All Forum Posts by: Von S.

You should plan on getting the place cleaned after each guests. You can either list the whole house, by room and even both. Per room is more work of course. But if you are up for it, I find that it's more money in certain areas-- might not be the same case in your area. The best thing to do is to decide whether you're willing/able to clean and prepare after every guest (or get someone to help). If you can, get smartlock for your doors so you don't have to give out keys.

Hi all,

I need advice from someone with experience running airbnb via an entity. What business entity did you decide to go with and why? If you had to do it over, would the choice be the same? I am looking to scale so hoping to set up the business for ease and success.

Thanks!

I think that as you evict all the bad tenants and put in good people, the junkies and hookers will just naturally migrate to places that are more conducive to their businesses. Maybe even let the tenants know they can call the cops you gave the camera access to if there are bad characters hanging around? A few rounds of this and surely the junkies will move farther away.

I'm hoping the other landlords will see the light (ha, slapping my knee) regarding lights and cameras. Maybe let it slip that you've been able to raise rents by some percentage with these improvements so that they can see this is all mutually beneficial.

@Robert A Garcia, my partner's aunt also had to clean after a dead drug-dealing tenant. She is a 63 year old chinese immigrant who got into real estate late in life (about 10 years or so ago) buying foreclosures. Her husband thought she was crazy and neither him nor her adult children are involved with her rental business. When my partner came by to look at the house back after the incident, she pointed to the spot where the tenant died and matter-of-factly said, "He shot right on stairs, I clean a lot of blood." Last month, she put up the house for sale (for a large potential profit) and when my partner mentioned he was still amazed that she was able to clean up after CSI, she denied that the tenant died in the house. LOL. I think it takes a matter-of-fact attitude and perhaps selective amnesia to deal with these types of property!

Love reading this post, @John Hickey! Thanks for sharing. This is the stuff I want to do. Forced appreciation, improving rents and improving the neighborhood as well. I come from a similar town but due to our proximity to Boston, there are few deals to be found. Reading this is really inspiring. Looking forward to your updates.

I'm just on the edge of being a millennial. Been working since I was 12. Took freshmen year of college off from working because I was worried about maintaining my scholarship's gpa but worked in the school's post office and daycare other years. Was in a sports team, so saved the "lunch money" provided by the school during away meets. Interned for major-related work senior year. Worked for non-profits during the summers-- 40 hours plus. Even sold knives for a bit. Graduated with 10k in pocket and a car that I paid 5k out of pocket (stupid, could have gone cheaper). No, I didn't live at home; the full ride was really key.

I see some people here saying it's possible to graduate with no debt just by working and I don't know. I think it really depends on the school. Tuition at my private school was about 40k a year; it's now 65k a year. I don't think I would have been able to pay all that by working without jeopardizing my grades (even more, lol).

For grad school, I was already working full-time in my field so paid half tuition every semester and then paid everything off 6 months after completion.

I agree that working while in college show grit/organization, etc but I see plenty of people who do well having never worked (In one of my freshman seminar, I found out I was the only one who worked before college) while in college. I feel like they have more of an ability to focus in general while people who worked while in college are good at juggling.

Happy 2018 as well!

I think because zillow seems to be taking an aggregate of "nearby" listings, it could skew either higher or lower. For example, if you live in an area where there are many fancy condo buildings, rent estimates might seem higher for your two-family in comparison. For my rental, the estimates are lower but I know just based on the condition of my unit, it should be higher-- and of course, I do indeed get higher rents-- by 2X!

This looks like stain from the water, we had the same issue and used a Dollar Tree version of the Lime Gone/CLR that Bettina F mentioned above. It took out these stains-- wished I had a before and after picture to show.

I don't have kids or plan to have kids ever but I'm already trying to teach my niece and nephew about landlording. They are 8 and 5 but we've taken them to help us clean yard nevertheless. They also know about mortgages and rents because that's basically addition and subtraction.

Thanks Tyler for the info, that's good to know too. How nice would it be if Biggerpockets had a database on actual cost of work in different areas of the country? It would really help the newbies estimate cost of rehab. Would love to see those photos, Brian! We keep coming up with old homes with foundation issues (just judging by sight and realtor.com description of the property) but have no clue as how to estimate costs without hiring an engineer to come with us at every home visit. Recently, we put in an offer for a house with foundation issue thinking we'll just dive head in and learn-- we got outbid.