All Forum Posts by: Greg Huson

Laura, just FYI

Just quizzed my our other tenant nurse for additional info. Her opinion is:

"The travel nursing market has taken a steep downturn in demand and rates since the beginning of this year. There’s not as many travel jobs available and the payment rates just don’t support travel nurses needing to duplicate expenses, especially with the high housing costs in the LA area"

So that may explain part of the slow-down of applicants on Furnished Finder.

Hey Laura   Sorry if I was unclear.  We currently have a 'cozy' 2-bedroom in a duplex, available in San Pedro, same neighborhood. Not as big or nice as the house you've listed. 

I have no idea why we're seeing zero requests right now, it's definitely a new problem for us.  My comment was mostly intended to sympathize with yours, and also see if any other commenters had theories.  Wish I knew what was going on.

Laura

We have listed two properties as mid-term rentals in the LA area for 3-4 years now, exclusively through FurnishedFinder.  Previously, we would get high quality applicants quickly. Now with a current vacancy (Also in Pedro!), there aren't even any open 'housing requests' in our area, plus there seems to be a glut of available listings.  

Maybe it's August, but maybe FF has lost some mojo?  If 'zero activity' continues for another week, I'll need to scramble for more places to list.  (Today is Aug 8 2024)

Anyone else seeing this?  Any sense of FF loosing popularity? Or perhaps some other subtle change in the mid-term arena?

(Apartments.com has worked very well for our 'regular' rentals, I haven't tried it for the furnished units.)

Thanks!  I'll keep those things in mind.  Still a few months out.

We do most of our own marketing - but are now making plans to rent our primary residence. The neighborhood has become a mix of rent-controlled, older market rate units, then premium, and super-premium rentals. We'd like to push our primary residence toward the higher end of premium.

Has anyone used an RE Agent to rent SFRs or duplex? Pros and Cons? What are the costs associated? Do you get premium tenants or just the same quality you could find yourself?

Thanks in advance for any insights from your practical experience!

We found a terrific seller's broker, believe it or not, through the tenant in our home (a duplex.)  I don't know if he wants publicity, but I'm happy to DM you his contact info.  He sold our owner-occupied small commercial, and presented us with potential 1031 investments up until we decided to invest in more residential.  If I were going back to commercial, I'd engage him in a heartbeat.

We have been lucky with some turnovers where the outgoing tenant needs to leave early, or the incoming tenant will come late, but mostly we loose the rent for a few weeks at the very least.  We've used 'early move in' several times as an incentive for a longer-than 12-month lease (spring is the best time for vacancy here as we're close to the beach.)  The two apartments at our residence get a premium rent, and we generally have long-term tenants, so we just budget for turn-over. 

Maybe offer your outgoing tenant a small discount for leaving a week early?  Find out what their plans are, for sure.  

I'm not an FL investor, so no insight there, but my sister just sold her rental property in Tampa.  Her issue was the high flood insurance in her neighborhood, so don't forget to account for that!  She did do pretty well on appreciation. 

We had 'passive' investment properties in Houston for about a decade, before I started following BP.  They were brand new when we bought them, and we went through multiple bad tenants due to poor local management.  Once we found a good property manager, they were cash flowing investments. 

What killed me at the time were the property taxes!  We paid three different property tax bills, and the total rate was WAY higher than California.  Of course, that's an emotional component, which I would just see as a 'math problem' now.

Also, the homes were cheaply built and required capex to sell at year 10.  We should have sold them at about year 6.  Another thing to consider about the south if you're not familiar: Air conditioners run non-stop for about half the year. High humidity, so they work well, buy they wear out faster than some other areas.  Pay your property manager to replace A/C filters - or at the very least ship new filters to your tenants regularly.  So, budget for A/C repair and periodic replacement.  Oh, and floods.  If you're not familiar with any market, don't forget about flood plains.  We were lucky in Harvey - just minor roof damage - but plenty of homes were built INSIDE flood basins.

There are tons of active small investors in the Houston area.  Even before we decided to sell the property we were regularly receiving direct-mail postcards, no-ring phone calls, texts, etc.  

Would I buy these houses again?  Not today- but certainly using today's knowledge I would have done it again back then, if that makes sense.  Even with the hassles, real estate pretty much always works in the long term, and we held them for 10 years.  Nominal appreciation, but plenty of mortgage pay-down.

Vacancy decontrol, at least where we live in California, means you’re allowed to bring individual units to market rate when the current tenant moves out. However, all other rent controls apply.

For example, we have apartments adjacent to our home where recently vacated units rent for literally 3x the rate as identical units which have been occupied by the same tenants for decades. A nearby building has been jumping in value the last few years- because, literally, the older tenants have been dying.

Look very carefully at area rent control laws when considering your offer. Don’t just assume you can bring the units to market in short order. If you’re making the offer based on current rents... maybe that’s safer... if I understand correctly, you have other nearby units, but in some towns rent control rules don’t kick in until 4 or 5 units on a parcel.

(I’m a newbie here, so consider the source when weighing my comments)