All Forum Posts by: Tina Wells

@Suzette T. Hi Suzette! I ended up listing the property and selling it for asking price instead of placing another tenant. It was a good time to sell because of excellent comps in that time period and since my exit strategy was to eventually sell anyways, I just got rid of the headache and put some money in the bank for a flip project. I hope to never revisit that issue! I hope other locales don't make it is difficult as mine does with this sort of thing! 

@Lynn McGeein, First tenant didn't stay full term of lease and the second one was there for 26 months but you bring up a good perspective and I appreciate it.

@Corby Goade and @Linda S. and @Thomas S., thanks for your reply! I do have a fence up for the area that is near the outdoor patio but the property is over an acre and thru the woods so a full privacy fence enclosure would be cost and logistically prohibitive and it wouldn't stop noise, which is the main problem--even though there are acres surrounding the properties.

I did ask both tenants more than once to report incidents but neither one of them wanted to deal with it and just opted to leave. Remember, the current tenant is moving out so they won't be reporting anything. I can't very well attract a new tenant by telling them "there are issues next door but please just report it when it happens"! Also, I HAVE called animal control twice myself and even asked for a supervisor and they tell me that even though I am the owner, I can't report it unless I experience it and that the tenant who experiences it needs to be the one to provide details as to time/date/how long, etc.  

Makes me feel like my hands are tied with my own property. I'd like to escalate, but what are my options?!

Hey Folks-

Has anyone had to deal with a cruddy neighbor next door to one of your rental houses (not condo or townhome)? Short version: I have a rural property that is in a very nice area ($275K-500K Homes) but I keep getting reports about how awful the neighbors are--non stop dog barking and other noise late at night. Neighbors are homeowners of a $480K house on about 3-5 acres. My property is around an acre.

More detail: My previous tenant complained about the dogs being loose and barking at all hours of the night and I had at least 3 discussions with the offending neighbor during her tenancy (which ended about 3 years ago). Each time we talked he seemed nice and agreed to try to move the dogs further back on his lot  yet the problem persisted. After speaking to Animal Control, I instructed the tenant that I was told she would have to be the one to call to complain before Animal Control could do anything. I even relayed to the neighbor that if the issue persisted that the tenant would have to call Animal Control and he would be issued first a warning and then fines for subsequent issues. She was continually frustrated but never called Animal Control; she just moved out. Fast forward to current tenant and they complained about the same thing starting a couple years ago. I had 2 or 3 more conversations with the neighbor and again, they were neighborly conversations and he said he'd do his best. I stopped hearing from the tenant about it so I thought all was well. Today I just got notice that they are moving and he told me they were the worst neighbors he has ever had. He said it got better for a short period and then they were running loose, barking and now they were even riding ATV's at 11- midnight. 

I have never had this kind of pervasive thing occur without being able to clear it up on my own friendly terms. Does anyone have suggestions for a next step with the neighbor? I could potentially sell the property (I bought it Sub2 and plan on selling within a number of years anyways) but it nets a nice amount each month and each year I hold it, it nets me another 10K between the principal pay down and monthly profit. It's an awful feeling to feel like I can't do anything about something that affects my property so much. Any suggestions on how to handle to get results? 

Many thanks in advance for sound advice from experience!

Mike H, I appreciate your input a great deal but I am not certain where you are looking for rental info in Greensboro. Hot Pads lists 11 3BR rentals over $1700 with the highest one topping out at $2850 and Trulia has 26 3+BR houses over $1700 with the top being a rare $4500. There are only just over 400 listings for all of Greensboro on Trulia so those #'s aren't awful given how few listings there are. I'd just hate for others to read this post thread and think your stats are accurate and that I am trying to get 1900 for a house in a 1300 market and then focus on that in their replies rather than offering up creative marketing suggestions and attention-getters that I am really looking for. Of course I'll lower if I don't get bites, I just want some creative ideas for marketing.

Both you and Kyle H bring up a good question...I didn't buy this as a rental. It was my primary residence for a few years and I bought something else and opted to keep this one. I did the same with my former home before that and have been renting it for a few years for $1975 a month (4BR) (Yes, in Greensboro, about 2 miles away from this property). That one is way more cash flow positive than this one will ever be (HOA fees+ other factors) but I want to hang on to this property in case I want to move back to a townhome in my older years. I got a great deal on it, have little cash in it and it is worth holding onto.

Kyle-good perspective on square footage. I will keep that in mind for sure.

Thanks so much for the input so far. As far as rents in the area, the neighborhood is mostly owner occupied but most rentals within a square mile are 3/2 single family homes sized at about 1600 SF and the updated ones go for about $1500-1650. This townhome is 2750 SF and is in a small (only 46 units) upscale townhome community that just doesn't have any other rentals to use as comps. There are no other townhome communities like this in that area (which is one of the most desirable in the city). There are similarly sized single family homes adjacent to the townhome but there are rarely, if ever, rentals in those properties so I don't have comps from similar sized homes. So, I just made an upward adjustment for the size given that it is over 1,000 more SF than most of the other rentals. So $300 more for an extra 1,100 SF seems like too much? I will make a downward adjustment if necessary to get it leased before the slow season.

The townhouse is empty now so it wouldn't look as good for a video as it did for the pics but I love that idea and will do it in the future. Any creative marketing ideas are really really appreciated!

Hey BiggerPocket Folks-

I need your expertise! Does anyone have any creative good tactics to draw traffic to a rental? I created a great looking Postlet, which is syndicated out to Zillow, Trulia, Hot Pads, etc and it is on Craigslist and I regularly refresh it there. I have decent pics and the place is spotless. It's in an upscale townhome community in one of the best neighborhoods in Greensboro, Starmount Forest. It's been listed for 50 something days, been available since September 1 and I want to attract a (well-qualified) tenant asap (don't we all, right?). Here is the listing http://www.postlets.com/rtpb/9612467

I need help with two main questions but I welcome any other feedback as well (suggestions on the listing, price feedback etc):

1) Is there any other effective marketing I should/could be doing?

2) Should I offer some sort of deal to attract folks...$300 off first months rent, $300 Best Buy Gift Card, anything like that, and if so, what?

Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Tina

I use Rentmatic. I invite tenant, they create account and enter bank info, which I never see, and their rent is debited each month from their account directly into my business account. I love it and the tenants seem to find it easy to use and feel secure about it. No wasted time collecting rents, no "the check is in the mail" excuses. Keeps rent rolls and has a message center too. Totally worth the $3.95 per month/per unit that I pay.

I have a high end rental that I do turf maintenance on which entails several services a year that include weed preventer and fertilizer as well as an annual aeration and seeding. The yard had fresh sod put down before it became a rental so my thinking was there was no way the tenant would care for it well enough to keep the grass looking good and it would cost a fortune to resod it. The tenant does the rest of the routine outdoor maintenance. I would only do this on a higher end rental.

Thanks for the replies! I appreciate the information.