Best way to rent out a SFH

[Anonymous]

Hello,

If you rented out your SFH in this area, which route did you take:
(a) pay a broker to secure a tenant (then manage the tenant yourself long distance)
(b) pay a property management company
(c) find a tenant yourself by word of mouth
(d) advertise yourself on Zillow, etc. to find a tenant

No prior landlord experience here.

TYIA

[Anonymous]

We rented out our house in FCC this year for the first time. We have handled it ourselves instead of using an agent or property management company. We spoke with a couple of property management companies and were told it would cost one month’s rent for them to find a tenant, and an additional month’s rent to manage the property. That added up to enough that we wouldn’t be making much money on it, so we decided to handle it all ourselves.

We used Zillow to list it and find tenants, and we were able to use Zillow for applications as well. The site/app will do the credit check, etc. for you. I’m not gonna lie, doing all of this was a pita. It almost felt like a full-time job to field the messages of interest/requests to see the property. And people will express interest, set an appointment, and then ghost you. Unfortunately, Zillow allows people who are looking for a place to pay one application fee (I think $35) and apply to as many places as they want. This means that you get a lot of applications from people who aren’t necessarily that serious, and it makes things a little harder. But all in all, Zillow is very convenient to use. As far as managing the property goes, fortunately my DH is pretty handy. So when stuff goes wrong, he’s able to fix it himself. I think we did hire someone to do one thing that needed to be fixed, but generally speaking, we can handle it ourselves.

The biggest bit of advice I would give to you if you’re renting out a place, is just limit consideration to those who have a credit scores of 740 and above. I read that advice somewhere, and I think it’s really good and that is what we did. Folks with scores that high don’t tend to fail to pay their rent or leave your house a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We rented out our house in FCC this year for the first time. We have handled it ourselves instead of using an agent or property management company. We spoke with a couple of property management companies and were told it would cost one month’s rent for them to find a tenant, and an additional month’s rent to manage the property. That added up to enough that we wouldn’t be making much money on it, so we decided to handle it all ourselves.

We used Zillow to list it and find tenants, and we were able to use Zillow for applications as well. The site/app will do the credit check, etc. for you. I’m not gonna lie, doing all of this was a pita. It almost felt like a full-time job to field the messages of interest/requests to see the property. And people will express interest, set an appointment, and then ghost you. Unfortunately, Zillow allows people who are looking for a place to pay one application fee (I think $35) and apply to as many places as they want. This means that you get a lot of applications from people who aren’t necessarily that serious, and it makes things a little harder. But all in all, Zillow is very convenient to use. As far as managing the property goes, fortunately my DH is pretty handy. So when stuff goes wrong, he’s able to fix it himself. I think we did hire someone to do one thing that needed to be fixed, but generally speaking, we can handle it ourselves.

The biggest bit of advice I would give to you if you’re renting out a place, is just limit consideration to those who have a credit scores of 740 and above. I read that advice somewhere, and I think it’s really good and that is what we did. Folks with scores that high don’t tend to fail to pay their rent or leave your house a disaster.

Thanks so much for this detailed answer, PP.

-OP

[Anonymous]

I'm a landlord of a SFH in Bethesda. I manage the property myself. I've always had a bunch of applicants through Zillow. I have trusted plumbers, electricians and mechanical people that I can call in an emergency. And I have a few handy people that I use. Even though I require my tenants to maintain the yard, they rarely do so I factor in a big spring and fall yard cleanup into the lease.
I use Smart Move to screen tenants - this was a tip from DCUM - and the tenants fill out all their info online which makes it easy for everyone. Spring and early summer are the best times to rent SFH because that is when people who are moving with kids start looking to get established before school starts so it is also helpful to draw up leases so that tenants leave around that time of year as well. I live near my property so that also helps. The margins are so small in the DC area with the high cost of taxes and insurance that hiring a management company really eats into the profits. Look to your county's Landlord/ Tenants website for sample leases to use that are specific for your state and county. MoCo has a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a landlord of a SFH in Bethesda. I manage the property myself. I've always had a bunch of applicants through Zillow. I have trusted plumbers, electricians and mechanical people that I can call in an emergency. And I have a few handy people that I use. Even though I require my tenants to maintain the yard, they rarely do so I factor in a big spring and fall yard cleanup into the lease.
I use Smart Move to screen tenants - this was a tip from DCUM - and the tenants fill out all their info online which makes it easy for everyone. Spring and early summer are the best times to rent SFH because that is when people who are moving with kids start looking to get established before school starts so it is also helpful to draw up leases so that tenants leave around that time of year as well. I live near my property so that also helps. The margins are so small in the DC area with the high cost of taxes and insurance that hiring a management company really eats into the profits. Look to your county's Landlord/ Tenants website for sample leases to use that are specific for your state and county. MoCo has a good one.

Thanks so much for the information and the tip. I will check out Smart Move. We are just trying to break even to keep an option of moving back in a couple of years.

Did you have professional pictures taken?

[Anonymous]

The PP sounds like they had success with Zillow apps, but I would not use that. It's possible to get lucky with Zillow apps but also get burned. Because people just pay one small fee they apply for everything and ghost. And their background check isn't very extensive.

Use your own background check, we use rentprep.com.

We manage ourselves. It can at times be like a second job (especially when looking for a tenant and showing the house exactly as PP outlined) and at other times when you actually have a good tenant in place you will forget you even have a tenant besides when they send you a check.

And just like PP said to reiterate management companies are terrible. There isn't one good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a landlord of a SFH in Bethesda. I manage the property myself. I've always had a bunch of applicants through Zillow. I have trusted plumbers, electricians and mechanical people that I can call in an emergency. And I have a few handy people that I use. Even though I require my tenants to maintain the yard, they rarely do so I factor in a big spring and fall yard cleanup into the lease.
I use Smart Move to screen tenants - this was a tip from DCUM - and the tenants fill out all their info online which makes it easy for everyone. Spring and early summer are the best times to rent SFH because that is when people who are moving with kids start looking to get established before school starts so it is also helpful to draw up leases so that tenants leave around that time of year as well. I live near my property so that also helps. The margins are so small in the DC area with the high cost of taxes and insurance that hiring a management company really eats into the profits. Look to your county's Landlord/ Tenants website for sample leases to use that are specific for your state and county. MoCo has a good one.

I have a my landscaper do 1 major yard maintenance for the tenant in the spring and 1 in the fall for the leaves, then it is on them to maintain. Frankly, I respect my former neighbors to much to leave it up to the tenant to actually make it look nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The PP sounds like they had success with Zillow apps, but I would not use that. It's possible to get lucky with Zillow apps but also get burned. Because people just pay one small fee they apply for everything and ghost. And their background check isn't very extensive.

Use your own background check, we use rentprep.com.

We manage ourselves. It can at times be like a second job (especially when looking for a tenant and showing the house exactly as PP outlined) and at other times when you actually have a good tenant in place you will forget you even have a tenant besides when they send you a check.

And just like PP said to reiterate management companies are terrible. There isn't one good one.

Thanks so much, PP. It sounds like doing it ourselves may be the way to go.

-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a landlord of a SFH in Bethesda. I manage the property myself. I've always had a bunch of applicants through Zillow. I have trusted plumbers, electricians and mechanical people that I can call in an emergency. And I have a few handy people that I use. Even though I require my tenants to maintain the yard, they rarely do so I factor in a big spring and fall yard cleanup into the lease.
I use Smart Move to screen tenants - this was a tip from DCUM - and the tenants fill out all their info online which makes it easy for everyone. Spring and early summer are the best times to rent SFH because that is when people who are moving with kids start looking to get established before school starts so it is also helpful to draw up leases so that tenants leave around that time of year as well. I live near my property so that also helps. The margins are so small in the DC area with the high cost of taxes and insurance that hiring a management company really eats into the profits. Look to your county's Landlord/ Tenants website for sample leases to use that are specific for your state and county. MoCo has a good one.

I have a my landscaper do 1 major yard maintenance for the tenant in the spring and 1 in the fall for the leaves, then it is on them to maintain. Frankly, I respect my former neighbors to much to leave it up to the tenant to actually make it look nice.

I'm the pp who wrote this. Yes - that is why I send out a team in the spring and fall on my own to do a major yard clean up. But I try to incorporate the price for it into the monthly rent of the lease. I guess I didn't word that correctly.

[Anonymous]

If you are not local, get a property management company to manage the maintenance for the property. I will never rent from a non-local landlord unless they are also giving a below market rate to make it worth my while. Its a huge PITA as a a renter.

[Anonymous]

If you are local you can manage it yourself but remember you need to have someone available to cover for you every time you go out of town. It’s well worth it to me to pay a property manager. I’ve also noticed that they get quicker responses and lower rates for repairs bc they are funneling lots of business to these contractors.

[Anonymous]

Zillow
For advertising and communication with potential tenants.
Follow up email questions to find out the best qualified potential tenants.
Open house weekend visits by potential tenants.
Smart Move
Background and credit check.
Apartment.com
For monthly payments.

[Anonymous]

Do not pay a broker at all to get the tenant. It will be a bigger mess, you will get crappy tenants with much less $s and broker will keep on top. Try Zillow or hotpads for posting and you will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Manage the property yourself if you can.

We hired a property management company and it proved to be a complete nightmare. After about 2 years we decided it wasn't for us and sold. Alternatively, my in-laws rented to the same tenants for years without issue.

If you're not dealing with multiple units, I think your experience can be pretty hit or miss. It's one thing if you have 10 units and couple of not so great tenants. The risk is a lot higher when you're only renting one SFH. If you're retired and have nothing else to do, go for it. Otherwise it is hardly "passive" income and you should proceed with caution.

[Anonymous]

Property management companies are a total nightmare and for people who don't care about money. They would get kick-backs from other maintenance companies and will continue to stick you with the bill.