As an add-on to the o.p., I’ve been considering getting a fourplex-type of house (there are a lot of older craftsman-style houses like this in SoCal), living in one unit and renting out the others. (I’m not looking to make a profit on this, but rather build up some equity on someone else’s dime and reduce my own housing costs.) I’d be doing much of the basic maintenance and repairs myself and contracting out for stuff that is beyond handyman level. I’ve gotten some amount of advice regarding where to look and so forth, but does anyone have personal experience or qualified advice in financing and operating such a thing? (I swore I’d never be a landlord after a brief stretch years ago, but it’s likely to be the only way I can actually afford to buy property here without being stretched to the limit.)
Stranger
A couple of other things:
List every person who is living in the unit on the lease; i.e., the only occupants of the house are to be Mary & John Smith, their 4 year old daugher Shana and their 12 year old son Lewis. If anyone else moves in, take them to court for lease violations.
Put everything in writing and keep copies. That means everything. Every time you verbally communicate with your tenant, send a letter on it. Keep bills and copies of checks, money orders and receipts. Have it all nice and chronologically arranged in a folding file. If you have to have the police over, get a report.
If you ever have to go to court, you will thank me.
I am going to keep an eye on this thread for sure. I am thinking of getting into rental properties some day in the near future (5 years max).
My folks had some rental properties. The first one was a house they had built themselves and couldn’t bear to sell when the family outgrew it. Not a good idea. Mom would get upset if someone wasn’t keeping the stove properly clean. Dad would sweat every nail put into a wall. (The walls were plaster and the parents had only ever used stick-on picture hangers to preserve the plaster.) Not that they’d complain to the renters. We’d be the only ones that heard about it.
Don’t ask about the ranting when renters would take curtain rods and sink strainers with them when they left or when they left a mess behind. One of the less loved rental houses lost a couple of interior doors durning a move-out. That was about the worst, and they agonized over it. (The renters caught growing pot moved out sweet as pie, though.)
My Uncle, on the other hand, was much more laid back. If renters didn’t make calls for maintenance, he’d keep their rent the same no matter how long they stayed and would shrug off any cleaning or damage after they left. The move-out that sticks in my mind is the one where the folks left after twenty years. They’d had a bunch of cats and a pot bellied pig. My Uncle had to rent a chipper to chip the carpet off of the flooring.
My folks eventually got out of the rental thing. It was just as well.