The Cost of Renting Your Property

Two years ago, I moved back to Palmer. Since that time, my house in Anchorage has been rented out. We hired a property management company to deal with the rental issues, but honestly have not been happy with them from the start. Nor are we happy with the tenants who are living in the house. Finally, however, after much grief and heartache, the tenants announced their intent to leave. We took this opportunity to fire the management company and look for a new one.

The process of getting rid of a tenant is a long, drawn out one – especially when they are problem tenants. They left the property in considerably less than perfect condition so we are looking at months of repair work and the possibility of taking them to court. The issues we have with the management company are not helping, either. I cannot wait to be done with them both!

We were able to find a new management company that so far seems to be much better than the old one. We are in the process of going through all the paperwork now, and should have everything signed and finalized within a week or so. They have been very helpful in dealing with the old company, too, and have given us several recommendations on contractors and cleaning crews.

Old management company: Real Property Management Last Frontier

New management company: Buyers Real Estate Property Management 

The first thing we did, 1 day after the tenant turned in their keys, was go in and do a Property Inspection. We spent a good two hours going over everything and taking well over 200 pictures. Then we compiled a report of all the damage and sent that to the old management company.

They then compared it to the report they had generated from their own property inspection and we now have a list of items that the tenant is liable for, a list of items the tenant MIGHT be liable for, and a list of items we’ll repair on our own dime. Bryan’s idea of what the tenant is responsible for does not match the old property management’s list at all, so there is a rather heated argument going on right now trying to reconcile the two.

We then hired a contractor to oversee all the repairs. Ben Persinger, of Persinger Construction, is wonderful. He met with us last night and went over the entire house offering up ideas for repair or replacement, giving us tidbits of his experience in the business, and just generally commiserating with us over the sad state of the property.

We also met with the flooring contractor who came in to give us an estimate on replacing all the carpet upstairs which was completely ruined by the tenants dogs. He is giving us a very good deal on his time & materials, so that is at least one thing I’m happy about in this whole mess.

Next on our list is to find a professional cleaner who can deal with all sorts of messes left behind. They, of course, will have to wait until after we repair everything and get the carpet done – but we do want the downstairs carpet deep cleaned right away so we can determine if it’s salvageable or if it, too, needs to be replace.

Our list of repairs is long and I don’t have exact prices yet so am estimating, but here are just a few of the items to give you an idea:

• Replace back door: $1,800.00
• Repair & repaint walls: $3,000.00
• New carpet upstairs: $2,000.00
• Repair kitchen cabinetry: $500.00
• Replace microwave: $350.00
• Thorough cleaning throughout: $750.00
• Fix garage door: $1,000.00
• Repair garage floor & driveway: $1,000.00
• Repair fence: $2,000.00