Is Iowa Landord Friendly?

Question

Hello There,

I stumbled upon BP while researching properties and buy/rent scenarios online, and allow me to thank everyone here for their contributions on this amazig site.

I plan on buying a property to live in somewhere close the the Iowa City (State of Iowa) area, but I intend to stay in it for around 2 years then rent it out. After reading several articles about being a land lord, many of them caution against renting out in a tenant-friendly state.

I am trying to determine what kind of state Iowa is. I know the property taxes are some of the highest in the nation, but I am not sure about laws governing the tenant/landlord relationship (evictions..etc).

Any people who own property in Iowa out there? What are your views?

If not, can you point me to resources that can help answer my question?

Thanks a lot,
Faisal

Dennis Tierney · Answer

We have one in Council Bluffs and one in West Des Moines
The commercial properties are performing  at the right price as anywhere but do really well if you get an apt that is taxed commercially and can change to residential - it'll drop the property taxes in half.

Marc Bodinger · Answer

How are commercial and residential properties performing in Iowa?

Faisal Farnas · Answer

James,
Thanks for the links! I guess I need to do some more online research :)

Dennis,
Excellent tip about the taxes. May I ask in what part of Iowa do you own? I am interested in the Iowa City area, but Cedar Rapids is also a possibility.

Dennis Tierney · Answer

We own 2 apts. in Iowa and have not had any tenant- landlord entanglements. Evictions are not difficult. The property taxes are an issue for commercial sized properties but you sound like you are going single family so that isn't a big deal. If you do decide to go with apts however and are a resident of the state there are ways to legally change to residential rather than commercial property and lower the taxes.

James Vermillion · Answer

Welcome to BP Faisal.  I am not familiar with landlord / tenant rights in the state of Iowa but I did a quick Google search to find some resources that might be helpful to you (as always, double check any info and make sure the resources are legit):

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/states/iowa/renting/tenantrights

http://www.iowalegalaid.org/resource/summary-of-iowa-landlord-and-tenant-law

I hope this helps!