Newbie from Boulder County area, Colorado

[Ann D.]

In my first post I want to thank everyone who contributes to the BiggerPockets forum because I have learned SO MUCH!

We (my husband and I) purchased a SFH in our neighborhood for the purpose of long-term rentals. It was a fixer-upper that had previously been a rental and required cosmetic updates and some long overdue maintenance and upgrades, and we are getting close to completing much of the work. I have been trying to "harden" the property using many suggestions I have learned here.

Also, as I will be starting law school in the fall and I don't want to burden my husband with managing the property, I will likely be looking into hiring a PM company.  I have learned a lot about that here, too.  (And keeping a list of clauses I might want to add to the leasing contract!)

I am a little nervous about the process especially after reading the horror stories.  The last time we owned a rental was about twenty years ago.  It was often a good experience, but we did have one PIA tenant and struggled to cover the mortgage when it was empty.  In hindsight, another problem was the emotional investment in it because it was our first home purchase.  And back then it was not at all convenient to get the kind of help this forum provides.  Now I regularly remind myself to make things nice for the kind of neighborhood it is, but not too nice because it is an investment and tenants are hard on everything.  And I would much rather let the property sit empty than have a bad tenant!