Tulsa, OK and Surrounding Areas Rental / Buy and Hold Investors

[Damian Young]

Hello All:

    I am buying a new home for my family and we are wanting to rent out our current 3/2/1 home at 1802 W. 62nd Street, Tulsa, OK 74132. For the locals, it's West Tulsa in Jenks school district. I have the price range in mind ($950) for what I'm asking for monthly, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips on deposits, pet deposits, laws I should read up on. Also, I am starting out this new real estate journey and wanted to get into buy and hold properties. What are some good reads? I have been using the podcasts and Real Estate Investing For Dummies as a reference and I have the The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People's Money by Brandon Turner and The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing! by Brandon R Turner on my Amazon list, but I don't know which one to buy first. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Callum K.]

Hi Damian.  I'm born and raised in Tulsa, so I am very familiar with the metro.  Most of my properties are in the suburbs (South Jenks, BA, Owasso, Bixby) and are renting for $1200+/mo. To answer your questions, I typically use one month rental rate as the house deposit.  Sometimes I bump it a little higher so that tenants don't assume that the deposit is the last months rent.  As for pets, I started out with a $250/pet refundable pet deposit and that was a disaster, so I changed it to a $250/pet fee (non-refundable) and that didn't work.  Currently I am at $25/pet/month and surprisingly nobody has had any issues with it.  That results in higher rental rates above market rate which has been nice.  

With respect to laws, google the "Oklahoma Landlord Tenant Act".  That has most of the information you will need.  Lease templates and other documentation/information can also be found at the Oklahoma Real Estate Commissions website.  As for reads, I would honestly surf this site.  Its free and has everything you need in my opinion.  The biggest hurdle I see is that people dont take the step and dive in.  If you are thorough and active, the risk on losing money is low.  best of luck!