I’ve been interested in real estate for quite some time. I’ve read books, taken seminars, even done some inspecting for a friend whose business it is to make loans on fixer upper properties.
Have I EVER done anything in real estate myself? No. At least until now. I’m now a landlord.
How did this happen? Well I fell backassward into it. Kind of like what happened when I started my business.
I bought a new house about a month ago. This forced me to decide whether to sell or rent the old house. I literally went back and forth on that decision at least 10 times. The horror stories of land lording are well documented. But in the end, I decided I would give renting a try.
The rest of the story? I spent a month fixing the house up: paint, carpeting, cleaning, irrigation, landscaping, appliances. I located a good property manager here in Tucson, and put it on the market last week. I just got a renter Sunday after a full week on the market. The renter is a 47 year old single female with a perfect credit score. Ron, my property manager, said she’s “golden.” He said, “Your house will look better when she leaves than it does now. She could buy a 500K house, but doesn’t want to.” Are they all this easy?
It was so easy, that now, I’m getting hints from Ron on what I should look for in houses that would appeal to renters. Yes, I’m thinking of buying another house for the sole purpose of renting it.
I would not be doing this if I had to manage the property myself. That would violate my prime directive, which, as readers of my blog may remember, is doing nothing. We’ll see going forward if this thing really is as painless as it appears to be.
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