All Forum Posts by: Dick Stevens

Be careful renting out a basement.  Does it pass all of the requirements for a legal apartment — egress, window size, etc.  If not it’s a liability issue.

I would start advertising a week or two (depending on demand in your market) before closing.  Start your prescreening and have a few prescreened applicants lined up for a showing the day after you close.

It’s not worth the risk.  Plenty of non Pitbull owning tenants out there.

What you’re trying to do would likely fall under rooming house regulations.  Check your local rental policies.  Rooming houses often have more stringent rules than renting apartments.  Also the basement may not conform to a legal apartment due to egress and window regulations.

This is absolute nonsense.  Are you going to pay to enroll them in finance classes?  Maintain your building, provide safe housing, collect the rents, and leave it at that. Volunteer at the local boys and girls club if you want to be a hero in your community.

If you want the tenant to leave and she is on a lease you could always try to buy her out.  Offer her $1000 to move or something like that.  Tell her the place needs to be left in rent ready condition.  However, if you want her to leave so you can rent to family—that may be a mistake.  Many landlords will tell you to never rent to friends or family.  Keep personal relationships out of your business.

Check your state laws.  In Mass this would be illegal.

It’s a terrible buy.  Cash on cash return is not worth the effort at all.  You stated that you could “charge upwards of $2k per unit in a couple years“... this is a very poor strategy.  Buy a property that cash flows today, never count on what might happen down the road.  Strategies like this is why so many landlords lost everything in the last real estate crash.  Maybe a few years down the road your rents will be even less, then your taking money out of your pocket each month to cover bills.

No paper trail = no apartment.  Income of 3x rent should be verifiable before you rent to them.

I’d definitely pass.  Next time you need to prescreen so you dont find yourself in this situation to begin with.