All Forum Posts by: Ben S.

The project has gone smoothly so far. I estimate there was about 200 yards of trash on the property and in the homes based on the dumpster and many loads taken to the dump. A lot of trash sitting in tall grass (mattresses, bottles, etc) that has been a pain to get out and mow the yards.

Started staying on the property after rehabbing a house partially to make it a little nicer. All of them need the same basic stuff: new roofs, siding/paint (many are stucco), windows, doors, flooring, kitchens, baths. Two will need new meters and electrical work and have some holes in the roofs. Still all are fixable and shouldn't take too long to rehab.

I hired some of the guys who used to live/squat there, which I think smoothed over the eviction time a bit and has been helpful for me with all the trash cleanup. 

Now that trash cleanup is about done and I have a place to crash while I'm working there, next goals are getting asphalt millings on the road, and roofs/siding/windows/doors. Get everything nice and pretty outside, then I can knock out the insides one at a time.

Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:

I think you're putting the cart before the horse. In other words, you could spend money on storage units and then learn your tenants don't care about storage. Even worse, you may find that you can't even find tenants!

Get the units renovated and filled first. Prove that your property is a solid investment. Then - and only then - should you focus on ways to maximize the return.

 Not planning to spend much on this stuff, but some of it (like water meters and internet) would be a lot easier to put in during the rehab portion of the project. Storage space would be in the existing shed, just a minor extra for a couple people. As I'm not working on it 24/7, I like to brainstorm on other ideas to generate more income of the property.

Originally posted by @Lily R.:

You mentioned rural area. What kind of tenants are you going to be able and/or want to attract? You would need to be careful offering hunting so close to the homes, unless you kept it to archery??? (I wouldn't want that liability.)

 Good point, I probably don't have enough land to allow this, though it does slope back pretty far for the wooded acres.

I have a property in southern Maryland with 10 single family homes (around 950 sqft each, most 3/1) on 5 acres. It's my own little community as its in a pretty rural area. The homes are roughly in a circle with a small common area in the middle with a large shed. 

I still have a few months of heavy rehab until they are all complete, probably a month until the first is ready. Aside from the base rental rate, how can I generate more income?

A few ideas I've had:

- Meter and charge for water. It's well and septic, with a central system with two wells. 

- Charge for internet. I talked to Comcast about the bulk/community plans, but it's only for 75+ units. I think I could do a business internet plan and setup a wireless system to provide accounts to everyone (I used to work in IT so this wouldn't be hard for me). Maybe this is against some rules though? Also not sure if there is a way to get cheap TV service and then charge tenants for it.

- Have a small dumpster on site and charge an additional trash fee. Have the risk of other people coming around to dump trash though. 

- Get some vending machines for the covered area by the shed (there's a small covered seating area already there). I plan to put a couple picnic tables and maybe grills out there anyway, so a drink machine in particular may be helpful. There are some small stores pretty close (within a mile).

- I thought about providing lawn care for free since the yards are small and there's community areas, but maybe I should just try to offer lawn care for a cheap fee?

- There's a state park and marina really close by (easy bicycle distance), I may talk to the marina about giving a discount to tenants and giving me a few bucks or something.

- Make some storage space in the shed (or build another shed) and offer storage for a fee. Maybe good since the homes are fairly small. 

- The homes are all on 2 acres, with the other 3 acres behind wooded. Maybe something with hunting on those acres? Anything else to generate income from the extra land?

Use a real estate attorney, much cheaper and probably know the laws better than realtors. Ask a title company you use for recommendations.

Great discussion and ideas being shared here. Regarding all the comments about the tenant losing their ability to get to work and such: getting your car towed just means you have to pay some money to get it back, and it's a pretty simple process that occurs all the time. Obviously public transportation and ride sharing are other alternatives. It's equivalent to your car breaking down and needing to being in the shop for a day and costing a few hundred bucks, happens all the time. Towing a car hurts of course, hopefully enough to cause a tenant to pay the rent the promised to pay, but it's not a death sentence, it's not kidnapping children and pets, it's just another fee and hassle to the tenant to motivate them to pay.

I've been using Cozy for a few months and like it a lot.

Christopher Phillips it is owned by the county. What department manages roads then? I've looks on their website and haven't found anything (Caroline County, VA).

I'm going to sell my home (house hack) next spring. Our neighborhood has had a ton of new construction in the last 5 years, adding about 40 on my street and the next over from the 10 that have been around for awhile. Problem is, these roads are stone, and are not state maintained, and we have no HOA. The other two roads in the neighborhood are paved and state maintained. So how would I go about getting out roads paved and state maintained as well? Contact the county and collect signatures or something? Has anyone successfully done this? Thanks.

Originally posted by @Michael Chilcott:

Any update? I have a similar situation where there are 10 homes but all empty for 50k. I am curious about your rehab costs? The potential deal I have at least three of the houses had 4 foot wide holes in one of the sides. Have never rehabbed a manufactured home and not sure even if its worth the hassle.  Would love an update and maybe even pictures?? Thanks for the great read

 What will they rent for? What are the holes from? The holes probably aren't the biggest issue, water damage, rot, mold, etc will be bigger problems. The homes I got are not manufactured, but manufactured aren't a whole lot different to work on (my other property has two manufactured homes). I'll probably have a couple hundred grand in rehabbing these when I'm done, but would be more if I were managing the project a working on it full time myself.