All Forum Posts by: Nikki Taylor

I also think it's better to err on the side of being picky. Agreed with all the advice above. The only thing I would waver on is the pet policy, because stable families who are great tenants often come with a pet or two. Up to two cats or a small dog I would allow if the tenants seem great in all other aspects. You can also have them pay a "pet security deposit" equivalent to a few hundred dollars that would be returnable like their regular security deposit as long as there is no additional damage incurred by the pet.

We have a single-family home that we rent out to a lovely family. They've lived there two years and have been really great tenants. Recently our house was reassessed and our taxes are going up around $600/year. While we could just absorb the extra taxes and still run a profit, we'd of course rather not and are considering raising the rent by $50/month. The rent for the house is on the lower side for the neighborhood already so even with the increase it's still around the low end of average. But I know our tenants aren't rich and this may be a source of strain on their finances. In general we don't want to be raising the rent and would just keep it the same as long as our costs don't increase but given the increase in taxes, it seems like the time to raise it? Though of course we don't want to lose our awesome tenants. What would you all do?

Ha :) yes the bathroom is going to be nicer than it was, but it has been a pretty annoying week for her anyways. 

Thanks for all the great responses everyone. Love the idea of getting a day pass to a local rec center, I'll keep that in mind in case we need that again. I think we're going to go with the gift certificate idea... feels fitting during the holiday season and also appropriate given the amount of time she scheduled around being home to let workers in the house, etc.

We recently had a shower remodel that was supposed to take 2 days but ended up taking 4 days of work over the course of a week because of larger issues that were uncovered during the reno. Tenant has been great, letting in the workers when needed, she went without a shower for 2 days, ongoing work for a week, hasn't complained. We were thinking it would be nice to offer something as a show of appreciation. I'm not sure I want to discount any rent because I don't want to set a precedent for rent withholding, but was thinking maybe a $100 gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town makes sense? Is this something that landlords do?  We're pretty new to being landlords (just over a year) but we love this tenant and want her to stay. Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks for the reply! Yes, the tenants know we are planning to sell the house and the lease will be over at the end of Sept. They are being very gracious about it and even, as I mentioned, offering to stay month to month until the sale closes.

Hey there! I would love to get some feedback from more experienced investors on this issue. My husband and I are preparing to sell a single-family home in Brooklyn (it was our primary residence until 2 years ago, at which point we rented it out to tenants.) Their lease expires on October 1st and we're not sure whether it makes more sense to try and list the house now while our tenants are occupying it, or wait until they move out to put it on the market. 

Reasons to wait: The tenants have a lot of furniture and they put dark curtains on all the windows, making the house feel dark and small. I know how to stage a house and take awesome photos to help it sell, and we just wouldn't be able to do that with the tenants there. Also, they are 3 roommates in their 20's who are working from home, and coordinating showings when they're all out of the house will probably be impossible.

Reasons to list it now with tenants still there: The carrying costs on this house are around 3k/month, so we wouldn't want it to sit empty for too long. Also, the tenants love the house and they volunteered to stay on month-to-month until closing, so we'd never have to carry the mortgage alone, even if it takes longer to sell than we'd hoped. Also, with all the craziness around COVID restrictions and new NYC regulations, I just feel like it's so hard to predict what will happen in the NYC real estate market even 2 months from now, and it's still a good time to sell in our area.

So, those are our pros and cons. What would you do in this scenario? Any input welcome!

Thanks for the input everyone! And thanks for the compliments on the rehab. We did most of the work ourselves, so a lot of blood sweat and tears went into it!

Troy, yes we decided not to go with central air since the house had beautiful old radiators and we weren't sure in the end, if it would be worth it. I'm sure there are definitely buyers who are immediately not interested just because of that fact, but our realtor seemed to think it wasn't a necessity to sell the house. But yes, that is probably a factor impacting on price as well.

Good point overall on not getting behind the market too.. it would definitely be a shame to have to keep lowering it while it sits on the market for months.

Nope, we were lucky not to have had to take out a loan for this project, so there's not really an immediate need to get the house sold. Taxes are also really low so overall holding costs are negligible.

We're averaging about 3 showings a week, but it does feel like it's slowing a bit recently. The recent open house was really poorly attended as well (probably doesn't help that we listed in the middle of the summer!)

Yes! Here is a link to the property. Super proud of how it came out. 

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelphia/2221-S-Colorado-St-19145/home/38722744

One fairly consistent piece of feedback we've received is that the property is slightly further south than folks might want.

My partner and I recently completed our first rehab in South Philly (woohoo!) It's been on the market since mid-July, and it's priced in the range of nearby comps, though perhaps on the slightly higher side.

We've had a couple open houses and some interest, though not as much as we'd hope to see at this point. Our agent is thinking of lowering the price (from $300k to $289k) to generate a little more interest. 

In general, especially for agents out there, how long would you leave the house on the market before lowering the price? And by what percentage?