Need advice on rental property (Columbus: real estate, renters, mortgage)

[candle16]

I'm fortunate enough to buy a home to move in and keeping my current house. I want to wait for couple years before selling it so the market will rise. If anyone has had experience as landlord any advice would be appreciated.

Things I can learn like the tax credit on rental repairs and maintenance, depreciated property, capital gain, etc.

What is the opinion on offering rent-to-own to tenants? I think it's lots of work and not flexible compare to renting directly.

[Icemodeled]

Been a landlord for 4 years now and we rented out our own home for about a year also.

I do not recommend it honestly. If you do it, do background checks, make sure you verify all info they give you. Do a lease, give receipts, do not allow pets or smoking but theyll do it anyways.

We have a good CPA, id suggest you have one also unless your fairly up to date and know about taxes. Keep ALL reciepts that pertain to rental, every little thing, any repair cost, track all milage you use involving your rental. Keep mortgage records, utilities paid if any, and if you use your phone for rental purposes (ex. Calling, texting tenant or speaking with prospects ect) your able to deduct some/all of it. Theres many deductions you can use.

I would not do rent to own unless you know you can be very strict with payments. I know a guy who makes a lot offering that only because so many default and loose their money. Id advise just selling it.

[candle16]

Originally Posted by Icemodeled

Been a landlord for 4 years now and we rented out our own home for about a year also.

I do not recommend it honestly. If you do it, do background checks, make sure you verify all info they give you. Do a lease, give receipts, do not allow pets or smoking but theyll do it anyways.

We have a good CPA, id suggest you have one also unless your fairly up to date and know about taxes. Keep ALL reciepts that pertain to rental, every little thing, any repair cost, track all milage you use involving your rental. Keep mortgage records, utilities paid if any, and if you use your phone for rental purposes (ex. Calling, texting tenant or speaking with prospects ect) your able to deduct some/all of it. Theres many deductions you can use.

I would not do rent to own unless you know you can be very strict with payments. I know a guy who makes a lot offering that only because so many default and loose their money. Id advise just selling it.

My neighbor's son and his family (wife and 3 kids) currently live next door I know them for 14 years. He is on bankruptcy until 2018 but I never seen him out of work in all those years. He has a dog I'm not too worried about it since my dog has done more damage to my floor.

My thing is that if I can just wait 2 more years when the market goes up, I can mostly to gain another 5-10k when selling it then. And with the rent I will be collecting minus the potential repair cost I will be able to use it to do update and fix things up before I sell it.

So I don't know I have about 3 months to make a decision. How much does your CPA charge you?

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by candle16

My neighbor's son and his family (wife and 3 kids) currently live next door I know them for 14 years. He is on bankruptcy until 2018 but I never seen him out of work in all those years. He has a dog I'm not too worried about it since my dog has done more damage to my floor.

My thing is that if I can just wait 2 more years when the market goes up, I can mostly to gain another 5-10k when selling it then. And with the rent I will be collecting minus the potential repair cost I will be able to use it to do update and fix things up before I sell it.

So I don't know I have about 3 months to make a decision. How much does your CPA charge you?

Whether I would go into the rental business or not depends on where the house is. I generally do not like the idea of renters tearing up a residential home, though.

That $10,000 which you "might" get (which is speculative) will get eaten up in real estate commission. The Columbus housing market is smokin'--if the house is in an area where the prices aren't up yet, chances are they aren't going to go up in a few years either.

Sell it to them on a land contract, but get a big nonrefundable down payment from them. Let's say $5,000 maybe.

Land contracts are great in this situation since you know and trust these people.

[candle16]

My neighbors are good keeping up with the rent I talked to their ex landlord and they always left their places clean and in good shape. They just don't have lots of savings so I don't think the land contract will work out. I think I would probably just rent to them for a few years right now I don't have the extra savings to do some remodeling. As long as they keep up with rent which is little more than my mortgage on that house (and I only have 12k left on that anyway) I think I might as well wait a few years before putting it on market.

Because after about a year I will have no balance on that home and they are willing to buy it from me once their bankruptcy is final in 2018.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by candle16

My neighbors are good keeping up with the rent I talked to their ex landlord and they always left their places clean and in good shape. They just don't have lots of savings so I don't think the land contract will work out. I think I would probably just rent to them for a few years right now I don't have the extra savings to do some remodeling. As long as they keep up with rent which is little more than my mortgage on that house (and I only have 12k left on that anyway) I think I might as well wait a few years before putting it on market.

Because after about a year I will have no balance on that home and they are willing to buy it from me once their bankruptcy is final in 2018.

Renting is a business, and you should run it like one. The other advantage of a land contract is that you have no responsibility to make repairs or do anything a landlord would have to do.