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.

  

[Laura2592]

@Debra300 Right?! Part of the reason I love New Orleans is the tropical colors that so many places are painted. I'm with you! Live a little! 

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

I love it. In fact, I love anywhere where the houses are all painted lots of different colours. Some of these places are famous for exactly that, e.g. Portobello Road in London, or towns like Antigua, Guatemala.

When I bought my house, the houses in the small terrace that it's on (and all the neighbouring ones) were painted either white or cream, which is not necessarily the most practical choice given that we live on a busy road and those colours start to look grubby very quickly, but people seem to prefer to play it safe.

My next door neighbour was truly horrified when I told her I was going to paint my house green (even though it's not an intense green at all). She said that I should keep it white or cream because it would look smarter if all the houses are the same. I didn't hold back and even went for a bright pink front door. A couple of weeks later, the next door neighbour painted her house pink! I thought I might have started a trend and that Stockwell could become the next Notting Hill but, no, a lot of the houses are split into rental flats, so that didn't happen.

Still, people smile when they see my house. I can't tell you how many of them I find taking photos in my front garden (people sometimes compliment me when I catch them in the middle of this but a lot run away in embarrassment) and I have even found the exterior of my house on image photo library sites. In my experience, a lot of people are afraid of doing anything 'different' but then find that they like it when they actually see it elsewhere...

[Laura2592]

More pics...still working on stagong the attic bedroom

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 

This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos!

We have 2 large homes in town, both long term leased. We've listed our rentals on Zillow which is several sites in one. The applicant pays $29 to apply, which covers a background check and credit report. You can opt to do an additional check, as already mentioned, for a small cost from a different platform. 

When I have a vacancy, I only show the home to qualified applicants, by invitation/appointment. For every showing I may have several applicants. One house has tenants who have stayed for years. The other has some turnover, especially now with the pandemic, with essential workers coming in for a project and leaving after a year or more. Everyone has taken excellent care of the place. 

Suggest you have a very strong lease, have it reviewed by a property manager and/or a paralegal. Some rental management companies publish their lease online, and you could use it as a model, also Nolo Press. Charge what it is worth, and a damage deposit to the max allowed. Substantial pet deposits, if you decide to allow pets. In a furnished rental, that could be an issue. We do not allow smoking, pot growing/processing or home businesses other than a home office with no customer traffic. 

Your rental is lovely. You will get some nice folks there, who will not stress the place, who will be able to afford it, and appreciate it. Keep us posted!

[Laura2592]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 oooh I did not know Zillow could screen! We are using apartments dot com and they do as well. Thanks for the tip! I'll put it up there too. 

[Huma0]

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@Kitty-and-Creek0 wrote:

Suggest you have a very strong lease, have it reviewed by a property manager and/or a paralegal. Some rental management companies publish their lease online, and you could use it as a model, also Nolo Press.

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I did this in the past when I was renting to long term tenants. You can easily find examples online and just tweak them to suit your property (providing you don't change anything that would be out of line with tenancy laws). I did this for several years and never had any problems in terms of the lease. I only had one or two problematic tenants who tried to tell me what they could and couldn't do. I directed them back to the lease and they shut up and left as instructed.

[Laura2592]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 thanks for the tip about Zillow. I put it up and got about 5 applications within an hour or two-- a few of those are really well qualified. We showed a bunch this weekend and today is the last day we are taking appointments because we have at least 2 very good possibilities and don't want to draw things out. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 I continue to take apps through Zillow, until I have a signed lease. We just did this, and it took several weeks to make an appropriate match. We only show to qualified applicants and do our homework to verify their qualifications. Even the best on paper people can surprise us. Best of luck with this, and keep us in the loop. 

[Laura2592]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 oh we will keep taking applications but are taking a break from showing while we go through the backgrounds/references of the applications we like best.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 Good for you! We do all that background work on best qualified applicants before we show to anyone. In this very small town everyone knows our homes, and our reputation as terrific landlords. With our severe rental shortage it is easy to be swamped. It is very competitive. The best qualified show us paystubs, W-2's and tax returns, provide many references, and demonstrate they are good partners in the group project of providing them with an excellent home. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Laura2592  I like what you did, it is so much better than before. Great job, bravo! 🙂

[Debra300]

@Laura2592,

You've done a great job, and should be able to choose to attract the type of tenant that you want.

[Laura2592]

Thanks so much @Debra300 . I do hope we get someone who really loves the place 

[Laura2592]

Just an update-

We have had: 23 applications, 45 different inquiries, and 31 tours since Friday.

Of those,  2 applications were fantastic (great credit, stable income, good rental history, the right number of people and pets etc), 3 were acceptable (decent credit, good rental history, income slightly less stable but overall still in the running.) Unfortunately the vast majority were not folks we might consider for one reason or another.  We make our calls today to the top candidate and set up appointments for the lease signing.

Things we learned:

1. This is a VERY different market than when we were landlords from 2014-2020.  People are desperate. So many people have sold homes and have not made a contingency plan because the market is still pretty tight in my area (I suggested Airbnb). Rentals have also dried up because landlords have sold investments. There is a lot of competition that was not present before.
2. COVID did a number on people's mental health. Fully 3/4 of the people we had apply are either going through a separation and need to leave the family home, or just finalizing a divorce. One poor guy started crying during the tour. It was more like a therapy session for some of these folks than a house tour. In past experience we saw a lot of young couples trying to rent our places. Not at all the case this time. 
3.  Capacity limits are not only a problem with Airbnb. Because our space is quite small, we have to limit capacity for county codes. We routinely had inquiries for extended families and pets to shoehorn into our 1200 square feet.  It was so bad that we have added stronger language in the lease. The house just won't support that many people. 
4. Furnishing is great for staging, but not a lot of people really want it long term. Which is what I feared. There is a yard sale in my future lol. Some of the pieces we used came from our house, but most if it was repurposed from our Airbnb.  I am not attached to it but I do need to figure out what to do with it! 
5. We upped the local rental game. I had 2 different landlords with houses to rent ask me if I could come and take a look at theirs to help them make it look nicer. I am so flattered! Our little house got all kinds of kudos for being so cute. It absolutely DOES make a difference in the vibe of the property and has certainly increased the level of interest. And the monthly rent for ours is a tad high based on square footage but absolutely no one complained because of the condition of the space. 
6. No one understands how big 3 acres is. 
7. Its great to network with other landlords. If you have good applicants but you know they aren't an exact match, you can certainly send them to other spaces where you have made a connection with the landlord. Win win. 
8. Sometimes people share too much. Its SO very much like the ABB guests we would get who overcommunicated personal things. I have one applicant who has contacted me several times a day every day since their tour telling me how much they want the place, sharing pics etc. I have been clear that they should continue to look, and have to tell this person "no" for sure today which will crush them. They are certainly someone we considered but the communication and oversharing did not bode well for a long term relationship. It just reminded me of certain guests. Too much emotional labor.
9. Our place is perfect for ABB. I talked to a few people about that being a back up plan, adding a tiny house to the wooded area and renting 2 spaces. So much enthusiasm for that plan with many tenants trying to figure out if we would do that for them for a few months. Ironic. 
10. Naborly is the best screening app. We got most of our responses from Zillow but the Naborly screening is far more thorough with really detailed metrics on the likelihood of a successful tenancy beyond just credit and background. Its $24.95 for the application (tenant pays.) I highly recommend it. Zillow is the best place to drive traffic to your listing. Apartments.com is second. 

[Pat271]

What an interesting and thorough synopsis, Laura - thank you!