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Permalink Reply by Kathleen on October 20, 2012 at 8:34am

I've put up for rent twice in a year a nice 9 year old ranch, 1280 finished with a dry 13 block basement, 3bd, 2 bath, all appliances, air, attached 2 car garage on 2 acres and didn't get a ton of calls but rented it for 800. I had to except pets to get that. The house is not on the beaten path, but in decent schools.
I saw yesterday a house in columbiana renting lowered their price. I do not know the pricing though, it was just a sign out front after the circle heading towards 14.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Hoepfner on October 21, 2012 at 8:24am

Thanks for the info.  A little discouraging, but maybe we will have better luck.  Thanks so much!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Mehl on October 23, 2012 at 7:50am

Hi Jeff, My advice is offer it fully furnished including utilities, cable and internet. Outfit the kitchen with everything someone needs (including a junk drawer) and ask 3 times what Kathleen got.  Target white collar workers if possible.

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen on October 23, 2012 at 8:38am

Jeff in ways I agree with Bill, but as an owner I have reservations. I got a call from a white collar oil worker who's 1st thing was a way for me to rent it cheaper when he didn't even see it yet. He wanted to pay 7 months in advance for a reduction in cash. I knew if I took this I would be re-listing, re-cleaning and rent lost to re-showing the house within 7 months.
I think you have to decide who your target is and how upset you would be if your newly renovated house got real messy and unkept. I had a huge problem with tenets not cleaning furnace filters as an example of what you have to think about ahead of time. They just about wiped out my heat pump/central air. This may not happen but if your target is the rig workers making good money it could. Single male either living alone or as a group are not known to be overly neat people :0). 6 bd rooms could mean 6 men. No offense here to men :0)
I read if you have a real nice big family house, market it directly to the oil co's since many white collar engineers or managers might be relocating to the area. Send over nice bright pictures to the human recourse departments as a try. Families are your best renters IMO (so far anyway).
What I agree with is if you have everything included it might rent faster and of course higher. One problem though is if you took all the burden off them I bet they would never think to clean a furnace filter, dryer lint catcher, mow (yes you can include that of course) turn a screwdriver if a cabinet hinge comes lose, etc..
If you will not live close to this house I would be careful. If you're planning on living a couple miles away I would do exactly what Bill said but expect to be a a hands on landlord/maintenance man.. You will lose 200-400 a month to have mowing done. Than there is snow removal and who decides how much snow needs to fall for it to be removed.
On a side note remember most locals rent for a reason, I found it to be issues with credit.
To be honest the idea of renting a house with a yard that you care about is not as much fun as it sounds.
One thing I learned the hard way was only do a month to month lease. Do not lock yourself into a year. No matter how good your lease is, it's very hard to get good grounds to evict. I had utilities must be maintained at all times in mine but even though they had a full shut off I could not evict. Didn't mow all spring, couldn't evict even though again it was listed as their responsibility. Lawyer reviewed lease.
My renters now work for a subsidiary of CHK, but are locals.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Mehl on October 23, 2012 at 8:51am

Excellent points Kathleen.  We rented to blue collar workers sight unseen as well.  They didn't offer to prepay but they only lasted 5 months. On the up side, they took excellent care of the home and cleaned it very well before they left.  You are dead on with marketing directly.  Make the lease with the company not to individuals if possible.  Agree with you that families are better in terms of longevity, but if you are after $$ Jeff, you can get it from the companies.  We also mow ourselves but that may not be for you.

 

Month- to- month is a great idea because you have freedom to change terms every month (with notice)

ON the flip side, if either of you decide to sell instead of rent, I am an agent with Harvey Goodman Realtors! ;)  888-592-8620

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