Just a brief update -- as of last Thursday, got the deposit and lease signed with the oncologist! Matt and I are ecstatic about this tenant and hopeful that he will stay with the unit for awhile. We met his two sons who are the nicest, well-mannered kids---which helped with our fear of rowdy boys bouncing around the place. What's even better: our new tenant was trying to break the lease on his current apartment (he's moving because it's much too small for him) and lucky him: 2 days after giving notice, his landlord already found a replacement tenant! So because of this, our tenant moves in literally 1 week after we move out --- no double mortgage payments!! We were prepared to possibly be paying 2 mortgage for 1-3 months, so to not have it be an issue at all is a huge bonus.
All that remains is closing on the new house. The loan documents were approved by underwriting late Friday so hopefully this goes to escrow first thing tomorrow morning and we can sign all the documents during the day......which we need to do because we leave first thing Tuesday morning for another Vegas Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
This is a good problem to have....
Well, we've only gotten 2 inquiries so far from the condo in the last 3 days....but lucky us, they were GREAT inquiries! The first was an oncologist with a great job, steady income, etc and loved our place. He dropped off his rental application the next day. The second was a married couple -- also steady jobs, incomes, good credit history and they loved it so much they filled out an application on the spot. We feel so lucky that both sets of applicants are rock stars. Such a tough decision!!! Who do we choose?! (and yes, this is a good problem to have....) We decided to go with our gut instinct and chose the doctor. He's swinging by tomorrow evening with his sons to check out the place--assuming his sons like (which he feels confident they will), he'll move in. He's confident enough that I know he's already given notice at his current apartment. I won't say we have him for sure until I've got a signed lease agreement and a deposit check, but I feel really good about him...and even if he didn't work out for whatever reason, we have this awesome couple as a great alternative. So exciting!
Speaking of this topic, I got a call tonight from a friend who's moving out of the country pretty soon (keeping mum until they make this news public....) and also looking into renting their place. I sent a long e-mail tonight with what I've learned in the last few weeks---in addition to sending some sample lease documents, I wrote:
As for tenant background screening, I ended up really liking SmartMove the most. It's a service of TransUnion and provides a pretty awesome secure environment for potential renters to enter their personal information without having to leave it with you (like their social security #). The resulting report is great -- you get both a credit and criminal report that's pretty thorough. What you don't get is any rental history. You can choose either for you to pay the fee or for them to pay the fee which I also found convenient. Now, even though the renters had to fill something out online, I still liked having them fill out an application form as it allowed me to ask questions I wouldn't otherwise get answers to from a basic credit and criminal check, such as "when do you plan to move in? how long would you live here? what's your residential history? give me personal references, etc.." The combination of having the application and using SmartMove was very helpful. Had I researched which website I was going to use ahead of time, I probably would've not asked for a SS# on the application form.
Other recommended websites I was given:
* http://www.e-renter.com This looked pretty thorough but they have this lame feature where if you want a credit check, the potential renter has to log in and then pay $1.99. Because of that, I didn't like this site. I know others that have used this site and liked it.
* http://on-site.com This also came recommended but after I signed up, they wanted me to fax something in to prove that I owned the property that I wanted to rent. Wha-a-a-? Super lame. Just a hurdle that was enough for me to not continue anymore.
* http://www.tenantverification.com I didn't check them out, so no comments...but supposedly you can get rental history from here.
As for advertising, all I did was put something up on Craigslist and I was really fortunate to get 2 (successful) inquiries within an hour after posting. Sadly, no one else has contacted us about the condo ever since...so I'm really happy that of the only 2 inquiries we got, they were all super awesome candidates that loved the place AND decided to apply. If I didn't hear from anyone or got dissatisfied with who I heard from, I was going to:
- lower the price on Craigslist
- start advertising at Microsoft
- ask someone to advertise at Amazon
I sought out advice from many friends that are landlords and most of them said that craigslist alone ended up being sufficient for finding great renters. The number one advice I got was to go with your instinct and rent to someone that you feel good about.
Anyhow, that's about the extent of research I've done so far. I didn't look into Property Management companies (though we did think about it) because I also got a lot of advice from folks that it was pretty easy to do on your own...but a consideration to do if you were moving out of the city (like you!). I can absolutely see the convenience and I would probably use one if we were leaving Seattle. I only spent one evening poking around at a few companies out of curiosity and found, typically:
- if you use their services for tenant screening and advertising of your property, they will charge either a flat fee or something like 50% of your 1st month's rent
- for management services, it's typically 10% of the rent
- the greatest convenient service I found was one place that would not only collect rent but also pay your mortgage for you to ensure everything gets paid in time (and just bill you separately). I thought that was pretty sweet
Again, you can always try to do this on your own at first...and then decide at a later time to use a property management company. Up to you. That's the way we are thinking---we'll try to do this on our own and if it's a total pain in the butt, we'll start looking into this. Thinking back now, knowing that it would've cost me more than $1000 to use one for the purpose of advertising, background screening, etc., I'm VERY GLAD I decided to do this on my own. Advertising was free and easy (craigslist), background screening was super easy with all these websites (like SmartMove) and I liked being in control of putting together the leasing documents. It would not have been worth $1000 at all.
Speaking of this topic, I got a call tonight from a friend who's moving out of the country pretty soon (keeping mum until they make this news public....) and also looking into renting their place. I sent a long e-mail tonight with what I've learned in the last few weeks---in addition to sending some sample lease documents, I wrote:
As for tenant background screening, I ended up really liking SmartMove the most. It's a service of TransUnion and provides a pretty awesome secure environment for potential renters to enter their personal information without having to leave it with you (like their social security #). The resulting report is great -- you get both a credit and criminal report that's pretty thorough. What you don't get is any rental history. You can choose either for you to pay the fee or for them to pay the fee which I also found convenient. Now, even though the renters had to fill something out online, I still liked having them fill out an application form as it allowed me to ask questions I wouldn't otherwise get answers to from a basic credit and criminal check, such as "when do you plan to move in? how long would you live here? what's your residential history? give me personal references, etc.." The combination of having the application and using SmartMove was very helpful. Had I researched which website I was going to use ahead of time, I probably would've not asked for a SS# on the application form.
Other recommended websites I was given:
* http://www.e-renter.com This looked pretty thorough but they have this lame feature where if you want a credit check, the potential renter has to log in and then pay $1.99. Because of that, I didn't like this site. I know others that have used this site and liked it.
* http://on-site.com This also came recommended but after I signed up, they wanted me to fax something in to prove that I owned the property that I wanted to rent. Wha-a-a-? Super lame. Just a hurdle that was enough for me to not continue anymore.
* http://www.tenantverification.com I didn't check them out, so no comments...but supposedly you can get rental history from here.
As for advertising, all I did was put something up on Craigslist and I was really fortunate to get 2 (successful) inquiries within an hour after posting. Sadly, no one else has contacted us about the condo ever since...so I'm really happy that of the only 2 inquiries we got, they were all super awesome candidates that loved the place AND decided to apply. If I didn't hear from anyone or got dissatisfied with who I heard from, I was going to:
- lower the price on Craigslist
- start advertising at Microsoft
- ask someone to advertise at Amazon
I sought out advice from many friends that are landlords and most of them said that craigslist alone ended up being sufficient for finding great renters. The number one advice I got was to go with your instinct and rent to someone that you feel good about.
Anyhow, that's about the extent of research I've done so far. I didn't look into Property Management companies (though we did think about it) because I also got a lot of advice from folks that it was pretty easy to do on your own...but a consideration to do if you were moving out of the city (like you!). I can absolutely see the convenience and I would probably use one if we were leaving Seattle. I only spent one evening poking around at a few companies out of curiosity and found, typically:
- if you use their services for tenant screening and advertising of your property, they will charge either a flat fee or something like 50% of your 1st month's rent
- for management services, it's typically 10% of the rent
- the greatest convenient service I found was one place that would not only collect rent but also pay your mortgage for you to ensure everything gets paid in time (and just bill you separately). I thought that was pretty sweet
Again, you can always try to do this on your own at first...and then decide at a later time to use a property management company. Up to you. That's the way we are thinking---we'll try to do this on our own and if it's a total pain in the butt, we'll start looking into this. Thinking back now, knowing that it would've cost me more than $1000 to use one for the purpose of advertising, background screening, etc., I'm VERY GLAD I decided to do this on my own. Advertising was free and easy (craigslist), background screening was super easy with all these websites (like SmartMove) and I liked being in control of putting together the leasing documents. It would not have been worth $1000 at all.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Things are wrapping up soon....
It's been a busy few weeks wrapping up the home purchase, mainly in getting loan documentation all together. Man, I don't know if it's this lender I'm working with or just strict new Fannie Mae rules (probably the latter) but the amount of documentation I have to show compared to when I bought the condo in 2003 is insane. Anything that is even slightly off I have to sign a letter with a statement describing the issue. It's all worked out and nothing is going to stop this loan from going through (whew!) but man, it's been really interesting comparing the current experience to 6 years ago.
Yesterday, we had a walk through of the house with the builder, just to point out minor little cosmetic things that need fixing (fortunately, most of the issues are extremely minor---little paint chips or a sticky closet door). It was really exciting to go through and learn more about the house -- like that all of the main floor doors and windows are already pre-wired for security and that the family room has already been prewired for a home theater system so that we don't have to drill any more holes.
In the last couple of weeks, we also started shopping for some of the key things we will need immediately, like a refrigerator, washer/dryer, a new king bed and family room furniture. It's been exciting and we feel great about what we've picked out. There's certainly more we will need to buy over time (i.e. sitting room furniture, dining room, etc..) but those are lower priority and we'll just get those over time... I think I'm most excited about the washer/dryer as I've never had a front-loading washer ever. The current one in the condo is just a basic unit and does the job fine...so it was exciting just seeing what options exist out there in current, newer units.
Also, finally put up an ad for renting the condo today---and got the first inquiry about it only 30 minutes after posting! I ended up showing the unit this evening to one potential renter and have an appointment tomorrow with another. Hopefully all works out so that we have a renter soon! We were hoping to have a renter by Christmas...but man, if we have a renter by Thanksgiving, that will be awesome.
Yesterday, we had a walk through of the house with the builder, just to point out minor little cosmetic things that need fixing (fortunately, most of the issues are extremely minor---little paint chips or a sticky closet door). It was really exciting to go through and learn more about the house -- like that all of the main floor doors and windows are already pre-wired for security and that the family room has already been prewired for a home theater system so that we don't have to drill any more holes.
In the last couple of weeks, we also started shopping for some of the key things we will need immediately, like a refrigerator, washer/dryer, a new king bed and family room furniture. It's been exciting and we feel great about what we've picked out. There's certainly more we will need to buy over time (i.e. sitting room furniture, dining room, etc..) but those are lower priority and we'll just get those over time... I think I'm most excited about the washer/dryer as I've never had a front-loading washer ever. The current one in the condo is just a basic unit and does the job fine...so it was exciting just seeing what options exist out there in current, newer units.
Also, finally put up an ad for renting the condo today---and got the first inquiry about it only 30 minutes after posting! I ended up showing the unit this evening to one potential renter and have an appointment tomorrow with another. Hopefully all works out so that we have a renter soon! We were hoping to have a renter by Christmas...but man, if we have a renter by Thanksgiving, that will be awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
