Rent in Minden (Johnson Lane, Gardnerville: for sale, rentals, credit)

[VanDijk]

We may be looking to move soon to the Minden area. Finding a rental home seems to be hard though. Anybody with tips for resources? Garth seems to be an expert of Minden , but we welcome all useful info. Thanks for taking the time.

[garth]

Thanks for the smiley, but I think "expert" probably gives me too much credit. I just may be the only one in towns of Minden or Gardnerville on CD at the moment.

As for rental rates, I don't have a handle on them. However, here's a link that may help. It's to a local agency that handles a lot of rentals in Minden and Gardnerville.

Click here to get to a page of the rental houses they are handling. At the top left of the page, you can click through to townhouse rentals, duplex rentals, and mobile home rentals.

Those pages should give you a start. Good luck.

[VanDijk]

Thanks, Garth.

We actually had run across Beverly Realty in our searches. I guess I should have also mentioned that I have a large family (6 kids!), so we need a little more space than the rentals she has...

So far it looks like Nevada Appeal and Craig's List have the most possibilities. We appreciate your input, though.

[garth]

I guess that means you're looking for a big house, huh. Well, there are many nice big houses around. I know of one in town (Westwood area) that's for sale for something like 1.2 million. However, I haven't seen any rental signs in front of it or any other in-town large homes.

There's other big homes, which aren't priced quite like that one, that are just outside of the town. However, I haven't seen anything with a rental sign in front of them. That doesn't mean they aren't out there. It just means I haven't noticed any.

The only challenge that I can see is with the penciling of the numbers for the owner. When the house prices get up in the 500's, 600's, or 1M+, the numbers don't work for a leveraged investment/rental property. The lower rental rates in this area, in comparison with other markets like SoCal, SF, etc., make for a pretty significant negative cash flow. It might keep some of the bigger or more expensive homes out of the rental market unless there's some kind of unique circumstance.

Besta' luck with your search. If I happen to see something in my travels around town, I'll DM you with the address and sign info.

[VanDijk]

Originally Posted by garth

I guess that means you're looking for a big house, huh.

Absolutely right. We think we can squeeze into about 3000 sq. ft., as the kids are still small and we can store extra furniture till we're ready to buy again. Basically looking for 4BR + office/den or 5BR with decent sized fenced lot.

There seems to be a lot of price reductions on homes for sale in Minden. Here in Phoenix many investors are renting despite negative cash flow to get something in to soften the blow until the market recovers. Maybe we'll make some inquiries to see if anyone there would be willing to take their home off the market and rent for a year or two!

Really appreciate your offer to watch the signs for us. BTW, the best area for us would actually be north Minden (Johnson Lane). But since everything is relatively close, we're considering outlying areas as well.

[garth]

Yup, I'll keep my eyes open.

BTW, there's two things to remember about the Johnson Lane area, which locally also includes Stephanie. Stephanie parallels Johnson Lane, north of Johnson Lane.

First, much of the Johnson Lane area is under the takeoff path from the Minden-Tahoe airport. It's not a big airport, but it does have a fair amount of personal-type aircraft and the occasional small personal/corporate-type jet. It's also the base for the tanker planes that will hit the skies when there are fires in the Sierra Nevada. We're coming into the winter season now, so the fire season will be behind us. However, it will return next summer.

Second, be careful in the mid-Stephanie side of the Johnson Lane area. There is a water treatment plant a little north of Stephanie that's very near a newer home development. Although the people knew the facility was nearby when they bought their homes, some of them have become vocal about the occasional smell from the place and the mosquitos that tend to travel from the facility to their neighborhood.

I just thought I'd mention those two issues. They might be no big deal for you, but sometimes the homeowners or landlords won't mention those issues in fear that they won't be able to sell or rent their place.

In the meantime, I'll try to head through the Johson Lane area in the next couple of days. If I see anything, I'll write.

If map will help, let me see if I can link to a mapquest map. They've provided the link for web pages, so it appears it's okay with them:

Click here for the map. Be sure to expand the view so you can see the proximity of the Minden-Tahoe airport

[VanDijk]

Thanks for the tips. The airport traffic doesn't bother us so much (as long as they don't come down on us!), but the water treatment plant (mosquitos! ) is definitely something we'd want to stay away from.

BTW, how bad are the mosquitos generally? We're definitely spoiled for the lack of them here in Phoenix.

Appreciate all your help. If we do end up relocating, we owe you dinner!

[garth]

Hi,

Mosquitos are not a problem at all, unless you're next to that water treatment plant. For example, I'm nowhere near that plant and I have never been bitten by one in the area. The Carson Valley is just not known for them.

We also have the Carson River running through the valley. It is a flowing water source, so that keeps things like mosquitos away. They need standing water to breed.

We do have other bugs around here. Yellow jackets are common in the summer along with small dragonflies. The yellow jackets like to build their nests under the eves and I'm sure the dragonflies are around because of the river. Just squirt the yellow jacket nest with bug spray to make them go away and watch the pretty dragon flies float in the breeze. That's been my experience.

All things considered, I haven't found bugs to be any kind of a problem in the Carson Valley. I've spent lots of time in the South, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other parts of the country. In comparison, there's no comparison . . . unless you live next to the darn water treatment plant out past Stephanie.

Hope that helps.

[VanDijk]

Whew!

Sounds like paradise...

[jfkIII]

What kind of Rent in Mind, did you have for Rent in Minden?