Rent or Sell Home (Midway: apartments, renters, credit) - Dallas - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

c2001 · 05-09-2013, 02:20 PM

Question, we own a home in Midway Hollow and are moving. We don't need the money from the house for our next home. I think the area has a lot of positive characteristics and may be worth holding on to the home as an investment property. Our house is small and the land is worth more than the home so there should always be a good floor there if someone doesn't take good care of the house as builders are buying lots in our area. Rent is in the $2,100 per month range for a 1,500 square foot 3/2 house which is really good. Alternatively if we sold it we could get $300K to $325K. I would hire a property management company as I wouldn't want to deal with the headaches of scheduling repairs, collecting rent, etc. Thoughts on sell it vs. rent it?

bencronin04 · 05-09-2013, 02:57 PM

I think 2100 is a little ambitious for the area as everything I'm seeing is under 2K for 3/2 in that immediate area with an updated kitchen. The market is super hot right now thought to sell, and who knows how long it will stay like that?

ChristieP · 05-09-2013, 03:56 PM

Theres always the potential of the tenants trashing the place, and even the best tenants will still do enough wear-and-tear on it to have to do some fixing up after they move out.

Be sure and talk to a financial expert about the tax implications. You may have capital gains tax and there's also the new tax under PPACA.

Squirl · 05-09-2013, 07:50 PM

Sell. I'm a LL and I wouldn't lease out a house in a market where I do not reside. Property management companies can be really problematic to deal with from afar because you cannot verify the property is being taken care of and that repairs you are charged for were needed or done properly.

c2001 · 05-10-2013, 09:36 AM

Our new house will be 30 minutes from my old house and my work is 15 minutes away so I will still be able to keep an eye on the house. Our neighbors just rented their house for $2,250 so those rents are very acheivable in this market. Builders are buying the lots right now for around $225K so that is a pretty good floor that should continue to increase over the years. Their isn't any new land inside the loop.

bencronin04 · 05-10-2013, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by c2001

Our neighbors just rented their house for $2,250 so those rents are very achievable* in this market. .

That is great for them, I'm just trying to let you know that it seems very ambitious.

75220 Apartments, Homes and Houses for Rent | MLS Rentals - realtor.com®

jghorton · 05-10-2013, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirl

Sell. I'm a LL and I wouldn't lease out a house in a market where I do not reside. Property management companies can be really problematic to deal with from afar because you cannot verify the property is being taken care of and that repairs you are charged for were needed or done properly.

Absentee ownership of rental property can be a real problem. After doing that for a while, I decided to sell ... (1) I never knew who and how many people were living in the house. The neighbors told me that there were often 4-8 cars parked in front. (2) After a rainstorm, one of my tenants drove across the yards of several neighbors, leaving huge ruts, (3) I offered the renters $100 per month to take care of incidental repairs and get the rent in on time. They took the $100, but, never fixed anything ... and the rent was often late.

You may not immediately 'need' the funds from your $300K investment, but, you still need to keep any eye on it ... which is difficult to do with a distant house.

c2001 · 05-10-2013, 10:10 AM

Like I said I will be 15-30 minutes away at most so I will always keep an eye on the house and at least drive by a couple of times per month. I am pretty handy so I have even thought of trying to handle the property management myself first and if it becomes a headache hiring a manager. I do think if you heavily screen tenants and your rent is north of $2,000 per month you are going to weed out a lot of the really bad tenants.

Squirl · 05-10-2013, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by c2001

Like I said I will be 15-30 minutes away at most so I will always keep an eye on the house and at least drive by a couple of times per month. I am pretty handy so I have even thought of trying to handle the property management myself first and if it becomes a headache hiring a manager. I do think if you heavily screen tenants and your rent is north of $2,000 per month you are going to weed out a lot of the really bad tenants.

I thought from your original post that you were leaving the area. But if you can drive by regularly and you can do repairs yourself, give it a shot. I have been a Landlord for many years and I just don't believe property management companies (for the most part) are worth the money. You must screen your tenants, be market competitive for rent rate (only the losers are willing to pay above market and then you have a high risk tenant.....greedy landlords get paid back in bad tenants), be fair and respectful to your tenants and drive by once a week. Always maintain the property and don't lag behind on repairs. If a toilet is running, get your arse there to fix it within a day or two. If the wind blows the fence down and they have a dog, get out there by the next day. etc. etc. etc.

In reference to my comment about the rent rate. I have landlord friends in zip 75229 and they rent a place out to a woman who pays $2100/month on a 2 year lease. Wellll....actually Sugar Daddy pays. Market rate for the place is probably $1800 but hey, she has a low paying job but her married honey co-signed the lease and he is a rich guy. After several months in the place the relationship seemed to go south and my friends have been thru the cycles with this tenant of constant 3-day notices to move and then pay-ups with late fees, a month of on time payment, and then the cycle begins again and continual threats to the former boyfriend to payup as co-signer. A constant headache. That's what I mean about greedy landlords. Set your price to market rate and you will get tenants who don't need flexible private landlords to make concessions for risky tenants. Set your price above market and you weed out people who don't have to make silly deals to get a decent place.

Read thru the rental forum on city data to gain a tenant and landlord perspective on life in the rental world

Sushi cake · 05-10-2013, 10:47 AM

I have had a good experience with my agent & tenants. If you screen well then people paying 2k or more are not the nightmare kind of tenants we usually hear about. They want to maintain their homes and credit history.