All Forum Posts by: Paul Sandhu

Are there any big industries that bring in temporary or short term workers or contractors?  That can be your target market.  I rent specifically to contractors working short term jobs at a local petroleum refinery.

Thanks John.

There is one main street that goes through town.  Everything is on that street...motels, restaurants, convenience stores, etc.  They stop at the first or second motel that they see.

I use CL religiously.  You have to wait 3 days before you can bump your ad to the top of the list in its category.  So I have 3 ads going continuously.  Each morning I bump up the ad that is 3 days old.  

Also I have a FB page.  If anyone does a Google search for "furnished housing" in my town, I'm at the top of the list.

Also have a 3' x 8' banner that I was able to place on a fence where all the contractors must park.  Did that about 10 days ago.

Here's my situation, I have 22 furnished houses with all bills paid.  Half of them are 2 bedroom places.  A basic 2 bedroom with a washer/dryer, cable/wifi, full kitchen goes for $350/week.  A nicer place with CHA, HDTV and streaming BluRay goes for $400/week.  The other half are 3 bedroom and larger, they are priced accordingly like the 2 bedroom houses.  Total number of beds is 82.

95% of my renters are contractors at a local refinery.  They come from Texas and Louisiana.  I'm in Kansas, in a town of 10,000.  Most of them check into a motel when they come to town.  A cheap motel is $350/week, nicer motels are $600/week.  The contractors need to pass a drug screen before they can enter the refinery.  I do the drug screens.  That's where I try to get tenants.  The most common thing I hear is "I wish I would have known about this yesterday. I already paid for a room for a week."

Here's my idea:  Whenever a current tenant of mine leaves, I will give them a manilla envelope.  On the outside of the envelope will be a paper that says something to the effect of "If you refer someone to me to rent a house, I will pay you a commission of 1/2 of the second weeks rent."  The envelope will contain half a dozen descriptive flyers for my houses, business cards, and several nice metal pens that say "Furnished houses in Coffeyville Kansas. All bills paid. Weekly Rate. Better call Paul xxx-xxx-xxxx".  

These contractors are welders, pipefitters, boilermakers, inspectors and such.  When they go back home to Texas or Louisiana they will tell their other friends of the housing I have. 

On an average week, 15 out of the 22 houses will be rented.  But not every bed is necessarily filled in each occupied house. I cut back on the rent rate in those cases.  I drive by all the motels every evening.  There are always more contractors staying in all the motels than there are staying in all my houses.  But I always have more contractors in all my houses than any one individual motel.  In a way, I am a motel with 82 beds spread out amongst 22 addresses.

What do you think of this idea?  Is the commission too high or low?  Anything else that could go in the envelope?  

My houses are in Kansas.  Had a travelling worker/tenant whose girlfriend left him to go back to Atlanta.  She took the vehicle and the credit cards.  The only thing the guy had were his clothes and his pay check, and he wanted to get back to Atlanta.  

I ended up buying him a bus ticket home with my credit card and he paid me in cash.

I have 22 furnished weekly rentals. My wife and I do about 45% of the work. I have a retired handyman that lives in a 23rd house, HUD makes his monthly rent. He does the other 45% of the work. The other 10% are things that a licensed electrician would do, or it's a real crappy job and I let a plumber with a snake fix it.

Youtube is your friend when it comes to repairs.  Hot water tanks, central heat and air, washers, dryers, etc all will eventually break, usually on a weekend.

How about having Sarah Hartin from Oxnard California install the 4 security cameras on the exterior of your short term rental.  I would suggest the Arlo system. They are wireless.  Batteries last about 6 months.  Installing them isn't rocket science.  If Sarah can follow the recipe to bake a cake, she can probably follow the directions to install a camera.

Paul Sandhu from Coffeyville Kansas installed 3 of the security cameras on the exterior of his own residence.   On the interior of his rental houses he used Zmodo cameras.  He caught a burglar in the first 6 weeks.

I store spare appliances in a storage building.  It's not heated and there is no electricity.  The temp can get below 0 degrees Fahrenheit here in Kansas.  For my washing machines I pour a gallon of RV antifreeze in the drum.  Then I use a dc to ac power inverter in my truck along with an extension cord to run the spin/drain cycle on the washer.  I catch the discharge in a bucket.  The residual antifreeze keeps the pump from freezing.  I dump the discharge in the next washer and repeat.

My uncle built his own house in Glen Carbon Illinois about 10 years ago.  He is a Finance professor, and had no experience building.  He said he saved enough money by doing it himself that it paid more than he made as a professor.  He had no building experience, but probably did his research first, like you are doing.

YouTube is your friend in this day and age.  You can learn to fix just about any household appliance.  The plumber must be sending his kids to college or the kids need some dental work. 

$2800 seems kinda high, even if you eliminate the "2".  I've replaced gas and electric hot water tanks more times than I can count on one hand.