All Forum Posts by: Will Gaston

@Jordan Greek the biggest con is you're going to greatly reduce the number of people that are willing to lease your property.

I think sometimes landlords, myself included, forget about what it is like to be a person on the other side. I have certainly been guilty of this.

We want to attract great tenants that will stay for a long time. That is the goal.

Using that framework, would your odds be better at finding a great tenant with or without providing appliances?

@Joe Livsey

If you're borrowing money you need to indicate it as a loan. If it's not contingent on an appraisal I would certainly note that as that would be a slightly more attractive offer all else equal.

Also, I think the key nuance here is that it is a stackable W/D.

I think that makes a huge difference. Those are very expensive (ask me how I know!) and very few people would have these on their own. Used options aren't great on these in my market.

I could be persuaded on either side of this argument if there is/was a side-by-side option.

@Eric Samuels maybe the single most helpful thing to my investing career has been talking to various lenders. I have learned a ton from the 100+ loans I have gotten since I started.

The lender is the real decision maker for almost everyone investing. And they are not equal. Talk to as many as you can. You won't regret spending time on that.

@Jerry Sexton M2M is my vote.

My experience is that for "most" properties the lease provides way more power to the tenant than to the landlord. If they want to leave they will find a way.

@Terrell Garren has some great experience and insight on this.

@Kelvin J. this is a hotly contested topic on BP but I'm in the camp that they should always be raised to the maximum for which the tenant won't move.

Example:

Tenant is paying $500/month and the market rate is $900 for the apartment. IMO there is no reason you shouldn't bump it up to $700 immediately. You can do higher, of course, but raising it to a "it's still a great deal" price is a no brainer.

Put some thought into it and be strategic but don't inherently be afraid to raise rents. All of your other expenses are always going to go raised.

@Vatsal Suthar a couple of questions:

1) Where in Columbia is this?

2) Who is your PM?

@Ryan McCue may know the answer to this.

@Shanice Waller the average tenant isn't likely going to have a stackable washer/dryer nor will they want to go purchase one.

I would 100% leave it. 

This seems like poor advice from your PM. It's hard to remember sometimes but tenants are people just like us and we want them to be happy. A happy tenant will stay!

@Preston Donahue the consistent theme from almost all great wholesalers is, ironically, consistency.

Nothing is guaranteed with direct marketing but this will give you much better odds.