Looking at renting out house and have a lot of questions

[Geoff V.]

Hello,

As you can probably tell, I just joined the site. I found it while searching for ideas and insight on my current situation, and found it to be a great resource.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind some further insight and suggestions.

Due to job issues, and wanting to take advantage of the current market, I just bought a second house to move into. The original house is underwater too much to want to sell, but I feel it has decent potential to come back up in the next five years or so. This leaves me trying to rent it out. (Which is a good start I guess, I've been wanting to get into real estate investing anyway.)

The property:
A 3/2.5 with a great room, living room, rec room, and office. 2400 sq. ft. in a great family neighborhood. Seems we are in one of the best school districts around. House is about 8 years old.
All the hallways, great room, and rec room are tiled. The bedrooms, office and living room are carpeted.
Looking around, and talking with my real estate agent, it looks like I can reasonably expect to see $1400-$1600 a month, which likely means I need to make sure what stuff I do add is of decent quality.

I have a ton of questions, and looking for general insight as well. I'll just put a few questions to start.

1)Property Manager?
I've been advised that for one house that is pretty well built that I should just do everything myself. Thoughts on this? I haven't done this before, but am interested in learning, so I'm leaning towards giving it a go myself to start and falling back on a manager if it becomes too time consuming or annoying.

2) Common fixes
Is there anything I should fix, or make more resilient before renting? What are the most common calls? Would you recommend a Home Warranty of some sort?

3) Flooring
I need to replace the carpet in the master bedroom, the living room, and likely the office. I was considering putting in some kind of hard floor, tile or wood in the office and living room. Thoughts on this?
I was considering investing a bit more on the non-carpeted flooring with the idea that it'll likely be there when i try to sell in several years.

SO yea, any advice or things I may be forgetting to consider would be greatly appreciated.

-Geoff

[Kyle Meyers]

1. I would say you don't need a property manager. Make sure you educate yourself on how to manage it and ask any questions you have on BP, there are a lot of people here who can help you. Before I rented out my first unit, I read Property Management for Dummies, it gave me a lot of information that I needed to make sure I did everything the right way. I wish I would have seen this site then, it would have saved me a lot of time searching for the answers to a few questions the book didn't answer for me. Once I came across BP, I read through all the blog articles that related to fixing up and renting properties, there is a lot of information there. If you read up on everything, you will have almost as much book smarts (maybe more) than a property manager you would hire, you will only be lacking in experience, and hopefully the experiences of others on BP can fill that in some for you.

2. Obviously anything that is wrong with plumbing, electric, hvac, or appliances has to be fixed. Any stained flooring should be cleaned or replaced. Anything that doesn't look like it is up to par for a $1500 rental home should be fixed up. Potential tenants will notice cosmetic problems. Once tenants move in they will notice any functional problems.

3. The flooring choices will depend a little on what your competition has. If most rental homes in the area have carpeted bedrooms, so should yours. Carpet will not hold up as long as other flooring options, so you may want to put hardwood or tile in the office and living room.

Other things to consider: screen your tenants, you don't want someone with 3 evictions and no job moving in. Get a good lease that complies with your local laws. You will have to read up on the laws yourself, or find a lawyer who can do that for you.