All Forum Posts by: Bill Ward

Must have plenty of parking! Congrats

My first tenants were nice and the place seemed clean during my visits. Gave them deposit back 2 days before they moved out. Mistake! Had to do flea treatments for carpets, nasty air filters they didn't replace, the new ones were still in the laundry room. Dog smell was awful. Lesson learned. 

@Daniel Lochen

I’d think you would get a lot better return using that 175k than just $300 a month. Even a 5% return on your money would put your way over that without the stress of a rental

I haven't done this but it doesn't stop me from throwing my opinion out there. If you're collecting $1500 ish in rent money while living there and you have to cover $150 to fill the mortgage....that's the same thing as paying your own mortgage and getting $1500 in cash flow from somewhere else. Save your money up that you're not spending on mortgage and that becomes your 'cash flow' for saving up for the next project. 

I'd probably tack on a extra charge and you just pay all the utilities if you're living there. Then you never have to worry about a dispute over who uses what.

Get a permit for that build?

I would never expect them to pay for any part of your remodeling. If you are willing to do it now and raise the rent x money, you could explain that you were planning on doing it next year and raising rent x dollars, and see if they would be willing to a rent increase when it's complete. Otherwise just say no it's not a project you can undertake right now. 

Use less down payment for a 100k mortgage and then later pay a large lump sum with your leftover down payment? 

When I did it I was able to qualify for the new mortgage with the old one. If you don't qualify for both you'll probably need a signed lease showing someone will be renting the old one to compensate for that payment. 

I have only one stipulation on the washer/dryer. They're stacked and just physically difficult to get into and out of the laundry room due to the layout. So I have in the lease that they are welcome to use the ones provided, but if they break the tenant can either repair them or request to have them removed by me and they can buy their own. Single house.

When I started renting mine in 2018 I contacted Rental Warehouse to have them be a PM. They did their numbers and said it would rent for 900. I listed it at 1200 and could have gotten more probably. About half the people who came to look at it said it was much nicer inside than anything else in the price range. Zillow's "estimate" for my house also updates to what I list it for. I last listed it at 1300 so Zillow says it's 1300. My tenants are about to move and I'll be able to get 1450-1500 for it.