Sell or rent again

[Adam Bauman]

I was recently talked into electing to not renew a lease with tenants and put my house on the market by a real estate agent.  The comps she showed me justified getting out of the area and investing in more up and coming neighborhoods where I could turn my one rental into two or more and increase my cash flow.  After the tenants moved out, I realized there was a lot more work than I anticipated to get the house show ready and additional research into the market indicated that the property would not sell for the amount presented by my agent.

Now I'm in a situation where I have a house that is in poor condition and I have the option to sell as-is (which I don't want to do), fixing it up to a decent level of quality and seeing what I can get for it, fixing it up to a high level of quality to get top dollar or fixing it up to a decent quality to get better tenants in.

I have no regrets ending the lease with the previous tenants since they did not take very good care of the property and it needed a lot of repairs.  Besides doing more research into the market and finding out for myself the true market value of the property, what advice can anyone give me about what to do next?

[Account Closed]

Here's my story.  It may encourage you and others.  I was a landlord in the City of Detroit for 13 years (my husband for 30 years)  and we owned properties in high falootin area's and we owned some in some area's that were good but had turned bad.  You know what I found out?  I had some pretty bad tenants in my high falootin area's and I had some pretty good tenants in my bad area's.  

We need to know that this is a business of "People Management", good contracts (lease agreements) and how well we implement the rules.  I treated everyone, no matter how wealthy they were or how poor,  in the same manner.  I chastised those who disobeyed the rules and read them the riot act when I needed too.  I took care of their emergency repairs immediately and the general repairs in the order they were received. They knew and trusted me (and that's a big thing...TRUST).

You can make a profit off this property if you know how to do what's morally right.  My tenants stayed with us for 20 years and hardly anyone less than 6 years, and we had 40 rental properties. 

The reason they stayed so long with us was because we had a good landlord/tenant relationship which entailed respect for each other, no matter what type of neighborhood they lived in or who they were.

Landlording was and still is in my blood.  I have a passion for it.  People seem to know when it's more than a business with you and my tenants always told me that.  So..... I hope this has inspired you! 

Nancy Neville