All Forum Posts by: Bill Ward

I'm a fan of Old Camp Peach/Pecan whiskey. It's fairly cheap and tastes like it's been aged in wooden barrels. Very sweet though.

I reached out to 2 PMs when I was getting ready to rent out my primary. Both came to the residence in about a week, did a walk through, talked about estimated rents and how much I wanted to rent for and if my pricing was flexible. Both went over items I should fix and replace before it's rent ready and both were ready to list whenever I was ready. Took about another week for them to email me with estimated rent prices after doing their comps and sent their policies/fees. 

Will the rent cover the mortgage?

I have one rental. Also went to a tax pro at first because of that. Before having a rental I always did my own on Turbo Tax. One year, I did it first on Turbo Tax to see what my return was, then paid the pro to do it. I think I paid roughly $300 more for him and got back like $400 more than I would have on my own. So technically it paid off, but it was more hassle and took longer to go back and forth with him and his online website uploading forms. I can do turbo tax in 30 minutes by myself, and I'll probably keep doing that.

I self manage my one. Also hate confrontation with tenants, probably because that's not my main expertise. I spoke to a management company as I'm prepping to start a second rental. After a short conversation and realizing how business like they treat it, I was impressed and knew they'd handle it better than I have been. If the numbers work, it can take a lot of the stress off of you if you're worried about it.

I have a single rental. I use a pest control company, they are great. I pay monthly, they spray for insects and traps for mice. Anytime there is an issue, the tenant can call them directly and they'll come and spot treat the issue. Keeps me out of the loop. I'd rather pay it than the tenant not take care of it and have rodent issues and damage when they move out.

My first rental property, I sent new filters to the tenants. They started with 6 new filters in a box when they moved in and I sent more. When they moved out I found all the filters still in plastic sitting on a shelf. They never changed it. I never checked. Lesson learned.

I'm just writing this because I'm getting excited it may be about to happen. I'm not sure how calculations would work on this: essentially I may be getting a free apartment through my job. I just pay utilities.

My current house is in a great neighborhood, just a flood zone. PITI is about $1200 per month. Met with a property manager today, I manage my only other single rental myself, figured I give her a try. She's going to get together some suggestions on what to upgrade to maximize rent. Expected rent to be $1900-2100 a month. PM takes 10%.

So to me that's $1700 - maintenance, a month more than I have now. Not sure how that calculates as a normal rental where you could just subtract rent from expenses and set aside some for maintenance, because the act of renting it out allows me the zero rent at the apartment. So it doesn't need to be cash flowing on paper to be net cash flowing for my wallet. Worth a try anyways. I'm single right now so I don't need the extra bedrooms (4) and big yard. Figure I could do some downsizing for a year or 3 and save up some good money.

Thanks for listening.

If your options are sell for $300k profit or rent for a couple hundred, maximum, per month? I'd sell and use that money for a better return somewhere else.

$300 for water?? I pay $30 a month for water with 4 people in the house.