with this planet anymore. And it looks pretty much like it right now. I have been strong, I have been fair, perhaps too fair, but if that's the way it is they cost me alot more than $80. They cost me the will to live.

We are just regrouping right now, but if I don't come out of this funk, you'll read about it in the news. Warrants don't mean shit to me, I called the law, the district is looking for them and the whole neighborhood is on red alert for them slunking around my property.

I have physical problems. I am seemingly going blind. I am in financial ruins. I am in debt for my bankruptcy coming up. I have a DUI and am going to jail, hopefully for only a few days. And now this. After I gave it all I had. Goddammit I am sick of this fucking shitball you call a planet. Let me off.

Don't worry, I am stronger than that. But dammit, I don't think it was so bad when I was homeless, living under a bush in front of a church. I am already overwhelmed, but I might get through this hard time, but one more thing could literally be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Enough whining for now, off to bed, I got work tomorrow. I can take this, but I am just not sure how much more. I have been known as strong, in the mind. I have had bad times. But I have never been betrayed like this before, literally getting kicked while I was down. Well except for that one time but that was back when I was immortal.

Rush - "We're only immortal for a limited time".

T

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 3:39:48 AM   
mistoferin


Posts: 8284
Joined: 10/27/2004
Status: offline
quote:

I am firmly against using PVC for supply, but I'll do it.


You may want to consider replacing it with PEX. We just did our house in it. It was cheap and SUPER easy to do...and we are really happy with it.

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~erin~

There are no victims here...only volunteers.

When you make a habit of playing on the tracks, you thereby forfeit the right to bitch when you get hit by a train.

"I did it! I admit it and I'm gonna do it again!"

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 4:58:56 AM   
splorff


Posts: 386
Joined: 2/23/2008
Status: offline 		I remember someone directing me to a place in the US where there was a house for sale. It was $1. The house was not bad. The problem was where it was.

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 4:58:59 AM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		I dont know why people ruin a good thing.   One day they are going to deeply regret shortchanging you.

Crack is a very bad drug.   Try not to be bitter about things.   It is not "you",  it could have been anyone.
You tried to help someone and it did not work out.

For now- cut your losses.

move forward-

People are imperfect.

We cant control the world- only ourself at best.

I like living alone.  I did not think I would...  but I do.  It has been some time. Every thing is the mess as I left it.

If something is broke- I broke it.

Who in the right mind would mess up a free roof?

Their loss.



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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 5:41:24 AM   
WinsomeDefiance


Posts: 6719
Joined: 8/7/2007
Status: offline 		People can be trusted. They can be trusted to be true to their nature and their addictions. This may sound harsh, but it is my personal belief that crack addicts are better off dead. I have no confidence that they can be helped. The addiction and craving just never goes away, and even when it seems they are doing ok, eventually the addiction wins and anyone in the way of that fix is going to get burned. This is a hard conclusion to come to. Especially if you are a generous person, with a kind and merciful heart who just wants to help the people you care about. There aren't a lot of people I care about that I wouldn't do anything I could to help, but a crack addict is #1 on the list of people I will have nothign to do with.

If they try to come back into your life, Term, I hope you stand strong and do not allow yourself to believe you can help them.

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RE: Ripped off - shit happens - 7/29/2010 5:44:10 AM   
ShaharThorne


Posts: 11071
Joined: 2/24/2009
From: Somewhere in TX
Status: offline 		My baby brother has to fix up a 2bd because the former tenants was not fixing anything (rent free if they fix everything up).  Even my other baby brother was honoring the contract (its his house, where the the USPS brother was living at because he was stationed there).  Not only was the house not fixed, the pissants tore up the built-ins!  We have to file charges (damaging private protery(?) and other charges).  We (my brothers) have to get general contractors to fix the house and hopefully be able to sell it

I am preefect happy with the trailer house.  If Mom and I want to get a house built, we can do that (make it a 3bd, with one being a craft/office/library.)

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