New Member from southwest Fort Worth!!

[Holly Morgan]

Good morning everyone! My name is Holly and my fiance Ken and I are looking to get our current home ready for the rental market as we have accepted a position back in Southeast Texas, close to our families where we grew up. We have never done anything like this before so ANY advice would be greatly appreciated but here are some specific questions I have.....
1) What upgrades are the most cost effective to get at LEAST the $1100/month house payment we have.
2) Will be looking for a rental manager as we will be moving about 6 hours away, any suggestions?!
3) Thinking of leaving behind washer, dryer, fridge, and microwave...range and oven are built ins....is this a good idea or bad?! I was thinking to leave them "as is", but have in the rental agreement that if they break, they will NOT be replaced by us! Is that possible?!
4) Fiance mentioned lessening the credit check etc to "open us up to more tenants" but this scares the tar outta me! Any suggestions?!

We do know we will need a plumber to come in to do some repairs, does anyone know of a handyman that they use for repairs such as these? Most others we can do ourselves.

I guess I need to do some more homework! I seem to have more questions as I keep typing. If anyone is from the area, would love to chat and get some ideas! Any suggestions greatly appreciated!!

[Jon Holdman]

Hi Holly and welcome to BiggerPockets.

Is there any way for you to just sell this house? It sounds like you're going to be in a losing position as a rental. Are you able to sustain those losses?

What are market rents in your area for similar houses? There is really nothing you can do to push your rent above market. There are things you can do to pull the rent down, but as long as your rental is similar to others in the area, its very difficult to get a premium over the general market.

If your rent is only equal to your PITI payment, the house will be a loser. The property manager is typically going to charge you 10% of collected rents and it going to have a fee for filling a vacancy. You will have vacancies, at least between tenants. If demand is strong for rentals in your area, it may be only a few days. If its weaker, then a month between tenants isn't unusual.

You will always have repairs and make ready costs between tenants. Some can be covered by the security deposits, some not.

When you eventually decide to sell this house, you will have to do repairs and upgrades to bring it back from rental quality to retail quality.

Tenants are going to damage your property. Even good ones are unlikely to take the same care with it you would. Careful screening will help, but its not a guarantee.

In my area, fridges and stoves are standard in rentals. If you include these with the property, you will replace or fix them if they break. I would not include the washer and dryer unless that's standard for your area. I'd never bother with the microwave, unless its built in. If its a free-standing counter model, and you don't want it, give it to your first tenant. They're going to take it anyway. Maybe intentionally, maybe not, but if its not bolted down its just going to be scooped up with everything else when they move.

You need to do a survey for your area. Look on craigslist for rentals in your area. Drive the area and look for for-rent signs. Pretend you're a tenant and start calling. Ask about rents, deposits, amenities, who pays for what and so on. This will give you and idea of the rents for your area. Also check rentometer.com, but I find it tends to be high. If you have time, keep an eye on these rentals. Do they disappear quickly (demand is strong). Or, are they available a month after you first see them (demand is weak.)