All Forum Posts by: Kip Thompson

Are you paying more than the minimum on your student loans? If so, you might consider paying the bare minimum on those and use the extra savings to get into REI faster. Then your investments will eventually be able to pay your student loans off. It wasn't an investment property, but the last house we moved out of appreciated enough in the 3 years that we lived there that we paid off almost all of my student loans when we sold it. Sorry I don't have any other advice to offer as far as financing goes. We have one rental right now and we lived in it first so it was an FHA loan.

@Eric H. Thank you for the suggestions. Yes, I'll be digging out our contract soon to see what it dictates as the minimum as well as the state statutes. I hadn't though about starting on repairs prior to the tenants moving out, so I'll be looking into that. 

@Thomas S. The tenants have been fine, just having trouble paying on time the past year or two. I guess if they bail early it wouldn't be the worst thing, since their lease is up toward the middle-end of August so it would be better to be looking for new tenants earlier in the summer before school starts. 

My wife and I are renting out a townhouse in Vancouver, WA. The lease will be expiring in August 2019 (4 months from now) and we are thinking about not renewing the lease with the current tenants. How long of a notice would you suggest giving them? Just wondering what the pros/cons are of notifying them ASAP vs. waiting as long as possible. These are the first tenants we've ever had (they've been there for 5 years) and so this is uncharted territory.