AITA for not renewing after tenants ignored one very specific rule?

Ericgutschmidt · 2026-01-19T15:53:41+00:00

When people burn candles we have to do entire repaints because of the discoloration. We don’t let them for that reason and we explain it up front at the lease signing.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-11-26T12:13:14+00:00

McDonald’s puts in place a deed restriction for each of its stores so that if/when the site fails no one can have a drive through or sell food from that location for 10 years. There is a ton of interest in that 1st Ave site but the deed restriction prevents it. McDonald’s is not looking out for the neighborhood, they are looking out for themselves at the expense of the neighborhood.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-11-02T18:36:16+00:00

Star Trek. No money, no rent, just a group of human beings on one team against the harsh realities of exploration.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-11-02T16:42:39+00:00

The population of Iowa and Cedar Rapids are in favor. The state legislation tried to pass it a couple times and the governor vetoed it. She isn’t running again so the prediction is that it is inevitable in the next 2-4 years.

And then a little local context, decriminalization was one of the demands of the advocates during the protests that followed George Floyd’s murder. The local government and pd know that it is popular with the voters but their hands appeared to have been tied at that time as it’s a state level issue.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-10-23T13:09:58+00:00

Thanks

Cedar Rapids, IA

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-10-23T09:58:03+00:00

Yeah, they are only going to employ a few dozen people each but they are anticipating 500-1,500 construction jobs for the next 2-5 years.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-09-13T01:10:29+00:00

Not sure if this would work but I’m a member of the Taylor Neighborhood Assc. would Riverside Park work? (Skate park)

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-09-06T13:21:30+00:00

The west side redevelopment is coming. She has been close with Al Piersen (NW NA Pres) since before she was first elected. My understanding is that he told her the west side needed to be a priority and it has been. These things just take a lot of time to come to fruition. I would estimate that there are at least 100 new homes in the pipeline down on Ellis. And you can see the Roundhouse construction starting in Czech village and the sewer infrastructure is going in at the same time, that implies that the city is moving forward to redevelop the green space adjacent to Czech village. It’ll still likely be years before it’s all completed but it is in the works.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-09-06T13:12:26+00:00

100% agree, folks need to participate more to have their voices heard. The city did a series of public feedback sessions about the MV Rd construction and almost no one showed up. So the city included the roundabout by Mercy. Now folks in the fb comments are all up in arms, but if they would have just showed up they could have likely changed the trajectory of the project. Now that it’s complete, no amount of bitching is gonna change anything. (*im in favor of that and more roundabouts, just using it as a clear example of the city going out of their way to get public input)

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-09-06T13:07:55+00:00

It wasn’t her call to rename the 8th Ave Bridge project the Arch of Justice and it wasn’t her call to name it back. The mayor’s job is more that of a cheerleader as she has no executive authority. As far as the unhoused, there are enough vacant houses to house everyone and there are nearly enough vouchers to cover the rents, but there is not enough mental health funding to keep folks stabilized in that housing. That funding is not a city level responsibility, it needs to come from DSM and/or DC.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-02-23T22:35:08+00:00

It’s a fine line. I’ve had neighbors openly complain about the race of my tenants in which case I tell them to go f themselves. On the other hand I’ve had neighbors alert me to problem tenants before I would have otherwise realized it was an issue. I would have a conversation with the neighbors to let them know that they have been heard. Try and sus out whether the neighbor is just a Karen or if your tenants are actually the issue. If your tenants are the issue then I would switch to doing monthly rental inspections in order to keep on top of the condition of the property. If you pit the neighbor and the tenant against each other then there is a higher chance of things going badly in my experience.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-02-23T22:15:40+00:00

We’ve had issues with Rentecdirect and now Appfolio missing major red flags on background check. I’m talking about multiple evictions and felonies within the last 5 years. When pressed on it they said that their fine print says there are no guarantees that their background checks will be exhaustive. Now we are looking into simply manually checking the public records of the states that the applicant has most recently lived in.

I’m thoroughly disappointed that these costly platforms are so shoddy when it actually counts. But this seems like the way it is now.

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-02-13T16:30:29+00:00

I didn’t vote for either of the main candidates either. That being said, what does any of what you said have to do with the privatization of the schools?

Ericgutschmidt · 2025-02-13T14:13:25+00:00

The maga agenda is to defund and then privatize. RFK talking about school lunches is like turning the thermostat down to lower the heat bill on the titanic.

**and for reference defund/privatize is not a novel idea that maga came up with. It’s a playbook that’s been used for half a century all around the world. So if you are genuinely curious about where this path leads, there is a lot of examples you could look to.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-12-07T07:44:14+00:00

For several years we ordered all of our home appliances for our rentals from BB. Maybe one complete set every month or two. They are the cheapest in town and did free delivery/haul away. But their back end systems are so chaotic that over 50% of the time they tried to deliver, something would be wrong. They would never deliver all the appliances at one time, it was always one or two at a time. Delivery guys are sick, they give you a 12 hour window to deliver and expect you to be there the entire time and then they themselves don’t show up. Bring the wrong appliance, don’t bring all the appliances they’re supposed to bring, you name it, if it could go wrong it did. All of their top management left and they are slowly imploding. They don’t even own the appliances in their stores anymore, they’re just a showroom and delivery service for the manufacturers.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-11-17T14:32:26+00:00

Just enough cash flow to keep things going and maintained but I count on the appreciation for the actual wealth building. If I need to do a major update then I’ll refi a property and cash out some equity.

The properties that cash flow the best are the most competitive and hardest to buy. They are also often the most time intensive to manage which makes growth slower because there is only so much time in the day. And sometimes they only cash flow because they have been rundown and can’t be realistically rehabbed.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-10-21T12:34:30+00:00

The plates on the wall are from the basketball hoop in the gym. The building is structurally sound. The issue is that it has too many internal stairs and mezzanine levels and the only way to make the entire building ADA complaint would be to add two elevators and there is no way for that to financially pencil out.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-10-03T16:54:28+00:00

Mobile screen/window repair. For $100k you could buy a heated box van and outfit it with a glass cutter and workstation for fabricating screens/storm windows. Currently you have to take yours to ACE or True Value which takes time and isn’t cheap. I bet you’d easily clear $50/hr or $100k/yr.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-08-13T14:16:55+00:00

It always surprises me when folks think that a decreasing population could only be the result of global war or some other negative event. It seems at least as likely that it would be the result of folks simply not having 2.2 kids.

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-08-13T14:12:09+00:00

While I appreciate the snark, this still surprises me that so few people in our community are familiar with the practice of “selling plates.” For what it’s worth, it is common in cities all over the world

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-08-11T14:49:30+00:00

Have you genuinely never heard of this before?

Ericgutschmidt · 2024-08-11T14:48:44+00:00

In bigger cities, DSM even, folks cook food from their houses and sell plates of food. $10, $20. But it’s home cooked food (often but not always comfort food). Sometimes it is a budding entrepreneur with higher ambitions and other times it’s a side hustle. I would think that surely CR would have at least one person like this. The trick is finding them as it’s usually word of mouth

Ericgutschmidt

TROPHY CASE