All Forum Posts by: Zach T

I bought my house when the $8k tax credit came around. My plan is to sell it and buy a double to rent out. I live in PA if that matters. I need to technically live there until October.

Would I be able hire a realtor and have them start showing the house a few months before hand to get the process started ASAP. I would make sure closing is after the 3 year commitment is complete. The goal being to sell the house asap without having to pay back the tax credit.

I'll soon be getting into renting (~6 mo) and I've been thinking about how to handle tenants not filling the oil tank. No matter how well they pass my screening I don't think I'll ever trust a tenant to fill the oil tank when it comes time to do so. I imagine many of my tenants would move out as soon as the oil got low or ran out. The price of oil only makes the issue worse.

To combat this issue I figured I would pay the oil, but the price of the oil would be included in the renters rent. I would also lock the thermostat so that the tenants would be unable to alter the temperature. Is this a common way to handle this issue?

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I agree prescreening will most likely minimize the chances of something really bad happening. Is it legal to not rent to someone because of "a gut feeling?"

Also it seems most guys recommend getting the eviction notice up as soon as the slightest chance of trouble shows up. To me it seems like Mitch's advice would be less confrontational and probably get them out sooner than a formal eviction.

I've been interested in getting into renting out my house, but some of these horror stories about tenants doing 20k+ of damage while leaving is seriously making me reconsider. It also sounds like insurance won't cover this sort of thing, and since the renters generally won't have any assets anyway the landlord just gets saddles with a 20k+ bill plus lost rent.

How do you guys sleep at night? I must be missing something.

How about electric pipe heaters? They sell for a few dollars over $30 on Amazon. They even have a thermometer built in so they won't run all the time. They'd be much cheaper than space heating the area around the pipes.

Hello Everyone,

I just graduated college and I'm finishing up paying off my student loans. I've been working almost a year and I want to start buying multi-unit rentals.

My goal is to get to the point where I can support myself by managing my rentals rather than working a 9-5. I'm sure all of the information here will help me with that goal!

I've been reading through some of the threads and it looks like everyone here is very kind, considerate, and patient which is a perfect environment for learning.

So I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to everyone!