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Archive for June, 2012

Well, another twist to consider

June 26th, 2012 at 04:04 pm

Now, I've got 4 college boys wanting to rent our house for a year at the full asking price of $1700. Anyone have any pros/cons with renting to college kids?

(The $1300 family now wants to change it to a year's lease with the option to renew for another year.)

Help... I need to make a decision today!

June 25th, 2012 at 09:22 pm

Brief recap:

-House for sale for 4 years now
-Finally decide to put it up for rent a month ago
-Got an offer to rent it for $1300 a month for 2 years (doesn't cover all the mortgage on the house but it's much better than nothing!)
-Need to firm up this lease agreement offer TODAY

So, we were all set to go on this thing but then our realtor just let us know that he has been in talks with a family out in Arizona (we are in the Southeast). The lady has just accepted a job here at the local University and they are heading up here to look at rental houses on July 4. He said that they loved our house based on the pictures and the conversations they have had with him. If they like the house once they see it, they will give $1500 a month for a one year lease.

These $1300 people want to lock in today so I don't have the luxury of waiting for the Arizona people in the case that I would lose the $1300 offer.

So, should I take the safe bet and just lease the house to the family first in line at $1300 for 2 years? Or should I take the riskier bet and wait a week and a half so that the Arizona people can come up and look at the place. If they like it, we'll get $1500 a month for a year. If they don't like it and don't want to rent it, we may or may not have the $1300 offer on the table any longer.

**At $1300 a month for 24 months, we are looking at a loss of around $9500 over the two years considering mortgage and insurance.
**At $1500 a month for 12 months, we are looking at a loss of around $2600 over the one year considering mortgage and insurance.

I have a feeling I know the answer but thought I would throw the question out to you guys anyway... ((Oh, and the $1300 a month people will have a dog with them -- a lab, but I'm not charging them anymore for having a pet.))

Rental offer

June 18th, 2012 at 01:41 pm

Ok, so we decided to move forward with trying to get a renter for our house at the same time we are trying to sell this same house... We now have an offer from a couple wanting to rent our house for $1300 a month with first and last month plus a month as a security deposit ($3900) paid upfront. Our mortgage on the house is $1660 per month so we'd be renting it at a loss. However, we would be selling at a huge loss as well so it's not something that we were not expecting in today's climate. My CPA friend thinks it is a good idea as we could begin to claim the property as rental property which means we could claim these losses on our taxes. I think we are moving forward with these renters (have to decide today) just so we can get out from under the house. They want to move in on Aug 1 which works out for our schedule too as our "short sale" house is coming along just fine and we could definitely live there starting Aug 1. I've always wanted rental property but just never thought we would go this route to be landlords so it's a bit of foreign territory for us...