Struggling to get small town property rented

[Jamie Wheeler]

So I haven’t had a rental property in about 10 years. I’m getting back into the game. I live in the mid-Missouri area. I got a great deal on a small 2BR/1BA that needed a lot of work. I have flipped it and my all in is about $53k. Of which I have paid all cash for. I’ve seen what other properties are listed for rent in this town and I currently have it at $785. Which I think is reasonable. There is a very low supply of rentals in this town. I have talked extensively to a local BiggerPockets member, who is also a property manager. He has been excellent in providing insight. Said he hates renting in this specific town and he only does business there because he has a large multiplex in the town. He gave me excellent advice on screening tenants and believes the pricing is around where he would rent. In the past 2 weeks I’ve had 60+ people reach out over Facebook marketplace, realtor.com & Zillow.

As soon as they reach out I send them my pre-qualification questions. Which screens out most of the tenants I would not like to rent to. So of that, I only get about half to respond. Of that half, 85% either have pets (although my listing says no pets) or they have something I can find from their name search on my state’s case look up website. I’m talking things like lawsuits for nonpayment of: rent/eviction, taxes, credit cards, loans.

I don’t necessarily feel lowering the price would provide any better quality tenants. Just feeling very overwhelmed with what I’m getting. There have been a few potentially good tenants. One said the property was too small for their things to fit, another isn’t sure if he wants to be in that area or if he wants to buy and another found somewhere else to live that he thought would be a better fit.

I honestly will never buy in this town again with the idea to rent a property. Maybe only flip, if even. I have about $53k cash into it and would guess I could sell it for $70k-$80k. I’ve put so much of my time and my boyfriends time into this property. To sell it and get minimal return would be a hard pill to swallow.

- Should I continue screening and just try to be patient?

- Lower the price?

- Look to sell and move on?

- Try it as a STR? There are events and a military academy in the town. It's also 20 minutes off a major highway. There are 5 hotels/motels in the town as well.

Please let me know if you have had a similar experience or advice. Thank you!

[Hunter Reed]

What is your monthly expense? Mortgage, insurance, property tax ect.. If you have to lower the rents just to cash flow $100 - $150, is better than no cash flow at all. $785 is 1.4% rent to price ration. $685 is 1.2% rent to price ratio. I would look into lowering the rent as long as it makes financial sense to do so.