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Does anybody want to share some of their experiences they have had renting out a house or apartment?
I am thinking of buying a house as an investment and renting it out. I was never a landlord before and I will appreciate any insight you care to give.
I get mixed reactions from people, some say to avoid renters if you can, that they trash the place. Others get great tenants and laugh all the way to the bank.
I have a friend that owns property in Rochester. From what I have observed you have to screen a possible renter very carefully. I hate to say it but sometimes this includes being a little prejudice in who you rent to. I'm not talking about judging on race/religion, but age. My friend generally will not rent to college students. For people in their 20s he will try to get a feel of the person and ask them questions to see what types of lifestyles they lead (partiers). I know this is not very ethical but he has very few problems with renters.
Hi, just my two sense, before we were married we rented from a landlord that at first said he did not want to rent to a family he was afraid that the child would mess up the paint, okay well my husband worked two jbs at the time and I worked, part time. There was an apartment in the house during the three years we rented the main level of the house, the landlord had to evict two tenants for non payment from the apartment, he had the apt. trashed, but these grown single men. So, the long and short of it you are so better off to rent to a family, not single men, because my friend also has an apt in house she has had nothing but problems with single young guys going from job to job and not paying.
Does anybody want to share some of their experiences they have had renting out a house or apartment?
I am thinking of buying a house as an investment and renting it out. I was never a landlord before and I will appreciate any insight you care to give.
I get mixed reactions from people, some say to avoid renters if you can, that they trash the place. Others get great tenants and laugh all the way to the bank.
Thanks a lot, Tom
i currently work for a credit counseling agency. We have a housing division that deals with foreclosures. We get calls from landlords now & again because the tenants move out unexpectedly or don't pay the rent. If you are going into this type of business, just try to have money set aside, at least a couple of mortgage payments, so should the tenants stop paying, you can make the pymts. You do not want to fall behind on your mortgage. The lenders are ruthless and they will give you such a hard time to try to get back on track. if you do that, then go for it.
excellent point! My friend depends on her rental to pay the taxes, her apt. is legal, but sometimes just a few months of her losing the rent was not good for her.
Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
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We own a home in a 55+ community in FL and are currently renting. It's our first and last experience as landlords. From our experience, it's been a pain. Nothing major (knock on wood), but strange requests. It's fully furnished, but they "had to have" a new vacuum because the one we had didn't have any attachments (they're only there for 4 months, mind you). They decided (on their own) to replace the toilet seats (even tho they didn't need to be), that sort of thing. I finally shut the checkbook up when they wanted a new tv set because the old one didn't have a remote. A woman in the same complex had issues because the people weren't paying the rent because she wouldn't buy tv's to put on the lanai and in the bedroom. They finally paid her 1 month's rent, stayed for 6 weeks, and left, even tho they'd committed to 4 months. On the other side, most people have no problems.
I have never owned rental property but have a relative who did, here on LI, for about 10 years (they sold it in 2005). During that time they had three tenants; the first two were disasters, but the third one was a "dream tenant". After the early disasters, they got the third tenant through a realtor rather than an ad in the Pennysaver.
I think all three tenants were either couples or families, so I don't think that's any guarantee of good/bad tenancy.... I do remember hearing that because they allowed pets, there was a lot of repair work to be done before the house went on the market for sale and they regretted ever allowing pets.
I'm sure that if I were to ever become a landlord (but I have NO PLANS to ever do so... too much potential hassle and liability), I'd definitely put into the lease "No Pets" and "No Smoking". Not only from a property-preservation standpoint but from an insurance one as well.
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If you can pay the mortgage then go for it
