All Forum Posts by: Ryan Swan

Definitely unfurnished for LTR. While furnished LTRs do get a premium, they are much harder to rent, sit vacant longer, and likely turn over more often due to the more transient nature of the tenants looking for furnished rentals (many are remodeling their house, or maybe moved to a new city). It's also more of a pain to manage because you own all of the stuff, so naturally they expect you to repair/replace it (furniture, blender, toaster, tvs, etc etc) 

That's strange that you're getting mostly CA applicants. I had an issue once where Zillow thought my rental was in California (it was showing it on the map in Sacramento). Turns out it was an error in how zillow was interpreting the street name + suffix, which I believe was a bug in the listing being syndicated to Zillow from my PM software. After manually fixing the address, Zillow took a few hours to "refresh" before my rental was shown in the correct AZ location. Try viewing your own listing in a different web browser as if you were a prospective renter and make sure the location and all relevant details are accurate. 

As others have mentioned, you really shouldn't have any trouble renting right now. I just listed a property in Scottsdale for $500/month more than the previous lease and receive like 6 sight unseen applications within 48 hours of listing. I even had a couple parties offering more money per month and longer lease terms if I'd bump them to the top of the list. 

https://www.ramjack.com/phoenix

Tempe has had a longstanding law that only 3 unrelated people may occupy a home, regardless of number of bedrooms. I've heard various sources say it was an anti brothel law, and others say it was anti fraternity housing in residential neighborhoods. Either way I personally know dozens of friends that lived 4-6 people in rental houses all throughout college. I don't think Tempe really has the means nor motivation to enforce this law, but nevertheless it is on the books as you can see from their website.

I've heard some landlords and property managers simply put three people on the lease and the 4th person as an "occupant", although this could get messy in the event of a dispute or eviction. 

I've never heard of anything similar in Phoenix or other nearby cities. Scottsdale has occupancy limits but the are related to STRs. 

 Does Apartments.com have a bank sync / reconciliation feature that pulls in transactions? 

Buildium is raising prices, AGAIN. I've been a customer for over 10 years and feel like the product quality and support has stayed the same, or even declined in some areas. 

For under 10 units I'd take a strong look at RentecDriect, which has more features than Buildium for less money. I'll probably endure the hassle of switching platforms at the end of this year. 

I think your analysis about keeping it as a LTR is the best option. 3 months is a rather long time in this current climate of continued interest rate hikes, coupled with downward pressure on sale prices. Your $10-$15k estimated profit could be $0 or even negative in 3-6 months. 

I would try do to a cash out refi (ASAP after completion, before rates go up again), and then set it up for success as a LTR. Maybe the market goes up in 12-24 months, maybe not...I think probably not, so plan for a longer term rental hold. 

The only other strategy you didn't mention is to live in the home yourself, thereby cutting your other current housing expenses. Then you would rent it by the room for higher cash flow than a typical non-owner occupied LTR.

There is no affordable workforce housing in or around Sedona. They commute from Camp Verde or Cottonwood, which is 30-40 min each way (assuming the 179 isn't backed up in/out of Sedona)

@Keetaek Hong Sedona is aggressively pushing to have the state STR law repealed or greatly restructured. There are so many STRs that there is no longer any housing left for workers in the tourism industry (maids, servers, bar tenders, front desk staff, etc). It's a real double edged sword for the city.

Flagstaff is always a popular STR market, but it has historically been quite expensive.

Prescott has some opportunities, especially in the surrounding areas. 

SFH

Pros:

1) More space - inside & outside

2) No HOA - one less semi variable cost and no rental restrictions now or in the future (remember CC&Rs can always change!)

3) PARKING - this is a big one. Parking at condos/townhouses can be very slim. Maybe one reserved spot and the rest is first come first serve guest parking that can quickly fill up at night.

4) Possible to have yard space and private pool = higher potential rent per room

5) More privacy, no shared walls with other neighbors

6) Easier to find more bedrooms - there are lots of 4-5 bedroom homes in good areas that work well for house hacking. However, I only know of a handful of townhouses that even have 4 beds, and none that I know of with 5 or more. The # of bedrooms is directly correlated to your potential income. 

Cons:

1) All else being equal will have a higher purchase price

2) Budget for bigger cap-ex expenses 

3) More property / yard maintenance and upkeep