All Forum Posts by: Lacey S.

I'd love to see details on the condo flips! There are bunch of condos/townhomes near us but I never thought about flipping one (I'm currently a buy & hold investor only). Very interested to hear about what you did!

 @Susan Maneck, I think he is saying the 114$ is too much to reserve for income taxes on the rental. The OP lists "Mortgage/Insurance/Taxes: $1,316" which I assume is already deducted from the cashflow number. I think 600 is her after tax estimate of cashflow from the raw number of 714/mo but I could be wrong.

As an another option, have you looked for a flat fee agency?

I don't think it's surprising that the people telling you that you need an agent all seem to be agents. Personally, I think agents are great when you are a buyer and you should definitely pay a fee to the buyers agent - they will make sure the buyer checks all the boxes on their way to closing. 

In my area, the real estate contract is standard and you fill in the blanks. Most of the difficulty in managing a transaction is on the buyer's side - getting financing, having an inspection. If you are in a strong market that moves fast, and well-priced, you will have interest.

FSBO buyers will be looking for a deal but really you can offer them one and still come ahead when you will save $13,500 by only involving 1 agent.

@Rick Bassett - Well that conversation happened when I was screening her...that is how I found out she had 4 dogs. I wasn't going to let her move in with 4, trust me, and I certainly wasn't going to let her build a kennel in the backyard. I told her no on the phone and didn't show her the house at all. She just then proceeded to call me constantly. 

I recently rented our first property, the one lady who stood out:

Me: Yes we allow dogs, the house has a fenced back yard, it's great for dogs.

Her: We have 3 big dogs and 1 little one.

Me: We only allow a maximum of two dogs.

Her: Don't worry, we only let the little one in the house, the others stay outside.

Me: You leave them outside all the time? (I'm feeling bad for the dogs now!)

Her: Yes, we plan to build a dog kennel in the backyard.

She then called me at least 8 more times, including 6 times in one day. I finally answered and told her the house was rented (which was true). How do you have 4 dogs and rent anywhere??? I remember having a hard time renting with 1 5lb dog!

Personally, I would not recommend you listing with a friend - ever. It's bad to mix money and friendship because of situations exactly like this. Since you already discussed it with him, I would say you could list it online/MLS FSBO with 3% buyers commission (in a hot market that is probably enough for a sale) but would probably stop short of actually calling other agents to promote it that way. He will find you did that and might be offended.

However, after this sale I would tell him that you don't like to mix business and friendship and that you will either FSBO in future or use another agent but will definitely refer him when anyone you know is looking for an agent.

I think it was just waiting longer mostly, I'm sure the price drop to 1195 was also a factor. I did allow them to have 3 pets which probably also had an impact (2 cats + 1 smaller dog). It's good to know that what "normal" is for this house, hopefully these tenants will stay a while!

There was some celebration sushi!

I am happy to say that the house is rented for August 1st at 1225/mo (1195 base + 30 pet)! The deposit is in the bank and the lease is signed! That is over the estimate I used when evaluating the property before purchase, so good news!

Thank you all for your advice/feedback, especially @Account Closed!

thanks for advice Sue. I think I'm getting closer with the recent price drop the people who have come seem more interested, I'm going to stay at 1195 until next weekend and see what happens. I'm allowing dogs up to 60lbs but would consider even larger, that's a good suggestion. I'm not advertising that big dogs are welcome. Thankfully I can afford the house to be vacant a while.

Thank you Colleen. I do ask people if they are familiar with the area but I don't tell them to drive by first (they always say yes! then complain later :-)), maybe I should suggest this in the future because they really need to see the exact street, as the surrounding streets are nice.