How much good can a realtor do in renting out my place? (McLean: for sale by owner, rentals) - Northern Virginia - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

Rick Lee · 04-18-2010, 09:07 AM

I have a condo for rent in Fairfax and get sporadic traffic through advertising it online where I think most people go to look for rentals. You know the site. Anyway, I'm wondering how much better a realtor could do. My wife keeps telling me to get a realtor. But I don't want to spend the upfront money and, if I did, would rather put it into making the place look nicer. I used a realtor to find the place I've lived in Phoenix for the last two years. But I think every place he showed us was also listed on that site I use too. Only real bonus was that the places in the MLS had lockboxes on them and most were vacant. Is it worth the near one month's rent to get a realtor? As it is, the neighbor is always home and shows the place for me and won't let me pay him anything.

Claire2900 · 04-18-2010, 09:33 AM

If the realtor will do a credit check and verify employment, I guess that would depend if a) you think this is necessary b) worth it, if you don't do these things on your own

mississippimagnolia · 04-18-2010, 09:33 AM

We own a home in Mississippi. We use a property management group to keep it rented.

The benefits....It stays rented all the time. They list our property and make sure it's marketed well. We've never had even one month where it wasn't rented. They collect the rent for us. We don't have to worry about calling tenants and hassling them for money. If the tenant doesn't pay by the 15th, the rent gets charged to their credit card. And the tenants are required to have a card on file with the property management company for that purpose. Our property manager takes care of all the repairs. He has contracts with area plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.... When there is a problem, he contacts the right person and gets it fixed. If it's over $200 he lets us know in advance. If not, he just has it fixed and deducts it from our rental check. The biggest plus in my mind is that I know the property is being taken care of. We live in Northern Virginia and cannot be in the area to watch the house.

All this for 10% of our rent. It's worth every penny.

ShannonMilligan · 04-18-2010, 11:01 AM

I work for a realtor and we do a lot in terms of rentals.

Depending on the property we market it, verify employment and check people out. We can show the property. One nice thing is a lot of people call us LOOKING for rentals so often we are able to just match people up. For example, we had a woman call the other day looking for a specific rental property. If your property matched then it could be as easy as that. Also some realtors (like the ones I work for) do a lot of state department and military so they can also list for them and so forth.

Hope that helps!

Tish Thompson · 04-18-2010, 11:26 AM

What upfront money? We don't get paid until whatever tenant you go with pays you. I have a sphere of agents, friends, and family that I market to. If I only depended on the internet to market for me, I'd be up the creek. If you're OK with marketing on your own, having your neighbor show the house for you, stay with it.

Besides my sphere, advertising online, and providing lockbox access, I process the applications sent to me by doing credit, rental reference, and employment checks. I hold open houses...yes for rentals too (I find open houses for rentals are more successful than they are for houses for sale).
I negotiate the terms of the lease, per my clients instruction. I would love the opportunity to work with you for no other reason than to show you that working with a Realtor can be a very pleasant and helpful experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I have a condo for rent in Fairfax and get sporadic traffic through advertising it online where I think most people go to look for rentals. You know the site. Anyway, I'm wondering how much better a realtor could do. My wife keeps telling me to get a realtor. But I don't want to spend the upfront money and, if I did, would rather put it into making the place look nicer. I used a realtor to find the place I've lived in Phoenix for the last two years. But I think every place he showed us was also listed on that site I use too. Only real bonus was that the places in the MLS had lockboxes on them and most were vacant. Is it worth the near one month's rent to get a realtor? As it is, the neighbor is always home and shows the place for me and won't let me pay him anything.

Casanovare · 04-18-2010, 01:36 PM

You want to use a realtor for various reasons but one very food reason is safety. Tenents who work with realtors more often than not have been prescreaned and qualified. The risk of one of thesepeople being someone who is just interested in looking at what they can tale from your home. The burglary rate for properties of for sale by owner or rent by owner is drastically higher than when using an agent. One month rent may seen like alot to you now but it will seem like nothing if your home is cleaned out by a so called potential tenant. Good luck.

blossom4792 · 04-18-2010, 06:23 PM

I've been renting a condo in McLean for many years. One time I used a realtor and it took a long time to get it rented (in fairness, the tenant moving out had her laundry lying all around, it didn't look good as it was being shown). The tenant my realtor finally found was high, high quality, but was just in town for a year so then I was back to square one. Then I rented it on my own in a day.

If you're having a difficult time renting, just make sure the monthly rent is competitive - I know it seems like a good idea to keep it high, but if the unit is vacant for any amount of time, it saps all of your profits/benefits. I think you're better keeping it a little bit low and keeping a (good) tenant in for a long period of time.

Rick Lee · 04-18-2010, 08:51 PM

I can do the credit check and screening on my own. My issue is finding tenants who want the place and have decent credit. I've gotten a few sob stories and even one who wanted to work off the security deposit by sprucing my place up. Uh huh.

I used a realtor to find our rental when we moved to Phoenix, but he was already a buddy, who just happened to be a realtor. He also was our agent for the house we closed on here last week.

I've had a lot of traffic in the Faifax condo and no one has told me the rent was too high or tried to bargain it down. It's walkable to Wegmans, is an end unit with an attached garage. I mean, aside from the carpets, the place is awesome.

I hadn't seen the place for two years and just made it back to NoVA two weeks ago to inspect the place after my tenants left. They didn't leave it in good shape, so I'm wondering how it looked when they were there and showing the place for me. But I had my cleaning lady shine it up a bit. The only complaints I've heard from anyone are that the place is too small. I've done plenty of research and it seems to be priced right. But then, it's not getting rented out. So maybe I'm off. But I'll be losing $250 a month on it even if I get my asking rent. I certainly can't ask for more rent and have any luck.

ShannonMilligan · 04-18-2010, 08:55 PM

how do you feel about renting out to students? Mason is there and you could probably advertise directly to the students via the school. Sounds like you are near Monument Dr and thats a good commute to Mason.

Rick Lee · 04-19-2010, 06:48 AM

Meh, not too sure I want to rent to students. I've been one of them and I don't know that I want the headache of dealing with folks who don't care about paying bills or managing their credit as much as most adults do.