All Forum Posts by: Allison Park

 Ah ok...yeah I had a situation like that with a small condo in Falls Church...at the time I bought it they were handing out zero interest loans for 7 years, so even though I had it for 12 years, I still couldn't rent it.  I sold it at a ~60K loss....little did I know, I could have kept it for like 3 more years and sold it for a profit...but I was glad to get it off the books and move on.

Is there any reason you don't just rent it?  I had the same issue selling Clayton a year ago...took 60 days this time of year.

Pros and Cons of Month to Month.  I am using the North Carolina Relators Association Lease as advised by my real estate attorney.  There is a section on the lease that you can check for the lease to go month to month.  I am curious about pros and cons of checking that box to go month to month vs requiring a new lease every year.  It seems like it would provide flexibility to both myself and the tenant by allowing it to go month to month.  They would still need to give 30 days notice.  Also, in this situation how would you go about increasing the rent.  Give 30 days notice that rent will be increasing and then sign an addendum?

@Lateefah Mathews  Thanks for the recommendations!  I found a tenant this weekend who had a 635 credit score with no late payment and vetted well on all other qualification criteria.  Appreciate your advice!

Innago is 35 for Credit, Criminal, Eviction and an extra $5 for income verification.  They also have a free application.  Zillow is $35.  Alot of prospective tenants already pay the $35 because they can apply to multiple properties for something like 30 days.  They don't have income check but the prospective tenant can upload paystubs.

@Pat Lulewicz thanks, good to know about the Zillow Application.  Appreciate the insights!

@Lateefah Mathews - thank you so much for the insights...going into update the credit score now.  This is super helpful!

I have a brand new 3 bd 2.5 ba Townhouse.  I have had it listed for just over a week.  I set the Credit Score as 650+ negotiable in Zillow and I had two immediate applications with very bad scores.  One was in the 400s and had a history of late payments and delinquencies and I rejected it.  The other is in the low 500s but stated that this is due to a car accident totaling her car and is in litigation, so she is not paying on the loan.  There is also another account with a small amount of $300 with some late payments.  

Question 1:  Should I just lower the credit score a bit (like 630) to allow for some flexibility and avoid getting applicants with staggeringly low scores?

Question 2:  Should I even consider the low 500s score?  The contingencies would be asking for a co-signer and checking landlord references.  She does not have any evictions or bankruptcies.  

Question 3:  I have 2 other similar Townhomes that will be ready late October.  Should I go ahead and list them now even though I would not be able to sign a lease until I close on them?

Other thing to note: I am ok with waiting a couple months to fill these vacancies, but by then it will be mid-winter (not that big a deal in Raleigh) but I understand there are probably fewer applicants during that time.

 Awesome!

I was pretty shocked at the difference between primary and landlord insurance.  I was also surprised that steadily doesn't cover liability for some specific dog breeds, so I ended up going with Safeco.