All Forum Posts by: Rob B.

@Chloe Kwon Welcome to Bigger Pockets! If you do decide to purchase the duplex and then rent out the other unit, definitely make sure you fully utilize a tenant screening service so you don't end up in a bad situation (might be worth looking into one that offers to list the unit, tenant screening, digital lease creation, online rent collection, and maintenance tracking). Since it is near St. Ed's and is located by the downtown area though, this potentially will have a fairly consistent renters market for the foreseeable future. Best of luck with your new endeavor! 

Have you ever had a tenant ghost on you without giving any notice?  How did you proceed? 

Hi, @Justin Youngblood - definitely a good problem to have! Let me know if you have any questions (might be worth looking into a service that offers not only tenant screening but also digital lease creation, online rent collection, and maintenance tracking). Let me know if you have any questions! :) 

Anyone over the age of 18 who plans to reside on the property should be on the lease, no questions asked. It is one thing to say "I'm having family from out of town come in for a weekend". It is another thing to have them living there for 2 - 3 months and then not have them on the lease.

I understand the applicants seem like upstanding individuals, and this is a unique situation, but always keep yourself protected; in this instance, just seems like you'd be assuming an awful lot of risk and I'm not 100% sure that what the tenants are trying to do doesn't violate HSL. Anywho, that's my 2 cents! Best of luck to you!

Steve is spot on with this, @Shady Ibraheem. As long as you make it clear to all interested listing inquiries, you should be fine to set the rent price to what you feel comfortable with. Let me know if you're looking for a few more options in terms of places where you plan to list the property. Can definitely help out with that! 🏘

@Cameron Riley- Sorry to hear that you and your partner are dealing with that. If you're going through a situation where you've had to chase down tenants to collect rent (especially if they've been repeatedly late or unresponsive to your attempts at contacting them), then it is time to evict. I'm not an attorney; I will say though, at the end of the day, treat it like a business. If they've violated the terms of the lease on more than one occasion, then that's a pretty good indicator the relationship is probably not headed in the right direction and it might be time to start searching for a new tenant.

@Philip Johnson  A lot of great recommendations! Might want to try a site that not only helps you to list the property but also helps to screen tenants, create leases, collect rent and manage maintenance requests. There are resources that will syndicate that single listing to other sites (Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, Apartments.com, Apartmentlist, WalkScore, Padmapper and Zumper), and then once you start getting leads you can screen them and the process takes place 100% online. Feel free to DM for more info about my recco!

@Devon Kennard Welcome to the BP community, Devon! Congratulations on your successes in the NFL, and if you ever decided to get involved in the Chicago market, feel free to reach out. Since it sounds like your main goal is to get to $25k a month (first benchmark; and then 50k, and then 100k) and you're focusing primarily on turnkey properties, could be worthwhile to consider an online rental management solution which can help to automate managing those turnkey properties. Would be happy to explain further if you'd like! Once again, welcome to the community!

@Raven - Welcome to the BP community! My grandparents used to live down in Wichita before moving to Olathe, Kansas. Also have a few family members down in Omaha, Nebraska who have just started looking into properties down there. Coastal real estate is indeed booming right now (and even in places like CO, which is experiencing a tech boom, it can be super expensive). However, many real estate investors are slowly going further inland to invest their money. KS isn't a bad idea, but maybe try to keep it in-state to start (more risks with out of state real estate investment, especially as a first timer). Also, if you can find a property near a university, you'll always have a pool for potential tenants! 😉

Hats off to you, Nick! This is where opportunity meets preparation and it definitely sounds like you've both planned this out really well. I'm curious to see other BP members responses, but kudos to you! Sometimes making the leap can be extremely hard, but other times when you've really researched it through and through (when you know in your gut that there is no other path), it just feels right. Best of luck to you and the family!