All Forum Posts by: M Marie M.

I agree with @Marcia Maynard, up until the addiction to drugs and booze thing.

I've had roommates who smoked. Even the one who only smoked outside worked in a bar and she always reeked, reeked of smoke. And then I got the surprise smoker roommate, who said she quit but at a point of stress after she had moved in started the habit again. And they will push the boundaries of "outside" when the weather stinks and they want to smoke. Apparently in the doorway is "outside".

I Like #10. 

The current title "A Cozy Place Near It All" doesn't work for me as a AirBnB user, because 6 miles away from the destinations mentioned isn't near to me (subjective opinion) and puts the place in competition with places that are closer to the "All" that brings people to Dayton. "Near" is subjective, and there are several other airbnb places closer to those destinations. The other places west of Dayton tout other local pluses (garden market, near a state park, seminary) on the property or within walking distance. Because of that #8, doesn't work either.

I get how #10 is problematic. But it is better that people get a clue that it's not a cutesy neighborhood. That might help manage expectations.

The listing could do with a bit more about how easy it is to get by car to downtown. This info I got from one of the 2 reviews. There might be other positives about the location, if so it needs to be up top.

Depends on how much you're renting it for.

I'm planning on ductless a/c for my Baltimore rehab rental because the place is so friggin small (it's a tiny house) there is no room for a regular hvac system. I plan to rent it for an amount that will cover the expense.

I have another property in Florida and it only has the forced air heating system. The rent doesn't justify splurging for a/c. Since I don't pay for electricity, I'm okay with my tenants providing their own window units.

Do you have a stateside bank account?

Does that bank have something that will allow you to transfer money (for a fee, there is always a fee) to your GC? Many banks have a billpay that will allow you to send a check to a person. I've done it before with my GC, however, that was using money in a bank, not transferring money from a credit card. 

$10K and anything over may have something to do with the War on Drugs/Terror. That seems to be the amount that triggers something where financial institutions have to pay attention. Problem is if it looks like you are actively trying to avoid the $10K limit, the bank has to alert the feds so they can check to see if you are laundering money..... things you learn from being on a federal grand jury.

When I was house hacking yes, the applicants, tenants know where I lived. If any of my tenant/ roommates wanted to screw me over, they could have. But they didn't because I only lived with good people.

Unless you are really good about hiding, you're gonna get found. When poking around I saw a LLC, plugged in the address associated on the transfer docs (public land records) in Google and viola found the owner. For many localities they do publish the address the taxes are paid from, so keep that in mind. Localities vary regarding how public they make information, don't assume all the legal docs are private.

Mentally get it in your head not to fall for sad sack stories.

Seriously.

You may get people answering to your vacancy that would fail screening, but they go to look at the place and tell you some sad tale of woe that tugs at your heart and would make you feel like a complete a-hole if you disqualified them. You're setting yourself up for a relationship you don't want if you become their landlord.

Screening is very important. Hopefully most people will self screen and you have the kind of things mentioned that attract the type of tenant you want. You might discover, depending on your response you might have to tweak things (more pics, better pics, mention local amenities, commuter routes, etc).

Get into the head of the ideal tenant. What do they want? What is something they'd really want. When I was sort of house hacking, I wanted grad students preferably from one of the local colleges. I offered a furnished room, 2 semester long stay, and pointed out being on the bus routes to two colleges and being in walking distance of 1. Wouldn't you know I still got inquires from GW (not one of the 3 schools) students? GW is a PITA to get to even though it is less than 3 miles away. I still remember trying to discourage one foreign GW student who insisted on trying to make it work. I was able to say no based on her visa being wonky.

Another part of screening, get good at telling people 'no'.

@Damien Ray it is great you are investing in your zip code.

Well I managed to get the value down by 10,000. I didn't pay anyone, I did it myself. It cost me a morning of my time, and some photocopies.

I was aiming for knocking 30,000 off the assessed value to get a break on the high city taxes. Well at least it wasn't completely ignored.

I created a packet showing photos and diagrams and comparisons to the neighboring houses and took them down to 6 St. Paul St on the date I was told to meet in person. When I filled out the petition to review the real property I asked for an in person interview.

I had two arguments. One was the last few sales prices, which I don't think worked. The assessor pointed out they were all auction prices. The other was square footage. What I measured was drastically different than what was listed in SDAT. The city came out and remeasured the exterior. Their measurements are a tad higher than mine, but less than what the state said they were before. Unfortunately, fortunately, the land is the same size as the neighboring houses, so I decided not to challenge its value.

The result, according to my math, is my taxes aren't going up as scheduled. yay.

But I do wonder was there anything more I could have done?

I took the audiobook route. I recommend that, as I actually enjoyed the audio version. A funny thing about the audiobook, the narrator is AfAm and the author is white, and the narrator does a superb job when getting the poor black voices.

Anyway, even though the author sides with eight families in distress, he is fair to the two landlords. One is the owner of a trailer park, the other is a black woman who was a teacher who became a full time landlord who works with her husband who does maintenance. He mentions the REIA she attends and her phrase "the hood is good" regarding making money in poor areas of Milwaulkee. You can tell he spends more time with the AmAm landlord than he does with the out of area white owner of the trailer park, who comes in to deal with the city council wanting to shut the park down.

What I got out of the book is these are the kind of people you get when you don't screen, so screen. Screen like your life depends on it. Don't start nothing (feeling sorry and setting yourself and the renter for failure) won't be nothing (eviction, property damage, threats from the city). The author does a great job of making a sympathetic story, however if you have a rule about income that can be proven, check references, and only post on-line you can avoid some of these sad sacks.

Read this book if you haven't heard enough sad stories about why the rent can't get paid this month or the back rent can't get paid. Or if you are the kind of person who falls for these sob stories, read it and ask, do you want this person as your renter? There will always be a reason why they can't pay the rent. Understanding why they can't pay doesn't help with your bottom line. Maybe I'll recommended it to the next person who asks about their renter who hit hard times.

@Juan Gisone if you find out anything let us know.