OK, applicant gave me a deposit. I am doing the credit check. He really is an engineer (Tulane). He has a baby grand piano. I looked up the weight and it's about 500 lbs. Uh oh. What will this do to the floor in a 1950s cape cod? It has a metal support beam and some metal pillars in the basement. I can still give the deposit back. What is your opinion?

Plus the piano has 3 legs. All three share the load. It's like having three 166 lb tenants standing near each other.

OH gees, thank you. I didn't think that through. All the weight is placed on three smaller points though so 180 lbs per leg on a few inches of area?

I won't worry though because a roomful of people would weigh a whole lot more. Nice guy. Early forties. Single at this time and I didn't pry into why that would be. Faxed form in for credit check. Says he owns condo in FL and is part of a LLC in NYC with relatives. Has FL license. Credit check company is very thorough and I asked for other searches too. If he has issues, they will find them. I hope this turns out OK. He said he likes to move snow. I mentioned that I need to get a snowblower also in the garage (with his older Mercedes).

Says he will keep house temperature at legal minimums. Good thing I put supplementary baseboard upstairs with the young couple about to have a baby. But heat rises so they should be toasty.

In general, he seems like an interesting person and he must play piano pretty well to want to move a baby grand to your place? Tulane is an awesome albeit expensive school, and he sounds like he's educated and gainfully employed. Maybe his work is nearby and likes the charm of your place with hardwood floors and some decades-old-period architectural touches. Did you get a read on him, and does he seem pretty normal?

I had a retired jeweler move into an apartment a 5,000 pound John Tan Safe without my permission. He had no valuables in the save, but didn't want to store it in the garage, it may rust or get stolen.

The professional safe movers put down plates when moving the safe and did no damage. I can't say the same when the tenant moved out the safe. To save money he did not hire safe movers, just hourly movers. The save fell through the floor, causing much damage. When the tenant tried to pull out the safe from the floor, again with clowns as movers, the entire living/dining room members/joist got displaced and/or damaged.

I had to replace all of the sub framing, sub floor and wood flooring. I had to sue the tenant and get a judgement. He laughed saying he was judgement proof.

A 500 pound piano with large 6" cups under the wheels should do little to no damage.....

Ally, if your concerned about possible damage require it to be moved in by professional piano movers. I imagine that since he actually plays the piano, he won't want to have it damaged & will agree to this. As others have said the legs can be placed on casters to help spread the load even further.

Google:

this is what jumped out at me ...

"Nice guy. Early forties. Single at this time and I didn't pry into why that would be."

Salernitana, yes, he works a few blocks away for the state Dept of Transportation and doesn't want to drive too far to work. I did get a read on him and it was all over the place like he is a jumpy/boyish kind of guy. He may be left brained at work and right brained everywhere else. He is an Aries. When he was writing he was not jumpy. Sometimes engineers are so rigid and mechanical in their speech that they go totally opposite when they are talking to people. He was very animated in his speech. I googled around and he may have had a rock band when he was younger.

CDM, I did let him know about the town rules of no noise before 8 and after 10PM and he was OK with that.

Robert J, so sorry to hear about the safe disaster. tenants are so maddeningly self centered. I have new thick carpeting on the floors and good padding. I will see that something is put under the piano feet and will offer to help pay for the piano move if he gets the local piano mover and he already knows who they are since he mentioned them.

Steve, yes those stiletto heals actually used to punch holes in the flooring in airplane aisles, I read years ago.

Vee, singing holiday songs has already been mentioned. I think he can do better than a 300 pounder. I have this image of all the tenants gathered around that lovely fireplace and signing. I actually hope this all happens. I think he had a punk rock group. I found a video that might have him in it. Good sound too and I'm not a fan of that.

My baby grand piano has not caused any damage whatsoever, except to my sleep (when I want to sleep and my wife wants to play). It was moved in by professionals, who also removed the old one and delivered it to my mother's place.

My wife has a pretty nice expensive baby grand in our main room,..The care and feeding it is expensive, Has to be tuned every year more or less,..and in winter there is a built in humidifier for days in winter that you have to re hydrate every few days plus a regular humidifier in the room with a gauge o keep it in a good range,.in summer the AC has to be on even if we are away,

Can't have the sun hit directly on it,..yeah like having an expensive pet.

My wife keeps several music instruments in the same tightly controlled temp humidity room.

These instruments can get very expensive, The Viola bows are 7-9K each,..you don't want to know how much the violas cost,.....

AllyM,

Your story just took a turn for the worse!

Evicted just a year ago is an automatic NO.

OF COURSE it was not his fault. OF COURSE he is part of an investment groups so THAT was not his fault.

The car thing?? WHAT!?! I'm supposed to believe he handed over keys to a Mercedes...

Like a typed a few nights ago, you get the strangest people!

PASS! RUN!!

BRAD

Thanks Brad. The alternatives who also emailed me are: A woman whose name came up as part of a pair of robbers ten years ago. The second one is from a family of known bad behavers. The third one gave just her first name and then got annoyed because I had not called her right away when she emailed me again.

Oh my, like Brad I too instantly jumped when I read about the eviction? Are you sure that you want to rent to him? I understand about the alternatives who don't sound like better prospects, however, it sounds like your place is in an urbanish area that's close enough to some major State, County or City administration buildings? Anyway, I understand that you might be hoping to rent out the place before the weather turns. Indeed, the Aries guy sounds like he is literally all over the place with roots or ties in New York, Florida, and Louisiana. Anyway, a thrash or punkish musician who owns a baby grand might just be someone who has an odd curiosity for beautiful instrumental pieces or can actually play having had classical training.

No one wants you to go through another awful tenant like the mold lady, so please do proceed with caution and hone in on any bad messages if you are given any. Best of luck and please keep us posted.

AllyM,

We know he has plenty of money because he still has checks in his checkbook! :)

"I'm sure he will be fine." I love your humor!

BRAD

AllyM,

Your last post is full of red flags that just spell drama. Moving past the eviction... What habitability issues? His tenants not paying because he can't keep his rental in shape? This sound like a story you will hear again when you are not being paid.

OK, it's not that he has a lot of checks in his checkbook, I kind of saw about 7 written numbers across which means he has seven figures in the amount in his checkbook.

I do see a lot of drama around him but the drama that I would create by skipping the second and third email and not contacting them is much worse if someone complains.

When I had twenty units, almost half of the tenants had the birth sign of Aries. Half of them drove red cars. Now I'm not going to get into astrology, but there is something not beneficial to some people for being born in early spring. I don't know if it's going through the winter in utero, or arriving to a cold iffy spring but there is an effect. If someone on the spiritual level is giving us a guidebook to personalities by using the stars, I will have to find that out later. Right now I just think it's the effect of weather etc on a fetus or baby. Sorry if anyone here is of the Aries sign, but you guys jump off cliffs first and ask questions later.

Since he had three cars at the earlier rental, he may be fixing cars for fun. Well, there is a garage so neighbors would not have to see that. I will find out tomorrow if he is going to take the apartment. He is the safest choice as he was the first to contact me. I suggest if you use Craigs List that you use your phone number not their email since emails are dated and if you want to skip someone, you can't because they can complain discrimination and have proof. Have the phone go to your answering machine. I will keep you posted.

Is this really AllyM?

Color of their car? I have 2 red, 2 white, 1 black, 1 green, 1 yellow dune buggy. Would I qualify?

Now he has 3 cars to park at the rental, some may be projects. Red flags everywhere!!!

AllyM, ya know I love ya!

Can’t wait to hear what happens next!

Brad, he only has the one older Mercedes now. His credit is excellent. The landlord eviction record gave me the name of his former landlord. It's a guy that is well known around here since he owns small stores and has lost a lot of them. He is an S. O. B. in and a very nasty man.