All Forum Posts by: Dana McMahan

I may have been scared away by that kitchen  if I hadn't spent a year+ on the Detroit house. Here are some before and after shots of that work.

@Major Robertson sorry, I didn't tag you in my reply.

And yep, they told us what  the rent was, but the owner was paying utilities. We plan to make it more appealing than it was when the guy with the snake(!) lived there, so I hope we can still get in that range, and have the renter pay LGE (it's on its own meter). 

By the way, we're having what we are calling a Before Party (as in Before renovation) next Sunday. If you'd like to come by and say hello I'll send you details.

I think that terrible kitchen is what kept the house on the market for so long :) Sorry you missed out on it - we missed several houses ourselves, but the moment I set foot in this one I knew it had to be our next home.

It'll be public to anyone who looks at zillow before long anyway, so that's fine. We offered asking price - 200k. It appraised for more, and we got asking price on our sale, so I was ok with that. (They also gave us a few thousand toward closing costs and repairs).

 Hi Major, wow! What a close call ... we fell in love with that house and put ours on the market immediately so that we could be under contract before we made an offer.  Luckily (for us;) ours sold fast. Best of luck with yours! We have houses built in 1928 and 1919, but I feel like an 1890 home will be a bit of a different ballgame. 

Thanks @Erik Hitzelberger and @Michael Seeker. I've spent a bit of time scouring zillow and craigslist for rentals in the area to get an idea. I heard from a friend of a friend that washer and drier are key. Actually, for a one bedroom she called having laundry a 'unicorn' so we'll definitely provide that. :) 

My trouble is I want to spend a lot of money to make it nice, like somewhere I'd want to live, and I need to balance that with keeping it an affordable renovation. Right now it's pretty hideous with old, red(!) carpet and very out of date everything else.

@Kelly Bankes 

@Chuck B.

So far in Louisville we've rented our house at Derby (since '07, pre-Airbnb) and in the last year or so, whenever we go to Detroit. Our current home (for one more week!) is a small bungalow near the track, which goes for around $700-$800 a night at Derby, but less than $100 the rest of the year. We mostly handle everything ourselves here, though sometimes we hire Eco Fresh cleaning in between guests.

At the next house, we hope to rent the big house (the first and second floor) this Derby, then put that income towards the gut and renovation needed on the third floor. That's a pretty long term project, but once that's done, I'd hope to rent it mostly on weekends, and would look to get around $85 a night (more at Thunder, as it has a great downtown view) and of course Derby.

I'd actually love to hear from other landlords around Old Louisville as we decide how much to rent the garage apartment for. It's a large studio, around 700 sq ft.

 Oh, there are plenty of stories:) What would you like to hear about?

 It is! We are completely in love with it:)

Hi Erik, that would be great, thanks! 

Hi all, I'm a freelance writer, and what you might call an accidental landlord. After visiting Detroit on assignment for a travel story I fell in love with the city and -- following a yearlong search -- my husband and I bought a 1919 three-family house in the city. We renovated it, rented one flat, furnished the other two and currently Airbnb them (and stay there when we are in town as, which is as often as possible). I didn't set out to be a landlord, but couldn't let a house sit empty. 
A year and a half later we're buying a new home in Louisville, a big old Victorian that comes with a carriage house we plan to rent and an attic apartment we plan to Airbnb. Since it seems this passion project is turning into a bit of a business I figure I should educate myself much more thoroughly, so here I am. I look forward to learning from folks with much more experience and knowledge.