Long story short, tenants wrecked the townhome pretty good...a lot of little things here and there like broken spring for the garage door, multiple clogged sinks/jacuzzi tub, couple holes to patch up before painting, broken garbage disposal, etc...but the bulk of the cost will primarily come from painting pretty much the entire townhome, and replacing the carpet in 3 bedrooms and the master closet...this is a roughly 2,200 sq. ft. townhome in the Sawyer Heights area in Houston...does anybody have any recommendations on who to use?

- cross posted on the Home Improvement board

Our company does residential renovation work like this.
936-355-9154

MouthBQ98 said:

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I'd maybe avoid carpet?

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I agree but there's a significant price jump from carpet to wood floors. At least with our house.

Nothing to add but if you need to replace carpet, Home Depot was having a sale with free install if you spent more than $750. And for a rental their carpet may be just right.

have you considered vinyl flooring? I have that in my apartment and its held up for 3 years of abuse so far.

I would recommend the ceramic tile that looks like wood flooring. Much more durable and maintenance free than any wood flooring. Comes in many colors and normally 6"x24". Had it put in my dining room and kitchen a few years ago.

That all seems relatively minor damage unless you didn't list it all. I wouldn't call that "wrecked" compared to some I have seen after tenants.

Some of that stuff is easy and cheap to replace such as a garbage disposal ($100).

Where did you find the tenant though and how hard was it to evict them?
did they have pets?

I promise you it was above and beyond normal wear and tear...

I plan on listing to sell this property before the tax on capital gains is triggered early next year since it was my previous home and don't want to pay the large capital gains...so I don't want to sink large amounts of money in it before selling...

Yes, they had pets (not on the signed lease)...fecal matter all over the house...ripped up carpet...damaged hardwoods...kid (also not on lease) drew all over the walls with markers and crayons...every room with carpet was filthy and beyond disgusting from pit bull and spilled food and drinks all over the place...was very difficult to evict...6 deputies were needed to control the situation the day of eviction...found the tenant from another real estate agent which produced fraudulent background check (will be pursuing her very soon)...so any recommendations for an attorney to listen to my case???

Plenty of sordid information that I cannot divulge on here...it was a definite learning experience!!

vbl - is that an updated phone number?? I called, but got a voice message that did not appear to match up (based on name, voice, etc.)

That sounds horrific. I'm potentially going to be leasing my 2200sf townhome soon and this scares the hell out of me. Call it what you wanna call if but I will be very selective of who I rent my place to.

IDaggie06 said:

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That sounds horrific. I'm potentially going to be leasing my 2200sf townhome soon and this scares the hell out of me. Call it what you wanna call if but I will be very selective of who I rent my place to.

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Good luck. I rented to a $200K+ salary guy that works for BP. Long story short, I'm facing an insurance claim of about $50K due to a water leak.

How long were they there? We have a townhome and are thinking of renting it out vs selling but we know people suck so will probably sell and be done with it.

And it sounds like they were a disaster, but I'd still consider that pretty lucky on the cost front. Sure, you don't expect them to have piss and **** everywhere, but you do pretty much assume to repaint the whole interior after a renter and replace the carpet after a few years of renting. Just the cost of renting a house.

Was leased for around 18 months...but the last time I walked into the unit was about 6 months ago, and there was no dog, damage, etc...so everything essentially happened within the past 4-6 months...so it can happen extremely fast...my story is a very unique one in the sense that I got a fraudulent background check that I relied on, but damage can occur from anyone...

My advice for the posters above thinking about doing the same would be to weigh the risk ($ damages and value of your property) vs rewards ($ take home per month)...I somewhat failed to think about that and got wrapped up with what I thought was a great P&L for each month, but I didn't think about the $15K in damages someone could put on an extremely nice townhome unit that would wipe away all the profits so quick and hurt the long term value of the property.

Yeah, if you rent you basically have to factor in the price to replace the carpet, repaint the whole house, minor repairs, redo landscaping, etc. and finding new tenants every year. If not, you're preparing for best case scenario, which isn't smart. Because, as I said, people suck.