BiggerPockets

Filling Your Vacant Rental Units

Sunday, June 19

I rent out mainly SFH’s so these are the methods I have used for many years to help fill my vacancies: 1) Establish a youtube account. Take a video of the ready to rent house and upload it on youtube. 2) Take a lot of well-lit digital pictures. 3) Let all your neighbors know it is vacant and give them your card. 4) Sign in yard and window. 5) Info box with fliers in it. 6) Window shades open. 7) Flier and floorplan sketch taped to window with room measurements. 8) Fliers have to have all qualifying information on them. 9) Business website with professional URl. Free wordpress template used, no programming needed. 10) Flier information on website, lots of digital pictures, and link to youtube video. 11) Craigslist ad with links to your website and youtube video. 12) In all ads put all qualifying information. This will prequalify your applicants and the non-qualifiers will not be wasting your time. 13) Make sure the flier box has at least 10 fresh fliers in it. They will get nasty due to humidity and sun. 14) Post fliers on public bulletin boards, Laundromats, car washes, restaurants, etc. Fliers have tear of phone numbers. I use odd color(lime green, pink). These strategies have worked for me. Maybe they will help you too. Good luck.

Strange Tenant Conversation

Friday, August 13

Hello all.  I was meeting with a new resident today as he and his family were moving in.  They decided to take a break and go for something to eat.  I stayed at the house to check on some final details.  This is a 3/1 SFH that backs up to 2 other SFH's I rent out.

 While I was doodling around one of the other residents showed up and didn't look happy.  I have always had good conversations with him and figured something bad had happened.  He immediately wanted to know if that bulldog in the back yard belonged to the new people and if the dog was staying.  I explained that the dog in question was a female boxer and, yes, it would be staying.  He went into a pretty good tirade about the only good dog is a dead dog and his past bad experiences with dogs.

 After he was done he looked at me for an answer.  I told him that it would be OK.   The dog is calm and should pose no problem for him.  By his body language he wanted more.  I further said that if the dog caused him any problems to call me and that he should just stay on his side of the fence.

Oops, wrong answer.  He was hot and turned and marched off.  He's been a great resident for 18 months but I don't allow my renters to make the rules.  I did explain to the move ins what happened and that they should try to make peace after a few days.

So, my question to you, do you allow your renters to have an influence over who can or cannot rent from you?

Hurry Up and Wait

Saturday, August 07

It's been one of those days.  As I have said, I am a school teacher.  I have one more week of full time REI stuff before heading back and I do look forward to it.  However, I also looked forward to having a lot of things wrappped up before that date.

Well, it didn't work out the way I planned.  My apartment house has sprung a mystery pressurized water leak that is costing me by the day.  It's not a major flood but it doubled the water bill last month.  I say mystery because I have been all over the building and under it, I can't find it.  Plumber would come out today if I wanted to pay the overtime rate. They will be here Monday.

I bought a nice 3/2 mobile home in a MHP for $6000.  I put the money down, go the agreement signed.  Checked with the state and the clear title is in her name but she doesn't have it in hand.  No problem, get the title and you get paid.  Been over 2 weeks and the deal is still in limbo.  I have people lined up to rent it now.

I have one tenant that notified me a while back that she is moveing out on the 10th even though her lease is up on the 19th.  She helped me find the next tenants so I told her that I would not make her pay the 9 days of the lease.  I signed the lease witht the new tenants to move in on the 14th.  The existing tenant, who has not paid August rent, now informs me that she won't be leaving until the 14th at the earliest.  I told her that will not do.  So she offered the 12th.  I said nope, you said 10th, I need you out on the 10th.  I have already served her 3 day pay or quit and 5 day notice of utility cutoff.

I have another SFH that needs some trim and window work done.  I had a guy paint one of my other houses a couple of weeks ago and he was a good worker.  So I sent him over to the SFH to look at the trim and window work and give me an idea of cost and time.  I then contacted the tenants to see how we could do this so there would be minimal inconvenience.  They said this is a no go because they don't like the guy.  There is condensation on the inside of the window and the work needs to be done.  They don';t sound like they are going to let me or anyone work on it.

I have one 1/1 apartment that has been vacant about 4 weeks now.  That's a little long for this year in our area.  Last year I had a couple of 2 month vacancies.  Not what I'm aiming for.  Gotta figure out what I'm doing wrong now.  Everyone looking at it wants to rent it for 3-6 months.  

I also have a 2/1 MH that is ready to rent.  It's nice inside but everyone that looks at it wants a 3/1 or 3/2.  Remind me to never spend another second on anything that has less than 3 bedrooms in it.

When all this crap is hitting the fan it sure is easy to get bummed out.  In light of my last two blog posts, I have to change my focus.  I can't allow what is going wrong to get me down.  I have to focus on what is going right and build on it.

So, I spent 2 months of my summer trying to make sure all my ducks are lined up before school.  Now it looks like I have some dead ducks.  Quack, quack

Thanks for stopping by and enduring my venting.

How about you, what do you do when you have ione of those days?

What are you focusing on?

Sunday, July 25

I have been watching people lately.  Actually, I've been doing more listening than watching.  I am a public school teacher from late August until early June.  The rest of the time I am working on my RE stuff.  I frequently am blessed with the opportunity to hear what people really think by listening to their kids.  The kids are obliviously honest.  They will tell me about their economic situation without any reservation.  They will also tell me what they think, or what their parents think, about the current economic times whether I ask or not.  It troubles me to see 10 year olds with their spirit crushed by negative generalities and their own current situations.

For example, the students will bring up the conversation about how much things stink and there are no jobs to anywhere.  They will futher espouse that their relative has been out of work for so many months and how dooomed we all are.  At first I had no idea how to react other than saying I'm sorry.  This past year I had a different response.

My repsonse this past year would begin with some pointed questions.  I would calm the class down and ask if any of them went out to eat last night.  How many families bought a car in the last year?  How many of you went grocery shopping?  Hopw many of you joined an athletic league and played in games?  When you were on the school bus this morning did you happen to notice any nice cars?  Did you see any businesses open for the day?

Most of the responses would be in the positive direction.  I would then point out that all of those represent jobs and money.  People out there do have jobs and they do have money.  There are people out ther making it everyday.  I am not trying to make fun of their current condidtion or position in life.  Uncle Johnny being long term unemployed is very real.  However, it doesn't have to be permanent.  I would explain, sure there are bad things going on, but what you choose to look at is your choice.

I never told them they could be rich or that all they had to do is dream it and it would come true.  All I told them is that they can choose to see the good or they can choose to see the bad.  It is a choice.

I guess the moral of this post is two things.  First is be careful what you are feeding your kids.  They literally are your parrots. They look up to you and watch you whether you know it or not.  Second, be careful of what you focus on.  Don't let the negative news take control of you.  If that happens it will be like putting a blindfold on, all opportunites to prosper fade from sight.

I think the very fact that you are here on BP says a lot about you.  You have chosen to see the positive rather than dwell on the negative.  You, also, have chosen to express and interest in real estate as a vehicle to make your mark with.  Ata boy for you!  You have taken some positive, first steps in choosing your reality.  Welcome aboard and happy hunting.

Are You Focused?

Thursday, March 25

This week, month, and year has been filled with all kinds of economic and political drama.  The traditional news sources are taking a beating and seem to be ramping up the rhetoric in an attempt to regain market share and lost ad revenue.

My question to you is what are you focused on?  Do you spend your time on things that do not help you reach your goals?  It's easy to do.  You hear a teaser line or two and so you sit and wait for the story to run on TV and then 2-3 hours are gone.  You sit to check what your Facebook friends and there goes a half day.  Or, in my case, it's that chair.  If my butt hits that chair I'm not getting up for a while.

I'm not against spending some resting time.  Everyone needs time to recharge.  I'm talking about killing productive time.

I am having to really take a look at what I am doing, how I am doing it, and how each move is getting me closer to  my goals.  Maybe you need to take that look as well?

Happy hunting!

Howdy from DFW

Saturday, March 20

First blog post. What to say?  Don't want to sound stupid, infantile, or mundane.  Gotta come out guns blazing and set the world on fire.  Can't think of a thing.  Will have to settle for avearge right now. :)

Thanks for checking into my first blog post on this great forum.  I guess a little history is in order to establish some credibility.  I have been an REI for 4 years now.  I am a buy and hold person.  I rent out houses and apartments.  The banks have slowed down lending for me so I am working on expanding into other areas.  Right now I have 2 mobile homes that I am cleaning up for rentals.  I am planning on getting my MH dealers license this summer.  I am a full time school teacher, so I will have time this summer to attend the 3 day MH dealer license training.

My goal right now is to make everyday pay day.  I love providing clean, simple housing for my clients but I love gettng paid for it even more.  Most of my teaching collegues look forward to their once a month payday.  I look forward to getting paid everyday.

 I project that I will be teaching about 4 more years and then move onto other opportunites. 

Thanks for enduring this first attempt at blogging.  I hope I didn't cause any permanent damage to ay readers. Happy hunting to all.