80 Cats, A Botched Eviction and a $20k Loss: My Real Estate FAIL Story

What is up babe? Welcome back to the podcast. I have been eagerly awaiting the day that I was finally going to be able to tell you this story. This has been a journey, let me tell you, and absolutely not the experience that I was expecting when I decided to make the jump to become an out of state landlord. I I bought my first out of state rental property over a year ago now and it has been learning lesson after learning lesson and it didn't end the way that I wanted it to end and feel like I really was wanting to tell this story as I was going through the process, but I also really wanted to get through the entire experience and have an outcome that I could share with you about the journey that I've been on. And while I was anticipating a more positive outcome to share with you and all of the lessons learned that ended with the hoorah rah, but we made it and everything worked out so wonderfully in the end. It didn't end like that. It was definitely not the outcome that I was expecting when I started this venture. But I think that I have learned a lot and I have grown a lot through this experience and I want to tell you about what it was like because there were a lot of lessons to be learned and I think if you're somebody who wants to go on this adventure of building wealth, you deserve to see what the risks are. And I don't want this story to be something that holds you back from going after starting your own rental portfolio and venturing into the world of real estate investing. It is absolutely a wonderful path for building wealth, but it obviously comes with higher risk. When we're thinking about building wealth and getting assets that are under our name, we think about stock market investing, which is typically the lowest risk. And if you want to expedite your wealth building adventure, real estate is a really great place to go. And there are 1 million ways to get into real estate investing. And I picked a path that I have now learned is not probably the path that I want to continue down. Maybe not forever, but certainly not right now. And so I want to take you back and tell take you through this journey of me deciding, becoming and everything that I experienced with being an out of state landlord for the very first time because I think there was a lot of lessons to be learned throughout it. And also looking back, I'm at a point now in the journey where I can laugh a little bit about it. As I was going through it, I was not laughing, I was waking up anxious. I was stressed about money. I was nervous about what was gonna happen next. And I felt like I was just like, every turn I took, I was running into problem after problem. And I had never been on this journey before. And there's got. Is this just a learning curve? I obviously don't know what I'm doing. And so how is this supposed to feel? How is this supposed to look? Are things supposed to take this long? A lot of lessons to be learned there. And yeah, like I said, I've learned, I've grown, I've healed. We have now laughed, but there were a lot of periods of time where I was just singing that Taylor Swift song where she's just, Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? It just kept feeling like, okay, like, what else? What's the shoe like, what shoe is going to drop next? What problem is going to be lurking around the corner next? And yeah, without further ado, let me take you back and take you on this journey and share with you what my experience was like on my very first out of state rental property. This is Busy Getting Better, the podcast for women who are committed to prioritizing their own personal growth. I'm your host, Madison J. A mindset and money coach, a first generation wealth builder and a woman on a mission to help you master your finances and live your best life. Money is not all we are covering though, because in order to live your best life, you have to become your best self. So we are diving deep into all things personal development and bringing you the mindset shifts, money, tips and inspiration. You need to go out there, be bold and build the life you can't stop daydreaming about. It's time to get busy, babe. Busy getting better. So first up, let me share with you the strategy, the location, where my mind was at going into this purchase. We, being my husband, my fiance at the time, were primarily getting into real estate because we wanted to build a rental portfolio. We wanted to start replacing some of our income with cash flow. And then we obviously wanted to start benefiting from appreciation as home values go up over time. And originally when we first got into real estate, we were learning about wholesaling, we were learning about flipping, we were learning about all of these different strategies. And there's so many ways for you to build wealth. There are so many ways to get involved in real estate and that is what I think can be a little bit overwhelming about the industry, is that you have all these voices out there saying this is the best way. This is the only way. If you're doing it that way, you are stupid if you're doing it that way. You clearly don't understand how money works. You clearly don't get what real estate is all about. There are just low key, a lot of loud voices when it comes to anything, when it comes to personal finance and wealth building. But I'm telling you, the voices in real estate are loud. And we spent a good chunk of our time going down all these paths that weren't really what we actually wanted. We were trying to build a wholesaling business which was really just another job. And we were really wanting to get into real estate for the more passive income, which let me just add that caveat right there. There is not a lot of things that are passive about building a rental portfolio, especially as you start out. It does take a lot more time, energy and effort to understand what you are trying to do, to understand your market, to understand your strategy. Like it does take time. I know there's a lot of of noise on the Internet that just makes it sound like it's so easy to just go out and buy a property and now you're cash flowing, what's the big deal? Just get started. Listen, it's just not that easy. There's so much that goes into it. It's one of those things that you have to get really good at, right? And with it comes risk. And so we were following all these different paths, trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Eventually we ended up in a community, learning a lot about Section 8 investing and out of state, becoming an out of state landlord and how you set up your team and things are a little bit more hand off for us. We were looking at really prioritizing buying a couple of units to start out that were focused on cash flow and then eventually move into more of an appreciating market. That was our mindset at the time. Hey, let's just get a couple duplexes, triplexes or four plexes was our plan, and do them in a market where we can benefit from high cash flow, meaning that the rent to price ratio is working in our favor. So we're purchasing the home at a price point where we can rent it out significantly higher than the mortgage, the piti, all of that stuff. And so that was what our lens was. We were like, let's find a market where that makes a lot of sense, where we can buy a home for a relatively very affordable price and we can rent it out for a good chunk of change. And also we were really interested in Section 8 housing, which is a government program that provides housing vouchers to low income individuals that need some support, need some guidance in paying their bills. And so it's a government funded program. So the idea there as a landlord is that you are one helping out those in need and you are getting quote unquote guaranteed income from the government. You're not necessarily having to worry about these people. Can they pay, can they not? There's so much within how the housing voucher program works. I'm not going to get into the details there, but that's essentially the high level benefits of going down the route of having Section 8 housing is you are providing a value to the government by providing housing that is much needed. There's always a long list of individuals with vouchers and there's not enough homes to go around to be able to help these folks out. And so we were looking at the lens of that. How do we buy in a market where it's really affordable and we can run at a decent price, where there is a lot of demand for Section 8 homes and we can cash flow like we can make more money per month on these properties and we're going to buy a duplex so that we can even have two doors under one roof. And so we did a bunch of market research to figure out what fit our criteria. And again, there are so many strategies, so many lenses and so many things to consider when you're doing your own market research. We landed on the wonderful state of Ohio, specifically within Cleveland. And this is because of all the things I mentioned, really affordable homes, a lot of duplexes, triplexes, quads, and a high demand for government support. A long list of Section 8 homes and the prices that the government were paying for rent in that area far surpassed what we would be paying in our monthly expenses for the property, meaning that we were going to make more money per month on it while providing housing to these individuals. And so that is what we did. We landed on Cleveland, Ohio and we did a shit ton of research within that because you still want to make sure that you're buying a good property. You got to make sure you're buying a good property in a good neighborhood. You've got to find a good neighborhood where people want to live. And if your home needs a little bit of work, you want to make sure that your home is the not the necessarily the worst house in the best neighborhood. That's definitely a strategy people use for wholesaling or for flipping. But for us, we Were like, let's buy a home where we know we need to do, like, minimal upgrades to it. It's in a really great neighborhood. It's got good school districts. It's in a really great zip code. It's going to be in demand. All of those things led us to the zip code, the neighborhood that we landed on. And then we eventually found a real estate agent who was very familiar, apparently working with out of state investors and helped us find a home that we were interested in buying. And so we found a duplex and everything. Like, everything was checking boxes. We were like, oh my gosh, this is the exact zip code that we were looking in. It's a duplex. The price point wakes. There were so many exciting factors that went into this. And then we decided that we were going to make the jump and we were going to. Okay, let's do it. We've been talking this big game. We've been experiencing all these other avenues as it comes to getting invested into real estate. And this feels like we are ready to make this next step and we want to purchase this duplex. And so we decide to purchase the duplex. I purchased it in October of 2023. We finally closed on the property. And right before we closed on the property is when the very first red flag started to pop up. And that red flag was that the tenant. So it's a duplex. Half of it was vacant, half of it had a tenant in it. And right before we close, we get the news that the tenant on the not vacant side has not paid rent that month. But he's been a really good standing tenant up until this point. Might just be running late, but they did disclose that to us. And we're like, okay, like, no worries. We're talking to our agent. We're like, what are our risks here? What should we be worried about if this tenant doesn't end up paying? He's like, there's a really good chance he ends up paying and you're just fine. Maybe he's a little bit behind. They're saying he's been really good up until this point. You know, wouldn't stress. But if you are worried, here's what, you know, your process and your options would look like as it came to an eviction. And it was like, you know, your eviction will probably take up to a month. We'll work on getting the other unit rented out while we would be going through that process. And, you know, maybe you have half the unit rented for a month or two while you're Getting the other unit evicted, the unit turned, which just means like upgraded and ready for the next tenant if floors need to be replaced, if paint needs to be done, whatever it is. And then we'll be able to get both sides rented out, you know, maybe three months. Like what's the stretch timeline here? Let me tell you, that is not what happened at all. So we were like, cool, we'll move forward. We closed on the property. Tenant did not pay. Tenant did not pay again the next month. So now we are filing for eviction. And we're also trying to get the other unit up listed, trying to get it promoted. Because what I don't have to worry about in Arizona when it comes to winter time is all of the snow that happens. But Ohio sure has to worry about that. And so it's a slow rental market. So we're trying to get this property listed as quickly as possible so that we can get half the unit rented out while we are going through the eviction process on the second half of the unit. It sounds all fine and dandy. The property management company that we're working with is we specialize in working with out of state landlords. This is what we do. We work with so many investors that are out of state. We've got a process, we've got the people. You are going to be so fun. So I'm like, hell yeah, this sounds great. They're getting it taken care of. Which in retrospect, like looking back at the whole, all we do is work with out of state investors. What I had come to hear from people throughout this experience is that when you are only working with out of state investors, like you've really got to make sure that they aren't just trying to take advantage of you because obviously I'm not there. Obviously I can't go oversee the things that they're telling me are getting done. I'm just trusting their word. And this is hands down the. One of the biggest lessons that I learned throughout this entire experience is frankly that I was just naive. I was too accepting and too good words that they were telling me without proof. And I wasn't, I want, I was not putting the hammer down. Like I wasn't like really on. They were like telling me what I needed to hear throughout this entire experience. And again, I'm a first time out of state landlord. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. This, this company, these people are telling me that they're on top of it and so I'm trusting them. And yeah, that's Lesson number one, don't trust people. I'm kidding. This didn't make me like this cynical person. But like, you definitely can't just take people's word for it. Back it up with receipts, back it up with proof, ask the hard questions. And also, nobody is going to care as much about your money and your timeline as much as you are. And so you've got to be on their asses because the other thing is thinking about it now, I'm okay, they've got all these people that they're responsible for managing. Why the fuck would they care about my one little unit? Why would they prioritize? Oh, we really got to make sure we get all this figured out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Like one would hope. And I know that there are wonderful property management companies out there that do have that intention and do show up for their customers in their employees or whatever the way that they should. But let me just tell you, they all don't. They all sure as hell don't. So we are trying to get half the unit listed so we can start to get it rented. And then we are trying to get the other eviction through the process. And this is where the first thing that like, really starts to go bad is they tell me, we get the eviction, we get it approved through the court. It takes a little bit of time because now it's December. It's the holiday season in courts are moving slow. They're trying to get all the court dates set up. This guy is now bringing somebody to court to represent him to say that he's filed for all of these things, which we have no proof of. He has not actually done any of any of the things that he's saying that he's done. He has not paid us any of the money. There's like a slight chance throughout this journey that the, that the judge could be like, oh, let's just extend it and give him time to catch up. But they didn't. The judge was like, nope, you haven't paid in two months. Now you need to move out. We got the eviction notice. They go to serve the eviction on the official move out day. And what happens is the property management company that I'm working with filed the incorrect address. There is unit one and two, and those are up and down units, and they filed them incorrectly. And so when the bailiff went to go enforce the evict eviction, it wasn't enforceable because it wasn't for the correctly labeled unit. And so at that point, what My property management company should have done is refiled the eviction, and we would have had to start that process over again. But what they told me is, oh, no, it's just this one unit. We're just going to get it fixed. No big deal. And so I'm like, okay, are they getting it fixed? Okay, are they getting it fixed? So much time passes and nothing is happening. And I'm like, what's the latest? What's the latest? Also, can we get this other property, like, rented? What's the deal with the other half? And they're telling me nothing's wrong. It's a beautiful property. It's in a great neighborhood. We're not really sure why it hasn't gotten any action yet. Maybe you need to lower your price point. And I'm like, does the rent that we decided on match with the market? Yeah, it does. Okay, then why would I lower it? Right. Like, obviously, my mind is now starting to feel like maybe there's something else going on. If you're telling me everything's perfect, but it's obviously not moving the way that we want. But what she's also continuing to tell me is that it's the slow season, it's winter time, so things just move a little bit slower right now as we get through the beginning of the year. I bet things will pick up. So I'm like, being fed this narrative on this side and then also being told that they're handling the eviction on the other unit. Come to find out, let's fast forward a little bit here. Another month or two goes by, and I am like, this is absolutely out of hand. I'm getting angry now, but I'm also still being, like, nice and not really understanding, like, how fucked the situation is, because I, again, I just don't know. I'm getting really frustrated at this point. My husband is. I'm gonna start calling around, and he starts to call attorneys in Ohio to figure out who our attorney is that's representing us on the eviction, because our property management company will not disclose this information to us. And so eventually we get a hold of our attorney and he's, oh, yeah, it was filed incorrectly two months ago. We needed to reinstate or refile the eviction and start the process over again. So now we're in a point four months later, where now we are refiling the eviction again. Now, we could have been through this multiple times already. Now the property management company is. I'm fed up. I'm pissed. I'm getting to a Point where I'm like, it's now been five months since I purchased this house, and the one unit still not rented, and they can't give me any reason as to what is causing it. And then the second part is that this eviction has now been botched, and it's taken five months when it should have taken 30 days. And so now we're refiling the eviction. I'm, like, frustrated in tears with the attorney because nobody on the property management company is even telling me that this happened, that it got filed incorrectly and what the next steps are. We had to go out and call around to track down our own attorney that was representing us to tell us what the fuck was going on within this eviction. I was heated. Now I'm, like, getting definitely annoyed. And I'm like, I need to talk to the property management owner. I'm not trying to, like, be a Karen, but also, like, you guys dropped the ball. Nobody's owning up to it, and nobody is willing to help me figure out what the next steps need to be. Like, they just aren't caring. So I eventually get on the phone with the property management company. I'm like, hey, I just want to understand, like, how did the ball get dropped in this scenario? Like, how are. How am I getting told things are getting handled? And the attorney is telling me that nobody has done anything on this eviction in two months. It's been sitting there with no movement, and the ball has been in the court of the property management company. And now he's laughing at me, laughing. He's. You know what to tell you? Sometimes this just happens. And I'm like, not an acceptable response. And also, don't laugh in my face. Like, I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my property. I'm now five months into paying for all of these bills out of pocket when you guys have told me that things were going to happen so much quicker, so much smoother. And also, I feel like I'm just blatantly getting lied to about what you guys are actually doing to move my project, my problem, my property, through the finish line. He laughs in my face. And when I tell you, I am like, I'm muting myself because I just think, no matter who you are, like, no matter what the situation is, if you have somebody reaching out, that is your customer that is disgruntled about something, that's upset, that I'm not even being mean to the guy. I'm just tell me what happened. Like, where did the ball get Dropped. And you laugh in my face like, oh, my God. So at this point, I'm already like, fudge. This property management company, they are now dropping the ball in all of this, and they just don't care. And this guy's laughing my face when I'm trying to get a problem solved that's costing me money every single month. And so then I'm like in the back of my head, okay, now we need to get through this eviction because I've already paid for all of the filing fees and everything with this attorney. If I were to just totally drop the ball at this point and or stop working with them and pivot and go find somebody else to work with at this point, I would have to repay for all these filing fees. And at this point, the attorney is, I'm so sorry this happened. I'm going to waive my fees for this next round of filing. And I'm like, hell, yeah. Are like, I didn't drop the ball here. I didn't do this. Like, I hired these people to do a job and I needed to get it done. This is crazy. And so they re go through the eviction. And now I'm starting to get some more intel about the vacant unit, about what is going on. My perfect property that we don't know why it's not renting. It's beautiful. I would love to live here. It looks like it's one of the best units on the street. I. I don't know what the big deal is, what's starting to come out, what the big deal is. And the big deal is that when you walk into the property, it smells like cat urine. And it smells so badly that when you get up to the front door to walk into it, people, prospective tenants, are just holding their breath, turning around and running away. It smells so bad. And I'm like, okay, where is this information been for the last five months? Can we start to rectify the problem here? Where is it coming from? And it turns out it's coming from this unit that I am working through this eviction on of this guy who has now been living rent free in my property for over five months now, apparently has a couple cats that are pretty stinky to the point where it's causing the other unit to not get rented out. And nobody could verify this information or tell me this information. For months. For months it's just been sitting there apparently smelling like cat urine. So we finally get through the eviction process and we get the tenant out of the property. Now we're like what? Mid summer of 2024. It's been six months now. Although, by the way, I did forget to mention throughout all of this, I am planning my wedding in the middle of all of this and getting married. So this is all happening. I had my bachelorette in April, I got married in May, my honeymoon was in June. And this is all happening, like right around that time frame. And so like, my mental capacity to finish planning a wedding and show up and really enjoy this chapter with all of this stuff going on in the background, like, definitely. And also, I'm in business mentorship at this time. I'm starting to figure out what the next steps are going to look like for me and for my business. And I also am getting really close to post wedding as all kind of plays into the timeline. But I eventually leave my job in June and go all in on my business. There is so much going on here that I'm stretched really thin. I am frustrated. I'm trying to stay on top of this stuff. But at this time frame, I'm still just hearing what I need to be hearing from these people in not asking for enough proof, not asking for enough receipts, and not just putting my foot down as much as I should be because I'm planning my wedding, I'm getting married. This company is telling me that they're handling the stuff for me and they obviously weren't. I do also give myself a little bit of grace for how deep and how far and how long this went on without the attention that it deserved because I, A, didn't know what I was doing, B, was trusting these people, and C, was literally in a very time intensive, stressful, fun chapter of my once in a lifetime wedding. So that was all going on. Now we're getting to the point where post wedding, we are firing that property management company because, hello, don't laugh in my face and lie to me about what is happening and what the final straw was of me firing them was we get the eviction done and now I'm like, great, can I get somebody in there to tell me what the fricking damage is? What's the situation with these pets? Are the floors, do they have pee all over them? Like, how much needs to go into now renovating and flipping this property so that I can get the next tenant in and can we get the smell situated so that I can at least get this vacant property that has been sitting here for six months all sorted out and rented out so I can start to stop the bleeding of the money that is coming out of my bank account every single month for this property. And what is starting to come to light is that there might be just a few more cats than two or three like we originally thought in the unit. They are now telling me, actually we went in there and we think there's like 15 or 20 cats in the house and we need to get all of them out before we can send somebody in to inspect it and to take a look around and figure out what your cost is going to be to turn the unit to get the next tenant in. And I first of all, jaw drop, what do you mean 15 to 20 cats? This guy is living rent free in this property with 15 to 20 cats and nobody's noticed. That's a lot of fucking cats. Are you kidding me? So now they're sending like animal control out there to try and safely get all of these cats out and transfer to their facility so that they can help to re home them. And this process is going on for weeks. The property management company keeps telling me, oh, they're still trying to get in there, they're still trying to get in there. And I'm like, how long does it take to get these cats out? What the heck is the deal? And it's just taking them so long. So finally I'm like, you know what? I, we're done. Like, I had been in the background asking for referrals, asking for introductions to other property management companies, other people that we could be utilizing instead that are going to care about our property a lot more. And we come across this individual who we get introduced to, who is just a sweetheart. She's telling me, I totally understand where you're coming from. This unfortunately happens all the time with out of state landlords because they just know that they can take advantage of you. But don't worry, I got you. Fire your other property management company. And when I'm able to come in, we will get this taken care of and we will get you across the finish line so fast. Like, I got you, girl. And again, here I am just like, oh, someone please just come save the day because this has been a nightmare. And I'm again, I just don't know what's actually going on with the property. Nobody's telling me anything that is like actually happening. I feel like it's just, I don't know, just a mess. So I fire this other property management company and I hire the new property management company. So we are now seven, six, seven months into this ordeal of owning this out of state property. And I have now had A botched eviction that took way too long, three times as long as it should have taken, and 20 cats that have been removed from the property. And it comes out later in a situation where we actually. Nick, my husband, gets a call from a tenant that lives across the street and she is just like rambling to him and she actually decides to tell him her recollection of what happens with the cats when they go to remove the cats after the eviction. And her recollection is that there might have been close to 80 cats in the house. She said it was the most cats that she had ever seen in one place. She said the animal control was coming by for almost a month still trying to pick them all up. And unfortunately not all the cats were alive. And so now my mind is going to crazy. We have a new property management company. She's going in there and she's taking a look around and yeah, the house is in. No. I don't know. Just close your eyes for a second and start to picture what you think a. A unit would look like and also smell like that has this many cats in the property. Yeah. I don't even. I don't even. I can't even imagine the scent. There was feces in all of the cabinets in the kitchen. We had to tear all of those out. The floors were just repulsive. And you walked in the unit and it just smelled probably exactly like you're imagining it. Smell, maybe worse. I don't know. This is the one thing I'm grateful I was not there to verify because I can't imagine stepping in and smelling that. But, yeah, now we are trying to turn the unit. We are like having to look literally like what are the. I don't even know what they call it, but like bombing it essentially to get as much of the scent out. We're ripping out the cabinets because there's cat feces in the kitchen cabinets. Like, I'm not going to put a tenant in there who is now putting their tortilla chips next to what used to be a pile of cat. Also who is living in this. Right. You just start to think about who is putting themselves in this type of environment to be like living and surrounding by all of this. There were litter boxes everywhere, there was food everywhere. It just was not good. And obviously I think about, you know, who this individual was that obviously was not able to keep up with their bills. Like, my heart goes out to him to some extent. Like, I hope you are okay. I hope you found a safe place to live. Like, I Hope you are able to get back on your feet. But also, I don't know, what are you doing living with 80 cats? Like, how did that happen? Did they just start springing out left and right? I don't even know. How does that happen? I don't even understand. We're. Now we're in the midst of trying to get one unit rented out again, right? Here we are again, still trying to get this vacant unit rented out that actually is in really great condition. It was just getting this cat piece smell seeping over from the other side. And now we're with this girl who's telling us again, the moon. Everything's going great and we've got this contractor that's going to come in and do all this work. And now more shady stuff starts popping up, right? Like, I really am, like, so wanting to believe this con, this property management that we get introduced to. Because now I'm like, I need a referral. I need someone that can vouch for somebody because clearly I need some more support. Who can we actually rely on? And so we get referred. This girl, she sounds like everything's just fine and dandy. She's getting everything taken care of. She wants to work with this contractor now. My red flags are up left and right though every little thing that's happening, I'm just on edge. Are we getting scammed? Is this. Are we getting lied to? Whatever it is, she tells us the name of the contractor that she wants to work with, another red flag pops up. I Google this guy and guess what? His LLC has a, like, warrant out for it. Is got a claim against a better bureau of business that he scammed this elderly couple out of $11,000. And I am like, I don't think this is who I want working on my home now. Everything that we've been through, I need some top tier people in there. Get on the phone with her. And she reassures me. She's. I have no idea where that is. He works with me on all of my properties. I promise I have absolutely never had an issue with this guy. I promise you he's gonna get your work done. We're gonna get this rented. Trust me, I've got you. I know the struggles you've been through. I understand this has been a really challenging time. This is what I do. I'm gonna get you across the finish line. Just please trust me. God, I wanted to trust so bad. I did. I trust it now. Here I am again, right? Still just trying to navigate this for the first time in just so badly. Wanting a solution so badly, wanting to get to the finish line of being able to be like they said, it's challenging. And we worked through it and we got to the finish line and now we're cash flowing this and we're providing this home to these people and we're starting to build wealth and or we're adding to our rental portfolio out of the market and we're starting to build our cash flow from that. That was what a goal was. And I just wanted to trust and so I did. And so we move forward with that contractor and that contractor goes in and at the start, it seems like all things are good and dandy. He's on top of it. He's going to have all your work done. In the next week, we start submitting all of our applications. To get our property inspected through section 8, you have to find tenants. This girl, she finds us tenants so quickly. We fill out all the Section 8 paperwork. We, we are moving and grooving. It's okay. I think, I think that was it. That was a switch we needed. Things are carusin where we see the light. I feel the light at the end of the tunnel at this point, but I'm still so skeptical. Oh, my God. Just. Oh. Every text that's coming in, I'm like, fuck, what is it now? Every call that's coming in, I'm getting anxious. I do not think I have ever experienced anxiety like I have while going through the tail end of this experience. Like it was. It was anxious throughout it. But again, at the beginning of 2024, I was getting married. Life was good. I wasn't really stressing. I was just, these things take time. We're gonna get there by the end of the year. I am now so overwhelmed. I am so frustrated and I'm like waking up in the middle of the night. I'm waking up in the morning just stressing, knowing that I'm like waiting for something that day on the property and I'm like, can't sleep that well. I'm like, is it going to happen or is it not? This contractor starts coming back with all of these things that he's finding in the house. And she is now being like, I can't believe your last property management company didn't point out X, Y and Z. I can't believe they didn't tell you that this leak was happening or that this was going on. None of this is going to pass inspection. Like, you need to fix all of this. And now we're up against the timeline of Getting those dates set. Because now we have found the tenants. And so it's okay. We need to figure this out. What's next? What's next? And then one day we get a call saying that there had been some rain last night, and now our entire basement was flooding. And we're getting this video, super grainy, vague situation where it's, is that our basement? I can't tell if that's our basement. You're telling me it's flooded? We've never had any issues. We've had inspections on this house. Nothing's going wrong. Before that, the guy's, oh, I'm gonna be done on Friday. But now his kid's sick, and now his grandmother died, and now his uncle needs a surgery. And now I don't like the list of things just start going on and on. And I'm like, what is this guy doing? And now he's, hey, I found this issue. I'm going to fix it for free for you. But if you could just send me some of the additional money that you owe me. Because how it works is you put some money down at the beginning of contractors, and then they send you pictures and proof that the work's getting done, and then you pay upon completion. And now I'm sending more money to him. So I'm like, okay, sure things for fixing that. Again, I was naive. I should not have done that. And so now we're sending all this money. I've sent all this money to this guy, and we're waiting for work, and it's just one thing after another. I'm out of town. I promise I'll get it done. And it's just, what have you done? And once we got the call and the text about the flooding in the basement, again, the red flags had been red flagging. But at this point, my whole body is like physically reacting. No, absolutely not. Because they're telling me now it's going to be $13,000 to fix the leak in the basement. And I am like, not only at my wit's end, not only am I frankly, and being super transparent underwater in this property at this point, I am like, absolutely fucking not. You haven't even proven to me that you've done this extra work. And now you're telling me that this basement that I did not, I've had for almost a year now with absolutely no basement issues, and you're telling me that it's leaking and that it's going to cost 13 grand to fix? I absolutely. No. This is the first time that I genuinely like, do we need to walk away from this? There had been moments, but it was always like, oh, it's gonna feel so good on the other side. It's gonna feel so good on the other side. We're gonna get through it. We're gonna laugh about this. Your first property is always supposed to be challenging, but we'll get there. I shouldn't say your first property is always supposed to be challenging, but there are obviously a lot of things to learn and a lot of lessons to learn that you get better at as time goes on, right? And I'm like, this is just it. We're gonna work through it. Like, keep pushing. And then that call and my whole body is, yeah, no, we. I'm not comfortable spending any more money to these people. I haven't even seen proof that the work is getting done that I've already sent money for. And so I eventually were like, we need to get another opinion. And so Nick starts calling around and finds a real estate agent who's, oh, I know this area really well. Let me go take a look. Like, let me go pop in there. So now he's gonna go pop in there and check out our house. Keep in mind, I have been asking for proof that this house has been getting done. And now the property manager girl that we're working with is, oh, I haven't been able to get pictures or he hasn't done enough yet. Like, I'm gonna go get over there. Oh, I asked him to redo this thing. Starting to make up a lot of excuses as to why she can't send me picture and photo updates of what's going on in my unit. And so I'm like, yeah, get him over there and can he send me a video? And so this kind of soul, kind of soul goes over to the house and he takes a whole video walkthrough of this unit. And when I say nothing had been done that I was getting told had been completed, oh my God. I literally was like shaking, crying. So frustrated at this point because again, another just, I'm just getting blatantly lied to. I'm getting deceived and I keep fucking falling for it. I'm so mad at myself at this point. I had to work through a lot of just like guilt and frustration that I had with myself. Like, how did I let this happen? I think I'm a pretty level headed person. I think I'm logical, I think I make the decisions. I think I have good intuition. And for some reason now I'm just sitting Here shitting on myself because I'm like, how did I get into the situation? What do we do now? I'm so mad. And so we end up going through with this agent, just the exercises. Can you tell us, like, what you think we could sell it for? At this point, I'm like, there's no way. I would have to come out of pocket. In my mind, I thought I was going to have to come out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars in order to sell the property. Based on what I owed, what we think we could sell it for selling cost, all of this stuff. Plus, let's keep in mind the fact that I've been paying for this unit. I've been paying for property, the mortgage, the taxes, the insurance. I've been paying for gas, water, sewer, electric on this vacant unit half the year. The other half, I was just paying for this other guy's living expenses for almost a year now, and I am fed up with that. Plus, I have now remodeled this property, and I have sent this money to this contractor that has not completed any of the work. I think I probably sent him about $9,000 of work that was uncompleted. And so I am talking to the property management girl about, hey, I think we need to put a pin right now. And I also am talking to this agent about, please tell me, like, what you think we could get for this property. So now here I am again, having to trust another person who's, yeah, I actually think we could get you a lot more money for the property than what you're thinking. And I think that you could walk taking money home. And I am like, are you shitting? Is that an actual out? So see, here's the one thing that we did so good when we got into this situation is we really did do our due diligence when it came to finding the property. And we really did find a really great unit in a really great neighborhood. And lucky for us, the property appreciated quite a bit since the time that we purchased it. And so as he's running his numbers, I'm like, wait, I could actually walk away from this experience without coming out of pocket money. And I. I think I could actually put money back in my pocket. That would be a major win. And at that point, I went ahead and very quickly made the decision. I think I just need to listen to the way my whole body is reacting. The way that I'm not sleeping right now, the way that this is getting me, just too much anxiety. This is. And this is just time and time again. Things are not going my way. I think it makes the most sense to sell. In the second we made that decision that I was going to sell the property, my whole body physically just, like, sighed. It relaxed. It was like, yeah, this is the right decision to do. And so from that point forward, we went ahead and canceled the rental applications that we had out with these tenants. We told the contractor, you know what, why don't you just go ahead and give us the money back for the work that you haven't done and let's go ahead and part ways, because you keep telling us you're going to get the work done. It's not getting done. I'm not willing to put $13,000 into the basement to get this quote unquote leak fixed. Which, by the way, that other agent went over there and was like, there's not a drop of water. There is not a drop of water in this basement. I don't understand what they're talking about. What are they quoting you for? There's absolutely no leak here. Nothing that needs to be done in the basement. Oh. So, yeah, again, scam. Just getting scammed, getting taken advantage of. And so now we're like, give us our money back. Give me my money back. And he agrees. He's, okay, cool, yeah, let's just go ahead. I'll give you the money back for the work that's not done, and we'll part ways. And I'm like, yeah, okay, this is gonna be good. And this guy's telling me we're gonna be able to sell the property for more than we thought. Like, all seems to be just, like, panning out the way that we wanted. And then, of course, it didn't go that way. The prop. The contractor ends up ghosting. We have called so many times, and, yeah, he's just not. Excuse after excuse, oh, I gotta wait to get money from this other project. And yeah, at the end of the day, it really sounds like this guy's like, running a Ponzi scheme. Taking money from one person, pouring it into the next thing, not actually doing the work, just some shady tactics. And so, again, should have trusted my gut reaction when I found a literal claim against him on the Internet, saying that he scammed this old couple out of $11,000. And now what am I doing sitting here getting scammed out of about $9,000 that I sent this guy? And it's just, we are just not getting the money back at this point. And we eventually go once we decide to sell the home. Let me tell you, everything happened so easy, so seamlessly. I feel like for every opportunity to stay in that rental property and to stay out in that market in Ohio, it was like problem after problem after problem after problem. The second we decided to sell Smooth Sailing, we had that thing listed, we had an over ask offer, we had everything worked so smoothly. And it's just that remindingness of things can be challenging for sure, but sometimes the universe is, stop, don't go that way. This isn't your path. This isn't the right decision for you. Don't go this way. And when you do end up on your path and things are supposed to be easy, like it just felt so seamless. We got a really great offer, we closed on the property. I was able to put money back into my bank account. And all in all, I lost about $20,000 over this 13 month experience. And I want to be really transparent about that because obviously when you get into real estate investing, it's really important to have a nest egg. It's really important to have some sort of support just in case something goes wrong. And it sucks. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, it sucks. I lost $20,000. I am really grateful I didn't lose anymore. I feel like my silver lining and my win in that was I at my bank account after it was all said and done. So while I might have lost money throughout the investment, which is definitely obviously not the goal, it was at least a small win. At least money was coming back into my world. It was more. Now I had the liquid cash back in my bank account. I felt like, you know, I clearly am going to be a better steward of this money than anybody out in Ohio is nobody cares about my property the way that I am wanting them to care about it. Nobody is caring about my money the way that I can care about it. I trust I can take care of this money a lot better than whatever it's doing out there. And that was a really big lesson too, of just, you know, nobody cares about your money more than you are. Like, you have gotta be in the driver's seat of your finances. You've gotta know what's going on with it. You've gotta be, you know, okay to take risks, but you've also gotta be able to mitigate them. Like, you need to be the one that knows what's going on with your finances. And that was a really big lesson of just not necessarily being as trusting as, you know, I maybe was and letting people tell me the things that I needed to hear and, you know, just being in the weeds more. There was also the learning lesson of having a really vetted team. You know, again, I said at the beginning, I don't want this to scare you from not going into real estate investing. I am not done with real estate investing. I will continue to forge a path to build out my rental portfolio because I believe in the power of it. But also there are risks that come along with it, clearly. Right? So the lesson here was to just have a way better vetted team. I think I was so eager and excited. I know that's such an important step, but I didn't do my due diligence and I didn't find my rock solid team that I really trusted in. And I just wasn't asking enough questions at the. At the beginning. I was just really excited to jump in. The other big lesson that I think came out of this was deciding to remove my ego from this entire experience. I probably could have made different decisions. I probably could have lost a little bit less money. I probably could have gotten out of this, this real estate venture a lot sooner. But I really wanted the win. I really felt like I needed this to work out. I feel like it added a level of credibility to me. It added like a badge to like, my. I don't know, I'm picturing like a girl scout badge. When you get through something like, yeah, now I'm an out of state landlord. Like, I wanted it to work so bad. I was focused on the cash flow, all this stuff. And if I would have removed my ego and just really looked at the numbers and like, really made more of a decision based on that. And that's what they tell you, right? You can't. Your emotion when you're making these decisions. And it definitely got the best of me. And when I was able to really set aside and be like, why do I want this to work so bad? And it was like, because I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to chalk this up as a failure. I really wanted the success story at the end of it. And that right there is probably what cost me the most money is just like, we got to get through this. We got to get through this, and who knows how else it could have turned out? But I think the second I decided to remove my need for a win and my need for this to be okay on the end and to come out on top, I was able to make a way more logical decision. I was able to listen to my body, the way that I was reacting to things, and move in the direction that at the end of the day felt like the right decision, which was to move on and to take all of these lessons that I learned and to apply that moving forward and to just comb through and figure out how can I grow from this experience and how can I not chalk this up as a loss, but just a learning opportunity of how I'm going to view money moving forward, how I'm going to view investment opportunities moving forward, how I'm going to view the people that I work with, the decisions that I make, the people that I let entrust with my money. Those were all such wonderful learning experiences. I obviously wish the learning experience could have not come with losing the money, but sometimes it's just the way the cookie crumbles. And I think the important lesson here too is to not let it get you down, to not let it totally take me out from wanting to invest, to build wealth, to. To build a rental portfolio. No, it's just how do we continue to move forward? Every opportunity that you take, every path that you go down, there's going to be road bumps, there's going to be lessons to be learned, and the only way you really lose is if you quit. And I'm not going to quit. I'm going to keep going. We're going to keep learning from this, we're going to keep growing from this, and we are just probably not going to invest in Cleveland, Ohio for a while. Me and Cleveland are not really on speaking terms right now. I don't really have any desire to venture out there or to own a property. Listen, I'm sure Ohio is a great place. I'm sure Cleveland has wonderful people in it. I think we're just gonna take a little bit of a break and probably not purchase another property out there for a little while. The other lesson there is like I just being a little bit closer to home or having a better team in place I think probably would have changed a lot of this stuff. But yeah, that has been the last 13 months of the journey. So it was 13 months that I owned the property. I lost $20,000 and apparently I housed approximately 80 cats for a short stint. Yeah, that is my experience being an out of state landlord for the very first times. I would love to know if you are an out of state landlord, what your experience has been, if you've struggled or if you've dealt with any of these things before. Just know that it's all part of the journey and it is just going to make you stronger and you're going to learn from it and to not let it get you down. If you can resonate at all with this episode, if there is somebody out there that needs to hear this story, that maybe is struggling with their own rental property, their own journey being a landlord, go ahead and send it to them. Let them know they are absolutely not alone. And we will get through this together and continue forward on our venture of building wealth, achieving freedom, and just continuing to learn and grow as a person. So until next time. I'll see you then, babe.