All Forum Posts by: Jeff Sadler

I take a different route. I make sure that my renters know that I am the owner and that I will be at the house every three months to change the air filters and any other maintaince jobs. This way I know the house will be cleaned at least once every three months. After I am in the house I can tell very quickly how many people are living there and if they have pets or not and I can deal with it right then.

I keep a close eye on my compitition and make sure that my houses look far better than all the rest. Very clean, fresh paint, carpets professionally cleaned and no leaves in the yard. People who have been looking for a rental in my area want to sign a lease as soon as they open my door. We have always been able to pick and choose who we want to rent our houses in any season.

Thanks for the reply. I like the fact that there seems to be very little drama here. I also like the positive attitudes. Every economy has winners and loosers, we just have to find a way to be in the winners bracket.

Hello everyone.
I just stumbled upon this site the other day while doing some internet research at work. I was blown away by all the great information and stayed on the site for almost five hours. Since then I have been back every day and have learned a ton.

I own a land surveying business in the Richmond Virginia area. It is a common misconseption that surveyors have any kind of advantage with real estate deals. By the time I hear of anything the deal has already been done but I do have a general understanding of real estste law and have made a lot of contacts.

About five years ago my wife and I decided to invest in real estate for our retirement. We did not have tons of cash but we did have great credit scores and equity in our personal home. We were uneducated but avoided being ripped off by taking our time and not letting anyone pressure us into buying something until we both thought it was right for us.

Because it is a side business for us, we take a bit of a different approach than some of the people that I have read about here. We only buy houses that we would live in if we had to (if the economy does not imoprove we might have to). We bend over backwards for our tenents. It makes more work for us but we have great long term tenents who do not destroy our houses.

Thanks for a great site and I'm looking forward to my continuing education.