All Forum Posts by: Erica Moore

@Sarah Sheaffer yeah, after reading what everyone has said it seems like it's not worth cutting out that many potential tenants. Just have to be hyper-vigilant when screening!

@Luciano A. great advice about making the pet deposit refundable!

I actually just used a VA for the first time. It was different than what you're looking for (I asked that they do some research for me - I'm trying to find the best neighborhoods for rentals in my city/surrounding cities to help narrow down my market), but the results were outstanding. Absolutely worth the money

4 hour workweek has a great chapter dedicated to this! Tim echoes what @Taylor L. said - do it if not for the sole purpose of learning to delegate. 

@John Teachout I've paid a non-refundable fee at pretty much every apartment I've lived in, but never for a house. How have prospective tenants reacted to that?

@Ali Boone great idea about advertising as case-by-case basis - I'll be using that!

@Corby Goade Austin is a huge dog city and I didn't even think about people just bringing pets anyway! 

I'll be looking into petscreening.com - thanks! Is there anything specific you do with tenants in the beginning to foster that open communication of notifying you when there's damage?

@Jonathan W. good note about cats - I've only been thinking in terms of damage caused by dogs. How much do you typically charge for pet fee and pet deposit?

I'm setting up a new rental (large SFR with backyard) in Cozy and can't decide if I should allow pets or not. My current tenants don't have pets, so it didn't come up previously, but with the new listing I'm leaning towards allowing cats and not dogs (or small dogs, but that doesn't seem to be an option). I can also choose to not specify and have that conversation with whoever applies I guess, but is it better to set expectations up front? I'd ideally not like to deal with them, but also don't want to limit my renter pool too much.

What have you seen success/issues with?

First question: Rich Dad Poor Dad 

Second: The ABCs of Real Estate Investing. I'm also new to REI and trying to learn as much as possible - this book breaks everything down with actionable steps to help achieve everything else I'm reading/listening to!

@Chase Romine I recently got started in real estate as well! What really helped me was finding a realtor who is in the investment game himself. Not anything big time, but enough that he understood what I was looking for in the very beginning and that I'll be pretty slow to grow (unsure if i want to stick with single family or more to apartments). Also with the understanding that I might need to leverage others at some point if i want to move in a direction he isn't as familiar with.