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+--- Thread: Renting out a house (/showthread.php?tid=10146)
Renting out a house - HAULN-SS - 01-10-2013
Hey, have any of you ever owned a property that you rented out? I have been kicking around trying to rent my house lately, and I made a craiglist posting just to gauge interest and was surprised that I have had several legitimate replies to the ad (makes me think I should maybe ask for more).
If you have done this before, would you recommend using any kind of management company to handle renting it out, or just wing it and write up a lease skipping the middle man? Anything to beware of? I was planning on running a background check, credit and income verification, as well as requiring prior rental history.
Re: Renting out a house - Evan - 01-10-2013
we rent out Anne's condo in DC. no management company ,they take 10%.
we don't even do credit checks or employment verification and have never had a problem, but we also only rent to educated yuppies (which probably has more to do with the neighborhood)
bought a good lease off a law site on the internet. make sure you get one specific to your state, laws are different
Re: Renting out a house - .RJ - 01-10-2013
You want to screen the shit out of your tennants. This will weed out the deadbeats. I wouldnt trust a realtor to do this. Make sure they know you're going to crawl up their ass, too. If they get uncomfortable tell them no thanks.
Meet with them. Credit/criminal check. You want references, and turn on your bullshit radar for those. Find out where they live now and drive by, and go to the front door for some "papers they have to sign". This will tell you if they've turned their current residence into a shithole, and if they'll do the same to YOUR house.
If you're local, there's no real need to have a management company but you'll want to keep tabs on your place and make sure that if there's problems you have a way of handling it - either a good GC/Handyman or be willing to take a day off work and go fix it yourself. If you just want to not deal with that, pay the 10% to a management company. They will also charge you 1st month rent to find/screen tennants too.
Re: Renting out a house - Ken - 01-10-2013
Evan Wrote:we rent out Anne's condo in DC. no management company ,they take 10%.
we don't even do credit checks or employment verification and have never had a problem, but we also only rent to educated yuppies (which probably has more to do with the neighborhood)
bought a good lease off a law site on the internet. make sure you get one specific to your state, laws are different
This. My family has two properties we rent, one in Seattle and one in FL. It's a little tougher since we only occassionally get out there to check on it ourselves but we haven't run into any problems in the past 10 years we've been doing so.
Re: Renting out a house - G.Irish - 01-10-2013
My fiance rents out her house in DC too, do basically what Evan and RJ said. As was mentioned before, make sure you know the law. In some places tenants can legally stay in your house for 6 months ore more without paying before you can evict them. Spend the time to screen people properly because just one deadbeat can really fuck up your house and your finances.
Re: Renting out a house - Apoc - 01-10-2013
My dad rented condos and townhouses for years and he had one rule: Rent to women only.
Re: Renting out a house - HAULN-SS - 01-10-2013
Well I was thinking it would be harder to rent a house to anyone before I ever posted. I guess I figured renters were more interested in apartments and condos. It seems like of the people that have contacted me so far, it seems like they are mostly family people. I think I will just have to assume that the carpets and paint will have to be replaced no matter who is in there. As much as I dont want some slob asshat in there, a normal family with kids is probably going to ruin a bunch of the stuff too.
I am handy enough to fix any and all problems that might come up, but I am not sure if I have the time commitment to be able to come over at 5am to fix a busted water pipe or something. It is good to hear that, at least out of this group, the people who have renters seem to be having good luck. Do you guys file the income on your taxes? Does it seem like you take a financial beating because of that? I may want to up my amount more just to cover the presumed tax penalty i might face.
I had thought a little bit about the eviction problem - I need to research the law for sure. That is one reason I was thinking of goign with a management company - presumably they know all that. The downside is that I guess I wont have as much control over who gets into the place.
Re: Renting out a house - .RJ - 01-10-2013
Their security deposit should cover any damages. Kids will tear your house up, but if you do your homework in screening, they should treat it as their home and be generally respectful. Women are slobs but they wont fuck up your house.
Taxes - you're going to want to hire an accountant every year, should be a few hundred bucks to file everything for you. Keep records of every $$ spent, in or out. Set up a separate checking account for the rental house.
Re: Renting out a house - PDenbigh - 01-10-2013
Guys with car habits are nothing but trouble. I once knew "someone" that painted a race car in a one car garage of a rented townhome!
Re: Renting out a house - Apoc - 01-10-2013
Oh, and don't rent out a place you ever expect to live in again.
Re: Renting out a house - HAULN-SS - 01-10-2013
Apoc Wrote:Oh, and don't rent out a place you ever expect to live in again.
Yeah, that was the plan here. When I'm on to the next place I dont expect to ever have to return unless its an emergency.
Re: Renting out a house - Steve85 - 01-10-2013
Dad used a management company and they ended up with people who were not paying the rent themselves in one of the houses. The only people that have less respect for a place than renters are renters who aren't actually paying the rent. It cost 35k to get it in salable condition. The department who put them in there contributed some very small amount, I seem to remember less than $2K. The management company didn't care who was in there, just that someone was in there. I don't know whether the management company had to get approval from my dad to go that direction but I seem to remember there wasn't much of a choice, that they couldn't "discriminate" based on the source of payment. Doing it yourself may allow a little more flexibility in screening.