It had been occupied since the time that I bought the building by the former caretaker for the past landlord. In exchange for taking out the trash, cleaning up the common area, putting down salt, and collecting rent, he had been living for free outside of paying his electric. He also preformed basic maintenance work, but after seeing the quality of the things pieced together throughout the building, I never really got to a point where I trusted him to do any maintenance work for me.
One other important service that he offered was to "keep the building safe" from a lot of the drug dealing and other activities that were happening on East Clifton (or "the EC" as it was known to most). He knew a lot of the players in the area and they respected him enough to listen to him when he told them couldn't deal in front of my building. (more on this later). He also kept an eye on my other tenants and their cars parked out front to keep them from being messed with.
I'm really grateful that he was there to help me when I started out with my first building. There was a lot that I didn't know about the building and the neighborhood that I learned from him over the past 3 years. He was genuinely a good guy that was working hard to support himself through school at Cincinnati State and various kids of his with other mothers. He fell in and out of health problems and issues with work when Toby Keith's stiffed him and the rest of its employees when they went bankrupt. He always landed back on his feet though because he had a good work ethic and attitude.
Over the course of living and talking with him, I learned some interesting history of the building which included:
- that the piles of dirt throughout the basement were the result of when they replaced the boiler system. They dug into the hillside of the vacant lot side of the building and busted a hole in the foundation to get it down there, but since they didn't own the lot itself they couldn't dump the hillside dirt back there and instead dumped it inside the basement before cylinder blocking the hole back up
- that the caretaker before him had keys to every apartment and ended up going to a female tenant's apartment and raping/murdering her. I chalked this up to a tall tale until a neighbor referenced my building as "the one where that girl got raped and murdered". I don't really want to know any more details on this event.
But over the course of the 3 years that he lived with me in the building, the value that he was providing gradually declined as I learned the ropes of handling the building myself. It started with me collecting my own rents, then doing the maintenance work to a higher quality, then shoveling and salting the walks when he took too long after the snow, then cleaning the common areas myself when it wasn't getting done. It got to the point that really all that he was doing was taking the trash cans in and out and then "keeping the building safe". At this point I decided to step him up o paying rent and started with having him pay $165/mo, which was roughly equal to the water, heat, insurance, and real estate taxes of his portion of the building. He was still at a steep discount and not really doing much to earn it. After a year of this arrangement and no more vacant units in the building to renovate, I gave him the news that his was next. But I needed a break, so I offered to extend him for 6 months until the summer at the full price without a discount ($300). He chose to leave instead of taking the extension, which I didn't really get. His newest job had been outside of Cincinnati and I later learned that he moved to Detroit after leaving.
This is the quality of the apartment when he left. Much of it I'm sure was a result of him, but not really seeing the inside of this apartment during the 3 years that he lived there I can't say for sure. I had no idea it was in this bad of condition. Some of the things that weren't captured on camera are the cockroaches, the strong smoke smell and layer of grim on every surface from it, the grease/oil splatters on the walls/cabinets around the stove, or the leaking water shut off valves under multiple sinks and the shower handle. Needless to say this apartment was long overdue for a renovation and attention.
Carpeting squares that he placed on the linoleum. Beyond dirty.
Miscellaneous crap
Incense still stuck into the wall where he masked the smoking smell. It's a wonder that there weren't fires.
The kitchen that was cleaned out and still one of the grossest things I've ever seen.
Kitchen bar that has tiles off. That'll go.
What is hard to see is the mold and water damage between the stove and cabinet that I'll need to figure out. The subfloor will need inspected and redone most likely.
So much oil/grease everywhere around the stove. Not sure if the stove itself is salvageable. This whole set of kitchen cabinets is done.
Bedroom area
Taped window in the bedroom
Bathroom with mismatched tiles that will all need to come up. The subfloor doesn't feel good.
Leaking tub handles. Most likely this wholetub will need redone.
Leaking shut off and vanity that's toast.
As you can see, I've got my work cut out for me here.
Probably the most interesting thing that I've noticed since he left was actually the opposite of his role of "keeping the building safe". I've noticed that a lot of the usual characters on the street have actually gone missing, and wonder how much he might have actually been a magnet for some of it even if he wasn't directly involved. Then again he left at a time when a police camera was also added to the street to surveil said characters. Even without him in the building, I think I've developed enough of a reputation with the neighbors and even the guys on the street that I shouldn't have any trouble "keeping the building safe". I haven't had a problem yet (knock on wood).
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