Care and Feeding of Tenants

@mehbee Thanks! It was a little serendipitous and the new place is going to need a lot of love to make to ready. But there were people living it prior to the foreclosure so mehbe it isn’t all that bad. Without electicity, running water and all that it looks pretty dark and dirty inside. It doesn’t smell so thanks be to gawd for that. They just basically walked out without cleaning or anything and left a lot of little treasures behind. Half-roll of toothpaste anyone? lol

@therealjrn A little love and some elbow grease, and you may find a diamond in the dust. We had a bit of serendipity ourselves. Last May my husband was driving by the lot of land beside ours and there was a tiny 8 x 11 paper on a stake with a number and I think it said For Sale by Auction or something. I am not sure how he saw it because it was hanging over facing the ditch but we got the number and called and sure enough the person who had owned it for years had not paid the taxes for two years. They had never done anything with it but we figured one day they would either sell it or build on it. He went down to the courthouse and when it came time only one other person was bidding and when he realized Dean was serious he dropped out. We had to wait a year, but this month the court will send a letter and if she does not respond in 30 days its ours…I know, right…she hasn’t responded in a year so that should be enough…that’s exactly what I said…but my husband said that’s not the process. Anyway I’m hoping that in June we are the proud owner of 4.5 acres that we got for $2800.00. We already have 4.5 acres and this acreage is right beside it so we’ll have a 9 acre lot. Doubt we’ll rent it though, unless we put something on it and rent to someone in the family. I want to be able to legally threaten them. We can do that to family, right? Anyway, I’m sure it’s going to work out for you.

@mehbee That sounds nice! This place has been in foreclosure and empty for almost two years now. I was the only bidder on it so that was quite the savings. Even though I went to the courthouse and plunked my money down, it still aint mine until yet another, last hearing at the end of this month. But it is very rare for the owner to come flying in at the last minute to save their property isn’t it? I’m a little frustrated because I want to start getting the new place all cleaned up, but I’m not lifting a finger until I know for sure it is mine.

@therealjrn I know exactly how you feel. I’ve lived next to this land for a very long time. And for the last year, it’s been, we can do this or that, make more pasture land for the horses, build a mother in law suite or a party room, the list grows every day…and of course we aren’t even supposed to step on it until it’s ours. I wonder how much trouble we would get in if they knew that we’ve been walking through it for years to my sister and mom’s. There is a trail and we mow it and keep it nice…lol. Not that that the owner cared enough to come and look at it or mow it it…there are blackberry bushes taller than my nephew and he’s 6’7". Going to take a lot of bushhogging to get it nice looking…we have some hard work ahead of us but it’s worth it, right?

@mehbee BLACKBERRY BUSHES!!! We could all KILL my uncle who used round up on the ones at my grandmother’s farm. Like the ones you speak of, they were well over our heads in height, had the biggest and sweetest berries, 50 of us could eat what we wanted and there would still be some left for “the aunts” to cook with… whatever you do don’t kill off the blackberry bushes. OMG you are so lucky to have that density of blackberry bushes. Please tell me you aren’t going to use a brush hog on them!!!

@mehbee Holy carp!! Congratulations on your almost-dirt-cheap dirt! Let us know the final disposition.

@mehbee
Hey congrats!

And I hope you leave the blackberry bushes. When I was a kid one of the things was to go over to my friend’s grandmother’s house, and pick blackberries all day. And grandma would make cobblers and pies and stuff all day.

It was great.

If you leave the blackberry bushes healthy, and don’t wanna mess with the blackberries yourself, I bet you could find someone who wanted to send their kids to pick them, and would give you some of the resulting jam or pies or cobblers for free as payment for the blackberries.

@Pavlov Yeah, but this time it will be different.

@Pavlov
I know several people who have really done well at this. They enjoyed it more frequently than otherwise; have “real jobs” that end at 5pm so they had some time to deal with it; and are able to do a large % of the needed repairs or handywork.

Plus, long terms relationships with electricians, HVAC people, and similar have gotten them discounts and excellent quick-response service. Two of them own more than 100 occupied houses each, all of them free and clear. That’s some nice monthly income stream and some nice equity.

I don’t know about being a rental magnate, when your main focus is running your own complex biz with multiple employees and big time-pressure projects, at the same time.

In each case, it moved these people from “middle-class” to “quite wealthy”.

@cengland0 Thanks for the insight. I don’t know how depreciation works on a unit where the owner has lived in it and bought it nearly ten years ago but that’s what accountants are for right? Mom bought me all new replacement windows when I moved in and those weren’t cheap but I don’t know if I still have the paperwork to determine a cost basis. I suppose the paint, fixing things up and such will be part of it too when I move out.

I’m toying with the idea of just going ahead and getting all new appliances for here and the new place because even the ones I bought when I first moved in are well…ten years old. But then again, there is an appliance resale shop less than a mile from here so that might be a better buy. I guess I could just wait until something breaks in the rental and then replace it with the used stuff from the resale shop.

I once lived in an apartment where every appliance was a different color. lol

@therealjrn My county has the property appraisal’s office online so you can look at any property to see what the last sales price was and who the current owner is. Maybe your county has something similar.

I bought the house when my mom died so I could get my dad to move closer to me where I could take care of him. My dad ended up needing more care than I expected so he couldn’t live alone in that house so he lived with me in my spare bedroom until the day he died. That left an empty house that I could rent.

The depreciation started the day I began renting it full time even though that was a couple years after I bought it. It’s for 30 years so the price I paid divided by 30 is what I can take each year as depreciation. You cannot deduct your mortgage principle payments as an expense.

I don’t proactively replace any appliances. I wait for them to fail and then replace them at that time. It’s probably cheaper to get them fixed but my tenant asked if I could replace them instead and to do it with stainless steel models – so I did to keep them happy. In one case, the tenant complained about standing water in the dishwasher. I discovered it was because they kept stopping it before it completed the full rinse cycle so it didn’t pump all the water out. Even after pointing out the reason for the problem was their fault and to just let it finish the rinse cycle completely, they still wanted it replaced with a new unit. It was cheap enough I did it.

I think my tenant is wanting to buy the house eventually so they are finding every opportunity to get new appliances in preparation for buying the property. This house has a swimming pool and I’d never buy a house with a pool again – too much maintenance. So if they want to buy that house, I’ll sell it to them and then buy another house (without a pool) with that money and rent that one out.

@therealjrn get an accountant if you don’t have one already – they know the ins and outs of depreciate and deductibles, etc. (sorry, I only have one house, and that is plenty enough for me!!)

@mikibell I do the books for the HOA but I’m pretty darn far from what one would call an “accountant.” I’m asking around for referrals.

@therealjrn If it fits, works well, and looks okay, how about swapping the appliances in your unit into the rental? At least you’ll know the level of care they’ve had, and you can then buy new ones for your own place.

@magic_cave That’s the idea, but I probably wasn’t clear. I’m moving out of my current place and plan to move into the larger, nicer repossessed place. It looks like the appliances over there have been ridden pretty hard. But it is dim in there and lots of grime in the kitchen. I probably will get new ones for my new fresh place.

It would fetch more than my current home as a rental, but dammit DaddyCo has been slaving hard for years, plus I’ll have a spare bedroom for Grandchildren or my Sister to occasionally visit.

@therealjrn Hey jrn, why don’t you rent out that third bedroom on AirBnB? Why that’s a great idea!

@therealjrn
It can be easier to rent cheaper properties. The more the rent, the more someone who can afford it is likely to want to buy, or to have plenty of options.

The people I know who have tons and tons of rental houses always went for the lower-end (but not too rough) of older “starter homes”, in old and a bit run-down, but decent neighborhoods. This meant a lot of people would be looking for a residence in that price range.

Then they kept the rent just a little a bit below market.

This allowed them to be really really choosy about tenants. They were after long term tenants who were reliable, quiet, hardworking, polite, didn’t cause problems, and would take care of the place.

They really investigated the tenants.

BTW, if someone’s car is really messy, odds are their residence will also be a mess. I’m not talking about auto maintenance or how new or repairs needed or whatever. I’m talking about whether the inside of the vehicle is junky with trash and stuff strewn around.

In some cases the rental houses were purchased with investor mortgages. In this case the property sometimes lost $ the first few years, compared to the mortgage. That worked out; within a few years the property was profitable, and these owners always paid down any mortgage w a huge interest rate really fast.

When the owners found good tenants, they kept rent increases low to keep the tenants in the place. When the owners found they had rented to PITA tenants, they would inform the tenants that the lease would not be renewed at the end of the term, because they had decided to sell the property … and tell the tenants that, if the tenants found someplace else and wanted to move early, the tenant would be allowed to break the lease term with no cost or penalty.

Basically, they subtly or openly bought the bad tenants out of the lease contract. It was worth it.

If they really loved a long term tenant, and, after some years the tenant wanted to buy, they would try to work that out.

@Kidsandliz
That’s a really interesting AirBnB setup. Sounds like the condo owners figured out something unique and profitable, as long as no one rats them out.

@f00l It was very “youth hostel” but dirtier. And the last night there was significant snoring coming from 2 beds. Worth the trade offs for the price though. No one is likely to tell since few home owners actually live there, the complex is large so extra cars won’t be noticed and it is on the run down side which speaks to people not caring. Actually it used to be a 2 bedroom but they built a wall to make the living room into a 3 bedroom and the third bedroom has the balcony. So now what was the dining room and living room is a small living room and 3rd bed room.

@Kidsandliz Interesting concept! I looked at the AirBnB’s here in Tulsa and there are some, but they are closer to attractions and the river. My unit is close to I-44 and the old Route66 but is sort of too far East I think. But I may try that first to see what happens. It has a two-car garage (as do all the units) but parking is limited here.

As manager, I have had more tangles over parking than anything else. That’s when I found out people hate the manager when he’s trying to enforce stupid fire lane laws. One dude I had to tow twice before he started to believe me. I had another one rage at me over the orange sticker I put on his car and he was going to come over and “kick my ass” if I towed him. Joy. Welcome to Oklahoma.

@Kidsandliz @f00l Those setups are often not just in violation of HOA rules but also state and local fair housing laws and hotel laws. They’re particularly bad about driving up rents and making it harder for poorer people to find housing. Why rent to an actual tenant if you can (maybe illegally) make more renting to tourists?

@jqubed Well yes that could be an issue, but there is also the need to rent a room/bed to people like me who’d otherwise be sleeping in their car due to how expensive hotel rooms are in that city.

@therealjrn @fool’s comment and @kidsandliz’s are good. If you’re in an area that has visitors or vacationers and it doesn’t violate your hoa policies you can make more profit with potentially less hassle doing weekly rentals with airbnb or vrbo. Do cleanings and laundry for linens/towels (or get a service) and charge a weekly rate that is cheaper than a nice hotel but may be 50 to 100% more than a fourth of monthly rent. Furnish the place with some amenities for vacation stay (books, puzzles, games, movies). Establish charges for things broken or missing (linens, towels, dishes, etc) up front so you have that covered. Tell the tenants to load and start the dishwasher when they leave. Profit!

We rent condos like this in Florida for vacations and always have good experiences. I think vacationers tend to take better care of stuff than traditional renters as well, so your appliances and stuff may fare better.

@djslack

The property rented here was stocked with water bottles in the fridge, books, puzzles, a printed TV guide, printed folding maps (for the tenant to keep), printed brochures about various entertainments and points of interest, an a number of books and photo books about local culture and history.

Also, a printed list with addresses and the phone numbers of nearby groceries, drugstores, hospitals, police, fire, restaurants, shopping, and rental car and airline phone numbers and so forth.

The owners seemed pretty into it and very nice.

@f00l @djslack . . We head for mountains (NC, TN, GA, VA) each fall, and we’ve relied heavily on VRBO for about 15 years. I’d second everything you commented on, especially the printed information about addresses and phone numbers for emergencies and for shopping. The best such set-up even said, in all caps, “if you need to call for emergency help, tell them this…” followed by the address of the cottage we were in and a couple of identifying points for the first responders, such as “first left turn east of the new Ingles.” It’s amazing how reassuring little touches like that can be. (These days, given our ages, health issues, and traveling companions, the third thing I do upon arrival is hunt up numbers for police, ambulance, and veterinary clinics if they’re not already available.)

@magic_cave

There was a sign inside the door of the house, giving the address in large letters.

When I heard about it, I thought it was overkill. But after reading your remark, I get the point.

@f00l We were already on the phone ordering pizza the first night in our London rental when we realized we didn’t know the address (I’d already packed it back into my luggage with the rest of the travel documents). The renter had thoughtfully left the numbers for various food delivery places by the phone. They had to hold while we went outside and looked. If it had been an emergency that would have been bad.

@Aznatural1 I like condo living too. I think my complex looks pretty spiffy. Our grass is a nice deep green, the pool sparkles and the shrubs are razor-straight. We manually edge the sidewalks and rotate out the poor dead plants with new ones regularly. Some of the owners have put in little gardens in front of their units so that helps it not look too uniform.

As a new, bright-eyed landlord, I suppose I won’t be that bad on maintaining the place. I think (hope) that most renters will take care of the place if they can see the landlord cares too. Since I’ll be living just right across the parking lot I can certainly keep a pretty close eye on things, but that also means they can find me pretty easily too.

@therealjrn One point I haven’t seen mentioned: you might want to consider age-restrictions on potential tenants. When my son and DIL were searching for a condo rental, they were surprised at the number of owners who wouldn’t rent to anyone under 25. Once they moved into what they thought would be a nice, quiet place they discovered why: more and more parents buy condos for their college-student kids. The late-night and weekend-long alcohol fueled partying drove them batty, and the management had no interest at all in taking any action. The students left trash in the grassy areas, frequently missed the dumpster completely when tossing garbage bags, apparently didn’t realize that speakers have a volume level below “drown out a freight train.”

@magic_cave Make sure you’re aware of Fair Housing laws when considering restrictions.

@astanford Thank you! I’ll check into it!

@astanford What a tremendous website. It’s almost overwhelming in scope–thanks again.