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If you can get a "lump sum" payment I think I would buy the smallest most affordable "RV" (great especially when there is no harsh winter) that runs great instead of thinking to rent. A paid off RV can save on rent, keeps you mobile (so you can drive to your PT job, or to the doctors, grocery etc.) and you will be your own landlord/landlady without the "fear" of that next month rent or getting "evicted" because you cannot pay and all your worldly belongings will always have a home.
I've always thought an paid-off RV is better than renting a small apartment (just ask my DD)... it would be like always having a home on your back (the turtle way).
Going that route when I decide I am ready to give all my worldly belongings up to my DD... to travel and see the world while visiting relatives at that same time.
Keeps independent and mobility... the way I like it.
Rhode Island is a long way from west Texas but if I didn't look way outside the box as a landlord, I wouldn't have tenants. Then again, I own nothing on my rentals so I probably have more latitude than a landlord who has a mortgage company breathing down their neck.
That's a pretty rude and rather sad generality to toss out but I think I can see from whence it comes. From my recollection, you are NOT an "experienced landlord".
I'm experienced enough to have lerned that being a landlord is a very very hard job, and not often does it bring in much money for an investment. My suspicion is that you wish landlords to remain in the dark as to the real impact of renting, and how hard it is, and what they have to do to keep dysfunctional tenants from screwing up their lives. By doing that, you keep the power of tenants over the landlords at a high level, despite the fact that it is the landlord that incurs all the danger with renting out his or her property.
I have spoken to many many people both in person and here on the forums, and my experience with landlording has been repeated over and over again with everyone I have talked to who is a landlord or has been one. You have not apparently remembered when I said that my brother is the manager for 385 city and country properties in North Carolina. He has echoed my minimal landlord experience with more than 30 years in the business.
Tenants incur nothing other than moving into the house. The landord is repsonsible for everything, for all expenses, for all act of God events, for everything major that breaks down, for all the taxes, etc. If the tenant fails to notice that the basement is filling up with water due to rain, it is the landlord's fault that this was not fixed. If the tenant's kids flush a tennis ball down the toilet and it has to be removed by a plumber for $300, its the landlord that will have to pay for this. If the tenant fails to pay his rent, in many places it takes 5 months of judgements to get the person evicted, but nobody seems to care that make the landlord actually needs that money to pay his bills. New landords think that renters will be like them and actually pay their rent on time. NOT SO!
And if the renters trash the house, often the deposit won't even begin to pay for bringing it back to its original condition, but again the landlord has to do that or he cannot rent the house again.
Most landlords are not making a mint on rentals, and are often just staying ahead of bankruptsy. At no point in the four years that I rented my house did the rental payment exceed the cost of my mortgage and my taxes. Every year I lost money, sometimes quite a bit.
If you want to constantly take the side of the tenant in every situation, be my guest. But I will take the side of the landlord, and I will try to keep inexperienced landlords from making the same mistakes that I did. And they can also make mistakes in discrimination. New landlords should not believe their rental agent, and should pay the $39 for the ability to research every new renter for credit, background legal check, and all the stuff that private Detectives can dredge up on someone. I know that if I had done that with my latest renters and not believed the agency, I would have found the DUI and the other issues. By doing so I would have saved myaself a lot of grief.
What you say makes no sense unless you wish to keep landlords in the dark as to what they need to do to avoid being screwed by either purposeful screwing tenants, or just tenants who are so clueless that its hard to believe. I had a set of very educated tenants who had a drip from the sink in the kitchen. Wouldn't you put a bucket under it and call, or fixed it yourself? Well these didn't. They put a box of kitty litter under the sink to soak up the moisture and let it drip on to the flooring. By the time I found out about it, it has rotted out the whole flooring, and the sub flooring, and was heading toward a serious mold problem. Another time I had renters complaining bitterly that the cost of heating the house was exorbitant, only for me to find later, after i helped them with a reduction of their rent in the winter, that they kept all their windows open a crack to let in ventilation. This was a crack of 4 degree F air. For another, during the special help period my agent drove by and saw windows open in January.
to Zarathu:
Maybe you could take your "discussion" with STT Resident to a private message? Or start a thread of your own for the pros & cons of landlord vs tenant. Just suggesting.
to Zarathu:
Maybe you could take your "discussion" with STT Resident to a private message? Or start a thread of your own for the pros & cons of landlord vs tenant. Just suggesting.
At least part of your wish has been granted. I received a very long DM advising me how the "ignore" function works and how it has been applied to my posts, along with a "block" on any DM response, together with an analysis of my CD contributions.
At least part of your wish has been granted. I received a very long DM advising me how the "ignore" function works and how it has been applied to my posts, along with a "block" on any DM response, together with an analysis of my CD contributions.
too funny .... by the way, how does the ignore and/or block work?
Well, fwiw, as a former landlord, I wouldn't be too concerned about a single widow, close to retirement, whose husband died unexpectedly. Most older people do not like to move and prefer finding a place to settle down. Granted, I supposed if this widowed lady had nerves of steel and chose not to pay her rent and didn't mind harassment, she could. But it is unlikely. So, I wouldn't necessarily disqualify her as a tenant on that basis. I would want to have some idea of her income stream, however. Agree with the post upthread - 'gut feeling' bears a part. But I've been fooled, too.
However, in this instance, I suggest OP start calling landlords to get a sense of what's what. These are not the best of times. Plenty of people out there who have foreclosures and bankruptcies on their record. I suppose a paying job might overcome those issues. But tenants with stellar credit can't be that plentiful. Landlords these days need to consider the times.
I would believe that only the new ones or the dumb ones or the ones who don't really care what the renter does to the property are the ones who look outside the box.
Those who know what its like to not have the rental payment that you need to pay your mortgage on the house you are renting, who have had to make repairs way more than the deposit is worth, etc. have learned that not accepting the stereotypes for good renters is like going into uncharted waters, without a map, and without any available help.
Experienced landlords have learned the hard way.
well that's your problem right there...why are you depending on someone to pay your mortage payment?? You, as a landlord, should have enough money to make your payments without relying on rental income.
I would never rent to a person that filed bankruptcy but some are willing if you can come up with a large deposit.
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