Comments on: thoughts on moving, part III: being a landlord

By: Josh-D. S. Davis

Josh-D. S. Davis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:54:33 +0000

Renting out a property works better when you have your property paid off except for recurring expenses.

Otherwise, it allows you to build equity for a lower cost, but you still need $$.

And at $630/tennant, I'd want insurance or guarantee of some sort. That's just a bunch, though, it seems about par. We rented from a guy who had to pay $1k finder's fee.

By: Josh-D. S. Davis

Josh-D. S. Davis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:54:33 +0000

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:40:40 +0000

I bitch and moan A LOT about travel time because it affects me all the time, every day, no matter what. But I could seriously minimize that by making a few changes:

1) make more friends closer to where I live now. neighbors are awesome. and there are lots of people I know nearby even if they are outside of my core circle of friends and family.

2) make a pact with myself to be "fair" with friends and family about travel to see them. If it's not worth it for them to travel, maybe it shouldn't be worth it for me to travel either.

Doing the above would limit my travel to no more than 2 hours a day (and only 1 hour or so of that ever with Celeste). I've traveled 2 hours a day almost every single day of my life since I've been on my own in the Dallas area. While it isn't this way for every one, it's sort of ALWAYS been a fact of life for me. Of course, getting rid of it would be awesome.

By: Rob Allen

Rob Allen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:35:26 +0000

The biggest PRO to moving appears to be saving travel time. How big a deal is that extra time?

Rob….

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:34:27 +0000

Or stay? Ha. I can always stay where I am. That's the big debate. Is allllllll of this mess and fear and wonder and worry and nonsense worth it? Is it worth a possible $100-$200/mo and possible 4-6 hours of time.

By: DeusInnomen

DeusInnomen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:29:36 +0000

Sounds like it's the best you can do then. Just be sure you choose a well-worded and fair lease, it doesn't take much research to find a good one.

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:26:58 +0000

You see, I'm thinking this guy is just a coincidence. We'd already tried to sell the place... no go. Then we tried to rent the place. Had it on the market for 6 months... no go.

Perhaps the market has shifted? Maybe? If so... maybe I should just put it back on the market and see where it goes?

But see, this guy lives in my very specific area renting another house. He really wants to stay in the area. His current place has been sold under his lease so he has to leave. I may not get another opportunity. Then again, putting all my eggs into the "coincidence" basket may be a really bad idea.

As far as getting a general feel for a person, if I had to trust a guy on gut alone, then I trust this guy.

By: DeusInnomen

DeusInnomen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:20:13 +0000

Aye, like I said, our situation is a little different. Renting a condo is usually much easier than renting a house, for one.

Another option for you is to be incredibly picky: you can easily say "No, I'm not comfortable with this renter" and wait for another one to come along who may (or may not) be a better match. I wouldn't let just anybody rent our place, and to be honest, Mike is a good guy but he's somebody I'm willing to look at as a tenant and not a friend if it comes to that. Remember, they're renting YOUR place. That's more than just something you'd do for anybody. There's plenty of my friends I'd flat-out refuse to rent to, cause I know better, and there's several friends who I'd rent to cause I'd trust them to respect my property.

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:12:24 +0000

Thank you very much for your input. It means a lot.

By: FarrisGoldstein

FarrisGoldstein — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:10:54 +0000

None whatsoever.

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:06:36 +0000

I guess I misworded myself. My advice seeking is really geared toward "given all this bullshit, should I rent this place out or just stay put" and not so much "should I use a management company or not".

Does that change your advice any?

By: FarrisGoldstein

FarrisGoldstein — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:01:49 +0000

I'm horrible at big picture stuff, at least right now. This post seemed pretty focused. The bleg for advice seemed to assume that you would definitely move sooner rather than later, whether you ultimately decide on that or not.

So, yes, I think you understood my advice correctly. If your main goal is to gain some hours, and you can do so without pissing away too many dollars, I'd say go for it.

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:55:13 +0000

Good to know you've found a situation that works for you. I *WISH* I could find a willing tenant that I knew and trusted. I get a REALLY REALLY good vibe from the guy I've been talking to, but… who knows.

Thank you for your insight. Every little bit helps. Especially from people like you in similar situations.

By: DeusInnomen

DeusInnomen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:52:04 +0000

We're in a very similar position right now, because we had no way to know the market for selling our condo would end up as horrifying as it is right now. (In our approximate price bracket, there are over 130 condos for sale with only a few ways to differentiate between them. It SUCKS.) We've gone back and forth on how to sell the condo, but for the time being we've settled on renting it. Our circumstances are probably /slightly/ different because it was a friend of mine who approached me about this. Our net loss on renting to him is going to be only about $150/month over our mortgage and (ridiculous) association fee, but we look at it this way: it's better than carrying two mortgages and an association fee. There's no way in hell we can afford that right now.

We also look at it this way: even waiting one year to sell our condo could mean the difference between a swollen pro-buyer's market and something more stable. It also means if we rent it for a year, the condo becomes designated as an investment property, so that if we still have to sell it at a loss, it's no longer just a loss but a capital loss, which can come off our taxes.

Trust me, renting the condo was far from our preferred course of action, but it's that or we basically sell our place at a price so low it barely pays off our mortgage and we're effectively just walking away from it. There's some small part of me that feels it's slightly better for us renting to somebody I know, because I already know this person very well and I know he's a good guy. I may not know his new wife or their kids very well, but I think I can trust him more than a stranger off the street.

By: Jim Reverend

Jim Reverend — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:32:01 +0000

That's pretty much the story I'm getting over and over again too.

So let me ask you this to make sure I'm fully understanding your advice.

You're saying that I should rent the place out but still keep it on the market and try to sell it ASAP (UNLESS I like it, of course), even if that means selling the tenant along with it (which is done all the time I'm told).

Does that mean you think that this option (rent it out, move into an apartment, and sell the house ASAP) is a better option than just staying put. Especially considering that, ultimately, I want to live in a house and that, ultimately, I will have to move again in order to be in a good school district for Celeste?

(just trying to fully understand your advice, not questioning it's validity at all.)