All Forum Posts by: Sean Pour

My applicants are partners, currently living in a one bedroom apartment with about $2,000 monthly rent. They are applying for my 2BD condo with monthly rent of $2,200. One applicant (She) is making a good salary (x3.8 rent) and have a relatively low debt ($570 obligation per month). The other applicant (He) has unstable low income (x1.3 rent) with about $300,000 student loan ($2600 obligation per month). My challenge is when looking at their total net income, they are making about $6,800 net, but after deducting $2,200 rent, $3,200 total debt obligations and $100 utilities, they are left with only $1,300 per month to live with. I would consider $1,300 per month a very low amount given the high living expenses in California. They seem to be doing fine as they have managed to keep a balance of about $6k in their bank accounts but would I consider them very risky and I don't think they can afford paying $2,200 rent without facing financial hardship. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.

So I am little confused about the tips on description. I know Zillow allows search for keywords, so the more keywords there is in the text, the higher the chance of showing up on searches. And what is the harm in providing a thorough description of the unit? there are tenants, like myself, that want to save time and know as much as they can about the unit before spending more time taking the tour. Am I missing anything?

Seems like text can use some cutting. Any other tips? How about places to list?

That is fair market rental value for this area. After all this is OC California.

Hi

I have listed my first rental on Zillow and Cozy. My views on Zillow has dropped from 200 per day to about 35 in about a week. I have shared the link here:

Listing on Zillow

is there a anything I need to do to attract more views? I am new to this game, so any advice would be very helpful.

Thanks,

Sean 

@Alan Pederson Thanks Alan. Insurance requirements and the inspections are great suggestions. I will have to look at rental comps again. What vacancy rate do you expect in college towns? The 5% number is what I had in mind as a rule of thumb for deal analysis. 

@Account Closed Thanks Marvin. I will look into the 10 year ARM. I am not sure I understand what you mean by getting money back at closing. Do you mean I will need less cash to close with 10 year ARM? Thanks again for the comments.

@Account Closed  I have considered shorter term loans. I have looked at 15 year, the interest rate is not much lower, is about 4.125% (given the investment property) and the cash flow becomes almost zero.

Thanks Alan for sharing your experience. We will raise the rent in the next couple of years that raises the cash on cash to 13%. Would that be enough you think?

Thanks Max. Yes, the rent has the potential to go up to $550 in the near future, without impacting vacancy rate. probably next year. In terms of summer vacancy, 12 month contracts are a norm in town.