All Forum Posts by: Deborah Burian

Cordless driver is first. Takes drills & screws, nut drivers etc. I have several Dewalts but my newest is a lightweight Black & Decker lithium ion and I love it for smaller tasks. bought solely to take weight off my hands but also carries well in my little tool bag.

Well, off the top of my head... 40K price, 30K repairs is 70K. You're already at 70% of ARV. Repair cost is probably underestimated because optimism rules. Then... you need closing, holding, closing again plus a profit for the wholesaler... Can't get blood from a turnip.

@Lindsay Wilcox - all great responses above. In the early days, I shared @Bill Gulley 's issue with physical proximity. We live in tornado alley and it was easy to envision one bad storm wiping us out. As it is, everything we own is in a 5 miles radius and sure enough, we got thumped pretty good by a hailstorm two years ago. But two years ago we were big enough to write the deductible checks and shrug it off.

This year, I bought most of a transitional block and I'm eying sections of the rest. It has taken all of my experience and patience to manage what essentially becomes its own community. I took the leap because the price was right, the area is undergoing a renaissance (and this block isn't that bad to start with) and I happen to know that the city is going to focus its community block grant funds on the seedy neighborhood between me and a local arts hotspot this year.

One small example of it being more difficult: the proximity of the 5 buildings complicates the tenant selection process. We really have to think about how each candidate will fit in to the community and at the same time be conscious of all the usual fair housing rules. Just because I think a crying baby on top of a night shift worker might be a bad idea doesn't mean I can automatically screen out an infant.

Short answer is that at the right price it can be an effective strategy. It is, however, an order of magnitude more difficult than happy sfh's in stable neighborhoods.

@Elizabeth S. - those are great questions. Because we also both worked full time when we started we set our system up to actually talk to as few tire kickers as possible...

House becomes available. We get it freshened up and ready to rent. I no longer show houses in less than mint condition, it just burns tenant candidates

Place Craigslist ad with reference to website for more pictures. No phone number in ad or at website, email only. Both the ad and the website announce an Open House and have pictures,, an approximate location and lots of information about the house.

I still get a bunch of emails asking me when they can see it. I set up a programmed response that I just copy paste to everyone, it says something like thanks for your interest, we are showing via open house on blah blah blah

A day before the open house we put up a yard sign. This is their first shot at my phone number. Some of them use it and I do answer the phone if I'm around. As our volume increases, I'm considering using a dedicated number and a programmed voice mail that says how many beds, baths, and the rent.

Hold the open house, collect applications, pull the yard sign. On occasion we need two open houses but not very often. When reviewing the applications, we ask very similar questions to yours but I have added "has your landlord ever had to take you to court to get your rent?"

@Will Barnard - awww, I listened to your podcast Tuesday and was excited for you that they would finally be gone. Makes my most annoying tenant look like a mere boil on my, ermmm, arm.

@Ryan Ahlgrim - @Jon Holdman makes a great point. I'm a long time investor and didn't even for one moment consider keeping my home as a rental property.

As far as the original question, it's certainly not customary here in OKC. I have considered doing semi-annual trimming of the shrubs etc but that's just because it's more problem for us if they get overgrown. Housekeeping would be out of the question.

@Ryan Ahlgrim - we're right smack in the middle of OKC. Welcome aboard.

@Dave Phillips - welcome to BP from Edmonton's sister city in hockey - Oklahoma City! Go Barons/Oilers. You may see it as Oilers/Barons...

Tons of info here - happy hunting.

Thanks to all the wonderful responses, I googled "what is a vaccum breaker for hose bib." Learn something new every day.

@Brandon Turner - it worked :-)