All Forum Posts by: Alex Smith

Any reason you haven't put the house on Zillow? 

Also browsing through the listing, the way you have the photos set up makes the house/rooms look tiny. Always try to take photos in landscape and from a corner of the room, if you can, and have the camera more towards the floor/at waist level (actual photographers may be able to word this better). It makes all of the rooms look bigger.

For example

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/304-N-Moore-Rd-Chattanooga-TN-37411/55233059_zpid/

It's goign to vary by area, but the most common ones are Zillow (which also does Hotpads and Trulia), Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, and Zumper. 

If you can put a yard in the sign or window, even in today's age, that's still a good thing to have. Outside of that, you want to make sure that your listing(s) are going to be accessible to potential tenants via an app or mobile website. 

Few are going to know your area better than you. It would be hard for any of us to say even if we knew where the house was unless we're investing/managing in your area. You'll have to check comps on Zillow, etc and figure out what market rate is. Then you'll know how much to raise rent by

It depends on the housing authority's procedure. Best thing to do is figure out what needs to be done with them directly as others have said

You should expect to budget 8-10% and one month for a leasing fee. Some companies charge 1/2 month. Don't be afraid to ask some PMs in the area(s) you'll be investing.

I don't know how a management company could stay in business charging 1-2% management fees unless they were managing very high end rentals only and/or making up the difference somewhere else

I can't tell you why they specifically won't accept section 8. If I were to hazard a guess, it's because section 8 is generally low income housing, and there are certain pain points that come with that when it's related to tenants, maintenance, etc. 

I can tell you that I personally would not do section 8 if I were a landlord. The reason being is that the home has to be inspected once per year and meet the housing authority's standards. You could be on the hook for repairs that are 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt the tenant's fault, but in order for the rent to stay subsidized, the responsibility for the repair is on you as the homeowner. 

Most housing authorities are a pain to deal with. I say this as a PM that used to deal with section 8 in AL. 

I see why people like section 8 tenants and the program - guaranteed rent. Ultimately, it's your call whether or not to accept it, so if you want to, I would see if the housing authority has a recommendation for a PM. If anyone is going to know, it's them. 

Hey Melissa. It's always best practice for a landlord, big or small, to have their criteria spelled out exactly either on a document, website, or both. That way, you're at least mostly protected from Fair Housing complaints, as long as you're abiding by your own criteria, anyway.

The book that Cassi recommended is a good one, and I would google some PMs in your area to see what they use. Both are good starting points. 

East Ridge, nice. 

If you're not cash flowing, either find a solution with it as a rental to get it to cashflow, or cut your losses, learn from this scenario and find something else. It sounds like you have a gut feeling already as to what you should do. 

Like others have said, there's no way to know if 16 contacts is good or not without knowing how populated your area is. I will tell you (as a former renter and leasing agent for the company I work with now) that people will hit the "inquire" button on every property that's interesting to them and don't even remember doing so when they're reached back out to.

A more important statistic for you to know would be how many showings the house has had in that 10 days and what those folks have said about the house

I don't consider a unit "held" for someone unless there's a signed lease and a security deposit in hand. So basically, we don't hold units for anyone for any reason. Either they pay deposit and sign lease, or risk losing the unit to someone else. 

As long as they have signed a sight unseen addendum, I'm not worried about someone moving into a house without seeing it. They're acknowledging they haven't seen it and accept the unit in its current condition