Question about owning an investment property

[Nana Ofori]

Hello everyone, My question is if you bought a duplex with 3.5% down using an FHA loan and you can't find a tenant to live in the other room and at the same time you don't want to be paying the full mortgage, what do you do? do you sell the duplex to pay off the mortgage or what do you do? please help!

[Ryan Thomson]

@Nana Ofori I would find a tenant asap. Lower the rent if need be. Market it really well! 

Here is the process I walk my clients through in Colorado Springs:

Making the Listing

Take professional photos! You can use them every time you need a new tenant. If you can’t afford professional photos you shouldn’t be house hacking.

Make sure your listing description includes the following items:

• Rent
• Is utilities included or not?
• Credit score requirement
• Job/income requirement
• Description of yourself and other tenants

To maximize your reach and find potential tenants, utilize various platforms, including:

• Facebook
• Craigslist
• Apartments.com
• Zillow
• Roomster
• Roommate.com

Responding to Inquiries

Once you create an awesome listing you will start to get inquiries. While you may receive numerous inquiries from individuals casually browsing listings, focus your time and energy on serious prospects. Make them earn your attention by demonstrating genuine interest.

Ask them an easy question back to see if they are interested. I usually start with something like this:

“We require a 550+ credit score as well as a current job paystub or a co-signer who meets these requirements. The move in date is August 1. Does all that work for you? “

If they answer “yes” you are on to the next set of screening questions. I use this: “I have a couple questions for you to make sure it’s a good fit for you. Please answer these. Then we can go from there: “What is your Job? Only you? Pets? Move in date? Estimated length of stay? Any questions for me?”

Based on those answers you can decide if you want to set up a showing with them.

Before we talk about streamlining showings, I want to share a hack with you during the initial screening phase.

Prepare templated questions in advance to streamline the process and utilize text replacement features on your smartphone for efficiency. For example, all I have to do is type “rental1” in my iPhone and it will replace it with that first reply. I type “questions1” in my iPhone and it replace it with all of the questions I want to ask.

Setting up showings:

Do as many as you can in a one or two hour block. Tell potential tenants when you are going to be showing the house and make them work around your schedule. I like to schedule 15 minutes showings back to back and get several qualified potential tenants to come during the same window. While we are there I make sure I get a feel for the tenants and how I would get along with them. Tell them you will send them an application with background check, credit check, and eviction history. Ask them if there is anything that might come up on their reports that they want to let you know about?

Choosing the tenant:

When you are house hacking there is no fair housing laws. You can pick who you want to live with. I would recommend deciding based on these criteria:

• Will you get along with them and if they are a good fit for the house.
• Do they have the basic credit, income, and eviction history that you require.

Getting Leases and admin stuff set up

Use e-sign technology to get leases signed. I like Doc Hub and you get 5 free document signatures a month.

Once the lease is signed set them up with software you are going to use. The best software I’ve found for managing tenants are Apartments.com (formerly COZY) or Rentredi.

Personally I use apartments.com. With Apartments.com I can automate rent payments, have the security deposit paid, and have tenants upload their proof of renter’s insurance.