Star Bright's New Baby!

Stretch calls me on the radio to come to the North maintenance shop.  He his giggling over the radio.  When I get there he is standing in the doorway and says he just seen Star Bright standing in her doorway to her apartment holding a baby.  He said "I was looking and thinking what the fuck?"  The thought of Star Bright with a child is frighting.  Then he says it was a doll that she is caring around and pretending it's a baby.  I said "No Way!, Really?"  He points up to the third floor to the door opening at Kung Fu Panda's apartment where Star Bright is now coming out of (apparently they are getting pretty close now, my daughter said she is sure they will be living together in less than 2 months).  She is caring 2 dolls now.  As she is coming down the steps she sees us both watching her and asks "have you guys met George and Rebeca yet? "No" we both reply at the same time.  I"m trying to get the camera on my phone to load.  She walks up to us and holds both of them up.  I ask "Can I get a picture of this?"  "Sure" she says.  So, I snap one right away.  Stretch is just laughing!  We have 2 tenants that live here named George and Rebeca they are couple but, now they live in different apartments (another story).  So, I ask "how did you choose those names?"  She holds up the bunny and says "Well... Rebeca just sounded like a motherly name". And then holding up the baby she continues "I named this one George because he has a monkey on his shirt". 

Kung Fu Panda's Car

I walked by Kung Fu Panda's car this morning and just felt I should share.

So much happens in one day!

There is so much that happens in one day you wouldn't believe. It's hard to get the time to write about it.  Today, there was at least 5 people to see apartments, 4 applications to process and send in.  9 Voicemails from Stan.  He also called 7 times while I was at lunch.  Scheduled carpet instillation for 2 apartments, and steam cleaning for 2 others.  One guys fridge quit working, 3 people complaining about the 3 day notice they received (one even spoke English!) and a lease renewal.  I received at least 6 phone calls inquiring about apartments for rent.  However, half of them where just evicted yesterday and the rest had felonies and wanted to know it that was a problem. One girl that came to turn in her application for an apartment didn't have any money (they need to have an application fee and deposit before we run an application).  She said "I"ll bring you the app fee and deposit in a couple of weeks.  I have to use this weeks paycheck to pay the outstanding balance at our last apartment.  We where evicted and I owe them money."  Another call was a woman that wants to know how many evictions can they have before we would deny an application.  She was evicted a couple of weeks ago and is living with her mother and some other relatives and they are getting evicted and needs a place right away. I had several calls back and forth with some other apartment complexes and our collection agency about some outstanding balances (on a couple of people that moved out last year to "follow the Lord", which apparently was in Texas at the time).  One tenant stopped me today to tell me about one of his neighbors that is dealing drugs (the DA's office called me about them last week).  Old man Bob our grounds keeper spent time in a vacant unit today trying once again to get rid of the smell of cat piss!  He has spent many weeks off and on with several different chemicals and it still smells strong!  I confiscated 2 bicycles today, one for the second time.  The other bike's owners came to me and wanted his bike back.  He is from Nepal and is apparently stupid, slow in the head, or just likes buying new bikes.  I looked at him and asked "how many times have we had this conversation? 37, 38 maybe 40?  How many bikes have I taken from you?  Probably 10?"  "If I give you your bike back are you going to chain it to the fence again?"  He responds (be sure to use an Indian accent for full effect)  "No Sir!, I will keep it in my apartment"  I looked at him and shook my head "sure you will, just like the last 10 times" then went and retrieved this bike. At one point a real irritating tenant with too many barking dogs is running to catch me in the parking lot between buildings and tells me her light in the hall exploded.  I had to print an invoice for utilities and deliver to a tenant that needed it to apply for help with her heating bill, she said she destroyed the one we mailed her.  We had a cleaning lady from one of our other properties come to work at our property today to clean some vacant units.  She cleans slow and talks fast.  You just have to walk away from her or she will never quit talking!  I told her today she needed to pick up the pace... She wanted to talk about it!  Go Figure!  That's about half of the stuff I can think of that happened today.

Drama kills a lease

This nice single mother with her 10 year old daughter shows up to rent a 2 bedroom apartment.  It's close to her work and the price is right.  I take her to the "B" building on the property to show her the apartment.  As we enter the courtyard I can hear loud music.  It's coming from Chevrolet's apartment.  Her door is standing wide open and the music is cranked.  Of course the apartment I'm taking them too is on the third floor and right next door to Chevrolet!  Chevrolet's apartment is right a the top of the stairs.  As I get to the top of the stairs I stick my head in the open door and don't see anyone in site.  I yell Chevrolet's name over the music 2 times.  Then the bedroom door opens and she sticks her head out and I can see she is pissed off.  She screams and I mean screams "I'll turn down the Fucking music, just leave me alone!"  then slams the door.  I unlock the next apartment and take the lady and her daughter inside.  We are in the apartment maybe 20 seconds and then Chevrolet slams her front door so hard it rattles the windows in probably half the building.  Somehow I got the feeling this lady did not want to live next door to Chevrolet.  When I returned to my office I filled out a Violation Notice and posted it on her door.  A couple of hours later she walks in to my office.  I'm talking to the blind guy (more on him later).  She starts in with her "I'm sorry for yelling at you" crap.  I stop her and tell her I've had it with her drama and that she needs to grow-up.  These mood swings and acting like she is trying out for some B film has to stop.  She keeps repeating "I'm sorry, do you forgive me?".  I told her I didn't need her to apologize, I need her to change her actions (I know this is not going to happen).

Love Letters from Tenants!

I love it when I get letters from tenants!  They are great to read out loud over coffee with the crew first thing in the morning (right after listening to the 15+ voice mails from Stan).  This one is from a tenant that moved in just a couple of months ago.  She is in her late 50's, single and babysits her 2 granddaughters during the day. Her apartment is on the ground floor right across the pool from the office.  Her windows & blinds to her apartment are open all the way 24/7.  When the temp reached -20, her windows where wide open.  I went to door to make sure someone was home and didn't just leave and forget to close the windows.  She says she leaves them open because she smokes. 

Here is the letter I received in the rent drop box a week or so ago...

This is great, she says she hardly goes there.  But, she is there everyday to babysit her granddaughters that get dropped off at 8 AM.  I called her and left her a voice mail addressing her questions and concerns.  As for people looking through her windows, it seems pretty simple to me... Close them!  She feels scared?  We have a security patrol that walks the property 4 times a night and they have received no calls to her unit.  I let her know that there are 6 other single female tenants that live on her floor in the same building and I have not received any complaints from them about safety.  Oh, the dishwasher is "broken".  The problem is she broke the soap door off and says the dishwasher will not work without it.  I let her know we are trying to locate one and that the machine will operate just fine with out it.  I'll try to share more letters!

Payment from Stan

Stan's dad that's 93 or 94 pays Stan's rent each month.  Stan only has to pay his utilities.  He always pays the same way.  He writes a check and folds it in half and in half again.  He then places in a #10 envelope writes on the front and back.  Then that envelope goes in another #10 envelope, he writes on the front and the back.  Just to get an idea of how his minds works, I have included pics!

Outside Envelope - Front

Outside Envelope -Back

Inside Envelope - Front

Inside Envelope - Back

 

 

Stan's Check

Someone call the Police, he's going to kill me!

The Friday before Valentines day in the morning the front door to the office flies open and it's Chevrolet screaming "Someone call the Police, he's going to kill me!".  Her arms are flay-ling above her head and her purse goes sailing on to the couch.  She is yelling and is struggling to breath as she paces around from one room to the next repeating "call the Police, he's going to kill me".  Stretch and I look at each other, she is a little more upset this time than usual.  I ask repeatedly "Chevrolet, who are you talking about?"  "I can't call the police without knowing who your talking about."  She will not say.  Stretch and I open the office door and look outside, the courtyard is empty.  She is still moving around the office and clubhouse at full speed saying "he's going to kill me!"  She then asks to use the office phone to call her mama.  She steps from the lobby into my office to use the phone.  Then the front door of the office opens with such force I thought it was coming off for sure.  There stands a large muscular black man.  He looks past me and say's "Chevrolet, what the f*ck are you telling these guys?"  Now she is back to screaming at full volume.  I have seen this guy around the property over the past few weeks.  He comes into the clubhouse with one of the tenants to workout on the free weights.  He is covered with prison tats and is just plan tough looking.  He is in his mid 20's.  He is now trying to get past me and I keep moving back and forth to block his path.  He keeps saying "I just want to talk to Chevrolet".  He is being very aggressive and obviously angry.  He get tired of the dancing pretty quickly and makes a move to get around me.  He is heading into my office and I grab his coat where it buttons together at the chest and together we come to a stop when I hit the unopened half the the french doors to my office. I come to a stop and that spins him around to make him face me and he is loosing his balance.  He falls back on the office chairs and make eye contact with me for the first time.  I let go of his coat with my right hand a place it around his neck and get a good grip.  There was a little look of surprise in his eyes and I told him he is leaving my office now!  As he starts to regain his balance Stretch how has a hold of him too.  We stand him up and start pushing him backwards towards the door.  He makes another attempt to get by us and now pictures are coming off the wall and flyers, pens and business cards are flying everywhere (don't forget about Chevrolet screaming).  We push him back to the door and I keep telling him he need to "calm down, just go outside and calm down."  We now have him half way out the door, he is holding on to the door jam with both hands.  Then I see behind him is another black guy approaching.  I'm thinking, oh great!  This guy comes up and grabs the first guy buy the shoulders and tells him to calm down and just leave.  Finally, he complies and lets go.  I shut the door and lock it.  Then I call the Security guys and the Police.  Chevrolet is on the phone with her mama. She is telling her she can't tell the police who he is because he just got out of prison and is on parole, he is a gang-banger and he will just have her killed.