Out of all the plumbers in Long Beach, why can we say we are the best for property owners and landlords? We understand your needs and are sympatric to your plight. We receive many telephone calls from landlords who need plumbing work on their tenant occupied properties. I think the most important thing for you to understand is that we are landlords too. We own residential and commercial property and have done so for thirty years.
Why is that so important? Because we share your struggles and your triumphs. Let’s talk about the struggle part. The whole point of becoming a landlord is to make some money. Being a landlord is a job. The rent money, less expenses, is the paycheck.
When I bought my first property many years ago, I pulled out my crystal ball and gazed into the future. What I saw was me, driving a big van full of bulging duffel bags stuffed with rent money. I was smiling, excited, and on the way to the bank. The next stop was home to take my wife a bag or two, so she would have a smile on her face too!
Now, I have arrived at that future time, many years later. I am living it. I must have been using a defective crystal ball. I’m going to look for the receipt and see if I can get my money back. It is a little complicated. While I do take a fairly large amount of rent money to the bank each month, the expenses mysteriously always seem to require all I have taken to the bank plus more! Lucky for me, my wife is a happy person by nature.
Some say persistence is a virtue. By that definition, I am a very virtuous guy. I have been hanging on for decades, trying to make a go of the landlord job. Besides, everybody knows you get rich in real estate. Lately, I have been prowling the swap meets. Looking for the booth where I can swap a little virtue for some cash.
Landlords are ridiculed and held up to scorn. Some wit coined the term, slumlord. Landlords typically are regarded as rich with easy money, cheap because they won’t fix anything, (they just want to hog all that cash for themselves), sleazy, deceptive, selfish, and completely unconcerned about their fellow man.
While some of us may have some of those character defects, it is not because we are rolling in cash from our rental properties. More likely because we are in a continuous struggle to keep some of the cash. Our job is similar to a bank teller. We handle lots of cash but none of it is ours. Funny how this never seems to occur to anyone; that the problem may be a lack of cash.
But if we persist long enough, surely we shall be triumphant. In the meanwhile, every time I think I am arriving at the promise land; just when I think there will be some cash left over; just when I am ready to go home and announce to my wife, “See honey, see the cash! I don’t want to say I told you so but I TOLD YOU SO! I WAS RIGHT AFTER ALL! You didn’t live a pauper’s life for thirty years for nothing. Now we are on top of the world. Can you handle lifestyles of the rich and famous! That’s how we roll baby! Aren’t you lucky you married a brilliant guy like me?!”
The telephone rings. What’s that? We need a new roof? How can you tell? Water is pouring on your head? Well, go inside stupid! You are inside? Do you think it can wait until next summer? I might win the lotto by then. Hold on a second, I have to move out of earshot of my wife…can it wait until after this weekend? I had something kind of special planned with my wife.
If only my wife could learn to put a little more stock in virtue.
Now for the triumphs. The probability is that someday, the real estate market will turn around. The big question all the experts are always trying to answer is what I call the “when question”. When will the economy get better? When will the real estate market get frothy again? When will the stock market explode to the upside? When, when, when??? Personally, I think the answer is, nobody knows. (Maybe this should be in the section above.)
But when it does, whenever that is, we will have the opportunity to sell and finally, pocket some cash for the job that we worked so hard at for so many years without a pay check. Then we will have our virtue, some cash, and hopefully, a little respect from our wives! Is that too much to ask?
