Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
I haven’t personally owned a rent house, but I have both gotten fairly far along in the process and had fairly close relatives who owned them. So-
A real estate agent can tell you how much rent you’ll be able to charge in a particular neighborhood. You can use a mortgage calculator(add ten percent for loan fees) plus publicly available data for taxes and insurance to guesstimate costs. Run the numbers, then run them again.
Your tenants will damage your property. Expect to have to repaint and change the carpet before a tenant, and in between tenants at the very least. White collar tenants are hell on the plumbing, blue collar tenants just damage shit(walls and the like), both of them need an exterminator all the time, non-gypsy euro immigrants are the best ones. everyone has HVAC emergencies and service techs are less honest than usual with landlords. No tenant will do maintenance past mowing the lawn. Do not allow your tenants to have male dogs.
Check tenant rights law and what you’re required to provide+what recourse you have for nonpayment. Make tenants undergo a credit check, have renters insurance, and provide a deposit.
Rental agencies can help you find better tenants, but factor in that they’ll take a cut of the profit. If they tell you not to rent to a certain tenant, don’t accept the inevitable sob story.
Home inspections are your friend. Use an inspector, ideally more than one.
And finally, remember that owning a rent house is a job, not a source of passive income like a dividend paying stock. You do have to invest time and work into it.
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