All Forum Posts by: Caroline Hedin

A lot of good information here.  I have felt overwhelmed renovating 3 homes and running my firm with only part-time care for the baby so I suppose my lack of desire to spend the time calling people who just sent me the canned e-mail in response to the ad that has photos of every room, a list of everything in the house, a breakdown of move-in costs including the total, a list of qualifications, etc. etc. etc...led me to send a canned e-mail back saying thanks for your interested, we're having an open house...I should have known better.

Hindsight is always 20/20.  This point forward I'll call each of them, ask them a list of questions, and ask if they're available on Tuesday or Sunday for a viewing then stack 3 at a time 15 minutes apart.  It sounds like it's going to be the best way to move forward.

@Timothy Tooker I agree.  I grew up on South Hill and went to Puyallup High School.  I've always wanted to live downtown, it's just never worked out.  There is a ton of unmet potential down there and I think it's got great potential to be a heavily sought after area, in particular with the Sounder having a stop in the middle of it.  You've got me dreaming architectural dreams again...

@Gail K. @Andreas W. @Mike F. @Brian M and everyone else.  Thank you for this feedback.  It's very helpful.  And sadly, knowing that other people are dealing with this helps me feel a tad bit better.  Don't hate me for saying that.  It's unbelievable that people do this but it is nice to know that they self-select to some degree.  I mean, if they're this disrespectful at this point, what must they be like as tenants?

Anyway.  Again.  Thank you everyone for the feedback.  There are some great ideas in here that we'll be putting to use.

@Scott England The larger home has been completely remodeled inside and out and the curb appeal drastically improved (but still needs a bit of yard work).  The smaller home doesn't have much curb appeal.  It's just a respectable little home that I think most men would find fine but most women probably wouldn't bother with (gut reaction).  It's probably a B-C neighborhood but it's right next to a private university that's been around for ages and right next to the military base.  Our timing is horrible for the college crowd which is actually our target market.

@Sarnen Steinbarth I see the point and will speak with my husband about this.  It may be an option but as a former renter in this area...I'm not sure I would have been willing to do this.  But I also never rented homes as I preferred apartments.

@Mike F. Good idea and I think I'll take this route.  As for being customer oriented, you're likely right.  First time landlords here. 

@Steve Vaughan Yeah, we just really didn't know what to do with so much "interest."  We assumed a decent number wouldn't show which is why I didn't want to schedule individual appointments (I just don't have the time to waste on no shows!) but I suppose missing a day and getting it rented is better than missing a total of 4 days and still not having a renter.  And agreed on the application issue.  Our plan was to "invite" them to apply based on how we liked them...not the best solution but a solution...:-\  I'll give your solution a shot and see what happens.  Obviously MINE didn't work.

@Sarnen Steinbarth That's interesting.  I have to admit though that it feels a bit wrong to have them pay the non-refundable $35 application fee, meet them, then decide we wouldn't have asked them to apply in the first place.  I know we can't really reject them except based on qualifications, but if they're similar qualifications to another potential tenant that we liked...

Do you think holding the Open House on a Friday night and a Saturday afternoon was a bad decision?

We FINALLY listed both of our houses for rent and received an insane amount of interest.  I have responded to more than 40 e-mails.  Due to the interest, we decided to hold an open house for each of the properties.  The nicer and larger one was on Friday night from 6:00-7:30, the small one was today from 11:30-1:00.  I hade confirmation from 5 people they would be there.  No one showed up at either.

This morning, I received a phone call from a company that finds houses to rent for people and after informing her that we would not be paying a commission, I would be available from 1:10-1:30 but absolutely had to leave by 1:30.  She said great and they would meet me there.  At 1:20 I called the number and was informed they were still 30 minutes out.

What is going on?

@Daniel Lehman I second @Dorothy Ma.  If she's doing the work for a small fee and portfolio photos, awesome that you're willing to help her out.  If she's looking for a full fee, you might try Pinterest and Houzz instead - in particular on your buy and holds. 

@Tyler Theisen Welcome to Washington.  I'm an architect in Tacoma.  My husband and I have just been investing the last couple of years.  We looked at partnering on a MF in Olympia but the development costs required from the City pushed the costs up.  Although housing prices tend to stay high there.  Lakewood has been good for awhile but as was mentioned above, JBLM is reducing its military personnel. Tacoma also has a few universities that can be great places to develop or buy and hold.  Lacey has a ton of housing developments for the military families.  Puyallup and Sumner are great little "bedroom" communities.  I've seen a few properties in downtown Puyallup near the Sounder Station that could be really cool MF but the husband and I don't have the cash yet to build the bigger projects so we've had to stay away from those.  They're pretty exciting though - historic buildings that I think could be turned in to MF and with two grocery stores in walking distance plus the farmers market and fairgrounds and all the restaurants...and a great school district.  An architect can dream ;-).  It's not a bad commute via train from Puyallup to Seattle either and a lot of people do it because the homes in Puyallup and Tacoma are so much cheaper.

Sorry for the ramble!  Good luck and again - welcome!

@Kimberly H. I just had to tell our first applicants they were denied also.  We tried in every way to qualify them but when they hit 5 red flags...

I feel your pain.  I suppose it's all just part of the nature of the beast.  We're going to start developing a small studio on any property we purchase in a multi-family zone so we can give a temporary low-cost rental to those in need of a stepping stone.  It helps to ease the pain of the no to the others that emotion says yes, logic says no way to.

Good job sticking to your requirements.  I hope you were able to fill the property!

@Lucero Sanchez here is a link to the Arizona AIA http://aia-arizona.org/.  Your architect may or may not be a member. 

I'm glad to see you contacted the board but it is a serious thing to do so I hope you have given him notice you were going to do so and that you also attempted to find him at his office.  You'll likely get quick response from him by telling him this.

Also, I personally would get a contract from him.  

I'm not a lawyer so this is not legal advice :-).