All Forum Posts by: Heather Schmidtknecht

Duplex for sale in Winona, MN on a large lot 

Winona State University within one mile + Southeast Minnesota Technical College within 4 miles + Gundersen Health Services (clinic) within 1 mile + Winona Health Services (clinic/hospital) within 4 miles.

Home inspection completed March 2022 with a few maintenance recommendations, the most significant of which has already been remedied.

$289,000

Lower unit is 4-bedrooms, 1-bathroom; rents for $1350; lease in place until 05/31/24.

Upper unit is 2-bedrooms, 1-bathroom; rents for $1000; lease in place until 05/31/24.

Message me for more information.

I have a 4-bedroom, 1-bath (downstairs unit in a duplex) that I am currently advertising for new tenants. Usually if have a group of four roommates or a family… but on this round of advertising, I have had several individuals inquiring about just renting one of the rooms, and seemingly not caring about who else is living there.

On first thought, it seems there would be a lot of drama with no agreed upon set of rules between the roommates in this sort of situation? On second thought, I might be able to get significantly more total rent in a situation like this.

Anyone have experience yo shed light on pros/cons or anything else I need yo think about?

@Devan W., yes, I would rent to a stripper. I would insist on electronic payment of rent, though, as I do not want what’s in those $1 bills. 😉

@Joe S.

I think it’s easy for people who work for themselves to decide how much is “enough.” I agree with a few of the previous posts; if it’s not fun anymore, it may be time to take a break to re-evaluate.

@Steve Vaughan, this is golden advice. I share similar values/viewpoints and offer my prospective tenants the ability to contact past/current tenants (for references on ME, as a landlord) with 100% confidence that those references will be glowing because of a lot of what you said in your post!

I started purchasing rental property in 2018, and I’m ready to transition to this full-time within the next 2-3 years, which means leaving my W-2.

I’m posting here to gather some insight as to how to prepare myself, as I still have two pre-teen children at home.

How do I position myself for future financing without a W-2? I’m guessing net income from my portfolio would be considered as well as equity within my portfolio — anything else??

How accessible is affordable but comprehensive health insurance for a family outside of the W-2 employer/employee setting??

Are there other things I need to be planning for this transition??

@Amy Raye Rogers, can you raise your rents? Or have tenants take care of utilities? We have 5 SFRs — gross rents are $6250/month and $75k/year; we self-manage. Tenants pay all utilities — including heat, electric, water, sewer, & trash. So, other than repairs/maintenance, our only expenses are PITIs which run about $4000/month. We put our “profits” back into our properties right now, as we both have full-time W-2s and are hoping to get updates completed before we retire and need the cash flow these rental produce.

@Aaron Gardiner, I did not secure the forms.  I use the form they use when selling a house (that's all that I could find), and attach a copy of the report that I received from my radon test completed with my home inspection -- I think it serves the purpose it is intended to.  If you find anything better, let me know!!  :)

@Todd Dexheimer, do what if it’s the end of their lease term... do landlords have the option to not renew the lease if they’re not paying? I am just finishing a rehab on a rental, and when thinking about signing a new lease with someone, is keeping the term shorter (3 months vs. 12 months) a feasible strategy?

@Tim Johnson, so you can’t evict someone for not paying rent with this moratorium... so when thinking about signing new leases while this moratorium is in place, would a strategy be to just have a 3-month lease, so that if they don’t pay you can move them sooner?