Poor CF investment, Advice on selling below market rented unit

Poor CF investment, Advice on selling below market rented unit

Rental Property Investor · Member since 2021 · 1 post · 0 votes

Hey everyone just looking for a bit of advice and support in my next moves toward real estate investing.  Full disclosure, I've made A LOT of rookie mistakes and I shouldn't have trusted others to know what was best when it came to buying a property.  In the past couple of months, after research and analyzing I've come to realize all my mistakes.  What I need now is advice on a a way to get back on track.

  So when I initially invested in my current property, I had nothing in the way of an investor mindset.  I had just always heard that it's a good idea to invest in a home, not really understanding why.  So my first mistake was to make an offer at the listing price right off the bat.  My second mistake was to buy a condo when I should have bought either a better deal or a duplex.  Anyways,  I aquired the property, lived in it for about a year, and probably did about $5,000 worth of improvements.  When I moved in with my girlfriend I did some research on being a landlord and wrote up some of my SOPs and a lease.  I then posted a for rent ad on facebook well below the market rent because I thought, "Hey, there's a major housing crisis in my region right now, I'll help out some people by offering an affordable price."  As you might expect, I was inundated with almost 100 messages with in the first 3 hours of posting.  I was overwhelmed and picked about 20 people to respond to.  I went through the whole screening process and signed(a year long lease) with a young couple(19years old and 21 years old) looking for their first apartment together away from their parents.  They gave me a security deposit along with first and last.  A property manager, who I know, because we're both on the board of the condo, contacted me and told me I'd listed the rental way too low.  After our 30 min conversation I'd realized I'd made a pretty big mistake and it's going to be pretty challenging to rectify it without my new tenants leaving.

To make a long story short, I've made a bunch of errors and am trying to get back on track sooner rather than later. I barely, and I mean barely, break even on renting out the unit currently. Meaning, that if anything causes me to spend money on maintenance I lose money on it. Fortunately, the unit is in very good condition, and the HOA takes care of a lot of the other things. My options right now are to wait until the end of the current lease and jack up the price to market rents, increase the price by a more reasonable amount being 10%, or tell the tenants I'm not renewing the lease. But all of that is a year out. What I'd like to do, is to sell the condo ASAP so that I can put it towards a down payment for a better investment. But currently having tenants in the property who are paying WAY below market rent right now, I imagine, makes that very tricky. I would greatly appreciate any advice. The housing market it hot right now, so should I get a realtor and try to sell? Should I try to sell to the tenants? Should I try to refinance even though I don't have much equity built up yet? Is there a way out at all? I appreciate any advice.

0Reply
29 views

2 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Real Estate Agent · Tampa, FL · Member since 2020 · 411 posts · 373 votes
    5y

    Tenants paying below-market rent will make the condo un-sellable to investors.  You have a year of barely break even medicine to take for the mistake, and then there will be the two options of selling or increasing rent.  If it were me I would hold onto the condo and increase rent, making it comparable to at least other units in the building (consult the PM that you know on the board for what that is).  If the the tenants get angry and leave that will be fine, you wouldn't want them there long term anyway.  I suspect they will be expecting a rent increase knowing they are paying below market currently.  And I suspect that because the path of least resistance will be to stay and pay the increased rent, that's what they will do.

    Far worse mistakes have been made in the world of investing and at least here you're close to break even rather than losing everything as some have done.

  • Member since 2021 · 1 post · 0 votes
    5y

    Ronald,

    Thanks for the advice. I do feel fortunate that at the very least my tenants are paying my mortgage and HOA fees. From a business/growth standpoint it sucks. I was hoping to move forward sooner with a new property sooner rather than later but it looks like I'll have to stick it out. I'm not in a position to be able to do an FHA loan otherwise I'd go that route since I've got plenty for savings for that sort of deal. Thanks again.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.