All Forum Posts by: Lisa Hoyt

"But the risk of losing one month's rent is too traumatic to even think about."

Ummm, vacancies happen. If there is this much stress with churning the unit perhaps she should think about selling? It sounds like she is not cut out for being a landlord.

I do not see much of a conundrum here. I would wait until the tenants moved out. Then give it a thorough scrub and perhaps even paint. Then show it for higher rent. 

$1695 is not outrageous for Malden, but there are certainly cheaper options.  So you need to at least consider price.

One thing I think you should look at, if you have had people interested enough to come look but decline to rent, is how your sister interacts with prospective tenants.  Do you advertise the house as owner-occupied?  For many, that is a plus.  But for many others, a definite negative.  So if they show up not realizing the owner lives on-site, and get a lot of intrusive-seeming questions, they may be turned off.  In the past, your sister has had a third party in between her and the prospective tenant to prevent this sort of problem.

Well Stated @Richard C. 

Couldn't agree with you more.

I don't agree that lowering the rent results in lower-quality tenants.  The opposite is usually true.

Smart people will try to get the best value they can.  The most apartment for the least money.  Well-qualified tenants have lots of choices, just like well-qualified car buyers can walk into any dealership and buy a car.  So people who will willingly pay at the top of the market for an apartment are usually doing so because they do not have a lot of choices.  Like a car buyer who has to buy at a "buy-here, pay-here" place.

Thats A HUGE DROP I would drop it $45 to 1650 for two weeks if traffic still seems to be low then drop it another 50 to 1600. I have drop the rent $25 before and it Made all the difference and I got overrun with applicants.

I agree with most of what has been said but I have definitely found that when the old tenants "stuff" is still in the property, people have a hard time seeing past that and how their "stuff" would go in the unit.  A vacant, clean unit is always much easier for me to rent. A drop in the rent of $45 at this point in my opinion isn't going to do much.  It may get you some more interest but again if the old tenants haven't moved out then it will still be hard.

Now is a bit tougher time of year now that schools are back in session but with it being a 2 bedroom you should still have some interest from those that don't have kids and are typically good to move at any time.

When are they moving out?  

Is the unit vacant right now? It could be the place doesn't show well with a lot of stuff cluttering it if it isn't. I agree that your response rate seems fine.

As to your inquiries about lead based paint...don't bring that up during a property tour. You will need to disclose it but considering that so many places have lead based paint this isn't really something you need to highlight on a property tour. If they have kids then it's a nice heads up, but other wise there is a time and place for that. 

You said:

(It will show a lot better when empty of all of the, um, "stuff" belonging to current tenants.)

I would suspect this has at least something to do with your problem. It is not the greatest time of year to find tenants, either, as most stable people move in late spring through the summer. 

How much of the problem is actually your sister being dissatisfied with her potential neighbors? Being super picky is a good way to not have any tenants. I can honestly say that I see things at my tenant's houses that are not the way I would want to live, but as long as they're not doing damage to the property or creating a health hazard and/or nuisance for the neighborhood, or doing anything illegal, I don't say anything, and these are not low-income people.  

@Lisa Hoyt Welcome to BP! You are correct and you are certainly doing everything correct. As a PM, sometimes I rent places out to the perfect tenant within 24 hours, sometimes, it seems to be lesser qualified tenants.  Keep her calm and patient and it will work out.

I don't really understand why she's freaking out, seems pretty normal. How long have you been looking for a tenant? Yes it would definitely be better to have it vacant than with a bad tenant. You said 10 of them seemed qualified, what happened with them?