investment property - cash buyer

[wizrap]

I agree with BVG Steve--we not only included pool and lawn service but also pest control and adjusted the rent accordingly. A pool is too big of a feature to entrust to tenants, especially if they have no prior experience caring for a pool. We had a bit more than a quarter of an acre so we also wanted the yard taken care of--especially being in an HOA, we didn't want to be sanctioned by the HOA police for having an unkept yard--it was just easier to know that it would be maintained by including the lawn care in the rent.

You'll also have to use BVG's example and run the numbers different ways and see if the costs/returns work out for you. Our experience was that since we had to pay a month's rent as commission to the realtors who listed our home and brought us a qualified tenant, that we had 11 months worth of rent payments as gross income rather than 12. It's common to list rentals with real estate agents in South Florida, but if you do not need to use a realtor, then that is one month in rent you have saved for yourself to offset expenses. But if you divide a $2500 realtor's finders fee by 12 and offset that cost monthly, you'll see that it reduces your return substantially.

We didn't have the luxury of putting out a sign that said "For Rent By Owner" as our home was in a gated community. Also, you need to establish whether or not you would want to deal with realtors at all, because if they bring you a qualified tenant, you are obligated to pay the commission. BVG Steve could probably give you more insight as to ways to avoid having to deal with realtors. In our case, it was worth the cost--two people did approach us as we were moving out, but wanted to negotiate the rent. The third person was using a realtor as the family had recently moved to the area due to a job promotion and had been vetted by both his realtor and mine, and agreed on the rent without any discussion--and the family, with two toddlers and two big dogs, turned out to be wonderful tenants. So for us, well worth it.