Buy Or Rent
I'm just starting out and I am leaning towards just buy/rehab/sell but wondering about renting. I have heard horror stories about rentals but would like to hear from investors who have experience in rentals as an investment.
Thanks, Mike
rentals are to use as a supplemental income when you retire, The money you make on them now is a bonus. There are ups and downs to both ways.
Make a list of what you want to accomplish. then make a list of all views you hear about rentals and Buy/fix/sell
This will help you to decide with what you can tolerate in your life.
Try one of both and see which one causes you less anxiety. Pick that one.
here are some problems with renting Non-payment of rent and destruction of property
Problems of buy/fix/sell:
underestimated project budget and property sits too long
You will hear many others
Good luck
lori
[addsig]
The correct answer to these little formulas and stuff. Just get out into the area of the property. Get to know all the players and the tenants and the residential managers. On single family housing it is just you and them. If you do a good job of tenant selection not a problem. It is not always credit ratings. They will lead you astray and you get a darb in there that calls you on the movement of the cockroaches. No not the control of them just the movement.
My best tenant ever was a nice middle aged man newly released from the jail where he had spent the last three years.
Nobody would rent to him. I did why? hell the warden liked him. You should have seen the garden he put in and the window boxes and the new shutters. The house was a McKinley Stinker and we turned it into a painted lady. He loved being out of doors (I wonder why) We painted the house with accent strips and muted colors. He even helped me cut the rounded shingles (fish scales) to replace the rotted ones up in the angle line of the front facade. He was a wonderful tenant. One day this really rough looking guy came to call on him. I was worried as I thought he was some sort of a criminal. Yeah I am a great judge of character, turned out it was a prison guard who he knew in the joint. I told him to be more careful about his choice of friends.
In any case he became self employed and ended up marrying a really nice girl. He was afraid to tell her about his prison time. So I fixed him up. I told. I knew after she got thru crying she would accept it. Soo they got married and I gave her away. After all it was the only right thing to do after giving him away. Yes they bought the house.
Cheers Lucius
Quote:
On 2004-02-20 23:11, Lufos wrote:
The correct answer to these little formulas and stuff. Just get out into the area of the property. Get to know all the players and the tenants and the residential managers. On single family housing it is just you and them. If you do a good job of tenant selection not a problem. It is not always credit ratings. They will lead you astray and you get a darb in there that calls you on the movement of the cockroaches. No not the control of them just the movement.
My best tenant ever was a nice middle aged man newly released from the jail where he had spent the last three years.
Nobody would rent to him. I did why? hell the warden liked him. You should have seen the garden he put in and the window boxes and the new shutters. The house was a McKinley Stinker and we turned it into a painted lady. He loved being out of doors (I wonder why) We painted the house with accent strips and muted colors. He even helped me cut the rounded shingles (fish scales) to replace the rotted ones up in the angle line of the front facade. He was a wonderful tenant. One day this really rough looking guy came to call on him. I was worried as I thought he was some sort of a criminal. Yeah I am a great judge of character, turned out it was a prison guard who he knew in the joint. I told him to be more careful about his choice of friends.
In any case he became self employed and ended up marrying a really nice girl. He was afraid to tell her about his prison time. So I fixed him up. I told. I knew after she got thru crying she would accept it. Soo they got married and I gave her away. After all it was the only right thing to do after giving him away. Yes they bought the house.
Cheers Lucius
Hey Lufos , go check your private msg,thanks
Welcome to TCI lucky1361,
What you got to understand is that every real estate story is time and place specific. We can give you examples all day long but in the end, you are the one who'll pick and buy the building and deal with the tenants and toilets.
My advice to you is simple, spend some real time in the aria where you wan to buy. Talk to people that own the buildings and to those who rent. After several weeks you'll be the expert. You'll feel more confident and you'll know what you want.
Doing it is not as hard as it looks on the first sight and is still 90% off the learning curve. Get out and do it AND MOST CERTAINLY: Good luck !
Thanks for the replies. It is very helpful to have a place to go where others can give you some help. Much appreciated.
Mike
Glad we can be of help!
Quote:I have heard horror stories about rentals but would like to hear from investors who have experience in rentals as an investment. Mike,
You need to lurk in the Landlord Forum for awhile. If you are a prospective landlord, you will find lots of interesting reading in the Landlord Forum.