All Forum Posts by: Kelly McMahon

Thank you all for your advice, and thank you Aaron Yates for the link! Tim G. we owe 156K, but our home would probably not sell for more than 130K according to the comps. We do not want to ruin our excellent credit with a short sale. We have to buy a new car soon and want to be able to finance. Our payments including the HOA is $900 a month, we are renting for $1000 with $1500 security deposit. And David Beard I have read that site extensively and have gained a lot of useful information from it.

I guess I was just thinking I was shooting myself in the foot by asking people to pay for and apply before they see the house, because so far no one has filled out the application online for the background check.

However, one couple says they are foster parents and have a fingerprint clearance card from the state which means they have cleared a background check, so I am having them over to the see the house but still plan on making them go through the SmartMove website to fill out that background check. They want to sign a 2 year lease but have a bankruptcy on their past records (which she was very forthcoming about), how do you all feel about bankruptcies? I know evictions are a BIG no no. I just want to make sure their income is stable and is at minimum 3x the monthly rent...correct?

Hi everyone,

I have gained a ton of wisdom from this website about renting out our first home and wanted to check in again and introduce myself because I know I will have a lot more questions going forward.

My name is Kelly, I live in Tucson, AZ and my husband and I are buying a bigger home to support our growing family and owe way too much money on our first home to be able to sell it, so we are renting it.

We interviewed some potential property managers and it would take years before we would turn a profit from renting with them, so we decided to go at it alone. I'm getting a lot of interest in the property, but so far no one has returned an application in to me.

Since we are still living in the home, we decided to screen people with the application and background check via Smartmove website first, then allow them to see the home once we see they are not a homicidal maniac. However, not surprisingly, no one has returned an application or submitted their info on the Smartmove website yet. Should we just bite the bullet and let people see the house first? We should be out of this house in a few weeks, and then we would be fine with having people see the house first then apply, but this just seemed the safer way to go.

What do you all think?? I appreciate any advice!

Kelly

Great thank you. The form to fill out to reestablish the entitlement did say it was a one-time only thing. So of course I want to be absolutely sure I either do or dont need to do that. I will check around.

Thank you that helps a lot! I did see that number of $417,000. Our first home was bought for $165K and we are looking into buying a similarly priced home...but he only did 10 years of reserve service, dont know if that affects it. I did see something on the VA website about requesting to reestablish the entitlement or something to that effect, do you know what that means?

Hi everyone,

My husband and I bought our first home with a VA loan which was very nice not to have a down payment. We are looking into buying a second bigger home and renting out the first. Does anyone know any stipulations to this? My realtor said the first step is to see how much entitlement we have left with the VA but we have no idea what this even means! I looked up some info on the VA website but it was very confusing. Can someone explain what this means?

Does anyone know if a) we can rent out a home under a VA loan. b) can we buy a second home with a VA loan c) do we have to refinance the rental to an FHA or other loan type or buy the next house with a FHA or other loan or d) are there tax issues of renting out a VA loan home?

Thank you!

Richard Hewitt thanks for your honest reply. Our current mortgage is $878 and that includes PITI. Is there a formula you use for estimating how much profit you want to make off a rental to figure out how much more to charge for rent than what the payments are? Thanks!

Thanks for your input everyone. Unfortunately I'm in Tucson, AZ so leaving a house without AC in the summer is asking for trouble (I didnt think about that when I posted). The house could easily get up to 90+ degrees in the summer, so leaving the utilities on but turning everything off in between showings and just running the AC a few hours before a showing makes sense. I'm not sure what "auto reversal" means, but I would want some way of making sure the renters have to activate the utilities or they dont come on. I know our water and electric company has horrible customer service so trying to speak with anyone there about the situation would not be helpful, or just take a really really long time.

Hi everyone! I have a question about what to do with the electric and water when showing the rental, do you leave them on and keep paying for them or shut them off? I have personally been shown rentals that do both but I wanted your all opinions, thanks!

Thank you everyone! I look forward to learning more about this business!

Jon Holdman, wow thank you SO MUCH! You have given me a lot more to think about. It sounds like moving is not even an option right now. I just pray that if we stay here the interest rates dont spike along with housing prices, but then at least we'd sell this place for a possible profit if they do.

Thank you again and I will keep in touch on the forums to see if I can learn any more about being a landlord.