The experiment begins...

[Laura2592]

Sharing because I have had many of you kindly reach out. As I have posted (copiously) we were hosts for about 3.5 years and had some of the most interesting guests you could possibly imagine (if you define "interesting" as "exhausting and strange" lol.) We put our ABB up for sale after one shot squirrels on our property and left them in a pile. We have been VERY hesitant to re-enter the world of hosting as a result of that experience. But we had an an entire house full of furniture and had to re-invest our proceeds to defer tax. So we have been working for the last few months on our new property which we are offering as a furnished rental with a regular old long term tenant. Listing just went up on various websites and social media.

We have been landlords and its no cakewalk either. We may end up back in the world of STR if we can't find a suitable tenant. This is an experiment. So far I had a guy complain about capacity limits (1200 square foot house, I said its ideal for a couple/max 2 adults 2 kids and he lamented he had 4 adults and 4 pets and wanted to rent) but we have also had a few decent inquiries. I will let everyone know how it goes. Here are some pics-- so proud of how it turned out. (HGTV give me a call!  I am ready for my show.) Seriously though we upcycled a bunch of things from our listing and added some cosmetic touches like cladding the beam in the kitchen. It probably cost about $3k all told tp get this place ready. Not bad... just a lot of work.  We will await the rental applications.

  

[Pat271]

That looks gorgeous, Laura. Good luck. We rented out our properties long-term for years, and good, appreciative tenants are out there. Just make sure you have an iron-clad contract with verbiage reflecting the policies of your state, and a substantial security deposit. There are also services that perform credit and background checks, which I highly recommend. The tenant can pay for the check ($30-40).

[Laura2592]

Thanks @Pat271 ! We are experienced landlords but took a break because our long term tenants bought places right before Covid. My husband does property management commercially so he's big on iron clad leases. You just have to be very picky.  I'm hoping to find someone who has no furniture lol.

[Pat271]

This is probably not the place to discuss other platforms, but I’m sure you know there are platforms that specialize in furnished rentals of stays 1 month or longer. Using one of those might weed out the people with furniture. 🙂

By the way, sorry if I’m mentioning things you already know. Hopefully what we write will be of use to others less experienced.

[Huma0]

@Laura2592 

Great job. The place looks super cute and very inviting. Amazing that you did it all for $3K. Do you have any 'before' pics?

[Laura2592]

Here is the listing: 

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4520-Mountville-Rd-Frederick-MD-21703/36830299_zpid/?mmlb=g,31

As you can see, most of what we had to do was cosmetic, but these folks REALLY loved grey! The house had the proverbial "good bones" but they really wanted a modern space as opposed to the farmhouse it actually is. The upstairs bathroom is nice but it still bothers me that it doesn't "go" with the house as much as I would like it to. All in all though, we spent a lot of time painting, changing out plumbing and light fixtures/curtains, revamping existing furniture, figuring out the backsplash, etc.  We also did a big repair on the air conditioning. The goal was to bring it back to a farmhouse and make it light, bright and pretty.

[Mark116]

@Laura2592   It looks great!  Much better than the previous owners, but all the grey may have been at the request of the real estate agents.  We had some friends who sold their house this Spring, and every single room was repainted by the stager in some tone of grey or greige.

[Laura2592]

@Mark116 we met the owners at the settlement table and that color scheme was very much their preference lol. They were quite proud.   I am sure whem we go to sell our multi color stairs will be painted white but in the meantime I just couldn't live with the depressing entry lol

[Mark116]

@Laura2592  Ha, too funny.  Your decor I like much better, although there was nothing necessary wrong with their kitchen, other than it looked like what you expect at your highrise condo in Boca, not your farmhouse in MD.  

[Laura2592]

@Mark116 we picked this house because the kitchen and the bathroom were nice if a little off of the aesthetic. MUCH better than others available at our price point. I can work with both. And the quartz is actually really high end...much better than mine lol .

The value is the lot. We plan to subdivide eventually. 

[Huma0]

@Laura2592 

Oh wow! It may be mostly cosmetic, but you've done a lot of work. Perhaps @Mark116 is right about the grey. A lot of people would advise going very neutral with the decor when selling and I know that the previous aesthetic (which isn't horrible at all) would probably appeal to many people. However, I do agree with you that this property is a farmhouse and the decor as it was before was kind of incongruous with that. Personally, I prefer your treatment, which is much more in keeping.

[Laura2592]

@Huma0my mom was a real estate agent. We grew up with beige carpet and no color because we were always waiting for the next person to buy/did not want to offend anyone. I've made a point to reject thay idea in my own investment properties. So far I've only gotten compliments about how much people appreciate the vibe. 

[Huma0]

@Laura2592 

Yes, I agree. Some people are afraid of colour/character in a home because they think people will find it too personal. In some cases, this is true, e.g. if you have some sort of very outlandish decor. However, overall, I have found that most people actually like it.

When I bought my house, I rented out the apartment I had previously lived in and then eventually sold it. The flat had been painted to my liking, i.e. with colour. The living room was a lovely deep smoky blue, one bedroom was lilac, another a sage green and I can't remember now what the other one was, but it definitely had colour! The hallways were all a mint green. There were also some decorative touches there that you wouldn't find in the standard rental flat in London.

I NEVER had a problem renting out that place and certainly never had anyone requesting that I make it more neutral.

[Laura2592]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of color if it's well and carefullly executed. We went with white walls in most of the house (ran out of time to do the attic so it's still grey....blah.) Most of the colors come from accessories except for my stairs. And that was very much a "I'm going for it...it can't be MORE depressing" lol.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

Too bad for those folks who are afraid of color, because they'd be petrified down here!  These are photos of currently available long-term rental properties here on the island.