All Forum Posts by: Sarah Chelle

Thanks, didn't realize no personal check for security or first month's rent. Good point.

Thanks all. Kyle, bingo, I think that would have prevented this situation. Learned a lesson, just wasn't sure what to do differently. I did lose other applicants while waiting. The prospective tenant didn't sign, explained why, and then actually asked me to hold it for a couple more weeks, or rent it to him for a month, while he waited for a job offer. 

How do you move fast through the lease signing process to avoid getting strung along? We ended up getting strung along for three weeks; turns out the tenant had an out of state job search going on. Also, we usually vet, then collect lease with security deposit, but I wonder if we should collect a fee at the get go to avoid this scenario. Because of this stall, we'll lose some rent.

I've been searching your posts this week and they're very insightful. We have a condo in a desirable historic neighborhood in Arlington, VA. We need to sell now to avoid capital gains or rent forever, as we see it. It's basically cash-neutral and any repairs come from our funds. Aren't too many, but husband does "dIY", which is stressful. We could sell for $350K and take $150K of that. The money would go into our primary residence saving us $124K in interest. We don't see the rental appreciating much more and we won't see real cash flow until it's paid off. We hesitate to keep but also to sell. Any advice would be appreciated.