All Forum Posts by: Whitney D.

You are in a tough spot here, and the honest perhaps harsh truth (as others have mentioned) is that you are very overpriced for the area. Also as mentioned earlier in the thread, how soon you want to pay it off has absolutely no effect on what you need to do to rent this house.

Did you pay cash for this house or is there any sort of financing that you have to pay back? Rightn now if your investment is just $30k cash then you are looking at getting it paid back in 5-6 years with $500 a month rent. Prices could go up and you could pay it off quicker but right now you just need to start renting

Looking around your area, you have a house down the street and around the corner thats 300 sq ft larger and $200 cheaper in rent. Right next door to it there is a house the same size as yours, also newly renovated, with more bedrooms thats also $200 cheaper than yours. A couple streets over there is one 200 sq ft bigger and $100 cheaper per month. Of those, your ad is the best laid out and with the best pictures, but at the end of the day no one is paying for pictures.

Your market is also saturated with rentals, you have dozens of rentals all within your immediate neighborhood and its not the kind of neighborhood where upgrades will get you extra money. Most of the rentals are lower prices and the majority have some sort of move in special as well.

If you want to get this rented you need to put in at least a stove and I would reccomend a dishwasher as well if the hook ups are there. I have not seen rentals before without those two being standard. As far as a fridge you could make an offer to either provide the fridge or take $100 off the first months rent, I think that would be good incentive for someone with a fridge already and make someone without a fridge feel more comfortable by not having to pay for one. On top of that, I think your price needs to be around $500, I realize this means putting more money in before you get money back, but looking at the neighborhood, your price is just too high. You wont get this paid back in 2 years with $500 a month but it will be paid back eventually and after that its still profit. So its not a bad investment just not as quick a return as you and your wife hoped.

I found bigger pockets a while ago while trying to get some assistance with utilities on a rental then started looking around and saw what a great resource this site could be.

I am a little bit of a house flipper by nature. I cant resist a house that needs some work and DIY is practically in my blood. I bought one house which I renovated and it will be sold in Oct of this year. I put an additional 10% of thep urchase price into renovating the house. I will sell the house for 150% of my initial purchase price (its already been sold just being leased for a year prior to closing) and make 40% pure profit from it. I lived in the house while I renovated it so I dont count the mortgage payments as a loss as the mortgage was less than a decent apartment. I opted to sell this house because I can make such a large profit on it by selling, also because it has a pool and flat roof, both of which are in new or great condition but I feel would be issues long term.

I own another house now that I will be fixing up as well. I have plans to keep this one as a rental because its a fairly low maintenance house (brand new pitch roof, good foundation, no structure problems, well maintained with brand new heater and AC). The rental prices for this area will give me a good return and while I could make some money flipping it, a rental would give me better return in this case and a good monthly income amount.

My goal would be to eventually to have my primary income be from real estate rentals and flipping. I cant imagine a happier job than waking up in the morning without an alarm and driving over to a house just to renovate it for resell or rent. When my first house sells I am going to be looking seriously at purchasing a rental or flip with some of those profits.

My hardest by far was my first. I was 20 years old at the time, looking to buy my first house. At the time I had worked full time while going to school full time with a good job that paid for all my classes. So I had a nice chunk of money stashed away to use as a down payment etc. Well, after seeing many houses and trying to find a good deal, I found my 'dream' house. I found out it was going for auction and jumped through all the hoops needed to bid on it at auction. I had planned on bidding around 115k for the house, but was outbid at 135k. I waited for the property to vanish from the board (proof that the bidder had proper financing and the deal had gone through). An hour later it was still there and I started asking around only to find out that the auction had minimums on all the properties (this was not told to anyone nor written anywhere and all of the literature implied that the properties would sell that day regardless). The min was 150k, which was more than I was willing to pay on that house at the time. About 6 months later the house pops back up listed at 140k and I keep an eye on it. Less than a month later its 120k. Now this was during the crash, so I assumed part of the price drop was the bank trying to get ahead of the market and get out of the property.

I put in a bid at 115k and it was accepted. I was very excited and when I went to see the house during the inspection, I saw water damage in the ceilings. Apparently the roof was bad but because it was a flat roof there was no way to see without a ladder. But since the house had been sitting vacant so long, water had finally leaked through the ceiling. I opted to let the house go back based on the inspection, but was still interested. I waited and saw that it was relisted at 100k and jumped on it. I applied and was approved for home repair financing where I would forward the cost of a new roof and new drywall to an escrow, then would have the house repaired within 2 weeks after closing and the repairmen would be paid from escrow and I would be returned the excess.

This ended up being such a huge nightmare for me and for my family. Mostly because this was nearing the end of the first time home buyer tax credit, also because the person handling my mortgage was an idiot. I dont say stuff like that often but he was. After 30 days passed I called and asked what was going on and he says "Oh no its a 60 day closing dont worry). It was actually supposed to be 45 at the request of the bank but because the banks counter of 45 days got lost in the shuffle it was 60 days. At that point I urged himt o get it done ASAP as I was nervous about closing etc. He bragged that it could be done in a week and not to worry. At 45 days I started calling him and he finally started requesting paperwork from me. Each day I would call and ask if he had everything adn each day he would say "Well I also need this". This went on for weeks. Then the date of closing starts sneaking up and he admits he is nowhere near ready, luckily the bank extends for another 15 days. Well with the slam of the first time home buyers the paperwork was delayed even more, and of course he kept forgetting paperwork. A week before closing we kept wondering if closing would even happen. He started ignoring my phone calls and being a huge pain about everything. Finally two days before closing we find out we wont make it in time because the documents have to be transported from another county and I would lose my first time home buyer credit because of him. I spent all day calling and brainstorming and we finally figured out that if I drove 4 hours away to close in the morning (bank picked closing company). Then the documents could be processed and sent down the next day (final day of tax credit) and recorded in my county before the end of the day.

Well I was up the whole night before unable to sleep, so my mother drove me up to close. When we got there they still had no docs and told us to wait a few hours. We hung out in a local restaurant and finally got the call to come close. We rushed over only to have the lady doing the closing tell us we were missing paperwork and couldnt close.... my mother lost it. After about 45 mins of dramatics we found out that the final pieces of paperwork could be added to the package the next day when the closing company in my local county would review the paperwork for final approval. Paperwork was signed, big sigh of relief, drove back home saying we would laugh at this some day.

Next day I wait to hear whats happening. I am very lucky I was pro active about all of this, there were many times where I could have lost my tax credit or the house if I hadnt been on it. My realtor told me the house was likely to be recorded about 8 and I would have keys by 8:30. Well 8:30 comes and goes and my realtor heard nothing. I start calling around and find out that it was the last day for the lady who did the closing for us, the wire was lost and no one could reach her. After many calls back and forth to confirm it was sent, they finally found the wire and sent the package down to be processed for closing. Paper should arrive by 1:00 or so and be ready to go at 2:00 for recording since it was just a processing job. Papers arrive, I wait and wait, hear nothing, 3:00 comes and once again realtor has heard nothing. Call the local closing company and they refused to send the papers for recording because they had never dealt with this type of closing before and wanted more time to go through the paperwork and would send first thing in the morning. Told them if they did that I would lose my tax credit and it would come out of their pockets since they werented doing this closing just making sure all the paperwork was there (which they admitted it was). It was a bluff mostly but it worked as the paperwork went out with the last courrier of the day at 4:00pm and was recorded just before closing. Got my keys at 6:30 that night and I drove over there and spent a few hours in the house just in shock at how it all worked out in the end. The next day the whole roof was ripped off lol. It was another 3 weeks before the house was ready for move in and I was able to move in 3 days before my birthday. To this day my mom and I still joke about the horror story of my closing on that house. My next house closing was luckily almost text book, fantastic realtor and the guy handling my mortgage was on top of it and helpful, much better experience.

I rented a few times in the past when I needed to for my job. If you want honest feedback on my thoughts if I saw this add while looking for a rental it would be this.

1. no pictures of the interior- If I was out of state trying to move to state or anything, unless the rental price was one heck of a steal, I am just going to close it and move on. In the past I used to try and call or ask for pictures etc. But found that most people not willing to put in the effort to take good pictures and put them up, wont take the time to respond or send me pictures. Not to say that you would do this, but from a renters mentality, no pictures=skip.

2. Its a suspicious add. Because the only picture is the exterior and its all closed up appears to be only on zillow, this screams strongly of a scam rental. So once more, just move on, wont even inquire.

3. Its a rental not a residence I will be buying, a handful more square feet isnt worth the extra money to me. I would rather put the money towards a house purchase or a purchase for something that I will be able to keep. You have rentals in the area that are a little cheaper by about $50 and are only about 100 sq ft smaller. $50 may not seem like much at first, but thats $600 at the end of the year, plus what I would save on utilities to heat and cool the extra space, which to me $600 is a nice kayak or all the money I need for christmas presents etc.

So from the perspective of a previous renter I would suggest some or all  of the following. Drop the price $75-$100. I dont know what your payments are right now, but if you can afford the drop its a definite advantage to rent with more square feet for less than the others in the area. That will make your house the priority and the desired rental. I do realize that means money out of your pocket, but its better to rent and get the money for a year then see if the market is better or raise the price a little, than to keep a vacant house sitting there. Take nice pictures of the interior (bathrooms, kitchen, master bedroom, backyard). You dont need a ton just give people an idea of whats going on, plus interior pictures makes me feel less like its a rental scam. You are likely missing tons of potential renters by having no interior pictures. To you it may seem like its not much effort to go see a place or ask for pictures, but past experience has taught many renters that if there arent pictures, its not worth it.

As an update. I spoke to someone late Friday at the rental company who told me to have the utilities shut off, which I was wary to do but decided to have them shut off on Thursday (day after the pool is cared for) so they have plenty of time to get it turned to their name before its shut off as well as get it turned back on before the pool needs service again. She also told me to send the bills and they would charge it back to the tenants. Then she told me she would contact the tenants and let me know she told them. Unfortunately I never heard back after that. I called back in today and its like starting all over again, they have no clue who I spoke to on Friday and they dont know if anyone informed the tenants or not.

The tenants themselves are very nice people, my grandparents have known them for over a year and I met them personally prior to them renting so even though I dont like the fact that they didnt swap utilities, I dont want them being turned off without notice. I finally got the second check for rent when I got home Friday so I do have at least one months worth of rent. The first check is still MIA and even though I have asked them several times to cancel it and direct deposit it seems like they keep dragging their feet about it. I dont think they are ripping me off, it just seems like I talk to someone different each time I call and no one is communicating with each other from one day to the next. When I called this morning they still hadnt set up the direct deposit and I made them do it over the phone. They asked for all my info again (even though it was on my application) and got it set up. Now I just have to wait (Again) for them to cancel the first check and then deposit it directly. Hopefully things are smoother sailing from here on out. I dont know why this has been so rough for me personally, as I said my mom has rentals through these guys and so does my sister and they have had no issues.

The house is in Arizona, I live in Georgia, hence why things are a little bit weird here.The PM is a legitimate company and I selected them personally because they have handled my mother and sisters properties without issue for years. The tenants rental history is clean their last landlord also gave them a good reference. They paid the deposit and have paid their rent perfectly on time so far. I dont know if this was a screw up on the rental companies part or the tenant, I am inclined to believe the rental company because they also screwed up fixing the things found on move in. I gave them my repairman and they were supposed to have him do everything but they had someone else do it. So far they cant provide any reason why they didnt send my repairman when they had his contact info, and why they didnt do direct deposit when I filled out all the paperwork for them to do that. All they will say is "We will contact the tenant."

I am just trying to find out if there is any way I can legally get that money back by charging through rent or something else, or if I am just going to have to suck it up and live with losing the money.I did not have utilities set up to turn off because I cannot turn off the water and electric- I have a pool and pay a company to maintain it weekly, they need water and electric to do that.Which leaves only gas and the gas company in that town has a history of screwing things up and being difficult, which is hard to deal with from across the country, so I just figured I would leave it to help the tenants and me.

I know there are threads about utilities etc already but I am in an interesting situation and looking for some feedback.

I moved out of state and the tenants in my house intend to buy it after leasing for one year.
I am using a rental company and they confirmed while checking the tenants history that their credit was good aside from losing their house during the market crash (which they told me) and that they have never been evicted, and have no other issues with not making payments. Their last landlord vouched for them that they were good tenants who took great care of the house and he had no issues with them, they left because he wanted to renovate his rental so it was a mutual parting.

They moved in OCT 1, so when I got a bill going up to OCT 11th I thought nothing of it, just assumed they had swapped utilities to their name and the cycle just said the 11th to the 11th, and the bill was only a little higher than that of the vacant house bills. However I just went through my bank account and saw that I got charged full utilities costs for this last month. The bills were not insanely high, about $120 total for all the utilities which is about the same I paid when I lived in the house. But its clear the tenants have not moved anything to their name. I did specify that tenants pay utilities.

I would prefer not to evict these tenants. The rental company is supposed to contact them to move things over and perhaps I am being too trusting but I believe they will move them over once they are told to. But am I able to get my money back for the utilities? Its not much, just $120. But the rental company has been... dissapointing so far. In fact I have yet to receive any rental money from the rental company because they didnt deposit as I requested, instead sent me checks without telling me. First check was lost and has not been re-issued. Second check has yet to arrive. Am I just going to have to eat that $120? Can I charge it back to the tenants? The rental company doesnt have an answer for me.