All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

I agree with everyone posted here; you really have "roommates" more than you have tenants. When I was in the military I had a number of living arrangements with friends very similar to what you posted, and most of them were not good situations by the end. It is inevitable that someone will consume a much larger portion of resources, degrade the common areas, etc, and then you will be in an uncomfortable position. 

One lesson learned here is to require the deposit and first (and maybe last) month's rent to be paid in order to validate the lease. That is how my lease is worded; if they don't pay first, last, deposit, the terms of the lease have not been met. 

Neighborhoods are king where I live in terms of renting property. How expensive is the HOA fee, and would you pay it or the tenant? When the property is vacant, that is an additional expense you will have to eat. What are the possibilities of the other neighborhood coming up in value?

Based on the limited information you posted, and just between these two, I would have to go with the townhouse, so long as the HOA fees were reasonable.

Bump, in case anyone has any thoughts :) 

You know your area better than anyone else. Where I am, lack of central heat & air is a huge competitive disadvantage, despite the fact that the mountains regulate the temperature and we have few, if any, 90+ degree days, nor few days below 30 degrees in the winter. People do not mind old kitchens or old bathrooms here, as long as they are clean, but central heat and air will give a huge jump on anyone else.

One of the reasons some people choose apartments over single family homes is because of central heat & air. I think it depends how long you plan to keep this unit, whether it makes sense, and how much equity it adds to the value of the house. 

Where I live, electrical only needs to be brought up to code if the electricity has been disconnected for a certain length of time - I think it's one year, but it could be as low as 6 months. In fact, we had to walk on a deal for this very reason, because the sellers had let the electricity be shut off, and the municipal power board wouldn't reconnect without a full electrical upgrade (wiring, panel, proper number of outlets, counter outlets, etc). Once that came into play, there wasn't any way to make the numbers work on the house for a rental. 

Do not underestimate the costs of running new electrical work. It can add up on you in a hurry, especially if you are in an area where you can't even touch an outlet if you're not a licensed electrician. 

Probably an odd question for my first question (great forum, btw), but I couldn't find anything that really addressed my question.

One of my rentals is almost completely paneled ( now painted). When I bought it, it had been fairly neglected for a number of years by the previous owners, in that they did a very bare minimum of any kind of maintenance. Anyway, when we painted the old paneling, it revealed boatloads of holes from nails, presumably from hanging pictures and the like.

How do some of you deal with hanging things on walls? We are leaning towards a "Command Strips" provision in the lease, especially in this particular unit, as the holes in paneling are not as easy to deal with as in drywall; what we would do is provide the first batch (say, 20) of Command Strips, and let the tenant buy any additional ones they need from there. But Command Strips won't hang curtain rods or hold flat-screen TV sets. 

Thoughts? Thanks!