Sunday, July 01, 2007

Bound to Happen


The GF bought a house in Flint, near Kettering University about a month ago. Property in Flint is pretty damn cheep and she's fixing it up to rent to students because there's a serious shortage of housing on campus. But the inevitable happened last night, someone broke in and stole a bunch of crap. Mostly tools but some other stuff too, they left the work lights and shopvac but took the $2 wax rings for the crappers. They got in through a window in front of the house, our thoughts is that it was someone who lives in the neighborhood, maybe even the PWT slimeball that lives next door (4 cars, 2 of them run and he routinely scrapes the orange tow sticker from the one on the street.) So I'm thinking that once all the construction is done in the house that I go through and do a security upgrade, nothing seriously expensive, good locks on the doors and windows, a deadbolt plate on all the doors, motion sensors for lights above the front and rear door and an ADT sign. Also going to try and find someplace that sells security laminate for the windows, a'la It takes a Thief. So far, the only place to buy the stuff off the net that I have been able to find doesn't sell it in the thickness necessary to stop a smash and grab. Any ideas that might actually work would be appreciated.

4 Comments:

Blogger Cohort Mandibles said...

I'll sit out there for free with my gun just to help rid the land of human pestilence.

2/7/07 05:16  
Blogger Matt McMinn said...

When I lived there, bars on the windows worked well.

2/7/07 06:05  
Blogger Jim Brannick said...

My bro has a house on East Second street that has been sitting vacant since he moved to Millington. He's been trying to rent it out to UM-Flint exchange students, but it hasn't worked because the kids were from India, stayed there two nights and claimed the house was "haunted". What actually happened was that when they moved in (at 2am) they were walking around the streets and they were asked to buy drugs several times. This is definitely not the type of neighborhood to walk around in at night.
About 3 weeks ago, my bro stopped in to check on the house. He found it had been totally trashed inside. Somebody had broken in and methodically ripped the walls out to take all the copper pipes. They ripped out the countertops (really unnecessarily) to get the sinks and all the metal there. They'd taken doorknobs, etc, etc. Most likely it was someone in that neighborhood that knew the house was vacant. Luckily, insurance will cover above and beyond, but still- what a pain in the ass.
As far as rental props- my dad has had a couple for decades now in Flint and they've always gotten broken into (even when people are living there). It seems like a good idea at the time, but he's barely broken even over the years. I recommend your GF offload that house ASAP... she's only in for angst, heartache and a big hole in her wallet owning a house in Flint.

2/7/07 08:09  
Blogger Simon Hawk said...

I agree with Jim, unload that dump ASAP. I have a couple friends trying to do the whole rental house thing in Flint as well. It's nothing but a huge pain in the ass because the houses are always getting trashed.

I know one guy that is able to earn a decent monthly income from Flint rental houses, but he owns 15 of them! I don't know about you but I sure don't want the hassle of dealing with 15 fuckin' houses.

2/7/07 08:35  

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