All Forum Posts by: Josh L.

How do you market to non-travel nurses?

My place is quiet, safe 10 minute walk to the hospital that seems like it would be ideal for nurses. With this recession, nurses don't seem like they'd need to worry about getting laid off.

And, I know a lot of landlords have found success with this niche of renting to travel nurses, but my place is unfurnished and a 2 bedroom so I don't think it will work for the travel nurses.

And, is there a certain time of the year that hospitals need nurses? There's no point in trying to market to those nurses if they're not moving at that time of the year. 

All I can think of is mentioning the name of the Hospital in my craigslist ad, but I was wondering what the landlords do to market to travel nurses and if I could apply that to marketing to non-travel nurses. 

You’ll have to use the data available.  Compare history with actual units for rent.  That should give you the market, use multiple sources. Zillow, trulia, hotpads, apartments.com, rentometer, mls, etc.

@Kenneth Garrett

Can you explain this further because I'm still confused.

How are you comparing the history if you don't what those units actually rented out for?

Or, are you basically saying to not worry about past comps and just focus on the current listings as those are market rate?

Why not do virtual tours and put it up on youtube?

And, if you want to screen tenants by meeting them, why can't you do that on a videoconferencing app like Facetime?

If you insist on physical showings and meeting the applicants, its limiting your applicant pool to only those who are still willing to go out right now. And, you'd also need to clean and sanitize your place after each viewing.

Originally posted by @Greg M.:

The state might have a list of businesses that fall under this. 

I would consider providing housing to be an essential need and I think if questioned on it, you could reasonable argue housing is an essential need. Also, what is the worst that happens if caught? In CA it appears that you may get a talking to by police if doing something you shouldn't be. I've also seen lots of clearly non-essential businesses open without the police stopping them.

In California, realtors were told by their association to stop all face-to-face sales activities including showings, listing
appointments, open houses and property inspections.

And, home selling was not exempted from stay at home orders. 

https://www.ocregister.com/202...

A violation of the stay at home order would be considered a misdemeanor, and so you could be hit with $1,000 fine. (In comparison, the Asian countries that were able to control coronavirus levied much higher fines- Taiwan fine was about $30,000 for breaking quarantine).

Right now, the police are trying to get people to comply without arrests. But, a lot of people are being idiots so I wouldn't be surprised if the police need to get more serious and start arresting people and giving out fines.

How do you find the actual rent data, ie how much a rental actually rented out for and not what it was listed for?

I'm pulling old comps, but the problems is that just because something gets listed and asks for a certain rent does not mean the landlord actually ended renting it out for that amount.

The landlordology blog made a interesting point when it wrote:

"When a real estate agent “pulls comps” to evaluate a home for sale, they use actual sales, not listings prices. Actual rent prices will inform you of what landlords in your neighbor are actually receiving in rent, not just what they hope to receive."

https://www.landlordology.com/...

Is there any way to find the actual rent data than to pay $20 to landlordology for their report? 

And, if anybody has used it, how accurate is their report? How are they able to find the actual rent prices?

Oh, you did pay for the judgments and liens too?

RentPrep's response made it seem like you didn't and that's why there weren't any flags on the application. Even if the county doesn't report evictions, wouldn't that still show up as judgment or lien against the tenant?

Obviously, there are privacy concerns and so you can't reveal too much information. But, I'm curious what the report said.

Was there anything in the report that was a red flag?

Or, if you had talked to RentPrep's screeners to explain the report, would that have made a difference?

So, if I had paid RentPrep for the judgments and liens as part of the full credit report, would RentPrep have been able to warn me about the applicant's evictions?

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

 The bigger problem is... you don't see a broken door lock or loose wires hanging from a range? Really? Rentals are all about durability and ease of maintenance, perform a fire/safety inspection every three months and check things out. 

You go into the tenant's home every 3 months to check up on them, and your tenants are fine with that?

The door doesn't have a broken lock. I know about the lock, and its futzy- you don't push the door all the way in and lock it. Instead, you push the door almost all the way in, and then you turn the lock to lock the door. It only takes a couple of tries to get the hang of it and  what every previous tenant had to do, but this tenant sounds like he wants a brand new door because of it.

If I can lock the door, would you replace it with a brand new door then?

And, because I know what the door lock is really like, it makes me really skeptical about all his other complaints with the way he exaggerated about the front door and the lock. Plus, I find it really strange that there all these issues- no water, no heat, falling glass- that the previous tenant never mentioned.

I just had a tenant move in the beginning of this month, and the tenant has sent a long list of requests:

1) Some of the blinds in the kitchen are broken and don't work.

2) The front door is difficult to open and lock.

3) One of the bathroom doors does not close correctly so it can't be locked.

4) Vanity cabinets in the bathrooms are rusted.

5) Light fixture for stairs is broken with loose glass falling out.

6) Replacing all lights with LED to lower electric bill.

7) Thermostat is broken with no hot air, only cold.

8) Plug for the vent/lights over the range is broken that needs to be replaced with wires hanging out so you get shocked when you plug it in.

9) The tub/shower for the master bath has no water coming out.

10) But, everything else is great!!!

The tenant has offered to either get them done himself (it sounds like he's already bought some new vanity cabinets), find a contractor that tenant used before for a quote, or I can take care of them. 

Which issues are serious that should be fixed, and which ones are trivial that I should ignore?

If its serious, I understand I have to fix it. But, I don't want to start a relationship with a tenant where I've emboldened them to be a PITA tenant who sends me lists of trivial issues. 

And, I find it strange that previous tenants didn't have these issues. If there's no water coming out of the tub/shower, I would have thought this is something the previous tenant would have complained about.

If the tenant is willing to do the work themselves, do you let them?

How do you stage vacancies? 

Are there any inexpensive tips or hacks on how to stage a vacancy?

When I google this topic, they assume that the place isn't vacant so suggested cheap ways to stage a home are more about decluttering and moving around existing furniture.

I know about the air mattress trick that will look like a bed for the bedrooms, but are there any similar tricks for living rooms? I have a long and empty large living room that needs something in it to give it some sense of the scale of the place.

I was thinking about hiring a professional to take pictures because I don't have the equipment- DSLR camera, wide angle lens, tripod, etc..  

But, I don't know if its worth the cost if the place is vacant because those real estate photographs really don't pop when the place is vacant. At the very least, I want to be able to stage my vacancy just for the photographs.

Some people might just borrow and bring their own furniture from home to stage a vacancy. But, that really won't work for my situation. I have a 4 door sedan so a sofa won't fit in it. Plus, I have to carry all the stuff up a flight of stairs just to get to the living room. 

And, how do you stage the kitchen?

Do you clear everything off the countertops to show off how large those countertops are? Or, are you supposed to leave a bowl of fruit on the countertops?

For the bathrooms, is it just some white towels and that's it?

Any other staging tips that you do?