All Forum Posts by: Anthony Marini

Originally posted by @Anthony Marini:

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:

@Anthony Marini have you tried listing the property on Facebook in Market Place? I agree with painting rooms neutral colors. The ad seems ok, but I would emphasize special features of the location over furnace efficiency. For example, is it close to a park, school, main employment area, etc. Price didn't seem bad compared to comparable properties on Zillow, but $50 lower can't hurt. I would NOT include utilities. In fact I would probably drop rent $50 and have tenant pay garbage too. It did seem like there was lots of kids stuff in the photos, especially in the back yard and rec room. Rec room especially looks junkie - no offense I know how it is having kids. Otherwise kitchen looks nice and it is good size square feet. 

The number of showings leads me to believe the price and listing is good, it is just something is turning them off when they get there. Is there anything undesirable about the neighborhood? Any pets in the home that may be leaving smells? How do you feel your interaction is with people when showing the property? Showing style can play into success. People rent from people they like. You may be great, just bringing this all this up as things to consider. 

 Joe,

I super appreciate your input!  I have not listed it on Facebook and actually didn't know that was an option. I will keep that in mind for when we repost.  I'm looking at the ad now and I see what you mean.  The house is really close to some great parks and a lot of shopping areas and that seems like a good thing to say.  I'm not seeing a lot of people for paying utilities, so I would have to agree with you.  The trash/recycling is paid yearly so it is already paid for so we just added it, but it's pretty cheap.  

No offence taken, I know exactly what you mean.  The rec room is basically their play room right now so it is pretty full with toys.  I'll definitely remove them and repaint before we take pictures again.  Probably pack most of them up as well.  I feel like the neighborhood is good and is in a good location.  I think the price drop of $50 definitely will help.  Most people tell me that they feel like the house is too small, which leads me to believe that they think the house should be bigger for the rent price.  I don't think that our interaction is an issue (I could be wrong or biased) because I've had a few people ask if I had any other properties available because they wanted to keep me as the property manager.  I could 100% be wrong though, I'm just going off those comments.

Thanks!

Anthony

I rent SFH that are all 3 bed / 2 bath or 4 bed / 2 bath and they range from 1500 to 1800 square feet. Your home has decent square footage in comparison, but will seem smaller if there is more stuff in it. If you are moving anyways, I would get a pod and just load up as much as you can. It will seem way bigger once you get stuff out. Stick with lighter colors when you repaint the rooms, because lighter colors make a room look bigger.

@Anthony Marini have you tried listing the property on Facebook in Market Place? I agree with painting rooms neutral colors. The ad seems ok, but I would emphasize special features of the location over furnace efficiency. For example, is it close to a park, school, main employment area, etc. Price didn't seem bad compared to comparable properties on Zillow, but $50 lower can't hurt. I would NOT include utilities. In fact I would probably drop rent $50 and have tenant pay garbage too. It did seem like there was lots of kids stuff in the photos, especially in the back yard and rec room. Rec room especially looks junkie - no offense I know how it is having kids. Otherwise kitchen looks nice and it is good size square feet. 

The number of showings leads me to believe the price and listing is good, it is just something is turning them off when they get there. Is there anything undesirable about the neighborhood? Any pets in the home that may be leaving smells? How do you feel your interaction is with people when showing the property? Showing style can play into success. People rent from people they like. You may be great, just bringing this all this up as things to consider. 

Also, I'm going to add one more thought.  You say your new loan is only getting approved based on having a lease in place.  That's actually a loosening of loan guidelines from not so long ago.  The lender would appear to be counting rental income in qualifying you for this loan.  Yet this discussion makes me think this is your first rental.  In the recent past you wouldn't have been able to qualify like this.   Lenders got caught in the "jump and dump" schemes where someone bought a new house with the claim the old one would be a rental.  Then, after moving, they let the old house fall into foreclosure.  So, its a positive that you're able to go down this road.

That said, you must never, ever count on getting the rent to make the mortgage payment.  Because you don't always get it.  You need to be sure that you can cover both mortgages even if you're in the middle of a lengthy eviction, having to do major fixup, or otherwise going a month or two without collecting any rent.  You need to have cash reserves to cover the payments, as well as any major expense.  For instance, if this house has a clay sewer line its only a matter of time before you're going to spend $5-10K to replace it.  And that time is only a few years.  We dodged the most recent hail storm, but were whacked hard a year ago and five years before that.  Folks I know not far from your house were hit by the recent one.  Don't put yourself in a financially precarious situation with this transition.

I never do individual showings.  I do one one-hour open house once a week.  I tell everyone the same time - the start of that hour.  I also tell them to call me and let me know they're coming or else I may not be there.  Waaaay too much work to do individual showings.  I also have pens and paper applications on hand and encourage them to fill out the application (and pay the fee) on the spot if they're interested.

What is it worth to you? 1) Sounds like you really need a signed lease. Price accordingly. 2) You are moving. Box up. Prospective tenants need to be 100% sure they will have a vacant house on moving day. It may look like a “make me move” type of offering. 3) I didn’t see your listing and paint colors but clean rents and you need to focus on getting a loan, not painting. Lower your price and pack up. Then clean, use a white eraser on wall smudges, switch plates, doors, cabinets. I repainted a red dining room once and my first tenant said she would have liked it red. People tire of beige, but love clean.

I looked at your listing and 

1. The first thing we noticed is that all of the pictures are darker than normal. Darker pictures make a home look older and less attractive than a bright, well-lit place. 

2. As someone else said, removing the clutter would help a lot too. The renters will want to get a feel for how they will live in the house. If they see your stuff filling the place, it's almost impossible for them to imagine their stuff in the space. This will definitely hurt the number of applications you get.

3. Do the background check yourself. If you are only renting a couple of homes it's not too hard to do the background check yourself. That way you can make your own decision on if you want them to move into your place or not. 

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Price and updating the painting may work. Another idea is to increase the number of showings and to show the homes after 5pm and on the weekends. The issue may not be the price/benefits but that you are not showing it enough. Many people go into a lease because it is "good enough" and not because it is optimal mix of price/benefit.

I filled a vacancy about 2 months ago.  We used a professional photographer which was better than our cell phone pics.  Also, I was worried about using only an online application, but it was a good way to make sure potential candidates were comfortable using the computer.  They completed everything very quickly, and more importantly it was easy for me to ask them to use Cozy to pay rent rather than sending a check.

I've not tried to fill a vacancy lately, so I don't have a good read on our market.  My son and DIL did just move recently, and from their experience it does seem the rental market is softening.  Rentometer puts you at the high end of the range, about $150 above mean and median for your area.  I find rentometer a little optimistic on rent and zillow quite a bit.  Please keep in mind that what you need to make this transition profitable for you has absolutely no bearing on what you will actually get.  Twelve showings without an application definitely tells me you're overpriced.  I would expect a signed lease with that number of showings.

You're also trying to fill a vacancy in an occupied house.  I find that's much tougher than filling a vacant house.  I get the situation you're in w.r.t. your new place.  But this makes it that much tougher.

I also NEVER sign a lease unless I'm ready to hand over possession.  Never.  When we sign a lease they give me the deposit and a full months rent in cash or money order and I give them the keys.  Its theirs at that moment.  You're wanting someone to commit to moving in even though you've not move out. That's going to put some folks off.  Further, you're wanting someone to sign a lease that starts 8/1 and its only June.  Most folks don't even look until much closer to being ready to move.   So it really means you're looking for a somewhat unusual tenant. Is there any way for you to get by this?  E.G., put your stuff in storage and stay with friends or something?  Show the house empty (it will seem bigger) and let the tenant move in right away?

Don't include water.  Our water is so expensive this can kill you.  Especially if they decide they want to water the lawn. Just accept the lawn is toast.

It's simple... you're getting showings so it's in an area where people want to live, but you're not getting offers because the price is too high, compare to the house itself. You either need to lower the price, or make the house nicer to validate the current price.