All Forum Posts by: Greg Parker

Montgomery?

Several good ones to choose from, and most importantly, bad ones to avoid.

I have one with State Farm, it is very reasonable.  1M coverage for around $100/year.  As Lauren mentioned, there are requirements on each property coverage.  I think I have 1M libaility on each property.

I have Ring on my personal house and several Blink on my STR. I would say they both work 70% of the time. It will will show a delivery truck pull up, but not show the guy come to the door. Very random in what it chooses to capture. It will show someone leaving the property, but never show them arrive. But, 8,000 videos of a leaf blowing, it always catches that. But, we did catch one old lady stealing a flower pot. Police department is 300 yards away, so they were there in 45 seconds. It was hilarious watching 2 cops pull guns on a 75 year old woman. She could have just asked, and we would have given it to her.

Some things we have had success with:

+  Decoy car in the driveway, move it around every couple of days.

+  Remove doors from appliances.

+  Leave doors unlocked(so they won't destroy your door)

+  Fenced in yard?  Rent a dog.

+  Flood lights, fake cameras.

Worst case scenario, I had to pay a couple of college kids to stay in the house while I was renovating and getting rent ready.  One stayed all night, the other stayed all day.

All of that ends up costing 2-3k, but that is a lot cheaper than a new AC unit.  One of the college kids ended up being my tenant.

Working out well for me.  You just have to have ground rules.  Depends on your personality.  If you are a pushover, it will not work out well.  If they know you will kick their butts to the curve and call grandma if they don't act right, it works.

In my personal rentals, I have, brother-n-law in one, nephew in one, employee in one, friend in one. All at way lower than market rent rate.  My other tenant is an elderly lady with a pet turtle.

You have to help friends and family.  You may need them some day.  And, they all know my wife will personally go throw them out on the street at a moments notice.  No lease required on these, they have the fear of Natalie that helps them make good decisions...lol

Lol, not a good area.

Might want to put some maintenance costs in those numbers. 

"My door lock stopped working"...translation, "I lost the key and kicked the door in".

I would suggest about $800/year for random maintenance calls.  

"My smoke detector fell off the wall"...I burnt up your stove and snatched detector off wall.

"A lawnmower broke my window".....my 2 year old broke it.

"My AC stopped working"......."i never changed the filters you gave me"

"My sink is clogged"........."I poured 8 gallons of grease in the sink".

I have a list a mile long....lol.

Pros-

guaranteed rent.  And, average sec 8 stay is 7.5 years.

Cons - 

There are usually a lot of folks living there.  Not that they intentionally trash the house, but it is just lived in hard.  High turnover cost.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/markets?market=Montgomery%2C%2...