New buy and hold investor in Richmond VA

[Jennifer H.]

Hi everyone!

Just bought my first official investment property! Whooohooweeee! Closed on it and am looking for tenants now. From what I am reading December seems to be a crap month to rent and I should try to get someone to sign a 16 month lease so it ends of June or July. Feeling stressed during this whole process of choosing a good tenant in but I guess you will get use to it.

My strategy (at least this is what I'm thinking) is buy and hold forever till i retire. Right now starting with townhouses since it seems the least scary then moving on to single family homes when I feel more brave.

Before I found bigger pockets I felt so alone with my thousands of questions! SO glad I found this site. It really is like a goldmine! :) Hoping to make some good friends / find a good mentor from here.

[Robert Leonard]

@Jennifer H. the theme you should remember for screening tenants to fill a vacancy is "haste makes waste!" It is a slow time to rent right now, but there are still prospects out there. Ask me how I know? ;-)

Use a written application and be patient about finding a qualified tenant. Go to J. Scott's website at www.123flip.com to get some good forms to use for the price of your name and email address. The landlords who struggle with tenants are the same ones who will tell you how fast they fill vacancies! Just be deliberate in your decision making process.

I recommend podcasts 26 and 36 if you haven't listened to them already. If you have, listen to them again, those guys are real property management pros.