All Forum Posts by: Bettina F.

Yes, I could come up with 400 bucks. I hope everyone on this board could.

I am making an assumption that $2400/month in Georgia is a Class A property.   Do your investigation regarding renting Class A properties.  From what I have heard , Class A tenants expect perfection, and so turnover costs can be very high.  Vacancies can last longer as you have a smaller tenant pool.   (I rent Class B apartments, Allure floors, laminate countertops and white appliances -- so what to do I know?  My rentals are fairly tenant proof.)  Also, rentals take a beating, and it can be very emotionally draining to see what tenants do to a house you love.

I would look for 2 Class B rentals that I purchased with the intent of having them be investments.  Better cash flow, easier to rent, less heartbreak if they get trashed. 

You are 20 years old, negative net worth, just started learning 2 months ago. You are passionate about an industry that is getting a lot of hype right now due to the RE bubble. The smart money is on the sidelines waiting for a correction. Pay off your debts, save up a down payment, investigate any special financing programs you may qualify for. This will take 2 years. Then you start shopping for a house you can house hack. I bought my first house in the 1980s when interest rates were 16%. Every generation has it challenges.

My guess would be garage conversion to family room or covered porch conversion to sunroom. You will need permits and inspections. Don't cheap out on the conversions- -especially in Seattle.

Compound miter saw for cutting molding, sawzall for undercutting trim when installing flooring. A good step stool with paint tray for interior painting, good rollers with extension poles for ceilings. But the best is having a locked shed on the property where you can store supplies and an extra tool box. This is a great advantage of multifamily. You have the supplies on site to quickly change locks, spare light bulbs, repair a towel bar. This makes your property management much more time effective.

Glue strip Allure that we install ourselves.  I have about 10 boxes in the barn right now.

We do the usual homeowner stuff ourselves, plus demos, and hire out the heavy lifting.  So we paint, clean, replace light fixtures and faucets,  shovel snow and do landscaping.

We could afford to hire it out, but between finding and scheduling competent contractors, it is faster and easier to do it yourself.

We do our own property management, and I have considered posting my own fake Yelp review.  It would be something like "The apartments are very nice and a good value, but don't even think about moving here if you pay your rent late.  The landlady is a real stickler for on time rent payment and following the lease rules. She will evict if you pay your rent late or break the rules."

I think it might help me target my desired tenant pool!

You will need to decide if you are renting under one agreement to a group of roommates, or if you are renting individual rooms to separate tenants (individual leases) where your son has the responsibility of maintaining common areas.  If the former, you will need a good roommate agreement that protects your interests as a LL.  This agreement will cover things like 1) replacement roommates 2) joint and several liability 3) notice served to one roommate means all are served, etc 4) how SD is handled.  The book Landlording has a good template.  This agreement is different from many of the Roommate Agreements you find on the web which are more of a "who takes out the trash" kind of agreement designed to decrease friction between roommates.

You will also need printed house rules that all agree to (quiet hours, overnight guests, etc).  The house rules should be signed and posted in the common areas.

Good for you and your son.  Living with roommates, and dealing with the issues that arise, is a good step toward adulthood.

I think I used to rent to your tenants!  The power trip behavior of not telling you about a maintenance issue when you are at the property, but then texting you once you are home and expecting instant service, is something these tenants would do!

We had inherited tenants in our building  who were brothers, both married, so 2 out of our 6 units were occupied by these brothers.   Living in the same building must somehow affect the renter's psychology because these two brothers acted like they owned the building -- way worse than the usual inherited tenant "I was here first" mentality.    These two brothers and their wives were demanding and rude to us, and always late on rent.    The best decision we ever made was to not renew the leases of these two, so we could remodel the units.  

After they were out, we started hearing stories from the other tenants about how bad these brothers were.  They had been intimidating the other tenants.  The whole building breathed a sigh of relief when these clowns left.

I will never let a relative of an existing tenant move into another unit of my building.   It encourages an unhealthy building psychology.  The related tenants think they have power over the landlord.  Get rid of them as soon as you can legally do so.