All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Moraski

Did you pull permits and have a certificate of occupancy from your municipality? If so, then they likely have a form to fill out requesting a new address. If you didn’t, then it’s non permitted use and you may run into issues not just with mail, but also think about emergencies and if there’s no address then it will be more difficult to locate anyone in the property. Not to mention trying to sell the property. It may be cheaper  and faster now not to permit, but long term it will serve you and your tenants to have it permitted and with a legal address. 

Jennifer

Thanks for sharing. What a mess to deal with.

Was the lost rent during rehab and/or due to non payment of the tenant? How long did the eviction take? Did you rehab the property due to damage caused by the tenant or did it need updating regardless and you used the vacancy to fix it up?

I agree.  Do you have a photographer lined up? I got quotes from 3 and asked about availability a month before I was ready. The one that took pictures was ready within 2 days and I had the pictures within 24 hours. And it was less than $500.

Anyone setup as an affiliate with OwnerRez? I’m going to sign up with them and would be great if someone here could get some money back for the referral. 

There’s SO many people who want and need a decent place to live and most of them you have to say no. That’s hard.  We’ve heard so many sob stories while meeting prospective tenants. But agreed with others, be consistent with your screening criteria and treat it as a business. 

It is a contract that you signed, so you may want to get legal advice. However since they aren’t making any money either, it’s bizarre that they aren’t more motivated. Have you tried having a direct face to face discussion or at least a phone call? I recently terminated my PMC and sent them a letter and email stating the date of termination, but I just had to give 60 day notice. 

Good luck!

We are in the process of something similar. Bought a house as our primary residence with an unfinished basement. Remodeled the main house and living here now. Basement is being built out as a separate 2 bed/1 bath unit that we'll use as an LTR (the city we are in is not a big STR draw). And we were recently approached to rent out the detached garage. Eventually we'll move and rent out the main house too. We also have a travel trailer on our property that we rent out, but not on our property. We deliver it to local campgrounds. There may be local regulations around storing that on your property and someone living in it, so check on that before purchasing. We also lived in the trailer while we remodeled the main house.

I'd recommend starting with a specific market and then understand the zoning, neighborhoods, prices and STR regulations in that area. We chose our city because the housing costs were lower, zoning was more friendly to multi-family and there was more inventory. Then start looking with houses that have expandability: larger lot, garage you could convert or add an ADU. I'm guessing basements aren't common in FL. 😀 You'll soon figure out if those exist and how to look for them. You may find duplexes or triplexes, but those were harder to find in our area.

What you envision is doable, but take one step at a time and focus on a specific city or even neighborhood. We started this journey almost 2 years ago so it can take a long time.

Good luck!

Good advice so far. As others have mentioned, run the numbers and see what your cash flow will be as an LTR.  It sounds pretty good. If you want some diversity in your portfolio, consider keeping it as an LTR. As you’ve already found out STRs have some risks (not that LTRs don’t, just different). I like having both personally. You can keep it as an LTR, save some of your profits then continue to explore what to do next.

Best of luck!