Have I mentioned how much I hate renting a house? Even more so, I hate renting OUT a house which is the case right now. We own a house in Jacksonville and it’s currently being rented - and the tenant has been late on her payment twice now. In fact, this month we’re “getting paid” on the 24th - which translates to she’s paying our manager on the 24th and we won’t see the money until next month. Oh and we don’t get any of the “late payment fee” money either. I swear we’re being held by our nostrils here. A good thing is that the contract runs out in November. The bad thing is that the contract runs out in … November. HOPEFULLY we get another tenant. But, I hate our management company so much! I wonder if we can re-negotiate the terms of the contract? Has anyone had any luck with that?

Okay, so I lied … It’s a little easier renting than owning a house and renting it out. Unless perhaps you are renting out a house with friends or family nearby? At least then you don’t need a manager that will take $200 a month from you for nothing.

Life was a little easier with the second of our Outer Banks rentals. The first was with a management company and we ran into all sorts of issues (plus, the house was a bit of a slum). The second one was actually owned and managed by a bank (and a guy) and was so much nicer. When something went wrong we just dealt with the one nice person (even when our dog knocked over a bottle of bleach on the carpet!) Oh, by the way, if you’d like to learn a little about TRAVEL in the Outer Banks check out my recent post on my other blog entitled “Travel in the Outer Banks” (yes, I realize it’s a very original post title).

Anyway, the next “rental” was in Spain and it was military housing. So not only was it slummy, it was maintained by local nationals; none of whom spoke English very well.

Here, our landlord is okay. I won’t say anything else since - um, he’s currently our landlord.

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