All Forum Posts by: Hilary Tuttle

We bought an old farm that was a great deal and fixed up the main house and rented it out. While we live in a one bedroom apartment that we put in the old shop that was on the property! I could never live in a house that we did not make money on:)

......when your own dwelling is the smallest house you own.

......when you look at craigslist for used appliances/ materials ect and never think of looking at international news, whats that got to do with real estate?

......when when you think you may be moving up in the world because you dont have to shop in the oops paint at Lowes anymore and can just go to the counter and get anything you want!

.......when your friends call you because your an expert on fleas!

......when your real motivation for being nice to the people next door is so you can know first if they need to sell.

We have historical houses but we find that great curb apeal helps. We will spruce up the outside with porch swings, or rockers and some cheap annuals. We always ask about 20% more than most rentals in the area. Also we get nice appliances off craigslist.
Here is a link http://www.flickr.com/photos/54074951@N06/
We enjoy having nice curb apeal, and then we never have a problem with the property owners next door.

When listening to those people, how many rentals do they have? I cant believe how many want to hand out advice but dont own anything other than the home they live in! If your comfortable with it go for it! No matter what you will learn how to do it and you will be getting started, which is the hardest part.

Congrats Brian, My husband and I have done what you are doing several times and while we make money on the houses it not alot but its really starting to grow! Also if you can do the work your self it's much better. We get cheap houses then go on craigslist and get nice fixtures and rent them out for several hundered more than what is renting in the area. If a place is clean and has a little character it brings in so much more in rent money!
I think the most important thing your doing is, well, you are doing it!! Keep going!!

We have that problem and went to the co op and got some stuff the farmers where using, it worked much better than the stuff from lowes. The hard part is breaking the cycle, house must be cleaned every day to get any eggs. It sucks and is very upsetting as the owner to think we have a house with fleas! We told the tenants to please tell us asap so we can keep spraying, but they seem to not notice, which seems crazy!

We dont have any carpet in any of our houses (only have five so not to much experience, but enough) except our own and I hate it. I would do tile any day over carpet.

I sooooo agree Kieth, I feel like I should be paying to read all this info on here! I have been a lurker for a long time but posting is kinda fun:)

Thanks Joshua, Just got done reading some great stuff! I love the one about cash flow vs growth.

Love the pictures, very nice choices! Tons of appeal to many people!