Fastest Vacancy Fill Ever??

[David Hays]

Well it´s a dreary day here in normally-sunny-Seville, so I figured I´d drop in and share our recent surprising experience leasing our primary residence. It´s the first time we´ve leased this unit for LTR, though it´s been active in the past as a full-time STR (when it wasn´t our primary). Leasing it out now as we plan to be traveling for the next several months.

It´s a 2 bedroom, 1 bath piso (condo) in a C area. Remodeled completely about 4 years ago -  finishes quite a bit nicer than the neighborhood is known for, but it was my wife´s first home and she wanted it her way. We put a sign up in the window at about 10:00PM local time on Wednesday, and woke up to several phone calls. Overall, we had 8 applicants the first day, and we ended up renting it to a young family that had called first - made 4x the rent, had a kid in the school across the street, and had parents, friends, and other family in the same neighborhood. Rented it for 33% more than the mirror-image unit behind ours rented for last year - we´re only cashflowing about $10/mo, but that´s true net cash flow so at least all our bases are covered. 

Why am I posting in the Success Stories with only $10 cash flow? Because it´s a SFR residence that was bought to be a primary residence, so I´m pretty happy that we´ll have it all covered (and there´s 4 months of reserves in the property´s account, as well) while we spend the next several months trekking through Latin America.