All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Now that I mention cars, how is the neighborhood? One idea I've had is bike rentals. I've seen it on a few college campuses but I wonder if it could work on a smaller scale in an apartment complex. If its in a decent area and there are shops and entertainment nearby, having a few bicycles that people could rent out by the hour or daily could encourage people to drive less and make a happier community.

This sounds like a cool idea. Are you trying to appear green because it is trendy or actually be functionally green? Green roofs, organic gardens, and LED bulbs are nice and flashy, but much of the actual environmentally friendly things you can do are less sexy. Furring out walls to increase insulation, using reclaimed and refurbished materials (see if your local Habitat for Humanity has a ReStore), and high efficiency furnaces are great ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the building. They all will probably reduce your bottom line and aren't things that looks fun in a picture though.

Everyone blames cars for greenhouse gases and climate change, but in fact buildings are a much larger contributor. I'm all for it if you can make it financially viable.

This is a great topic, I'm looking to refine my process also.

@Brian Garlington You mentioned you don't do open houses to prevent one group from causing trouble while you're showing another group around, but how does having 5 groups show up at once prevent that? Doesn't that just become an open house situation?

I do have to agree about checking out their car. Its not about if its a Mercedes or a Hyundai, its about how they treat it.

Congrats on the deal Tom!

I agree with @Seth Borman about the double 5/8" drywall and insulation. I recently soundproofed the wall between two units in a duplex (I also live in one) and we used Roxul Safe and Sound. One uncommon thing we did was to put up carpet tiles, with a thick rubber backing, within the wall. The only reason we used them is because we had them laying around and no other use for them and it was probably as effective as putting up another layer of drywall.

Overall it worked really well without being crazy expensive, but you have to consider the sound traveling above and below the wall. Sound will travel through the floor and ceiling, which is much more difficult to stop.

Soundproofing to a home theater level might be a bit excessive if sound can just travel into the attic space or under the floor. At the end of the day, you can't block all sound ("soundproofing" is a bit of  a misnomer), but two layers of 5/8" sheetrock and sound insulation is an easy, relatively cheap, effective solution.

Hey Mark. I haven't had any experience monetizing storage space, but I'm interested to see if anyone has any input on the solar panel option. I imagine it needs to be quite a large area, but it might be interesting to see if panels on that structure could supply enough power for the rest of the property.

One concern about renting it out separately from the rest of the property is accessibility. Can someone get to it with a van without going through someone's backyard?

How many units is the property? Dividing up the storage space into smaller storage units for tenant use might yield a higher return.

@Lois Ginter & @Gunnar Sevart

I absolutely agree that using a real estate agent can be powerful, but right now I only have the one unit so it is cost prohibitive. At this point it is easier and cheaper to manage it myself. After I have a few more properties, I may be back on here asking if anyone knows a good agent in my area.

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

@Shawn Devoid I like the idea of bringing over a few accessories and furniture to stage the apartment, thanks for the tips! I have a friend who enjoys photography and has a good eye for it, so maybe I'll treat her to dinner to get some semi-professional photos.

As for the description, I tried to strike a balance between emphasizing the good and screening out people who won't qualify, while keeping it short and sweet. Feel free to check out my ad on craigslist here, I'd appreciate any feedback on that as well:

https://syracuse.craigslist.org/apa/5974638987.htm...

@Benjamin Burket I'd appreciate your input on my ad as well, I do at least have interior pictures! I think I may try an ad in the paper, as I'm not in a neighborhood with a lot of rentals and it is a relatively cheap experiment. I'm not quite rural, but it may still be popular here. I'm a millennial in the internet age, so I'm just not familiar with it. (I call it my "mid twenties," my girlfriend argues I'm "almost thirty")

To add my numbers to your example, and answer @Matt Faix's question, it is listed for 700. A year ago I rented it for 650, and the market rate is probably somewhere in between, around 670-680. I have a tough time coming up with a solid market rent because I'm in a low rental neighborhood and neighborhoods 2 miles away are vastly different. I see your point about losing out on a dollar to save a penny. I may have to suck it up and drop the rent to get more people interested.

Thanks for the feedback @Dave Carpenter. I did check the number of views on Zillow and it is getting a decent amount. I may be slightly overpriced, I just raised the rent, but that is a different, bigger discussion lol.

Actually my pictures could use a little work, and maybe now is a good time to redo them since it is vacant!

I'm trying to fill a vacancy in a 2 unit and am not getting a very good response. I have a For Rent sign out front, but am off the beaten path so I'm getting almost no calls from that. I also have it listed on Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads. The only site I'm getting many hits from is Craigslist, and they seem to be lower quality tenants.

So my question is, where do you have success finding good tenants? Online? Newspaper ads? Signs?

I realize this is a pretty regional topic, so hopefully some local Syracuse or nearby upstate NY people can chime in.