All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

NC Mark-

You bring up a good point with the college renters. I can just imagine that they are already having mom and dad pay for school and housing, why not try to get stuff for free from the landlord, too!! That is not a market that I am in, but certainly something to consider for anyone looking into the college rentals.

Thank you all for the great info. I would imagine that most of the landlords on this list have encountered many, if not all of these and more.

I am looking at the various issues that renters will see and am planning to use it as a template to play up the various strengths of my own properties. My plan is to combine this with some of the other things i've learned here on BP (Flickr and youtube through craigslist) to try to reduce the time it takes to fill and get a better group of tenants to choose from. Thanks again for all of your help.

Jeff

thanks, Charles. What types of properties do you own? Are these MFD?

Hello all,

I am interested to receive feedback on what you feel are the most common complaints that you hear from renters (whether they are yours or just people you may have met). I would also be interested to hear how you would classify your target tenant (i.e. are you in section 8, war zones, high end, college housing, senior living) to get a feel for what types of things different people will complain about. Could be anything? (yard too big/small, noise/ old appliances/lack of upkeep/high upfront deposits/no pets allowed, etc.)

I am trying to think of creative ways to market a rental beyond the basic marketing that most of us are doing. Ultimately, this could help each one of us to develop our own unique selling proposition based upon our unique scenario/location/target market. All feedback is appreciated.

Thanks

jeff

If you are saying that you will be using this as your primary residence (when you apply for the loan), then you cannot do a lease option within the initial 12 months as I believe this would be considered fraud.

maybe others can post their opinion.

Jeff

I would be curious to see what the vacancy rate is for the type of properties that you are looking to buy? What is the supply like at that pricepoint? Are you looking to buy and hold, or fix and flip? Yes, the prices are low, but as Eric said, they were also "low" last year.

I know that those casinos have been having huge problems as they borrowed gobs of money to build these things and cannot refi them now, since they aren't worth the amount borrowed. Not sure what that does to the local rental and low end purchase market, but that is what I would be looking at. If you have a long term horizon and buy right, I imagine you're putting yourself in a pretty good spot (long term).

Jeff

Hey Brian,

I did not get my material from AWD just because I needed to get it right away, so I purchased from Home Depot. That being said AWD was recommended to me as a good source. The TREX is very solid, not hollow at all. Keep in mind fo rthe pricing that mine were 12 ft boards, not 16 ft, so thhey are probably closer in price than we first thought.

Welcome aboard, Travis. Spend some time looking around the site and digging through the forums. I am pretty new as well and have learned an amazing amount of info just reading the daily posts and throwing in my 2 cents where possible. This is a great reference and base of knowledge in this group!

Jeff

Bryan,

i just built a deck out of TREX in my backyard. I am very happy with it so far. I did not use the type with the hidden fasteners, so I cannot speak to that, but it went together very easy. My only complaint was that they will sell you these special screws to use that are suppose to just seat themselves into the planks (without making it bubble up on top). This is not the case. After screwing around with it for about an hour (they would strip and I went through several bits) I ended up pre-drilling every hole to get around this. Looks great now, but was a real back breaker at the time :)

The only other comment I have is that people warned me that the composite stuff would get warm on the feet (when it is 103 like today). I have not had that issue with the TREX and have been happy with it. Good luck.

Pricing was about $27 per 12' board and for my deck (about 400 sq ft) i spent about $100 on the screws for it.

Jeff

First - Thank you, Rich! That is an awesome way to give back to causes that truly need it.

2nd - if you really want to get the maximum benefit from your donation, I suggest that you limit the number of causes (fewer the better) that you donate to. Non profits actually spend a lot of money going after anyone that has donated in the past for repeat donations. For example, if you were to donate to 10 groups, they will all spend $$ trying to solicit you again next year.

Fortunately, i am blessed with two healthy children, but might I suggest your local children's hospital? There are a million needs to pick from (obviously) but this is where I donate.

Jeff