All Forum Posts by: Laura Williams

Fresh paint in a light neutral color and the place being super clean & not having an Odor (maybe put in air fresheners) & taking nice bright clean photos for the rental listing is the biggest bang for your buck in my opinion. Also my tenants tend to like hardwoods/laminate flooring (not carpet).  Depending on the class of the property and rent range some other ideas might include ...Stainless appliances, stone countertops, adding washer/dryer hook-ups, updated bathrooms and kitchens, curb appeal on the outside. 

@Daniel Mina

Could try selling your days on Facebook Marketplace or Airbnb or one of the other  similar sites. 

I’ve never tried this company but I was recommended to them as a timeshare exchange. If you were into trading your days...maybe another option. http://www.intervalworld.com/

@Michael Branco I don't have any experience with townhouses so not sure how that compares to an apartment or sfh. I think it all comes down to how much power the HOA has. I can tell you that I've made a lot of money in the condos but I've also had a lot of headaches. Such things as a 20K assessment per apartment cause some rich board memebers (Who could care less about the poorer people in the building) wanted to change the look of the outside that in my opinion didn't need it. My Aunt owns a condo in Gulf Shores AL and last hurricane that blew threw the town they assessed everyone 100K to repair damages....she said a lot of people couldn't pay and lost their units. I've also had them change rules on subletting and maintenance increases every year. One apartment building spent tons of money to get the hallways and common areas updated and came out horrible where it actually looked better before they touched it. Been through nightmare people getting on the board ....I'm convinced that the people in the buildings with the lowest IQ and least common sense in the whole building wind up on the HOA boards.

On the positive side they do take care of the outside and such things as lawn care etc which makes the upkeep easy. I do love living in a condo cause of the amenities and how easy they are. And you can make money off of them if you buy right and the right area. And in certain areas you just don't have a choice if you want to be an investor. But if given a choice & same returns as an investment I'd take a house any day over anything with an HOA attached

@Michael Branco  I agree with @Anthony Dooley with all else being equal I would go with the SFH all day long over a condo. The HOAs can be a nightmare & can make large assessments or rules (including that you can't rent your place out) and you have no control. But if there was a smoking deal with a condo I wouldn't discount it. But it needs to be better than buying a sfh to make it worth it in my opinion because of all the potential negatives.

I could see this condotel being a nice investment for someone. I have something similar to this in Cape Town South Africa. A few of the hotels there have where you buy/own the actual unit and you become part of the "rental pool" & get monthly dividends based on how well the hotel does..this one sounds similar. I love mine and is a fun investment. I've owned since 2005 & it's been a total hands off investment with perks of being able to use the hotel. The biggest risk is the potential of the management going bad or in South Africa the political climate.

Here's an example if anyone wants to look for fun. This one is about 82K US dollars

https://www.privateproperty.co.za/for-sale/western-cape/cape-town/atlantic-seaboard/bantry-bay/T2038930

@Stone Jin I have found quality tenants through Facebook Marketplace but I agree that percentage wise there are better quality leads through the other sites. I think what it is that younger people tend to look more on Facebook and older people more the traditional route like Zillow or hotpads etc. What has worked well for me is to advertise everywhere ..facebook and every site I can do for free and then do an open house for all the interested people ...one during the evenings on a week day and then another on the weekends to show to any of the interested people. 

Facebook Marketplace. Have posted several rentals on there and gotten hundreds of interested people ...more than Zillow, Trulia, Craiglist and all the others combined.

And as far as blasting out listings. You can do that on Tenant Cloud for free and it sends out to about 8 different sites ...zillow, hotpads, and all the big ones. Also Tenant Cloud is awesome as far as keeping track of expenses/income 

@Jesse S. it’s been 3 years and I don’t see any more cracks or movement at all. I had the brackets put ALL the way around the perimeter of the whole basement.  But I will still need to make sure the gutters are always clean and water flowing away from the foundation & soil graded to be safe. I bought this house at an auction and I wasn’t able to do a proper inspection. It had a finished basement so I didn’t even know how bad the foundation was until we ripped the Sheetrock off. Fortunately I bought it so cheap it didn’t matter but one lesson for someone to learn if you buy a house that has a finished basement and cinderblock foundation. Beware of what’s under the Sheetrock that you can’t take off until after you buy it!! Lol. 

From what I’ve learned about the foundations ...so far.... the stone foundations are the best ...like in the older 100 year old homes. Most of the time they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon although you don’t want to put in sump pumps &/or French drains with these foundations as it’s not good for stone foundations. 

The cinderblock like what we have in these houses is crap ...they can get problems very easily. And the newer slab foundations as well. I’ve been told that with the newer foundations once they go bad it’s a lot more difficult to fix them properly than the older stone foundations. 

When I look for new properties to buy if I see a house and notice the land is sloping inwards towards the house ..I know it’s a very good chance that house is going to have foundation issues. Seen it a lot now. I stay away now from those and usually won’t even waist my time to look inside if the landscape isn’t right. In KC can get heavy rains and all that water running towards the foundation can eventually ruin it over time and or flood the basement every time it rains hard. 

@Jesse S. I have a property in KC that has similar/worse cracks as your photo and I did what @Daniel Cullen did and got beams all the way around the foundation. That was what my structural engineer recommended at my house. It wasn't a cheap repair but I got the house ( fixer upper) at such a great deal it didn't matter.

Is that house in Waldo? I ask cause my house is in Waldo and alot of the houses in that area have the same cinderblock foundations & have common foundation issues. I was told (about mine) that it probably wouldn't effect the resale value too much as alot of those houses are in similar shape. That being said I would get a structural engineer to have a look at it to be on the safe side and try to negotiate the price down if they recommend work being done. Cause if you sell it to someone else in the future they'll be having the same feelings about it you are and could be instant negative equity if you have to do an expensive fix whenever you go to sell it.

@Srinivas Chinnam One thing that never gets talked about on these forums is the high cost of turnover. You definitely need to factor in extra for whenever you have a tenant move out. It’s in the thousands depending on size of house and how perfect of a condition your local market expects the housing to be....If you’re going to get a tenant who is going to complain cause the paint isn’t perfect (which I’ve had and then my PM asking me if I’m willing to have the whole place professionally repainted again!!) or a tenant class who doesn’t care & is just happy with clean safe living. Usually the PMs never get to the turnovers until at least 2-3 weeks after the tenant moves out then it’s another week or 2 of them doing the actual work & cost $$$ & Repairs..replacing carpet etc. Then you almost never get an immediate tenant so another month or 2 of lost rent while your house is being shown for rent. Then you have to pay a leasing fee to the PM once you do get a tenant. Plus the whole time you’re carrying the utilities. So just something to be cautious of is planning how much it’s going to cost when your tenant moves out and you have to get the place re-rented again. If you’re in a market where the rents are going up every year then it’s really going to help you offset your turnover cost. Also smaller houses are much easier and cheaper than the monster big ones and if you live close by you can do a lot of the work yourself or with cheap labor which can help you save tons.