Finding Your Dream Tenant
(plus 158 cheap real estate deals below)
Last summer I had a tenant leave a rental property of mine and I decided I would test the market and try to sell. I rehabbed this house with a friend, and we no longer communicate so I figured it was time to cut ties.
The agent I was using didn’t have much luck attracting buyers, and the few who came through didn’t like it. I had detached myself so much from this house that I kept throwing money at my handyman to do work, but I was never checking on it and wasnt worried about “sprucing it up”.
My agent thought she found a lease option candidate, but after months of messing around the candidate fell through and I decided to keep this stupid house and continue renting it. I decided I would rent it out for $800 per month just so I could stop the bleeding. My father (who has been investing for about 20 years) checked out the house, told me what work needed to be done and told me the quicker I do it the sooner I will have a tenant.
So as I started doing the minor fixes I was still trying to rent the house out at $800 per month. A few potential tenants kept coming through, but I didnt trust them.
After 2 days of minor repairs and heavy cleaning I started thinking “Wow!… This house looks awesome!”
I was regaining my sense of pride in this house and I decided to delete all of my existing craigslist ads and replace them with “make your friends and family Jealous… Rent this house for $950 per month” ads.
I was getting about 10 calls per day instead of the one or two from before. Not only were people more interested in my house now that I was charging more, but I would meet these people to show them around and they were the kind of people I would want to hang out with.
Within 4 days I found my dream tenant!
So what did I learn? To attract more (and better) tenants…
1) Make sure your property is CLEAN!
2) Ask for a little more money than you are comfortable asking for. People perceive it as “better quality”… plus they can always “negotiate you down”
3) Craigslist Rocks! Your tenants are looking here! Make your ad stick out!
Well if you are looking for some awesome deals we have had a ton posted to http://myNextRehab.com since we last spoke (especially from South Florida)
Check out these 158 new deals…
Go Get ‘Em!
Shawn
http://myNextRehab.com
PS – Sorry I haven’t had a chance to email in a while. Just got back from a trip to Switzerland. Below is a pic of me and my lady on top of Mt Titlis
