All Forum Posts by: Mike Palmer

All of you saying to not deal with any company based in Utah need to get a grip. Avoid doing business with ANY person or company ANYWHERE that is unethical, shady, doesn't seem right, or does not offer the product or service you desire at a price that works for you. 

There are perfectly legit companies (and people) in Utah, and there are also bad people and companies in Utah, just like there are anywhere else. Stop with the bias and do your due diligence on every person, company, and deal, regardless of location. 

@Jim D.:

Thanks for your thoughts. It is near 2 large Universities and a few canyons. 'Traditional' rentals are in high demand in the area, but I don't know as much about short term rentals--trying to gauge whether it would be worth turning the basement into a short term rental.

Hello:

Does anyone have any experience with short term rentals in Utah county? Any idea what a good rate is for a 2 bedroom 1 bath with family room (no kitchen, but a mini fridge and microwave) should go for, and how often are they typically occupied? It is about 800 sq ft and essentially equivalent to a 2 bedroom apartment in the area minus a stove, dishwasher, and kitchen sink. Should sleep 4-6 (and MAYBE up to 8). 

Thanks for any insight. 

My first question would be why are you paying $1,450/month for a 2 bedroom apartment? You must be renting the most expensive place in town. You could easily find something for under $1,000/month all in and be saving $500+/month right off the bat. Or, you can rent a 5 bedroom house for that much and sublet the basement (many of which have a separate basement apartment around here) and/or other rooms and be living for free.
 

From the sound of it, after paying off the car loan and making some lifestyle adjustments you could be saving $1,000/month or more over your current situation. This would allow you to more quickly save up a larger down payment to either buy a better property, an additional property, or put more down and cash flow more to start saving for the next one again.

I think your 'pick two' scenario is 100% accurate. 

Assuming your $20k is not a typo, the only thing you will find in our neck of the woods for that price might be a mobile home/trailer, which is going to have very expensive monthly lot fees and would not make a wise 'slow' fix up.

And I have been at it for a few years now and have yet to convince my wife to get on board, so I know what you are going through...

@William Hochstedler

I agree (and I bet anyone wishes they could go out and buy everything they could at 1987 prices), but as far as buying today--I see wages as a hindrance to much further price growth for now, and I just don't see the rapid appreciation of the last few years continuing at that pace for much longer. I do think long term the outlook seems good, but the short term (5 to maybe 10 years) may not see the big fantastic gains. 

I think people buying in today thinking they are going to make a killing on appreciation may be mistaken (or waiting quite a while to see it). Do you see it differently? 

Personally I think incomes would need to rise (probably significantly) to support any further price appreciation in Northern Utah, and with the abundant and young available workforce I am just not seeing it...

Did anyone ever try this? How did it go? 

The listing was removed so I assume it either rented already or they decided to remove it for now and re-list it closer to when it is available. 

Would be nice if the original poster would give an update as several people are still here commenting and offering advice...

There is no excuse for this whatsoever. These days they can set up an ACH or any other form of automated payment. There are also free and low cost property management tools that will process payments for you/them, and there are no shortage of reminder/scheduling mechanisms available if they were truly interested.

If they are not willing to do an automated payment so they don't need to 'remember' then there is a larger underlying problem. If they treat their business the way they are treating you the business will fail and then you won't get paid at all (and last time I checked that is slightly worse than getting paid late).

I would let them know that if it happens again you are going to require them to set up automated payments and will be increasing the late fee by a large amount (as large as allowed by law). If that still doesn't work (or you are not ok with them continuing to be late and keeping the extra/late fee money) I would proceed with eviction and save yourself from dealing with a bigger/more expensive issue later...