All Forum Posts by: Catherine W.

Thanks so much all for the advice.  I'm taking notes over here.

Thanks Marcia - that was so helpful.  That's a fantastic idea about being up front about partnering with law enforcement to reduce crime in the area.  I'm definitely going to look into it.  And the no smoking policy is another great suggestion.  We planned on having that as a rule, but I like that you expand it to the entire premises, not just inside the house. 

Thanks for the advice Jon and Bill.  Very helpful.

Totally agree - anything can happen even if people seem like they'd be good tenants.  I guess what I'm saying is that since we're going to be right next door, it would be nice to have tenants on a similar wavelength as we are and can appreciate the work we've put into the house.  But... that may be wishful thinking.  The bottom line is we just need someone who will take care of the house and pay on time.

Jim-

We (my husband and I) had the same debate and ultimately decided to buy in Franklinton.  We bought a brick duplex in August on Dakota and are rehabbing it.  We felt hopeful that the amount of press Franklinton has been getting was promising, and the #s on the property we found worked for us.  We bought it for $59k and are putting about $35k into it to completely update both sides (we're doing most of it ourselves).  That being said, we're not counting on selling the property for 5-10 yrs, but in the meantime, we're hoping to get $800-950 per side in rent.

While I can't tell you first hand what it's like to have a rental there, I have one set of friends who are actually renting a 3 bed/1 bath, partially updated house across the street (Dakota) for $750/month (they want to test the area before buying).  We have several other friends who own rentals (and primary residences) on Dakota, Hawkes and Martin.  All are responsible, young professionals and some have children.  They all say it's not as bad as they thought it would be based on public perception of the area.  Obviously, it's a low income neighborhood and anyone living there has to be careful - there's lots of characters and drugs and shootings and all of that going on whether you realize it or not - but I do feel like gentrification is starting to happen.

The other huge factor in Franklinton is that it really depends what street you buy on.  Some are way worse than others. 

I'll give you an update in a few months once we have a tenant in there.  If you'd like to know anything else about the area, I'd be glad to help.

Good luck!

Catherine

My husband and I are currently rehabbing a duplex in an up and coming neighborhood of Columbus, OH.  The plan is to househack for a year or two (live in one side, rent out the other). 

We've finished renovating our side and are planning on having the other side ready to rent by mid-February or so.  It is our first rental property (aside from our primary home-turned-vacation rental, but that's a different ballgame).  We want to make sure we are attracting the right people, as the area has a mixture of artists, young professionals, drug dealers and low income families who have lived there for years.  Ideally, we'll rent it to a few young professionals or artists, but don't know how picky we can be just yet.  Does anyone have any recommendations on how we can "weed out" the people we don't want living there from the get-go, aside from just charging more?  I was thinking a certain income requirement, extra high security deposit, etc (?) but I also don't want to turn away people who we might want as tenants either.

The other question is this: how early do we want to start advertising the house?  Or does it vary by market?  It's still pretty much in shambles, so I'm not sure if it's worth showing to tenants before it's in better shape or not.  We also only have an estimated completion date that could change if something big comes up during renovation.

Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!

Mary - haha I know, is this real life?! My husband just talked to one of the girls about leaving and reassessing the situation tomorrow... Her plumber bf is already gone for the week. Apparently they have NO money, no family no friends. She said they could just sleep in their car, so we would pretty much be putting them out on the street. Ugh!

Michelle- Thanks for your response! Yes, that's pretty much what happened. The lease stated that there was one family living in the house and any additional people would be a $50 per person per month charge. So the tenants definitely broke the lease, but it's not like we can do anything about that now... I agree with the bartering thing... Maybe some demo work, something that doesn't have such a big impact on the quality of our new house. Also, good point about getting something in writing. This whole thing has just caught us off guard.

Need some major help here! My husband and I closed on our duplex mid-August. One side is empty (we'll call it side #1, which we are currently rehabbing), and the other side, side #2, had tenants in it but they are in progress of moving out. We were planning on starting work to the other side this week. Here's where it gets interesting. We were working on side #1 of the house earlier today, and a guy came up to the back door. (Background: We had previously met this guy last week, and he introduced himself as a plumber who the side #2 tenants called because their water had been shut off due to a pipe issue on side #1 (we have one meter). At the time, we explained to him that WE were the landlords, not the tenants on side #2. In any event this plumber came in and quickly fixed the water issue and discussed what he would charge for all of the plumbing updating we needed in our house. We were going to be in touch. He seemed like a nice, knowledgeable guy. End background) So this guy comes back and he says "I don't know if you know this, but me and my two girlfriends (yes, he has 2) had paid $300 to rent a room in the side #1 tenants' side for a month. Your tenant posted a craigslist add for one of the bedrooms and we paid your tenant $300 on Aug. 28. We've been there for a week, and now he's telling us we need to leave and isn't trying to offer any kind of a refund. We wanted to talk to you to see if there's anything we can work out. We'd be willing to do any work you need help with - I know plumbing, we can tear up the old carpet - etc free of charge if you'll just let us stay for a little longer. I need to go to Detroit for the week for work and I just can't let my girls out on the street and paying 250-300 for a hotel isn't an option right now..." We were totally shocked and had a "wtf" moment. We have no idea any of this was going on. We feel like our tenants really screwed us- they had been SO nice and cooperative to our face this whole time and never mentioned a thing about this arrangement. As a matter of fact, the wife said they guy was her uncle! We clearly know that's not true. We don't know what to do. On the one hand, it would be nice to have some free plumbing. On the other hand, we have no idea who these people are. And we didn't choose them! Keep in mind this is a low income neighborhood, and on our block, from what we can tell there are lots of characters. Also, a week after we moved in someone firebombed an apartment across the street after being evicted. Apparently he wanted to get back at the landlord. So all things considered, what do we do?! What's the best way to handle this situation?

Amazing. Thanks James! 

Thanks Jean for the advice.  You're probably right... the lady is a chain smoker and it will be really hard to get her to stop.  We already know we'll need to do a lot of work, so I guess having another month or so of her smoking isn't going to make a huge difference either way.

Good call on the letter of agreement regarding the rent refund and conditions/timing!