Originally Posted By: Rock_Hudstone
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Mostly going to come down to her. Takes a special kind of person to do bad area rentals.
I know plenty of people with low grade rental properties, and most of them seem mean and unhappy when the topic comes up.
One way or another, she needs to wait. Nobody wants to move during Christmas or winter if they can help it.
It's not a bad area per se, just lower middle class blue collar with mostly owner occupied small singe family homes with rentals mixed in here and there. There is a multi-family right across the street fully rented where people are paying $1400 a month for a small apartment.
Her house is 3 bed, full basement with W/D, detached two car garage and driveway for off street parking.
She was thinking of asking $1800 a month. Frankly, I think people would be fighting for her place considering the high cost of rentals in the area and little chance of more being built in that price range.
I agree her timing is lousy but that how she is: buys when she should rent, sells when she should buy, etc. I think if she could get her first tenant in there she may find its not as impossible as she imagines. They live two blocks away so keeping an eye on things is no problem.
Only other suggestion is that if she thinks it's worth $1800, list it for $1700. When you price it below market, you get good tenants. When it's too high, the only people left are the ones rejected by everyone else. Get a feel for the rents in the area, you want to price it in the middle to a little bit below that. The highest prices ones just never rent and they just sit there til the landlord lowers the rent. You will probably get multiple applications that way and you can pick and choose the best ones. That's the one where if you're asking for $1700, minimum income should be $68000 but a good tenant might be one that makes 80-90k or more. Also read the credit report. I rejected one guy even though he had about a 650 credit score. He had a $200 car loan for 6 months. That's all it takes to get a 650 score. Apartment was 1000+ and just 6 months history was too short and it's easy to come up with $200 a month, not sure if they can do 1000+. You can also ask for rent receipts to show that they paid their rent on time. Depending on the apartment, I always demand 2-4 months rent up front. If I get any stories of how they'll have it by the end of the month or later, I usually pass, means they have no savings which is actually a large majority. If they can show a savings account or something with several thousand in it, that's usually a good sign they'll be able to pay the rent on time every month. I remember one tenant that kept going on and on about how 3k was a lot of money and wondering if people had that kind of money. I felt like grabbing her and telling her yes, people have that and some consider it nothing. I ended up renting it someone else who had the money. On one rental, I had a doctor write a check for over 13k. He didn't bat an eye when I mentioned the total he needed to bring to the lease signing.
There's a few red flags to be aware of, also be extra careful with anyone who needs to move in right away or doesn't have to give notice to their current landlord. It can be a sign that they've been evicted or are about to get evicted. But strangely no one who's ever looked at an apartment with me ever says that although I suspect some do, they just kinda disappear when I mention I do credit checks and need a completed application and all the money upfront when signing the lease. I don't take deposits anymore because people can change their mind and want the deposit back even though I'd say it was non refundable. Once you have a signed leased and the funds, you have a binding lease and if they want out, they're basically breaking the lease.
