Condo Drama

This past week has been filled with condo drama.  When we moved out of our townhouse last year we found great renters right away. They stayed for over a year, but last October they moved out. Boo.  We replaced carpet, scrubbed it top to bottom and had it ready to go for new renters, but couldn't seem to generate very much interest. After searching for a while we finally had some boys say they wanted to move in in December. At the time we had both cars need to go in the shop and various other random repairs and bills that were creeping up so we thought anyone was better than leaving it empty another month.  Ummm...wrong. What a nightmare.

After having a hard time getting these new renters to ever call me back, I finally reached one of them last Monday after threatening to have all their utilities turned off the next day. He called and sheepishly informed me that they couldn't pay their rent and would be moving out ASAP.  What!? I gave them until Friday to hit the road, but when I went over to clean on Saturday I walked in to find some idiot asleep on the couch. "Who are you?" I demanded. "Uh...Dylan's friend."  "Well Dylan doesn't live here. Get out now!!!!"   I was not a happy camper. There was crap everywhere. Christmas decorations still hung on the walls, a bag of empty beer cans on the floor.  Dylan stumbled down the stairs and I gave the boys an ultimatum to get out immediately and went over to my friend Melissa's across the street so I didn't kill one of them.

Dear Melissa was kind enough to come over and help me clean, and Hardy got there a little while later, but what an undertaking. I had been over a few days earlier to look at it and hadn't thought it was too bad. Upon closer inspection, I was wrong.  What I thought was food on the linoleum turned out to be burns. There are also cigarette burns in the brand new carpet in the living room and red punch stains in a bedroom. The washer and dryer were broken, and they shattered the outside pane of the sliding glass door. On top of that it was absolute filth. I can't imagine what it would be like had they lived their any longer. So, so gross. Oh, and my friend informed me that they were having late night parties that rocked the neighborhood. Seriously, what were we thinking? We should have let it sit vacant another month. Lying little....  "We won't smoke. We will be working so late we won't have time to party. We're very clean." Blah blah. I will never trust boys again. We could kick ourselves.

On a positive note, we were not only able to get it cleaned up, even if it is a little worse for wear, but we also found some awesome renters. They already gave us their deposit and we plan to sign an 16 month lease on Saturday. He's a cop, she's a teacher at the school where Hardy coaches (so we were able to check her out ;) Their current landlord says they have been excellent tenants, so we are feeling good. It's been a major head ache, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and a regular rent check in out future. Big relief. I'm just praying now that it all works out and goes through on Saturday.

What a way to start 2011.