For the people suggesting income property, how active are you in managing it yourselves, or do you hire a property management company for hands off?
Answer this question.
You've acquired a nifty rental and you're screening prospective tenants.
You see my name and number listed on a application as current landlord, you call me.
I tell you the guys good, pays his rent on time never caused me any trouble.
Would this make you feel confident in renting to this guy?
I've gave tenants a good reference because I wanted them the hell out of my house so I could try to clean it back up. I've never had renters take care of yards and all my rentals were single family homes. I couldn't handle the stress of watching people destroy my stuff and couldn't make money unless I managed the homes and did the repairs. I had a place charge me $530 to replace a thermostat with one that was $22 at walmart.
I unfortunately sold most of my rentals too early a few years ago. I missed the big run up I was planning for when I bought them. I tried to sell my last one about 3 months ago for a huge profit but my wife didn't want to let it go. It's already down about $50k in value in just the last few months.
After our renters moved out last month we had to clean the inside with snow shovels and 39 gallon trash bags. They even left their dishes in the sink dirty. Garbage everywhere. Hauled 4 full pickup bed loads of just garbage to the dump them a few more loads of their belongings they refused to come get. Then their dad called and asked for the deposit back. I laughed and said that didn't cover the yard work and the inside of the house was much worse.
Renters can really suck but if my timing would have been better I could have made a lot of money. I was into my houses an average of about $125k each and a few months ago they were all valued between $350k-$400k if I would have still had them. I just raised rent on our last one when I rerented it. The last slobs were only paying $1200, I raised it to $1700 and rented it easily. However a few years ago our taxes and insurance averaged about $180 a month. Now it's over $450 a month so I only see $1250 of the $1700.
Bb
