All Forum Posts by: Ladan Ballai

Thanks @Aaron Pfeffer ! I totally went into this experience blind as a first-time landlord AND first-time Airbnb host. So far it's working out, so fingers crossed!

Totally agree that pictures make or break a listing. I know that I personally will "judge a book by its cover" when it comes to rental properties. I'm both a landlord and a renter, and I know that if I see an ad with crappy photos, I won't even bother to contact the landlord. 

@Brandon L. That's what I thought, but we went a month without having anyone fill out an application. A lot of people visited and seemed to love the house, but never filled out an application. Leaving it empty didn't seem like a smart idea, so we decided to Airbnb it until we get into the warmer months.

@Assaf Furman it's $150/night, which is well below market for the area. I purposely did this so that we attract people, which has worked. At the price, we'll be making well over what we would if we were just renting it out on a yearly lease. There's a lot more work involved with Airbnb, but I think it outweighs the vacancy.

Hey BiggerPockets community! Wanted to find out what creative things you may have done during the winter months to get your place rented out. Here's what I've done —

Location: San Jose, CA

Property Listed: Nov 9, 2016

Property Type: SFR, 3bd/2ba

Initial Listed Price: $3300 (pretty fair given the area and type of property)

Posted on: Craigslist, Postlets (Zillow, Trulia, HotPads), Rentberry, Facebook Groups (every single group that included the words "rental", "San Jose", "Silicon Valley", "Bay Area", or anything else along those lines)

I quickly realized that the $3300 price wasn't attracting anyone, so I lowered it to $3150. I also lowered the security deposit from 2 months to 1.5 months. After another 2 weeks like this, I lowered the price to $3000. I got a lot of interest, but from people that weren't looking to move until 2017.

So, I improvised — after almost a month on the market, I decided to furnish the place and put it up on Airbnb. I spent $1000 to fully furnish it (Before Furnishing, After Furnishing) — $235 on big furniture items (3 beds, 3 mattresses, desk, coffee table, couch, secretary desk, etc.) and $800 on the smaller items (duvet, duvet covers, pillows, lamps, dishes, rugs, coffee maker, etc.). I scoured Craigslist for free items, "moving sales", and estate sales. That's where I found the big furniture items for cheap. I went to Ikea & Target for the smaller items, because I didn't want to buy those used. I posted on Nextdoor for random items (mattress) and was pretty successful in scoring free items that way. I also scoured my own house for extra things I had laying around (TV, towels, coffee mugs, etc.). 

So far, we've been fully booked from 12/5 - 1/13. Not a single day of vacancy in between!

Some things I learned along the way: 

- Create an Imgur album for your photos. When posting to Craigslist, there's a max limit of 24 photos. I took a lot of photos of the house and realized that Craigslist wasn't doing a good job of giving the look and feel of the house with only 24 photos. So I posted all the photos to an album on Imgur. This way, I could get past the 24 photo limit, AND I could track how many people were viewing my photo.

- Be flexible, but not too flexible. I did lower the price of the house, but I did not lower my expectations for a renter. I still wanted to find a renter that was within my income qualifications, would be able to pay rent on time, didn't have any evictions on their record, etc.

- Improvise, Improvise, Improvise! 

So, BiggerPockets Community...what have you done?

I actually just had this question this past weekend — we've been trying to rent out our house for the last month and haven't been successful in doing so...so we thought why not Airbnb it? The only issue was furnishing it and not wanting to spend more money to furnish it than what I'd make to break even.

I scoured Craigslist for people posting about "moving out" or "moving sale" — they want to sell a bunch of things in bulk, and they tend to have a time limit (they need to move out ASAP, therefore they're willing to part ways with a lot of furniture for cheap). I didn't end up going this route because the types of furniture in my area weren't to my taste.

I also scoured Craigslist for Estate sales — that's where I had the most success. I picked up 3 bed frames (1 full, 1 queen, and 1 twin), 3 mattresses, nightstands, dining table & 4 chairs, mirror, pyrex dishes, secretary cabinet, and a few other knick knacks for $235.

What really ate into my budget was things like comforters, bed sheets, lamps, coffee maker, pillows, rugs, etc. — I went to IKEA & Target for those and that came to about $800.

If you plan on having your place furnished, there's always HomeSuite (yourhomesuite.com). You could always try Airbnb, but the hassle of getting short term people might not be worth it (cleaning the place every time, vacancies, etc.).

I use Cozy and I absolutely love it. They've made a lot of great updates in the past few months which just makes the platform that much better.

The fact that I can create a lease in there AND my tenants are set up for automatic monthly payments makes it a breeze. I don't have to think about reminding them to pay their rent, and they don't have to remember to send a payment to me every month.

The only issue I have is that the rent payment doesn't hit my bank account until the 8th of the month. I'd have to pay extra for the ACH feature to have the payments deposited into my account immediately. At this point, it's not worth the monthly payments, but it may be something I look into in the future as I rack up more rental properties!

Hey Justin Pumpr I wouldn't suggest getting the IKEA butcher block top for the same reasons everyone previously mentioned. I just remodeled my place in San Jose & I was thinking of doing the same thing you are, but one day we were driving to the house and we passed a Kitchen & Bath store. We walked in and to my amazement, we bought a 9' slab of Quartz for $180. You can find these places all over the Bay Area, and I'm sure there are some in Oakland. Good thing is is that you can haggle with them. The place we used is called Deco in San Jose. The reviews are mixed, but this is a rental. It came out cheaper than an IKEA kitchen, and I'm sure it'll last just as long if not longer.

Not sure how it is in PA, but I just recently purchased a property in CA (San Jose / Bay Area). Here's what I learned —

1. Don't trust the Estoppel. At least, I've learned not to. Reach out to the tenants and see if they have a copy of their original lease. If they don't, ask the seller for the original lease. No original lease? Tread carefully.

a. I'm dealing with a tenant who thought the Estoppel was just a form and not a legal document. The information on the Estoppel doesn't match the lease they signed with the original landlord/owner, and now there's a disputed $2000 last month's rent that has vanished (it wasn't on the Estoppel, therefore not transferred to me during the sale. Essentially, the seller walked away with it). Since they signed the Estoppel, they voided all other leases. They don't understand that and think that I somehow pocketed their $2000. Fun!!

2. Meet the tenants. You don't want to be caught in a situation where you absolutely can't handle the tenants. In CA, we have a couple major cities where you can't evict tenants (i.e. San Francisco). If you're going to be stuck with these tenants for a long time, you want to make sure you get along with them and that they aren't going to be trouble.

3. Look at rents around your area. If these tenants have been there a while, chances are that they aren't paying market rent. See if it's worthwhile to evict them and get new tenants or if it makes more sense to raise their rent.

Those are the major learnings I've had. I'm sure there are more!

Original Rent: $2300

Security Deposit: 2 Months Rent ($4600)

This was the first property I was renting out, and I didn't want to have any pets. I'd already maxed out on my security deposit (in CA you can only charge 2 months rent for unfurnished and 3 months for furnished), so I had to get creative. Told the tenant he'd have to pay $50/month extra to have his pet there.

New Rent: $2350

Security Deposit: $4600 (kept this the same because it was weird asking for another $100 in security deposit.)

good question @Nancy Curran. The only reason I'm involved is because I'm getting wind that they may not pay me the last month's rent. I know that legally I'm in the right (I purchased the Estoppel and Lease they furnished us with during the sale). But, these aren't the wealthiest of tenants and I have a gut feeling they will skip out on rent. 

I spoke to one of the tenants bosses. The boss got involved because the tenant doesn't speak English, and the boss was trying to plead their case. While I'm super sympathetic to the situation, they got themselves into this mess by signing something before reading it or questioning it. Not my problem. What is my problem is what may happen in the future. I will lose some rent, but can take a chunk of it from their security deposit legally.