Reply to WWYD: keep DC rowhouse in Shaw as investment?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "WWYD: keep DC rowhouse in Shaw as investment?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]I’d keep it but not use the management company.  [/b]They take a huge amount of the profit and some charge you for things like finding a handyman- which means profit you thought you have, You don’t. They list on Craig’s list just like you would. [/quote]

Disagree with this.  I rented a unit of mine without a mgt company and regret it.  First off, there’s a lot of work involved.  I think going through a mgt company means you get more normal tenants.  Tenants seem less likely to try and mess with someone with the backing of a company.  It shouldn’t work that way, but it does.  You’d be surprised how challenging having a rental can be.  [/quote]

We have many rentals: an office building, a townhouse, a condo and 3 homes.[b] What was the work involved that you had to do?
[/b]
- list on Craig’s list
- show the unit (scheduled to happen with many people coming the same time and day)
- run credit check of applicant (get application online, credit check is paid for by them)
- get lease (online)
- let utility co know you have a tenant if necessary
- open bank account/create llc thru scc
-get security deposit
- change locks 
- give key to tenant, walk thru (walk they list from online), get first month’s rent, sign lease, give garage door opener
- if tenant calls with problem: Plummer, electrical, etc - join nextdoor and get recommendation. Tell tenant who worker is and have them schedule it themselves. Tell tenant to pay, send a bill copy to you and deduct it from rent OR have worker call you to pay by credit card

This is pretty much it.  Have money available for repairs. [/quote]

The list you wrote is actually a lot of work.  It involves numerous phone calls that can be a problem if you don’t have a flexible job.  If you’re mananging your own property you need to be able to head over to the rental at any moment.   Even just changing the locks requires you to get the new key from the locksmith and then deliver it to the renter.  If you live or work in another part of town it can mean you need to take a few hours off of work.

However, the work isn’t what made me regret not using a property manager.  I had a tenant who stopped paying rent and I had to evict.  Just dealing with me made it extremely easy for the tenant to give me the run around.  Dishonest tenants know that as an individual you have very little power to do anything.  A management company is experienced in this, knows what they can and can’t do, and has a lawyer on retainer.  The tenant know this.

My using a property manager is fine with you don’t have any problems.  If it’s a strong rental market, you don’t require many repairs, and you have a solid tenant then you may be fine.  But when you’re not it’s a huge headache.

Also keep in mind that credit reporting is lagging.  Someone can be evicted on Friday, try and rent from you on a Monday and you wouldn’t be able to know they had any sort of problem with their previous landlord.

[/quote]

I find the contractor, give the tenant the contact info and ask the tenant schedule it to his preferred date and time. Contractor calls me on site and says x or y is the problem. I then authorize the charges or not. I’ve been doing this for 12 years and I’ve never had a problem.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics