All Forum Posts by: Laurieann Frazier-Duarte

There are items required by law and in general those are related to the safety and basic comfort of living. 

Then there are other items that are negotiable in terms of marketing to get the place rented or at time of signing lease between the two parties. Another factor to consider is that if you want things to get done, put it on your end; if you don't care one way or another, put it on the tenant as long as they don't mind doing it. A few common items such as:

1. Lawn: if it's in a HOA and you care about maintaining the look of the exterior, owner should take care of lawn. If it's in a class C neighborhood and you don't care about the exterior look and tenant doesn't mind it, give it to the tenant. In this case, we tell the tenants we have two requirements, one as long as we don't hear complaints and the grass doesn't touch the house that become a liability for the building, and at the end of the lease they turnover the property with the landscape in the same condition as how they moved in, then however they want to maintain the lawn to maintain that standard, we don't care. If we are start to have problem with maintaining that standard, we will send our lawn guy to mow the lawn and will bill them the invoice.

2. Pest control, this one we typically do a curtesy first treatment and then any subsequent treatment is up to the tenant whether they want to keep the service or do it themselves. 

3. Smoke alarm batteries, refrigerator/microwave filters, lightbulbs, these are default tenant responsible items. 

4. HVAC filters. This one is really a tossup. Our default is tenant's responsibility but the ones who actually change filters are about 50/50 with our experience. Often time at turnover we pull out the filter it looks black so obviously it was never changed for at least 6 months. There are AC service company offer a reasonable fee for a annual plan where they come to change the filter twice a year. If you don't want to change the filter yourself and don't trust tenant with changing the filter, having the AC company do it could be another option. 

5. Exterior maintenance such as pressure wash and gutter cleaning, these times we take care of them and usually at turnover. When I used to be a tenant, my landlord had it in the lease that at the end of the lease for move out, the tenant has to hire a professional to clean the gutter, clean the fireplace, clean the carpet, etc. I did them all because I didn't catch that when I signed the lease and I was a good tenant but I thought those are bs where the landlord should take care of. Also you don't want the tenant to start doing these items themselves and potential getting hurt, especially clean gutters.  

Those are standard practices. Some times in a slow market and we need to attract tenant to sign a lease, we throw in some of these items because the cost of individual items is less than we lowering the rent by even $50 a month ($600 a year). So if it's a slow time, and in the showing when the tenant ask, we would say if you sign a lease by this time we will throw in these items that's normally tenant's responsibility. 
 

@Laurieann Frazier-Duarte feedback:

1) How many competing rental properties have you toured to evaluate how your home compares? What repairs/improvements do you NEED to do, versus THINK? 
--Too many newbies do too little logical research! It isnt about what YOU want, it's about what the MARKET wants. Why spend money on unneeded repairs/improvements?

2) How serious are you about investing? What changes to your budget have you made to save more money for RE investing? You only need 3.5% down for an FHA mortgage.

3) Why aren't you house-hacking RIGHT NOW? 
-- Roommates could accelerate your savings and give you experience dealing with tenants.

How are you going to handle two mortgage payments while your rental sits vacant for a few months - or do you naively think everything rents instantly?
-- What market research have you done to find out the average Days On Market (DOM) for rentals in your area? Do NOT trust ANYONE! Have an agent send you a list of RENTED/SOLD properties for the last 12 months in your area showing DOM. Or look at the properties listed for rent on Zillow and note how long they've been posted.

How much is your primary worth and mortgage balance?
-- You should get a HELOC on it for emergency purposes before converting to rental.
-- Proceed CAUTIOUSLY as many will recommend using the HELOC for down payment on new primary home. NOT a good idea unless you really know what you are doing. The extra HELOC payment can cause negative cashflow, leading to possible foreclosure and/or bankruptcy.

Should you pursue RE investing?
---ABSOLUTELY!!!

You just need to do the proper research and have realistic steps to reach your goals:)

DM us for more advice.