All Forum Posts by: Rich Schmidt

Are you in Valparaiso, Indiana? Or Florida? I’m in Valpo, IN. There are a LOT of rentals here. I’m no expert, but I have 3 single family homes that we rent out. I’d be happy to talk with you about the local market, if you want. 

I finally have another story to share in this thread! 

After listing a single family house for rent on Facebook's Marketplace, I received a lot of interest (including the person I ended up signing a lease with). I'm pretty thorough in the ad, making sure people know it's an older home with small bedrooms and closets. 

I received 3 messages from her before I had a chance to reply:

• Is this available?
• I could love this place, and that very good care of it only I had chance, due the fact I have tried to help others so my gredit score may not be what you're asking it to be but "I AM THE PERSON" you need to love this place that I could call home, if it sounds like I'm begging "I am" give me a chance to show you that I am the right one to care for your place, no children will be living there no pets.
• When. You said small I'm one person but small is not me, maybe if you drop the price maybe I' ll concider it, for that price I would need large closet space and at least one LARGE bedroom I could use the other one for my closet

I replied with:

• I’m sorry, but I can’t drop the price. And the bedrooms and closets are small. Nothing I can do about that.

Her reply:

• Ok thanks, what do you call?

I had to ask:

• What do I call?

And I never heard from her again. :D

I've finally signed a lease with new tenants, so I can share a couple stories of some who "got away"...

One couple seemed nice, just them and their preschool-age son, which would be a good fit for this older 2-bed, 2-bath house... until she mentioned that her son had recently thrown something down the stairs, hitting her in the head & drawing blood. She seemed to find it humorous, but all I could think was, "Do I really want an out-of-control kid throwing stuff around this house?" Thankfully, they ended up not submitting an application.

Another couple was just them and their dog (a Pit mix, hmmm...), and where the application asks, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor (other than a traffic or parking violation)?" he checked Yes and wrote simply, "Marijuana." So I look at the background check (thanks, Cozy!) and see... sure enough, this past November, he was picked up & pled guilty to possession of marijuana. Well, not ideal, I guess, but not the end of the world as long as he's not using now--- oh wait. I keep scrolling, and in the January before that he was charged with possession, paraphernalia, maintaining a common nuisance, and dealing... but apparently got all dismissed but possession, which he pled guilty to. Oh, and a few months before that is a false reporting charge... and a few months before that another paraphernalia charge... and at this point I'm thinking I don't want that pattern repeating itself in my unit. (This guy also asked, before seeing the unit, how I felt about his possibly making changes: doors, locks, paint, etc.)

Anyway, I know there were other moments when I thought to myself, "Are you sure you want to be telling me this?" as I talked with prospective tenants while showing them the house. Fortunately, I've already managed to forget the details. :)

Welcome! I'm in Valparaiso, too. We have 3 single family homes and then 2 apartments in our own home. The main thing I've noticed over the years between sfh and apartments is that some tenants really want to have their own place while others don't mind sharing a building with others. I've had several tenants/applicants whose reason for moving is just that they're tired of apartment living and want their own space. And they're willing to pay a premium for it, compared to what they'd pay per room or square foot in an apartment. 

The nice thing about multi-unit, of course, is that you get more paying tenants under one mortgage/roof/major repairs.

I'm in Valpo, too. I own & rent out 3 sfh in the downtown area, plus 2 1br apartments in my house. I'm always happy to connect over the lunch hour. 

I wonder if there are enough of us small-time investors in Valpo to have a meet-up?

Short answer: You'll want to post this question somewhere other than this thread if you want help with that. It's not at all the topic being discussed here. Try starting a new thread with it, and I'm sure you'll get lots of help!

You probably already know this, but the FB marketplace pushes people into those automatic "Is it available" responses. I'm looking on my phone right now, and the big blue response button marked "Ask for Details" right under the photo, name, and price would send that kind of automatic message if I tapped it. To send anything more, I have to ignore that button and tap on the little "Message" icon in the row below it.

So it's not that these folks are all idiots or not reading the ad (though some obviously are!)... They're just responding in the way that the FB Marketplace leads them to.

Now... I wish I had something on-topic to share... but right now my only frustration with applicants isn't dumb things they're saying. It's just that we'd love to find a college/grad student for our apartment, and they'd all rather move in August. We might be looking at an empty summer... unless I accept this applicant who just quit her last job because she's being re-hired at her old (summer-seasonal) job, but that one hasn't started yet... and her plan is to transition to a different job in October that's more in her field of study... hmm....

Hi, Austin! I live in Valpo, too. I have a little experience with rentals (we own 3 houses we rent out, plus two apartments in our house, all in Valpo) but not with any of the other things you mentioned. I don't know your schedule, but if you want to grab coffee or breakfast or something, I'd be happy to chat. I'm most free during the workday, M-F. Just let me know. :)

I'm not sure if this fits, exactly... but I have a house-renting tenant who's been with me less than a year, and she'd been having trouble with consistency. Sometimes rent would be late (with late fee), other times she bounced a check. When she switched to paying online through cozy, I thought that would help... but then she paid almost 2 weeks late and claimed not to know why it hadn't gone through sooner (said she'd paid it on the 1st). She was running more than two weeks late the following month, and I'd added the appropriate late fees, making her balance $1,171... and then I got a text saying she'd made a payment... of $17,111.

Obviously, that bounced. I made her aware of her error right away, but there was no way for her to take it back. That's the downside to online payments! (She said, "I must not have had my reading glasses on when I did that last night.") It took her a while to recover from that mistake, since it created a domino effect of other checks bouncing, with more fees from her bank. That was a couple months ago, and she just finally got caught up with me this week. (With a paper check, at my request.)

And, of course, you may be able to recoup some cleanup costs from their security deposit after they move out, if they've done more than "normal wear and tear" to your property.

You really can't control how well they clean the inside of the house while they're living there. If their messiness doesn't leave any lasting damage, and they clean it adequately when they leave, then it doesn't really matter, does it?