All Forum Posts by: M Marie M.

Others have pointed out it depends on your market.

I rented out an extra room in my house and it was furnished, for the sole purpose of getting tenants who weren't going to bring a lot of their crap into my house. The majority of the house was decorated to my tastes and I didn't want it changed to fit every new roommate/tenant.

My market was (past-tense now) students, summer interns, foreign students, fellows for non-profits, relocators, fresh out of college young professionals, and feds on temporary assignment. People who for the most part were moving with a suitcase, not a van and if they had stuff it was in storage or their permanent home elsewhere. Short-timers, which was fine with me as there were times I didn't want anyone else in the house with me. There aren't too many long term people who don't have their stuff following them in a moving van. But it depends on your location and if there are a lot of people who fly in for 1 or 2 years and fly back out.

Hello and welcome. BP is very informative, even when just lurking on the forums, or reading the BP blog. The podcasts are a treasure trove of information and knowledge.

I have 3 bedroom 1 bath in Ocala proper. If it is an older home (mine 1930-something) with an older roof expect to pay nearly $900 a year in insurance. You'll know the taxes by going to the county assessor's website.

@Bill S. did your best and acted honorably. There is something from CS Lewis' The Great Divorce that might apply, I can't remember it exactly but those who do wrong will make the virtuous falter trying to appease them thru guilt tripping.

She just didn't have her crap together, literally and figuratively.

Hi @Edward Johnson and welcome to BP. 

$65K doesn't sound like a lot if you are FERS, so I guess you have the other parts of the retirement plan. 

Paying cash, compared to dealing with a mortgage (and all the paperwork) is fun, but there are drawbacks when buying in lower income neighborhoods. Your tenants may be more work and the things they break may not be something you can repair. I had to replace a water heater 2x after trying to repair it and it seems that my tenant kept throwing things against it and somehow abusing it. These things ate into my cash flow even without a mortgage.

Try not to get sucked into tenant drama.

Yes, it is possible that he's just using your address to get into a great school district. Is that illegal? 

I gather he signed a lease. If he doesn't sleep there does that mess up your insurance or create any other liability?

For some people they make mountains out of molehills and make normal transactions stupidly complicated. So don't get pulled into the why or the drama.

I mentioned this in with a similar question but my sister-in-law paid a year up front. She's trying to start a business and take care of my mother-in-law and I guess would not have been approved otherwise on the income front. The money comes from my MIL (retired), who was pulled out of a nursing home that was 7K a month.

Why not buy? They can't afford where SIL wants to live in a place where MIL can move around and won't be trapped. Oh and it's in Silicon Valley.

If you are interested in the renter find out what their deal is and still screen them for non-income problems. People with irregular income are not all bad, they're just not normal.

@Elizabeth Tobias-Hanadel welcome to BP, I hope you get a lot out of it.

I keep my own home at 80.... I agree with @Matt Clark, get another opinion. Yes, you trust your HVAC guy, but maybe another set of eyes may help. 

Also how well insulated is the home? 

You're are a buyer? Or do you already own a DC property?

TOPA is just the tenant's right of first refusal, if you are the buyer, it's not your problem. The current landlord must give the tenant a chance to buy. In my neighborhood, most tenants don't bother trying to buy the property. They can't afford it or they aren't interested in homeownership.  This old WP article is a decent primer- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A549... and it depends on the type of property.

The thing I'd worry about as a buyer of a property with tenants is inheriting crappy tenants. DC is very tenant friendly.