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Hi,
I'm sure this question is asked frequently, but is it a good idea to rent your own house? Here's some information about our rental scenario:
- Relocating back to another area out of state
- Never been "landlords" before, and don't know a great deal about the whole rental process
- Already have a person seriously interested in renting our home who has a realtor, wants to lease for 2 years, and she wants the home around the same time we are set to move
Overall, this has been a big concern that my husband and I are going back and forth with. Supposedly the woman that wants our house has great credit and is an excellent house keeper. On the other hand, we don't "personally" know this lady and are taking information from her realtor. I don't want to pay the 8% to a realty company every month, but also I want to know that this company will be there for us if anything goes wrong with the tenant.
What are you going to do when something in the house needs to be fixed and you are in another state?
That's a great question! At this point, we really don't know what we would do about this. It's a 3 year old house so we hopefully wouldn't need many costly repairs, but you never know.
I think we've made up our minds! We're going to go with a company!
Thanks manderly and downtown ventura for your input!
I would recommend using one. I learned alot from my property manager.
I didn't know that you have to change your insurance because renters could potentially sue you, if you were neglegent and they tripped on your bad carpet and broke a bone or something. Or if they burn down your house... lol. If you don't inform your insurance company, you might not be covered.
You also have to remove any homestead tax excemptions (if your state has them) because it's not your homestead anymore.
You have to claim the "rent" as income, and file it with your tax return. Having W-2 or tax statements from the property manager will make this easier for me. I'm not even sure how I would document this without them sending me the form at the end of the year.
I don't know how to do credit or background checks on renters, and it's easier for me to pay someone than figure it out myself.
I don't know how to legally evict someone, or how to write a legal lease contract. I don't know how to send someone to collections if they don't pay.
I didn't know that in my state, even the door going into the garage has to have a peep hole, and all doors have to have deadbolts without keys... so they can only lock, or be unlocked from the inside.
I don't know how to advertise on MLS... my property manager does that so that OTHER realtors will show my house as well.
I don't want to fly back to my house when a tenent moves out and document damage for security deposit purposes, or have to clean the house. My property manager does that while advertising for another rentor.
My property manager even inspects the house at the 6 month mark to make sure the tenents are taking care of everything.
Our lease has conditions for everything in it, down to keeping the grass alive... I'd never think of that!
I would never do this without a property manager. I know many people do it themselves, but it is way to intimidating for me!
That's a great question! At this point, we really don't know what we would do about this. It's a 3 year old house so we hopefully wouldn't need many costly repairs, but you never know.
I think we've made up our minds! We're going to go with a company!
Thanks manderly and downtown ventura for your input!
The tenent will call you if a fuse blows, or if a toilet clogs, and expect you to send someone to help them! At what point do they pay for it, and at what point to you pay for it? My property managment company sends a plumber, and charges me for it if it's an issue like a tree root has broken a pipe, but charges the tenent if they pull a giant wad of toilet paper or something that was the tenent's fault.
They will call you for the littlest things.... let's say their heater goes out in the middle of the night, they'll expect a repair man ASAP! And this can happen in a 3 year old house. Even little things like the refridgerator is too cold and freezing their milk... they might call you instead of adjusting the temp.
My property manager charges them $15 in penalties plus the cost of sending someone if they call for something that stupid.
But where do you draw the lines? And do you want to argue with a tenent about this stuff? Or do you want someone to handle it for you?
Are you going to have pest control? Who handles that? Do you want your home protected against termites? Do you have an HOA? Who handles the fees and where does the complaint go if your tenent does something wrong?
What if your tenent repaints your whole house in crazy colors and moves without painting them back, and leaves your house really damaged? What are you going to do?
What if they want to break the lease early? Are you going to take them to court from out of state?
What if they move in a family of 5 stray dogs.... what is your next step?
Hi,
I'm sure this question is asked frequently, but is it a good idea to rent your own house? Here's some information about our rental scenario:
- Relocating back to another area out of state
- Never been "landlords" before, and don't know a great deal about the whole rental process
- Already have a person seriously interested in renting our home who has a realtor, wants to lease for 2 years, and she wants the home around the same time we are set to move
Overall, this has been a big concern that my husband and I are going back and forth with. Supposedly the woman that wants our house has great credit and is an excellent house keeper. On the other hand, we don't "personally" know this lady and are taking information from her realtor. I don't want to pay the 8% to a realty company every month, but also I want to know that this company will be there for us if anything goes wrong with the tenant.
Please send any advice!!! Thanks in advance!!!
I have rented out my properties by myself and overseas I had rented out our home by a management company who did a great job. We only had one repair in 4 years which was covered by warranty and the management company took care of it
We recently took over a company which incl. property management and we have HO who live close by but can't or won't handle the property them self and have HO who live Out of State. We have on some properties a lot of repairs and have many cheap knowledge maintenance people ready for the many repairs we have on some properties.
We have a 100% occupation rate and we get 10% per month but don't charge additional to arrange repairs which take a lot of time each month. For different properties we have different contracts, all drawn up by a lawyers office. We have one HO who wants us to take pictures every 3 months to see how the inside of the house is...which is pretty much IMO, because it can also create tenants to complain faster about issues they otherwise wouldn't bring up...but the HO is King!
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dmarie...fear not, your input is of value to all those that read.
