All Forum Posts by: Dan Marl

Last November, I listed my house for rent.  But due to a 4-month months illness I had, I wasn't able to response or show the house. However, I got a lot of requests and inquires.   Finally I got better and started showing the house starting March.  By then, the requests and inquiries had dramatically fallen off.  

My current Zillow listing shows the house as 145 market.  Could this the problem?  Do renters see long days on the market as a red flag?  If I removed my Zillow ad and relisted, would that start the days back at zero?  

Quote from @Ben Andaya:

I’ve been managing multiple self-storage facilities remotely, and one of the biggest game-changers for me has been hiring a remote property management team based in the Philippines. It’s saved me a ton on overhead, and honestly, the efficiency and professionalism have exceeded my expectations.

Now I’m working on building a company that helps other property owners connect with highly trained remote managers who can handle leasing, tenant communication, rent collection, maintenance scheduling—you name it.

If you could cut management costs by 50–70% while keeping things running smoothly, would you consider going remote?
What would your concerns be with that kind of setup?

Just trying to gauge interest and get real feedback as I build this out. Appreciate any thoughts!

 This sounds interesting.  What is the name of the company you use in the Philippines? I googled and many shows up.  One of them is rentmarble.com 

I have a home near Van Alstyne and I feel you.  It's definitely the market.  I self-listed my home on 11/24 and for the next 3 months I was getting so many inquiries to see the house. But I was very ill physically and mentally so I didn't want to deal with it.  Some potential tenants even scolded me on my voicemail because I wasn't replying to their request lol.  

On 3/25, I got better so I got back into renting my place out.  However, the inquiries dried out.  Barely anything.  My price is competitive to the area and the same advertisement didn't change.  I don't want to get political but with the stock market drop, tariff wars, instability etc, people are staying put. It was a very steep decline on the inquiries. 

Make sure your PM lists the house on all the RE sites, including Facebook Market and Craigslists.  

Don't just accept a credit report because it could be fake.  It could be even someone else's. There is a lot of ID fraud these days.  Make yourself an account on rentprep.com or avail.co or similar. Put in their email and the company will send them an email for their information.  Have them pay the credit report fee.  You will get a FICO score, report, background, eviction etc.  Make sure to get last two paystubs for income verification and 3 months of bank statements.  

Quote from @Galen Ikonomov:

Dan, like someone already mentioned, that is a good deal considering you are going to have a co-signer that is currently renting from you and you like them. I assume we are talking about a Hispanic family and the new tenants don't have paperwork. The culture where I am from is the same as the Hispanic culture and FAMILY is number 1 for us. They are not going to leave the sister to go on the streets homeless or put her into a stressful situation. I would do this deal all day with collecting at least 2 months of security deposit in case things go south.

They seem to be a very tight-knitted family. What makes it a little complicated is that the couple is moving out between 12/1/22 - 12/15/22 (the builders don't the exact date), and the parents want to move in between 11/1/22-11/15/22 (when they sell the house). Therefore there is some overlapping where all of them are living in my rental. 

Normally I like my old tenants to move/out before I do the inspection then I let new tenants move in.

Perhaps have the parents put their belongings in the garage temporarily until the house is empty/clean/inspected?

Quote from @Greg H.:

So you have a ready tenant with a family that you already have a positive relationship with and want to deny them in hopes that you find another family as good as this one?  Just does not make sense to me.  One must realize in Texas with a SS# or not, you will almost never collect a judgment in Texas if this go south.  No lost rent along with your past great tenant involved.  I would do this deal all day long 

 You have some good points. I can see the pros and cons on both sides. I told them I'll let them know in 2 weeks. Thanks

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Dan Marl:

The best option is to require "verifiable income" of 3x the rent. If they get paid under the table, how do you verify their income? Even people that get paid in cash should be reporting it to the IRS and paying their taxes. If they don't abide by that law, I don't want to rent to them because they may not respect my lease or rules.

I would also caution you that your rental may be under market rates. There's usually a reason family/friends chomp at the bit to rent a place when they hear it's opening. Maybe you need to evaluate your market, increase your rent rates, and open it up to the rest of the world.

 Hi Nathan. The rent for my particular house in that area is between 2000 -2200. So yes you are right it's on the low side. It's probably better to rent to people whom I can run a criminal background check on. Thank you. 

I have a couple who are great tenants at my Dallas house. They have good income and good credit scores and their lease will end on 4/23. They just bought a home and want to terminate the lease early in December 2022 and I am ok with that.

The couple's parents want to rent the house from me when the couple moves out. The younger sister who is in college will also move in.

The issue is that the parents do not have Social Security numbers but they do have an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN). They work and say that their combined income is 3x of the rent (rent is 2,000). However, they get paid in cash.

The couple is willing to co-sign the lease for the parents and sister. I have never dealt with tenants who do not have a Social Security number or verified income. The parents seem like they are good people.

What would you do? Ask them for 3 months of deposit? Would you rent to them? What would be the pitfalls? Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone. 

A few months ago I bought a house cash. I was able to rent it out and just finished cashout refinance with an LTV of 75%. Can I use that money for a down payment for another house right away?

Will the new lender let me do that? Would they object to me using borrowed money for a down payment on the house I plan to get? Or do I have to wait for two months so that my last two bank statements do not show the deposit of the money I just borrow (from the cashout refinance)?

Thank you in advance!

Quote from @Mark F.:

The quoted the spot treatment would cost $800. I am leaning on paying 2k for tenting for ease of mind. Thank you!

I agree - for the insignificant of a cost just get the whole thing done and know that they are taken care of once and for all!

 Yes, I agree and I am getting the place tent in a few days.