All Forum Posts by: Brianna H.

 Typical charge for this service is one month's rent, which is an additional expense that you need to factor in. I think once our tenants decide to move out, we will try to rent it out on our own with our realtor as back-up. 

We put the house on MLS on Thursday, had open house Sat/Sun, had contract signed and tenants moved in by Friday, so it took us a little over a week. Obviously, the length of time will depend on the area, price, house, demand, etc. Our realtor thought we could get $1700 for the rental, but I told him to list it for $1500 because I really wanted to get it rented out before the school year started. Vacancy is a profit killer!

I suggest you get in contact with a realtor that is familiar with rentals. They will tell you some good areas to look, areas to avoid, rental history in area, rent you can expect, etc. All it takes is one person to be interested in renting. Not everyone wants to live inside the loop, and there is high demand in the suburbs as well. 

You asked why people rent in the suburbs instead of buy...why do they rent inside the loop? Why don't they just buy? I have the opposite question of you...why would anyone want to rent inside the loop for 4x the cost of outside the loop? A lot of times people rent because they can't find a house within their price range, bad credit, not married, etc. You're obviously going to attract more families in the suburbs...so what kind of tenants do you want? I personally think turnover would be higher inside the loop because the houses are smaller and they are young and want to be close to the parties. A family might stay in a rental for longer because they might be building up their credit and it's a hassle to move a family, but that's just my opinion. 

If you are serious about investing, talk to a realtor. They will be able to help walk you through everything. 

Our realtor set up an open house for Sat/Sun after the contractor work was completed. The house was listed on MLS. Interested parties simply contacted our realtor (he had applications at the open house) with all of the required documentation (paystubs, application, application fee). He then passed this information on to us so we could decide on a tenant. We took the first tenants that applied. Our realtor wrote the contract. I have written one myself, but used his as this is my first time dealing with this and I'm sure his is more iron-clad seeing as his agency uses it.

Most of the maintenance issues happened in the first month while they were getting settled. We purchased a home warranty to handle some of the repairs (i.e. compressor in a/c unit), but others were handled by the contractor because they were from the work he did. The other stuff, my husband handles himself. 

Look at a property or two with them before signing a contract. My realtor looked at the houses as if he was going to buy them and gave us estimates for repairs, what rentals would like/not like, etc. He genuinely wanted us to get a good deal. I think their personality has to match yours.

 With my rental, I pulled the phone numbers directly from Google instead of the ones they supplied to me for their current employment. Since both of my tenants came from home, they didn't have rental history. I used this opportunity to call their emergency contact number (their moms). When I called the mom's, I started the conversation "Hello This is Brianna, Who am I speaking to?". They gave me their names, which matched the application (and also the tax records for their parent's houses) so I had faith I was dealing with their real moms. :-P

 I have looked a little into a 1031 exchange, but I don't think we could find a property within the 45 days/90 days to close that they require. I think if we found a replacement house and got it under contract, we could put this house on the market but my husband and I are too picky to rush. :-P

 If I remember correctly, I found this property using Zillow. My realtor sent me properties daily, but this was just a random house that I came across.

The house is in Cypress, zoned to some pretty good schools, in an established neighborhood, and close to 290.

During the option period, we had a contractor come out to the property. He took notes on what we wanted done to the house then came up with an estimate a few days later. If you get a contractor, I would recommend recording the conversation and going into detail.

Management is NOT included in the $350. I never include this in my profits in case I get to the point where I would like to hire a property manager. We are currently applying this toward the mortgage. :-)

Hi Patrick!

We ended up renting the house and so far so good! Our long term goal was to buy and hold anyways. 

We listed the house high thinking that we wouldn't get any interest, but when we did we were having second thoughts on renting it out. We decided that even though we could have made a decent profit, we probably wouldn't have found another deal like this house in the near future. The Houston market is pretty inflated right now. 

If we get to the point where we want to buy another house, we will just do a cash-out refinance if we don't have the cash available. 

Goodluck!

 If you are done buying homes for a while, then your intent is to pay as little interest as possible. That means you should pay off your high interest loans first. I would start with the $70k loan and re-asses after it is paid off to see if your intentions are still the same. If you plan to buy more houses, then paying off more loans would make more sense because it will free up more cash flow. :-)

 I use Chase QuickPay with my tenants. I would suggest setting up a Chase account for this sole reason (only you or tenant has to have Chase to use this). As long as they know your e-mail address, they can send you a payment. :-) I think other banks also have a similar bill payment, but this is what we ended up with so shop around!