All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

I read this with interest and I think here we may make some distinctions but to the general public-- if you are a landlord in some of these areas you will be considered a slumlord. People can distinguish regarding property maintenance but they often don't.

Let me give you an example my sister in law is in Rochester. She lives next to the junk man who owned his own home. He had so much stuff piled up that she finally after years called code enforcement and it took the city days to clear out the yard. They have not cleared the house and the owner is now moved out and letting it go for taxes. I asked her about the people on the other side had they called, she said they are just renters. I said what about the property owner and she said oh he is just a slumlord. Now mind his house is in far better repair then the owner occupied one she had to call on but there was a huge amount of sympathy for that homeowner (he must have an illness) and I think contempt for the landlord. Now while I know there are landlords who let their houses fall into disrepair and don't care and I would consider them slumlords I think many people paint all landlords in these areas with the same brush and would label them all slumlords because of where they invest.

Although I could not invest places like this I do think investors in these areas do something in that they provide housing and preserve some value in areas that would become abandoned or squatters areas. I think there are some neighborhoods where few owner occupied houses would be expected since people who get their act together enough to buy are not going to buy where they are renting, they will want to upgrade. I wish there was more across the board enforcement on big issues so that both owner-occupied and renter occupied houses in these areas would be forced to meet a safety standard. However people who live own or live there also need to step up and say this is not acceptable.

Underestimating the rehab needed on a single family. How bad can it be if the owner is living there? took extra time to clean and rehaband missed the best market for a larger single family rental resulting in a longer vacancy.

Signing with the freight company without opening the crate. The generator was trashed and re-crated and we are still fighting over it. Never again, I don't care how impatient the driver gets or how long they have to wait.

Not exploring possible financing options. Might have got the same deal without paying the mortgage broker.

And a recurring theme overestimating the available time and underestimating my commitments in any given day...

Congratulations and that is great you are getting lots of interest.

Set your requirements minimally upfront and do some pre-screening on the phone. Sometimes they don't read the ad. Smoking, pets, a verifiable income are the kinds of things I talk about on the phone. You don't want to waste your time showing to people you are going to easily reject. Also I second Aly's recommendation to do a confirmation phonecall. No shows are common. I give applications at the house if a candidate is interested. I tell them to return via email and charge a fee only if I do the credit check.

A comment on showings. I used to adjust myself to their schedule but now not as much. If someone has a very limited schedule they often aren't really interested or they would have more then 1 hour a week dedicated to the task. If you do arrange a special time for someone suggest they bring all roommates/decision makers. It's not so much a problem if you are spending an afternoon and have 4 showings but if you go just for a showing and they want to bring the second renter back the next day it is an extra trip for you.

For landlords make sure that you check if they are related and sometimes you need to make sure they are the landlord so ask what is your relationship to x, not are you their landlord.

I have been asked to do the reverse but didn't because it did not make financial sense. Your situation looks like it would be good for both of you. I am not sure you can charge the cleaning and painting since that would be normally wear and tear costs. If she has been with you more then a year and she can afford the house rental I would write a new one year lease or 18 months for the new place (avoid that winter renewal time). Keeping in mind the holding costs on the house might be more then the apartment.

I would have her give a new deposit for only the difference in rent and some amount over that (estimated charges for any damages), get that by doing a pre-move out walk through. Have her sign something acknowledging the deposit she is giving you and that you can hold the old deposit against the new place. When she moves out of the apartment make sure you have a formal letter closing out that lease showing the transfer of the deposit and any deductions for repairs. She may just be asking now to find out the terms so I would not consider it a done deal until she really has done the deposit and lease signing.

Just had lead inspection in RI (which I am told is tougher then mass). You have to have a lead certificate to rent. Although there are lots of landlords here that don't. In RI houses built before 1978 are assumed to have lead unless you can prove otherwise. I think that is true nationwide. Houses with lead are tested on several surfaces for lead dust and you get actual lead levels that pass or fail. All painted friction services such as wood windows I was told would fail.

You can have a lead inspector test during sale. We had a lead inspector come through with recommendations. Some inspectors are more helpful at this point then others. They pointed at areas I would not have thought about and gave some budget friendly tips on acceptable ways to deal with a few items. I don't think the RI ones work in MA though.

After sale, when they came to inspect for compliance they looked for intact paint on all surfaces and the exterior. I mean everywhere, ceiling trim, walls, window sills. This is where you could get hit even if you don't have lead paint. They also took the dust wipes for lead from the floor and window sills. They looked for bare dirt on the outside within 5 feet of the house and we had to mulch any exposed area( or have grass).

Floors are a big area for tracking dirt in and a painted house of this age has lead in the soil so one of our floor samples did cause us to fail the first inspection (just over the limit) so get a good cleaner in before the inspection particularly if there has been work recently done. Dust wipes pick up dust you don't see.

Education is something that will help you with this one, definitely ask the inspector a lot of questions in a pre-purchase inspection, it will help you be prepared.

I would never plan a window in the shower but we have one in a couple bathrooms. You can tile around them or you can cut standard shower panels to fit around the window and caulk the edges. We replaced wood windows with vinyl and some privacy glass which was only $6.00 extra. Why it wasn't done like that in the first place I don't know. The sill is made so they can't set items on it and the window trim is plastic. I also put a plastic corner shower shelf to give them other places to put their stuff. I like light and it was cheaper then closing things up. We needed more ventilation then block due to humidity. A lot depends on where the window faces, what your budget is, and how high end your rental market is. Tiny bathrooms though do benefit from a window even if you can make them to code some other way.

We bought a property as a second home with the idea that the property would support some of its own cost. Initially from a numbers standpoint it was not an investment. We knew that and were okay with it. I guess that is one of the key points I would say is make sure you are honest with yourself, is it an investment first or a second home first? Ours worked out well, we rent it a good part of the year but in the summer when we rent it in a weekly market it is bit of a hassle because we don't want to give it up. We also made different choices in picking the house and furnishing etc because it is a rental.

Ours pays for itself but that was not true at first. You need to run the numbers like any investment. Look on VRBO etc and see what places are going for, determine the length of the rental season, figure in some vacancy and see what the numbers tell you. Make sure you assume a high and low season rental rate and property management costs , and cleaning if you are not local. the cleaning you can charge back to renters, that is what is done around here.

Good luck.

Here, propane is more expensive then oil if you use a company. Oil you can just call around. Propane you have to contract unless you use a really small tank and take it in for fill yourself. I had propane in PA years ago and it wasn't as big an issue nor was it pricey. they delivered to my 100 lb tanks - no problem. No minimum use A couple of years ago we had a propane fireplace installed. The install of a propane fireplace unit was 300.00, the unit 1000 up, and tank rental 60 a year plus so much gas. times that by 4.

I would agree taking out fireplaces would be expensive. Mostly I have seen people drywall them in and not remove masonry. You don't get the space back though.

@David Krulac What did that cost you to add? I know the propane can be done but it adds another cost and you need to think about where to put multiple tanks. Here the stove company would put the insert in and the propane company has to add the piping. The propane company also charges tank rental and the low use propane is pricey. I know other parts of the country it is not a big cost. I am leaving some fireplaces as decorative for that reason. I would not recommend to take the units out but weigh the lower cost electric conversion vs. the fact it just doesn't look as good as gas.

Gas inserts require separate gas lines as well as the insert. If you have gas it may be worth it. If you have to use propane think about the setup and how to have each tenant pay their own.