Busy Couple of Weeks

[Hitman]

As you guys know I am in the middle of moving from Germany to Lawton OK. As I posted in a previous thread we came here to Lawton a couple of weeks ago to find a house. Well we found one and went back to Colorado for a couple of weeks, while we waited to clear on the house, to Visit my wifes family and spend time with my kids that still live there. The first week was fairly uneventful spending time with friends and family. It was great to see everyone.

At the beginning of the second week (last weekend) we found out that the people that were renting our rental house in Colorado were moving out in the middle of the night. My brother-in-law lives 2 blocks down and saw them moving out at 11pm on his way home from the bar. He gave us a call and we went over to find out WTF was going on. Sure enough they were ditching out on their lease. They promised to have the house all cleaned up by Sunday night (this was Friday night), so we gave them until Tuesday and they still hadn't cleaned the house. So on Tue my wife, B-I-L and I went over to get it ready to rent out again. I can't even describe the mess we found. We filled the driveway with garbage and stuff they left in the house and yard, the weeds were so high you couldn't see the house, the carpets were so dirty and stained it looked like they dumped a truck load of dirt on top of 20 gallons of cool aid, then walked through it. The whole house was a disaster. It took us 5 days to clean it up. We painted, hauled off 4 truck loads of trash, had the carpets professionally cleaned, and did all the yard work. We also fixed little things that needed to be fixed. Then by last Friday we had everything done and the house rented out again.

We were supposed to clear on the house in Lawton last Friday but because of the mess with our rental we extended it until Monday. Sunday night we left Colorado for Lawton towing my wifes car behind my 4 runner. It took us 11 hours (Normally an 8 hr drive) and we arrived in town 40 min before we were supposed to clear on the house. We had just enough time to drop my wifes car and the trailer off at the new house and get over to the title company to sign paperwork.

Before we left for Colorado I called and had the Water, Gas, Electricity, Phone and Internet turned on, on the 1st of Nov. So when we got home everything was working. Our house hold goods still haven't arrived from Germany yet so all we have are the few items we had stored in Colorado, and what we had with us. My wife and I are sleeping on the floor on an air mattress and eating on paper plates. I told her today, that it's like we are camping in our own house. Hopefully all of our stuff coming from Germany will arrive this week, so we can start getting our life back together.

I go back to work the day before the Thanksgiving holiday so hopefully we will be all set by then. Just in time to go back to Co for the Holiday.

[Yellowhello]

Damn those renters... better luck with new tenants! Hopefully you can get this whole thing sorted out before long. Good luck!

[fstroupe]

I've gotten some neat stuff from neighbors leaving under cover of darkness. "Man, you can have anything I don't take." Happens a lot around military posts, I guess. The last one I saw, they even took the toilets and central AC unit. He was headed to Alaska, I guess he wasn't very worried about it.

I did it once, the last time I moved, but was really getting frustrated by my landlord, who I didn't have a lease with. (long story) Besides that, I had been warned by a friend that she was trying to sell the house out from under me, then a couple of people came by to look at it. Screw it, she lived about 150 yards away, separated only by trees, If she had gotten her lazy ass out during the three or four days it took me to move, she'd known it. It looked infinitely better after I left than it was when I got there, though. Bet she was disappointed that I didn't leave the garage I had built, though.

[Quakindude]

Sorry about the troubles in Colorado, but glad to hear things are progressing well at the new place! Hopefully, you won't have too many more issues with the rental place.

I've never wanted to keep a house and rent it out after leaving just because of stories like this one. Had you of not been there, it could have cost a bundle to get it ready to rent again.

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

I've never wanted to keep a house and rent it out after leaving just because of stories like this one. Had you of not been there, it could have cost a bundle to get it ready to rent again.

Yeah I never wanted to rent out houses either. My wife has owned this house since 92 and refuses to get rid of it. Now with the market the way it is we wouldn't get what the house is worth anyways. Hopefully by the time I have to leave Lawton the housing market will be good and I can sell both houses at the same time.

Oh yeah my wife and I said over and over that we were so glad that we were there when that happened. If not it would have cost us a lot more then it did, and would have taken even longer to get it fixed. We have been renting her house out for the past 3 years, and this is by far the worst shape that renters had ever left it. The house is now rented to a Lady that owns a Contracting Company, she rented it for some family members and put the lease under the business name (Probably for a tax write off). So hopefully they will be better renters, but who knows.

I have always either owned a house or lived in Military Housing, I refuse to rent a house from someone to pay their mortgage payment, when I could use the same money to pay my own.