All Forum Posts by: Patrick I.

@Jesse Phillips  College rentals are good, but they are not for the faint of heart for many reasons: turnover is high, rentals may not be well taken care of, if underage drinking or drug activities occur you may lose your license.....

@Cindy Descamps Please check your state laws for more applicability and accuracy on what you can do, but in most cases you can bring the tenants to court and they can have a judgment against them that forces them to pay you rent until your unit is filled or until the lease ends. If your state keeps the court records public, It may have some prejudice to the renters in the future. Good Luck 

Thanks for sharing

@Luis Arroyo First of all, find your WHY and make sure it is strong enough. REI can sometimes be tough, so you need to be strong and have strong reasons to keep going forward. You have to read and keep learning (books, articles, any thing real estate you can get your hands on). In which stage are you in your quest?

@Devin Arnold Not so long ago I listened to the Bigger Pockets Podcast 306 and the guest mentioned the following criteria for investing in a market:

Her 7 criteria for choosing a market to invest in:

1. Population growth
2. Job growth
3. Diversified economy
4. Landlord friendly
5. Business friendly
6. In the right part of the market cycle (rising market)
7. Familiarity

You can look it up and listen to it. You may get more insight. Good Luck

@Ricardo Martinez Can you tell us more about your goals and yourself ?  Maybe then, the community could be able to better help you.

@Constantia Petrou As @Dennis M. said, you either allow pets or you don't. As he also suggested, you can collect a deposit for the pet or add a minimal fee to the monthly rent as a "pet rent". Good Luck

@Vincent Thusi Welcome. That is a nice plan you have here. I am just thinking that, in most cases, buying an existing property to start your rental business will be a lot cheaper. So I would go that route If I were you.

Educate yourself well and it is going to help you ease you fear and have more confidence in what you are doing.

Good Luck 

@Kenyetta Overton Other contributors have given a lot of good information. This is what I consider an introductory book from Brandon Turner. Download and read it

http://www.biggerpockets.com/ultimatebeginnersguide.pdf

Good Luck

@Cody Culberson Thank you Cody for the follow up. There are two things I would recommend you do (if you have not done it yet):

First, learn about your state laws regarding rental activities. There should be a dedicated page, or even a special book issued by the state for it. You need to know the laws in detail. The city you live in may have additional specific laws on top of the state laws. Make sure you check.

Second, I would recommend the book from Nolo "Every Landlords Tax Deduction Guide". The book will give you a good picture on taxes. Part of it will be useful prior to start, some of it when you start and the other part when you are fully in and you are looking for strategies to save on your taxes. So keep it really close. I also recommend Brandon Turner's book on Rental Property Management. That is a good one two.

A word of advice: given that the property is already paid for, you need more asset protection as you have more to lose if you get sued. Given that it is paid for, you should be able to have the property under a LLC. Make sure to have some important liability insurance as well.

Good Luck