All Forum Posts by: Chris London

The price has to be right in the beginning. Everyone wants top dollar however, the right price (often a competitive price) will bring a choice of qualified applicants.

You shouldn't host an open house for a rental. You only want to show the property to prequalified inquiries.

Most PM software syndicates to dozens of rental sites however, IMO, Zillow still provides some of the best leads. Make sure you are listed there.

Feel free to post a link to your listing and I'm sure the group would be happy to make suggestions.

As someone else mentioned, each month it sits vacant costs you a lot. If the basic blocking and tackling is correct (good pics, good description, allows for pets, priced right, listed on the correct sites, PM is responsive to inquiries) then you need to pull the rip cord on price. You can do this either by lowering the monthly rate (suggested) or by offering a lease special (like 1st month free rent or a free flat-screen TV or a free year of cable, or whatever).

Good Luck 

Option 3: Find a better investment at this time.

Stop thinking of yourself as a real estate investor and start thinking of yourself as a well rounded investor.

Pay off your mortgage: Your money is not working for you when you spend it on liabilities like a personal residence.

Buy Rentals with little/no cash flow: You are speculating what a rental will be worth in 20-30 years. Make sure to also include in your calculation all the associated costs of those homes (maintenance, cap-x, management, vacancy, etc) then include the selling cost of the home since the appreciation isn't unlocked until you sell the home. Maybe you walk away with $100K in 20 years but what would an index fund or Muni bond both of which are passive and likely safer net you in 20 years?

I love real estate: Many on this forum are finding ways to make $ in REI now which is great. However, if you spend time on other investing forums (outside of real estate) you will see there are lots of ways people are capitalizing during this time. Right now, I'm buying T-bills and bond index funds. Neither are sexy or net big gains but I'm moving forward paying attention to trends and ready to pivot as the market pivots. I hope to buy more real estate in the future I'm just not doing it now.

With your investor hat on what do you think of this 4K home (1500 acre) Disney homesite in Pittsboro NC (Chatham Park)?

Suburbs of Raliegh/Durham.

Storyliving by Disney in Pittsboro

When it was easy to find deals in RE that's what I did.

When index funds (VTSAX) were at a good price, that's what I did.

Now, T-bills at 5%+ so that is what I do.

I suspect in 2024 I'll pivot again.

@Kathy Benavidez: moisture caused issue. Could have been an overflow bath, leaving the door open during the shower, washing a pet or kid putting wet bath toys in that spot. The moisture didn't get cleaned up and the tenant possibly doesn't know they caused it because it took a while for the issue to develop.

Many would charge the tenant for damage but as others have said it's a cheap fix, I'd take care of it and relay concerns to the tenant so this doesn't happen again. Also a great time to do an inspection to see if there are other neglected areas of the home beside this one.

@Amber Masterson, I suspect your PM just wants your owner account funded before he has the contractor start the work. This will ensure they are not personally stuck covering the costs when the job is done. He may not pay the contractor with those funds until the job is done.

I recommend scheduling an inspection asap.

In addition to seeing if the extra occupants are home during the inspection look in the bedrooms and the closet. You are looking for signs of someone visiting (suitcase) or someone living there (closet is full).

Next, assuming occupants not on the lease have moved in you will need to decide if you want to address this face-to-face during your inspection or send an email. 

It can be as simple as requiring the additional occupants to fill out an application and adding them to the lease. Personally, I want to know everyone who is living in my property.

I would plan for additional inspections throughout the year and depending on a variety of factors I may consider non-renewal of the lease or perhaps a larger rent increase at renewal time.

Sometimes it's as simple as the tenant not realizing they needed to tell you about the in-laws that were also going to be living there but other times it can be savvy tenants sneaking in friends that otherwise would not qualify by way of the application process or as others above point out, subletting or eventual squatters.

@Nisrine Shehadeh: $300k in the summer of 2023. I'd buy a 1 or 2 year Treasury bill at 5%+.

That's $15k/Year or $1250+/mo in interest, state income tax free.

When you find a deal that has both cash flow and upside on appreciation you'll have more capital.

@Darrell B.

Tenancy seems to be a secondary issue that may be complicated by the owners seemingly clear verbal approval of this subletter.

The question really is one of mold and what mold laws are in the state of Washington.

Sounds like professional mold remediation was already attempted so there are clearly details missing about what the gap is between that mold remediation and the tenants currant complaints.

@Ray Malave if you are buying a traditional residential property off the MLS using form 2T your offer is unlikely to be taken seriously in most scenarios in NC without a competitive DD fee. Having said that, the competitive aspect has changed greatly in the past year. A year + ago it was common for buyers to put down $20K-$100K DD to be competitive and 'win' getting their offer accepted. Today, if you see a residential property sitting with high DOM that amount could be as low as $2K-$10K depending.

However, if you are making offers on off-market properties and don't have any competition or a clock ticking against you you can possibly negotiate no DD with the seller.

In NC the DD is about time and competition.