All Forum Posts by: Tamara R.

Stu--thanks for your perspective. I am sure not all Section 8 tenants are as bad as the ones I had. What I mean by "nothing to lose" is having some incentive to maintain good credit and not destroy someone else's property. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip, so to speak, and I think some of them take full advantage of the fact that they will never have to pay for any damage they do because they will never have enough money to collect. I don't agree that all renters "have nothing to lose." I try to find tenants with good, stable income (such as military or government personnel)who care about having to pay for any possible damage they might do to someone else's property because they have "collectible" income and usually financial goals that might entail having to use credit. I was a renter myself for many years and I took excellent care of the properties I lived in, always paid my rent on time, and always got my full security deposit back.

Thanks for all your replies.

I added a couple of more pictures of the interior (that look OK) and a couple more of outside. I will of course add more once it looks more "finished." I think it helped a bit--I got a couple of people interested in seeing it. I will also add the sign in the front yard and hope no one steals it--LOL. One thing we did for another property was put out a couple of "Rental Open House" signs in front of the house and on the main roads when we were working at the house and got lots of traffic. Will try that with this one as well. The community only allows one sign in the front yard, so that makes it a bit complicated.

Thanks for all of your replies and great suggestions. As an update, we closed on the house 1.5 weeks ago and advertised it immediately (MLS, Craigslist, Zillow, Hot Pads, Military by Owner, etc.), and have not had one phone call or e-mail! Not even a Craigslist scammer or a Section 8 inquiry. The price ($1900 per month) is just below what similar places have rented for in this particular neighborhood, but is high for townhouses in the zipcode (most rent for about $1600-$1700--but those are smaller properties in less desirable communities). Granted, the inside still looks unfinished, but I don't think people could be getting turned off by that since no one has set foot inside. The only thing we haven't done is put a sign out front (afraid to advertise a vacant home).

Here is one of my ads if anyone cares to comment on what I might be doing wrong: http://www.postlets.com/rtpb/6416518

At this point we are thinking of just holding off until after the Holidays and doing most of the needed work ourselves (mainly painting and new flooring--as our contractor quoted us $8000 to do the remaining work). There seems to be no use in rushing to finish something that is just going to be sitting around vacant when we could save some of the money we are losing out on by not renting right away. Is this a good or bad idea?

@Brian: Some good ideas. We might have most of the ugly out in a week or so. Coincidentally, we did get a lease signed on a place we had just started working on when a couple came by to look at another property we were trying to rent. We told them what we were going to do (and let them customize some colors for their kids bedrooms) and they signed a 2-year lease and gave us a deposit despite the fact that they didn't know what the finished product would look like. That one was pretty lucky, though.

@T and @Cheryl (and anyone else that owns property near military installations) "military by owner" is a great site to advertise on with a lot of traffic. They have three pricing options you can use ranging from about $15-$80. I have always gotten most of my inquiries from that site--and they weed out most of the "junk."

Thanks all of you for your replies--some really good informtion here.

I think advertising right away is a good idea, but do you think it will be problematic to show the place when it still looks like a mess--even if I inform potential tenants of the work we are doing on it? I think it will take a couple of weeks to get all the work complete.

@Ed: We tried out Section 8 on a property we own in Annapolis, and it was a terrible experience. The tenant let a leak go for several weeks and the basement ceiling collapsed. Our insurance wouldn't pay up because it had been going on for a while without being dealt with. Ended up costing us over $10,000. We vowed to only rent to people who have something to lose, because people who have nothing to lose don't care what you lose either.

@Mark: I have thrown out the idea of using an incentive to my husband, but he is pretty against it. Guess we will see what happens.

I appreciate all the replies!

Thanks for your reply. Seller's bank is HSBC bank. I think it helped that the realtor representing the sellers kept calling the bank every other day to move the process along.

Hi All:

I am new to Bigger Pockets. My husband and I placed a contract on a short sale (investment property) in August expecting it to take at least 6 months, but the process moved quicker than expected and we are closing next week. House needs some work (mainly cosmetic) and we are concerned about being able to find tenants this time of the year. Have you all found this to be an issue in your rentals? Home is in Prince William County, Virginia (Washington DC suburbs)near Fort Belvoir if that helps.