NTR - is anyone a landlord?

3003girl

Dh and I are thinking of buying a triplex and renting out the other two units while living in the third. 

Pros? Cons?

We have our list, but neither of us have any experience being landlords. The other option would be having a rental agency handle the rentals..  

 

nancy30005

We are.
I will PM you the deets.

3003girl

Thanks!

LnR70707

We rent our townhouse.

Pros - for the last 2 years, it has paid for itself plus some.

Cons - the renters....well, we don't know what the eff happened except for multiple bounced checks since april, 4K in debt to us and now we are evicting them.

We will still continue to rent, but you can't be the nice guy and give anyone the benefit of the doubt unluckily.  

future mrs. macklin

We are and we have our old house on section 8 (housing). No one has moved in yet but we're praying that a good tenant moves in.

Adventurers

We are landlords.... mostly because we couldn't sell our house and didn't want it just sitting there... but we are pretty selective with who we rent to and charge a pretty high monthly rent to limit those who may be looking.  We also have a no-pet policy which deters a lot of people (even though we have a dog ourselves and love dogs.... we don't want to replace the carpet every time someone moves out.)  Also, we live about 3 miles from the rental house and I think it helps that our tenants know this and we do stop by regularly to look at the property, spray for bugs, etc.... which helps make sure that the place is taken care of pretty well.  It has worked out for us and it is the reason I am able to be a stay-at-home mom.  Without our rental income, I would be back to work.  Also, I found a lot of the "forms" and lease agreement paperwork online and just tweaked things to use for ourselves.... I also charged an application fee to cover the cost of a background check.  Some people didn't want to pay this fee, which told me they may have something to hide and weren't going to be quality renters.  I do the background checks online and found them very helpful to our peace of mind.... and curiosity... lol.

meheron80

Just avoid the "Friend" route.  When my H moved in with me he rented to a set of close friends.  They have taken advantage of us the entire time ruining my H credit.  The house is almost beyond repair for us financially because of them.  THey just signed another year lease (we can't afford to look for someone else because we can barely make the payments with them paying).  Now they have decided they are going to go back on the lease and move out.  We send them a letter yesterday with the Indiana 90 day notice clause that says they have to pay 90 days or we will take them to civil court for the sum of 5000$ the largest amount Indiana will let you sue for. 

Know the laws, look into section 8 housing (wish we would have done this).  Section 8 will inspect the house, tell you what to fix, put your house on there website, you can charge 25$ application fee to do a background check, interview you protential renter, give them the rules of the house (lawn, gutters, fixing things they break), and they pay section 8 and section 8 pays you. 

quidditchcapn1120

We are.  If you are going to forgo the management company, at least get your forms (application, lease, etc.) looked at by a lawyer or maybe off a legal website.  We checked their credit and references beforehand.  We got VERY lucky with our renters and we know it... best advice, if you can afford to let the house sit for a little bit, be picky about who you rent to.  If you need any more information please just PM me.

sapgirl76

Like pp, we rent out our townhouse because we can't afford to sell it. We use a management agency which is totally the easy way out. I'm willing to take it!

On the down side, we don't come close to breaking even. Townhouse values have topped so steeply here and a lot if people are renting them out. Jn order to fund a tenant, I had to accept a lower rent than I wanted.

zeptattoo

I used to rent part of my townhouse and lived in the other part.  I think it made a difference that I was living in the same place.  Just a couple of pieces of advice:

Everyone must be on a lease.  So many headaches will be avoided!

Know the landlord/tenant laws in your state (and make sure the lease makes those rights clear)

Understand that if you are renting for-profit, then you will be taxed on that income.  If you rent at a loss, then it tax-duductable.  I rented and never charged for the phone landline and made a killing on my tax return (much more than if I had done for-profit)

Be picky about who you rent to.  Remember they will also be your neighbors.

ATMmom324

We rent two houses.  One my DH owned before we got together the other I owned.  His tenants are a dream and I wish we could clone them.  My tenant is a giant douche who does crap like pay his rent in jars of change he buried in our front yard.  I wish I knew the secret to a good tenant but I don't.  One thing I suggest is putting a clause in the lease that if you flush anything besides toilet paper or human waste down the toilet and it clogs it is the tenants responsibility to take care of.

tabaskoa

I would suggest using a rental management company for sure! We rented my house for 3 years and it went ok, but I really wish we would have had the money to use a management company to handle the bs that comes up.

If you were making money off the other units (which I assume is the only reason you'd be doing this) then the management company would only take a small cut of that profit.

3003girl

Thanks for all of the info. 

We are going to think about it more - but from what everyone is telling me, I feel like it's a good idea to go through an agency to handle the rentals, even though we would be living there. That's my biggest fear - crappy tenants.

So much to think about...  

weberm05

We have 16 units and I LOVE IT!!  Sometimes you have tenants that are a problem but that's life. 

 If you do go that route....definantely check potential clients out.  We do a lot on our state's judicial system website, the local cops, and facebook.  Facebook tells you alot.

Personally I want nothing to do with Section 8.  I would rather stay away from that.  And you have to be firm....people will walk all over you if you let them.  You can't let them get behind on rent etc.  But with you living there, might make a difference.

 Good luck.  I recommend rentals to everyone. 

rnbeth477

We are renting a house we could not sell as well. We're using a rental company because we live in another state. However, I would still use a rental company even I'd we lived close. They take care of everything - finding renters, qualifying them, managing the money, etc. Then, they just send us a check. So far, it's worked out well.