All Forum Posts by: Leslie A.

Josh,

You are giving up self management just based on this one incident?  I would give it time and see how it goes in the future.  You will have problems from time to time.  

I self manage mine (I had 8 at one time) and yes, it can be stressful, but the cost savings are well worth the small headaches. I think you're letting these people get to you because they go to your church.  One reason I don't rent to people I know.  

I give them deposit slips and they put their rent in my bank.  Works for us.

Hi Rick,

Have you seen the blog by Bill Biko?  I think it's EducatedLandlord.com.  He has an ebook about rooming houses.  Both the blog and book are really good.  he's also good about answering questions by email.

Rooming houses are my next step.  At this time, I rent RVs and run them similarly to how I would run a rooming house.  Weekly rent being the main thing.  My renters tend to be shorter term than a house.  A lot of my renters are in town for construction jobs.  I'm near Houston.

I think rooming houses could be very lucrative.  Of course, they must be managed properly like any rental.  

I know of a 9 bedroom house in the perfect area I could get for a song(under 20,000).  But it needs extensive rehab, and I don't have the experience to tackle such a big job.  I've also considered simply renting a  house to use.  That would be cool because I wouldn't be responsible for maintenance and the upfront costs would be so low.  Of course, convincing an owner to let me do that in their property might be hard.  But how much market is there for 6+ bedroom houses?  

Right now, I'm trying to get my sister and husband on board as partners, but they think I  need to wait.  I had some serious mental issues in the past year and a half and messed up some things.  Trying to get back to my old self.  Waiting is hard.  I'm an ambitious person.  

Anyway, hope this helps.  

I've been renting travel trailers for over 2 years now.  Counting my sister's and mine, we have nine.  These travel trailers are on rented lots in parks.  We've found the majority of our tenants to be good people who take care of our trailers.  We charge rent by the week.  We do have a lease.  We've never had a trailer "trashed", though we've had a few filthy ones (two or three).  We haven't had to chase rent.    We did one informal eviction (we hooked up the trailer and pulled it out of the park).  I agree with the poster above who said that if you're having tons of problems with tenants, it probably comes back to poor management.  

I'm sure your demographics make a huge difference.  Most of ours are construction workers in town for jobs.  They make a lot of money and pay their rent.  Our rent is rather high.  $200-$225 a week.  But cheaper than the motels they'd otherwise be staying in.  Also, be sure to charge a deposit.  If our renters don't give two weeks notice of moving, and stay the whole lease, they don't get it back.  That helps.  At times, we've had a good bit of turnover.  Keeping the deposit made it less painful.

I also wouldn't have a problem renting mobile homes, I just haven't run into any deals on them.

I wouldn't overthink  it.  Just drop in and talk to the manager.  I found many that were willing to work with me.  People will discourage you, but there are parks out there that are willing.  I've been working with one over two years and another one since March.

sure. Try one.  Its scary at first but it'll be fine 

I'd buy it. It's a cheap upgrade. 

yeah. I wouldn't worry about it. They obviously weren't. 

everyday your property's empty is costing you money 

I would. Who cares?