All Forum Posts by: Deanna O.

"This month only - 48 hours ---go go go go go go go"!!!!

MAYBE no refund on the background check, since she failed to disclose her intent to conduct business activities on the premises, but really - if you can get her gone....

Tell the existing tenants that you have noticed a lot of "shady characters" around the neighborhood, and start talking with great enthusiasm about these amazing new surveillance cameras you've found that transmit images directly to the cloud, and a security system with facial recognition linked DIRECTLY to the local police department!

So that's the over-the-top solution. Easier;

Start by putting lots of bright lighting in around the property with motion detectors, while removing excessive shrubs to make it feel really exposed to enter the property - 20+ feet of walking in wide-open, exposed, well-lit pathway-- more if possible. In passing, mention the new surveillance system that you are thinking of putting in. Tell the existing tenants that you really hate to do it, but due to the cost of all the remodeling their rent will be going up when their lease comes up for renewal; you feel really, really bad about that though, so if they find a new place and want to leave early you won't hold them to the remainder of the lease.

Those "poor life choices" referred to by an earlier poster?  Think they don't affect the landlord as the tenant does the ol' crash-n-burn?

My first tenant paid her rent IN FULL and ON TIME faithfully. She also broke virtually every single term of the rental agreement, the granddaughter's boyfriends were dealing drugs out the bedroom windows, there was an illegal (felon) subtenant, several cats and a pit bull.

@$2k in damages, lost rent, and lawyers fees even though she paid her rent and did NOT force me to go through an eviction. She was smart enough not to want that on her record, so I got off lucky.

I USED to recommend MySmartMove to anyone who would listen. Last two times have me reconsidering it. Password issues are a nightmare (don't try 3x -- it will lock you out). Evening? too bad. No customer support. Weekend? Ditto. Oh, you want to screen that renter on a holiday? So Sad.

 Try to e-mail Customer support. Doesn't like (correct) e-mail address...or alternate address......or something. Won't tell you what's wrong with form, just rejects it. Price has gone up 25% in last year for things most of us won't use (are you going to let a website that can't read your address tell you whether to accept a tenant? Oh, BTW, the search missed a criminal record too.....). Site resists letting you use the $5 BP discount.

Nightmare.

Over $1000...maybe.

The biggest contribution has been finding MySmartMove.com. Have been using it to screen roommmates and tenants, so it's impossible to say how much drama/expense I have not dealt with due to better tenant screening. 

I can say that getting rid of my first (unscreened) tenant cost about $2k to get rid of, and I eliminated similar tenant prospects this fall, due to info from MSM (they "forgot" to mention some brushes with the law. Reject.).

I  purchased a mobile home on land and it has worked out quite well. I bought it as a buy-and-hold,a so re-financing not significant issue. 

Here is how the money crunches;

Financing; was harder, and I ended up with a private loan (no bank was loaning on ANYTHING in Aug of 2010 anyhow though, and I got an 8% loan - extremely fortunate). The house was newer ('87) and needed dramatic but simple repairs (100sq ft of subfloor, 1200sq ft of flooring materials, 80 linear feet of drywall, plus paint & light fixtures).

Rent - Less per sq ft BUT you get 2x the sq ft for the price. I'm getting a bit over 1% per month, which for CA is exceptional. In my case the ROI is the same as if I had bought a smaller 50 year old stickbuilt, but it's easier to rent a newer 1850sq ft 3/3 than a 900 ft 2/1. I am running about $100/mos under top market rent, but I am extremely picky about tenants (it's in the poorest county in California , and 80% of the renters in the area I won't consider). If a home is CLEAN and SAFE it is rentable. The nicer it is the easier it is to get good tenants. You wouldn't have mud driveways, doors with holes, or filthy carpet in your stickbuilt, so don't figure they are OK for your Mobile.

Insurance and Property Tax - based on the purchase price, so dirt cheap for the size of house. 

Maintenance - Routine maintenance is similar (water heaters, roof, etc are all the same), BUT more damage occurs in a mobile if you neglect the maintenance. Preventative maintenance is the key - keep the house painted, replace the hot water heater before it rusts out, replace the roof when it's old, not when it starts to leak. Make sure the Belly band is kept caulked to avoid leaks. Keep your gutters clear and in good repair.

HINT: the biggest thing that screams "mobile home" is a bad skirt around the base. Doing a top-notch job on the fit and finish of the skirt or foundation goes a long way toward curb appeal. Also use NICE porch lights and outdoor fixtures. Skip the Astroturf on the deck. There are so few "ornaments" on the outside of a mobile that everything counts. Don't skimp by using the $8 porch light if you can find a nice-looking one for $35.

Ps - if you can chose flooring that makes the house kid and pet-proof you can often get a better caliber tenant (many landlords won't accept animals, while many higher income renters aren't willing to give up their pets). Get vinyl plank flooring throughout and you aren't risking $5k of new carpet to someone's piddling pup. Still get a pet deposit.

Quite honestly ALL houses are just a box of air. Stick-built, mobile, RV, McMansion, castle whatever. As long as you can make it waterproof, weatherproof, and the plumbing works you can rent it to someone. The larger and more appealing it is the more you can rent it for and the pickier you can be about tenants. (MySmartMove. Best. Thing. Ever!!!!)

"Any ship but a partnership"(per my Dad, after dealing with several real estate  partners during the 1980's RE crash)

Will the partnership that starts so optimistically when it looks like profits will be made still hold together when it is clear that losses will be taken? Are you likely to stay friends if you lose your shirts on this deal, and if not, is it worth it?

If you can purchase yourself, but want to share the burden what about a profit-sharing  arrangement too, where work = percentage of profit. Maybe you hire him as PM on this property so the two of you get a feel for working together?

My gut level is that if you are stuck on the numbers you may be in over your head. Not to say that this might NOT be a good deal, but the questions you are asking are appropriate for a newer property -- there are too many variables on a property this age that aren't on paper. You've already discovered $3K a year that is "imaginary" expense - the depreciation. Let's face it, after 109 years it has "depreciated" as much as it's gonna, except for tax purposes. I'd think the two more important things are what kind of shape is it in right now (thus what repairs can you expect next), and what kind of neighborhood is it in. Good tenants don't want to live in crack neighborhoods.
You might want to look at the "repairs" and see if they seem reasonable, and maybe consult an expert about what expenses you can reasonably expect coming up (is the roof in good shape? Plumbing? The hot water heater? Is the electrical safe/up to code? Structural problems pending (rickety stairs, sagging roofline, things held together with duct tape, baling wire and fond wishes?)

Glad it's working out for now. Month to month is a lot less "scary" for a tenant if they know it's a long term situation (in CA I think it's actually 60 days to get rid of a tenant without cause though). We had a scare where I live when at the top of the market our landlord refused to renew the year lease and took us month-to-month without explaination (I had already done the math and realized that even an interest-only payment on the value of the house was less than our rent). Anyhow, turned out he was just ticked off at the rental agency and wanted the option of getting rid of THEM, and for good reasons - they were slipshod about supervising contracted repairs, and even worse about paperwork --turns out he had instructed them to go month-to-month with us the previous year!!!!
Anyhow, sounds like a good resolution all the way around, gives you control, and month-to-month can go on indefinately as long as she's a good tenant.

For what it's worth both as a tenant (4 person rental household for over 8 years - we evict our OWN late-payers!), and having watched my parents with their rentals -- a previously on-time renter is paying later and starting to short-pay the rent are both symptoms of getting "behinder". It means she is no longer making enough to afford the place, and it will go downhill from there. It COULD be just a short-term glitch from the job change, but the fact that she was able to pay the full rent last month but only 80% at the beginning of this month is BAD NEWS. It sounds like she's digging herself into a hole, and one unpaid sickness or car problem could sink her financially unless this new job is going to pay much better than the old one. Unless the new job has a real likelyhood of improving her income and this really is a "short term" ditch, you aren't doing her any favors by letting her drag the situation out if the $ situation means that like-it-or-not she needs to find cheaper digs that match her current income. Definately month-to-month for now, but explain (honestly) why you are doing it.