All Forum Posts by: Sydrah Dai

Welcome to Texas.   I hope this is a great move for you.

Are there any other rentals in your neighborhood?   If there are you can ask your neighbors what they are getting for rent....or look at similar developments near you.

One suggestion is to read the Property Code for MN.  Maybe read it 2-3 times.  If it is anything like the Texas code it will give you a lot of information about rentals and being your own manager, although it doesn't tell you everything.   A couple of things owners often miss here is installing keyless deadbolts and peepholes on all exterior doors.  Not sure if that is the same in MN or not.  Those are things you can start working on now.

You also want to be up to date on the laws concerning pets and what you must take or allowed to deny and the best way to screen those who say they have a service animal or ESA.   

We also have a new flood disclosure form to include with all rentals in Texas.

Another thing you can do today is identify a great lawyer who can help you write a great lease.  Plenty of people try to use internet generated forms, but I find these are often lacking.  For example many don't cover bed bugs and who has liability for that.  A real local attorney, who might also handle evictions is probably a good one to help you write a lease as they will know all the tricks to include or avoid.  If they also handle evictions, then they will best know the lease they have written for you.   If you use one off the internet and have an issue, then you have to pay them to learn your lease, and that can get expensive.  Hopefully you never get to have that experience, but sometimes it is part of the rental game.  A great attorney will also help you determine all the extra addendum you should use.

One thing I find first time landlords don't know and often the attorneys really don't know either, is the appropriate or standard and customary amounts to put in the leases.  Like how much is the standard late charge in your area?  Is rent due on the 1st and late on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th.  How many cars can they have, how long can guests stay, how much notice do they need to give you before they move out, or you need to give them before raising the rent.  That's where PMs can be an asset for you. 

Who will do quarterly inspections for you? Checking for air filter changes, non-recorded pets, extra tenants, leaks, and other maintenance items?   Rarely will any tenant care for your property like you would.  Being long distance adds to those complications.   Personally I think air filters should be changed every month, but I've never found a good way to encourage tenants to do that.  Some landlords pay and ship monthly from Amazon, but too often I see those piled up in the closet or garage and never changed.   Doing those quarterly inspections will help ensure they get changed at least every 3 months.   

Good luck and best wishes for a successful rental and a move to Texas.

 Thank you Kyle,

always happy to help. Cheers, 

Is your TH a good candidate to list as a STR? Could be an option for higher cash flow, especially if you have the right co-host/management company :)

You see the problem with self managing right there in your first post right? You thought $2650 from Zillow was too high, but now you think $2,800 might be reasonable. But so might $2,100. I assume you’re going to either guess, or split the difference down the middle and go $2,450. What’s worse. You get 100 apps day one (a property manager probably could have gotten $2,800 or more and now you are collecting less rent than you would have gotten after the manager’s fees. You are paying to be a PM, especially when the first repair call comes in and you have to randomly pick someone from the internet to make the repair.) Or… a month goes by and nobody has applied. Now you’ve paid 8% of a year’s rent as vacancy, again you could have had a PM do it for free. Do you lower the rent after a month? How much? Just another guess?

I assume you haven’t had any appreciation, otherwise I would suggest you take the tax free gain as you head to a tax free state. Otherwise you’re going to make any tax free gain you have now, taxable. 

Ps. Please don’t violate any MN landlord/tenant laws. As I’m sure you know them all like keeping the tenant’s security deposit in a separate bank account and paying them  1% interest. Supplying them with annual iRS CRP form. Who and why you can deny tenants and how much notice you have to give to tenants for each event. Again, otherwise the fees/fines and penalties could be higher than the PM fees. 

I don’t own a PM company, I don’t have a “dog in the fight”. I just don’t like the idea of the first time long distance landlord thinking this is the best place to save money. Good luck either way. 

@Sydrah Dai  - just a possible hint - when using zillow to help guess at rents,  don't just plug in your own address. Go to zillow as if you wish to rent and check all the units for rent in your area. You can then compare size, amenities, etc. That will give you a more accurate idea. e.g., for my rental home, zillow lists rental value as $2300 - in actuality I rent it for $1750 which is about market rate for that community.