Glen Allen, VA · Member since 2013 · 17 posts · 1 vote
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.
@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.
Congratulations @Jennifer H. ! As a beginner I'm always curious as to how everyone handles their first property. I'm also trying to invest in a long term hold that will support me for years to come. Any tips you can give a noob? BP is great isn't it?
@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.
@Glen Love
I probably don't have as much tips as the seasoned people on here since i literally just closed on my house a week ago haha! But what I have learned is reading bigger pockets every night before I sleep has given me TONS of information. Also when you get a place and have people doing work for you, get at least 3 different quotes. The 1st quote you get you won't know if that's good or bad. The second one you can see okay, it's better or worse and get more questions answered. By the 3rd quote you would have already an idea of what they might charge and answers to most of what they are going to tell you. Then you can even negotiate to get the one you like to come down on the price since you have had other bids. :) Yes it's work calling around and finding 3 places to compare for everything you're getting done but that could save you hundreds of dollars. If we were lazy we would have paid 2,800 for a painter (1st painter) but we ended up going with a much cheaper one that fit our needs and could even do other stuff for us we needed done.
@Jennifer H. I know it has been a while since you bought you first house but congratulations anyway! I just recently discovered BP and searched for Richmond and you post appeared. I am just curious how it went finding the tenants. Hope everything is well.