All Forum Posts by: Jason H.

Has everyone noticed that the rental market in PGH been especially difficult this year? My properties are in Brentwood, used to be able to get many applicants, but now it's just a trickle in the height of summer and quality of tenants is less than desirable and with much longer DOM.  It seems that good, decent, qualified tenants have the pick of the litter, often flaky and uncommitted when there is so much supply out there.  I understand that rent price is a huge factor, but there is only so much room you can lower it before all you attract is the wrong crowd. 

What has everyone been doing to deal with this reality?

Quote from @Allan C.:

@Mary Jay you’ve got all the good feedback that you need, so I’ll share a tactic that i use in todays market. I’m in same situation as you where I used to get top dollar B-class tenants and vacancies filled within a week. However, these past few months I’ve had slow showings and 30+ DOM to rent.

For my last two vacancies I dropped rent 10% below market. I’d rather get more applicants and choose better quality than deal with higher risk. I now see competitor listings at 60+ DOM, so their extra month vacancy already exceeds losses from lower rent…. and they’ll likely settle with a worse tenant.

Play chess, not checkers. Vacancy (either through longer DOM, unpaid rent or evictions) is your biggest enemy. Don’t anchor so much on maximizing rent price.

I am in the same boat and completely agree with you in that the rental market does seem to be changing quite a bit in recent times- much more difficult to get good qualified tenants these days and decent tenants seem to have their pick of the litter - often very flaky and uncommitted because there is so much supply out there.

Rent price is definitely a key issue but what's the more likely outcome of a significant drop in rent price below market? - attracting the wrong type of tenants or actually capturing those with decent credit looking for a deal?

Look into Fulton Grace.  I used them before and then self-managed because tenant & property was low-maintenance.  They were OK, but it really depends on which property manager in their team gets assigned to you.  PM is always trial and error.  There's never going to be a perfect one.

@Kristina Modares Hey Kristina, just curious, what part of 30A is your property?

@Chris K. when you say world class beaches, are you referring to NW or SW FL?

Originally posted by@Lesley Resnick:

Originally posted by @Jason H.:

@Lesley Resnick. Have you considered build-to-short-term-rent?

That is an interesting thought.  I have not considered it.  The challenge is that most of the legal short terms rentals are in historic district in Jacksonville and that is potentially another hassle and the land is limited and expensive.

What would such a house look like?  There are zoning limitations on houses with multiple kitchens unless they are in a multifamily zoning district   

Yes, the answer would be dependent on where you live and if you were looking to build/develop close to home, as opposed to developing in a true vacation destination. 

The properties themselves would look no different than any other single family, unless you were building a SFR with an ADU/carriage house (then you might have two kitchens)

My personal experience with unpaid rent and collections is that it’s 99.99% guaranteed you won’t get the money back.  What you can do is file a case against the tenant and have it go on their records and affect their credit.  Unfortunately there’s always going to be bad apples…

@Lesley Resnick. Have you considered build-to-short-term-rent?

@Jordan Hall Check out Kitchenramma in the Strip District.  Ask for King.  I didn’t know any better and just used cheap Home Depot quality cabinets, until I got a recommendation to buy from them.  They also have granite and quartz and they install everything.  Another recommendation is Y&Q, also in the Strip I believe. Both are Asian owned businesses so prices are very competitive.

Hi Architects...Hope you are all doing well!  Curious if anyone in the discussion has ever embarked on building their own single family residence from a vacant lot and have any good take-aways to share here.  Even though we may be all architects here, our professional experiences and focus vary widely and may not cover single family residential from the ground up.  Specifically, I'll be building in NW Florida, but any feedback on the building process from design to contractor selection would be very helpful!