All Forum Posts by: Maggie Smith

Hello, 

How long should you generally let a house sit on the rental market before selling it? It's a recently redone house, we've lowered the price, tried to advertise more, fixed a few more things. We're using a property management company long distance. This was my primary house that we've moved out of, and based on several factors, the housing price is very likely to appreciate a good deal over the next three years. The area is getting attention and there are several developments underway, so it would be a shame to sell it at this juncture. However, I also don't want to keep paying for the vacancy every month. Would appreciate any insight!  

Hello, 

I'm interested in exploring house hacking around Greenville, NC, either with a long-term tenant or a short-term rental. We're looking for something where we could maintain privacy (kids) and some use of a yard (dogs). I don't see too many duplexes on the market in decent areas. I think ideally it would make sense to have an ADU, an apartment over the garage, etc. The properties where this already exists are outside of our budget. Does anyone have any idea of how much these costs would be, for example, to convert a room over a garage to a studio apartment? If anyone could point me in the right direction for information, I'd be very grateful!

@Colleen F. Thanks for the response! This is a residential property where tenants would live, in NC. The woods are essentially part of the backyard. I know it's fairly easy to find lawn maintenance estimates for an area, but haven't seen much about other types of landscape. I'm mostly just concerned with figuring out how much you're paying to trim trees, etc., and how often that needs to happen to ensure the area is safe for the tenants. 

Hi all, 

Is there a rule of thumb for calculating how much it is to maintain a property with woods, maybe an dollar amount per acre per year or something like that? Obviously it would depend somewhat on the health of trees, etc. but it would be helpful to have a rule of thumb to factor into my analysis. 

Thanks!