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We are looking to rent. Where's your house? We have been in Raleigh for 2 years. My husband has his own business so we don't have a huge chunk to put in to buying a house at the moment. We used to own our own homes so we are great renters because we know to take care of homes and not bother our landlord for small things. Our landlord is elderly and appreciates all we have done to care for the house. We are currently on a month to month contract for the 2nd year. We thought we would know exactly where we wanted to be by now but we don't. Anyways, sorry to be off topic. It is hard because everyone has a negative option of renters. Some of us are good!
I believe if you are renting out your own home or even if you are a landlord of fewer than 4 properties, the fair housing laws do not apply.
ETA: You do need to look up and become familiar with the landlord/tenant laws of the state, however. Each state has different laws such as how much you can charge for late fees, security deposits, etc. The Renting section under Real Estate here on C-D is very helpful. I think they have a sticky to the state laws.
That's a valid point about the Fair Housing laws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lonestar3000
We are going to definitely rent in Seattle, because we are not sure if we will like it there (I have read that on average people tend to move out of Seattle within 5 years). Also we move too often to buy yet another house. The reason why we want to rent out our current home is because we may want to come back and also because I am very sentimentally attached to it, my husband and I fixed it really beautifully and just refinished the hardwood floors and now it feels such a loss to let it go. The zillow rental value is about 2700. I am not sure is going to be very easy to rent out the house at that price, because people could buy for that money. The house also has a pool, which means we would have to have a service taking care of it, since the renters most likely won't be able to do it.
After reading all the comments I am getting pretty worried of renting it out, since it seems to have almost all downsides to it. Renting out here+renting in seattle would be double headaches and I am not sure I can handle the stress!
The highlighted section in red is EXACTLY why you should NOT rent this house. Being a landlord is being in business. There's no other way to look at it. With this house, it cannot be a business. It's too emotional and sentimental to you.
Let it go. You'll find another house to love even more when/IF you return.
PS - from what I read and hear, the reason so many people leave Seattle is because of the cost of housing. It's ginormous! The rainy weather is another reason to depart.
We left NJ in 2005 and have been renting our house ever since and managing it by ourselves. It hasn't been too bad. It does help that we do have some friends in NJ that we can ask to swing over there but we've RARELY needed to do that. If something breaks, the tenants usually contact us and we "authorize" a professional to come in and we pay for the fix. We've had 3 different tenants in the time that we've been here and it was pretty easy to find new ones at the end of each lease.
So - all in all, good experience for us (so far). I think our tenants have enjoyed the fact too that they can always contact us - they're not calling a management company that won't answer their phones after hours or on a Sunday - or take too long to return a call.
We rented our home outside of Greenville, NC last Fall. Because of my husbands job we had to relocate within 5 wks. We have a Management Co. supervising the renters and our home. They charge 7% per month. Our tenants will be moving out this coming August. So far we have not had any problems, except for minor repairs in the home. My husband knows a lot of the contractors from the ENC area & we have been able to get things done very quickly.
Now we will have to try and get decent renters once they move out again. It is hard trying to do this long distance, but it can be done with a good Mgt. Company.
We are going to definitely rent in Seattle, because we are not sure if we will like it there (I have read that on average people tend to move out of Seattle within 5 years). Also we move too often to buy yet another house. The reason why we want to rent out our current home is because we may want to come back and also because I am very sentimentally attached to it, my husband and I fixed it really beautifully and just refinished the hardwood floors and now it feels such a loss to let it go. The zillow rental value is about 2700. I am not sure is going to be very easy to rent out the house at that price, because people could buy for that money. The house also has a pool, which means we would have to have a service taking care of it, since the renters most likely won't be able to do it.
After reading all the comments I am getting pretty worried of renting it out, since it seems to have almost all downsides to it. Renting out here+renting in seattle would be double headaches and I am not sure I can handle the stress!
Seattle is wonderful. My daughter lived there for 6 years and I spent a year there. I especially like Magnolia which is in the city, on the water, a short ride to downtown, however most buy on Mercer Island or in Bellvue where everything is newer and there are big malls. Big secret. It does not rain from late May early June until mid October. The Summers are wonderful. No humidity, no bugs and seldom do you need AC.
As far as renting, I would again look for a retired professional couple to rent or if you do choose management, pay no more than 8% of the monthly rent and make a list of what you want them to do or be responsible for. You can also advertise for a property management person. My next door neighbor was a retired property management guy who did 8-10 house just for something to do.
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