best practices or resources for renting out your house from a distance
December 22, 2014 9:54 AM Subscribe
I may be relocating to the opposite coast for a job opportunity and will need to rent out my historic single family house outside of Washington, DC. I have a good property management company ready in place, but I wanted to tap the hivemind and see what things folks thought I should think about or be ready for.
I want to rent it out and not selling it because I am likely going to come back in a year or two and I have a house that I paid 2009-era prices for (both because keeps equity paid on the house here, and because it would keep my life far more affordable at a lower income than it would otherwise since my mortgage is pretty low by DC housing standards). Any thoughts or experiences from doing this cross-country?
I want to rent it out and not selling it because I am likely going to come back in a year or two and I have a house that I paid 2009-era prices for (both because keeps equity paid on the house here, and because it would keep my life far more affordable at a lower income than it would otherwise since my mortgage is pretty low by DC housing standards). Any thoughts or experiences from doing this cross-country?
Sadly, no one will care about a rental property like the owner does. Expect damage and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't occur.
posted by heathrowga at 10:10 AM on December 22, 2014
posted by heathrowga at 10:10 AM on December 22, 2014
Definitely designate a neighborhood spy. Do not have them interact with the tenant on your behalf, but have them call you if anything odd is obviously going on.
Background-check the holy fuck out of prospective tenants. Do use a service to pull their records, but also ask for proof of employment - call it and verify - and a personal reference.
We lost our house because of shitty tenants. If you can't float the place for a year on your current income/rent/expenses, know that you are walking a tightrope.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:20 AM on December 22, 2014
Background-check the holy fuck out of prospective tenants. Do use a service to pull their records, but also ask for proof of employment - call it and verify - and a personal reference.
We lost our house because of shitty tenants. If you can't float the place for a year on your current income/rent/expenses, know that you are walking a tightrope.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:20 AM on December 22, 2014
I've had friends who rented out their house for a while. They insisted on only renting to professionals with a security clearance, because they figured that the renters wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that.
YMMV, of course.
posted by hmo at 10:24 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
YMMV, of course.
posted by hmo at 10:24 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks - actually my property manager happens to be a neighbor that lives down the block (and separately manage a series of houses/buildings in an adjoining town) - this neighbor also grew up on the street and would care very much about the block and having a good tenant.
posted by waylaid at 10:39 AM on December 22, 2014
posted by waylaid at 10:39 AM on December 22, 2014
I was in exactly the same situation for a few years (minus the historic nature of the house). If your property manager does not already plan to do so, have him prepare an annual report, complete with photos, documenting what shape the place is in and what work needs to be performed. Start with a detailed report of the "before" state, both inside and outside. MeMail me if you'd like a full list of what it should cover.
It's true, even the best tenants will not care about the place like you do. My tenants worked for a home improvement store and were generous enough to fix a few minor things on their own. Even so, the house was rode hard and put away wet. Also, when I moved back in I kept getting junk mail for several people who were not on the lease.
posted by Longtime Listener at 10:58 AM on December 22, 2014
It's true, even the best tenants will not care about the place like you do. My tenants worked for a home improvement store and were generous enough to fix a few minor things on their own. Even so, the house was rode hard and put away wet. Also, when I moved back in I kept getting junk mail for several people who were not on the lease.
posted by Longtime Listener at 10:58 AM on December 22, 2014
I did this. The one that I ended up uncomfortable with was realizing later that the real estate agent whom I hired to manage the property had made real sure to cover her own butt and include language that gave her an easy out if she wanted to walk away but there was no such language letting me readily say "Yeah, no. I want someone else to manage this for me." It ended up not being a problem. But I did look back on it and go "Yeah, that was a stupid noob move -- I should have also been looking to cover my butt."
So when you make a contract with the property manager, read it carefully with an eye towards covering your butt. I was grateful to have someone to take this over and I felt we were on the same side. I viewed tenants as potential adversaries. I did not think of the property manager as also a potential adversary. That was sort of naïve on my part.
posted by Michele in California at 11:42 AM on December 22, 2014
So when you make a contract with the property manager, read it carefully with an eye towards covering your butt. I was grateful to have someone to take this over and I felt we were on the same side. I viewed tenants as potential adversaries. I did not think of the property manager as also a potential adversary. That was sort of naïve on my part.
posted by Michele in California at 11:42 AM on December 22, 2014
Since you asked for things to look out for, I have a horror story. Friends moved to Houston not long after getting married, and rented out his condo. After evicting some awful tenants, they found not only thousands of dollars of damage (that they weren't going to be able to get money from the tenants to repay), but were in the unit making repairs when somebody started pounding on the door shouting death threats (intended for the former tenants, not the owners).
On the bright side, another friend has been renting her condo for years and her tenants have always paid rent on time, although one was particularly needy. ISTR the girl wanted the owner to change the locks after she'd broken up with her boyfriend, who had a key. "Um, no, if you want that done you'll have to pay for it, and you'll also need to get me a copy of the new key. And his name wasn't on the lease. Was he living with you?"
posted by fedward at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2014
On the bright side, another friend has been renting her condo for years and her tenants have always paid rent on time, although one was particularly needy. ISTR the girl wanted the owner to change the locks after she'd broken up with her boyfriend, who had a key. "Um, no, if you want that done you'll have to pay for it, and you'll also need to get me a copy of the new key. And his name wasn't on the lease. Was he living with you?"
posted by fedward at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2014
Something to keep in mind is that there are people who want nothing to do with the landlord if they can help it, and there are the ones who have mistaken the landlord for a hotel manager or parent. I see it here all the time, people with roommate problems being advised to take it to the landlord to settle, or to demand cosmetic repairs/improvements, as if all landlords are corporate apartment managers who can swap out a stove or re-carpet on 24-hour notice.
Spell out what you can in the lease to that end. Define for the property manager and tenants what constitutes an emergency - and not just what to call you in the middle of the night about, but what they *must* report to you. I see landlords upset that tenants didn't take care of the place "as if it was their own" but do you really want them replacing faucets and re-flooring and doing wall-patching? Whose money did you want spent on that? What if they're complete bozos? What if they just ignore the dishwasher leak instead of telling you?
(I actually pointed out to the landlord on our walkthrough that the dishwasher is leaking and what did he want to do about it, and he basically sidled away so I wrote it on the lease and walk-through form and I haven't mentioned it again. He's going to have to replace the stupid-ass laminate in the kitchen. I'm not going to do it, and I'm going to pull it up and put down a rug on the subfloor if it curls up any more. Not my house and he doesn't care, so...)
And yeah, the property manager's goal is to do as little work as possible; they are not your ally. If you want a caretaker, hire a caretaker. That's probably your #1 way of keeping the house in the best possible shape, but you'll pay for it and you'll have to find tenants who will agree to it.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:24 PM on December 22, 2014
Spell out what you can in the lease to that end. Define for the property manager and tenants what constitutes an emergency - and not just what to call you in the middle of the night about, but what they *must* report to you. I see landlords upset that tenants didn't take care of the place "as if it was their own" but do you really want them replacing faucets and re-flooring and doing wall-patching? Whose money did you want spent on that? What if they're complete bozos? What if they just ignore the dishwasher leak instead of telling you?
(I actually pointed out to the landlord on our walkthrough that the dishwasher is leaking and what did he want to do about it, and he basically sidled away so I wrote it on the lease and walk-through form and I haven't mentioned it again. He's going to have to replace the stupid-ass laminate in the kitchen. I'm not going to do it, and I'm going to pull it up and put down a rug on the subfloor if it curls up any more. Not my house and he doesn't care, so...)
And yeah, the property manager's goal is to do as little work as possible; they are not your ally. If you want a caretaker, hire a caretaker. That's probably your #1 way of keeping the house in the best possible shape, but you'll pay for it and you'll have to find tenants who will agree to it.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:24 PM on December 22, 2014
Doesn't sound like you'll run into this, but - I had a horrible, horrible property manager, who managed to drain off about 3/4 of my rental income each month for ridiculous trumped up items. He replaced a new disposal under warranty and charged me triple the cost. He replaced the stove, and intercepted a beautiful deal the tenants had found on Craigslist, with a crappy old unit pulled from one of his low-end apartments. He lost the key to the fence gate, and let the grass get shin-high. Also - tenants painted best room all teal, despite explicit prohibition in lease.
posted by mmiddle at 2:33 PM on December 22, 2014
posted by mmiddle at 2:33 PM on December 22, 2014
If you have really nice original floors, consider covering them up with cheap flooring to preserve them.
posted by fshgrl at 3:13 PM on December 22, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 3:13 PM on December 22, 2014 [4 favorites]
My partner, a quiet librarian lady, and her quiet bookish best friend who works in animal daycares and early child development off and on rented a house in a very similar situation to yours. Understand, they are probably the perfect tenants. They don't make noise, they freak out and clean up the tiniest spill and keep their places immaculate 100% of the time. I seriously don't understand how you could get better tenants.
It was a really really nice historic place, same deal. The front yard/front of the house had been on the cover of a magazine.
Seeing as how the owner was out of town, she enlisted one of the neighbors who she was in some way friends with who seemed nice enough as her "spy".
This lady was a fucking nightmare. She'd see something, extrapolate from one tiny bit of evidence, catastrophize, and then go tattling to the owner with some completely nonsensical story with tons of made up details. Me and her friends boyfriend would come over 2-4x a week to hang out, and occasionally stay the night. We both lived all the way across town and had jobs and stuff so we were by no means "living there" or whatever. But to that lady, we were like illegally staying there and had keys and were treating it like our house!. The other girl had a cat, and a smaller-than-a-2-litre-bottle sized dog which were both disclosed and paid deposit for at move in. The dog was like out of control and destroying everything because he yipped sometimes. He didn't even get let in the yard. It was also obvious, from some of the stuff she was accused of doing/messing up that the lady was like spying in the windows and maybe even walking through the yard to stare in them. Just constant "oh my god they smashed a light fixture!" when someone had dropped a glass platter washing the dishes sort of bullshit. A couple friends from their college lit course come over? "THEY'RE HAVING A HUGE PARTY!".
That lady painted a picture of my partner and her friend being like, the worst tenants ever. When the owner came back to town, having no other frame of reference, she just kicked them out when the lease expired.
At least they got their entire deposit back, but it was a stupid stressful experience for i'm sure, everyone involved including the owner because of that dumbfuck "spy" lady.
I could write a similar wall of text about my current apartment, which has a super nice and fairly reasonable far away out of town owner... and a shitty infuriating lying property manager that i try and bypass as much as possible.
My advice would be to interview the tenants yourself, even if that means traveling back to town, then just trust them to be adults. Line up a handyman you trust and tell them "Hey, handyperson will be stopping by every other month to check up on the place and deal with any issues you have that are minor. if anything ridiculous happens call the manager". But seriously, no stupid neighbor spies, and be a bit more hands on than just letting the manager do 100% of it. Managers, or spies, can paint a really stupid unrealistic picture of whats really going on.
posted by emptythought at 4:19 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
It was a really really nice historic place, same deal. The front yard/front of the house had been on the cover of a magazine.
Seeing as how the owner was out of town, she enlisted one of the neighbors who she was in some way friends with who seemed nice enough as her "spy".
This lady was a fucking nightmare. She'd see something, extrapolate from one tiny bit of evidence, catastrophize, and then go tattling to the owner with some completely nonsensical story with tons of made up details. Me and her friends boyfriend would come over 2-4x a week to hang out, and occasionally stay the night. We both lived all the way across town and had jobs and stuff so we were by no means "living there" or whatever. But to that lady, we were like illegally staying there and had keys and were treating it like our house!. The other girl had a cat, and a smaller-than-a-2-litre-bottle sized dog which were both disclosed and paid deposit for at move in. The dog was like out of control and destroying everything because he yipped sometimes. He didn't even get let in the yard. It was also obvious, from some of the stuff she was accused of doing/messing up that the lady was like spying in the windows and maybe even walking through the yard to stare in them. Just constant "oh my god they smashed a light fixture!" when someone had dropped a glass platter washing the dishes sort of bullshit. A couple friends from their college lit course come over? "THEY'RE HAVING A HUGE PARTY!".
That lady painted a picture of my partner and her friend being like, the worst tenants ever. When the owner came back to town, having no other frame of reference, she just kicked them out when the lease expired.
At least they got their entire deposit back, but it was a stupid stressful experience for i'm sure, everyone involved including the owner because of that dumbfuck "spy" lady.
I could write a similar wall of text about my current apartment, which has a super nice and fairly reasonable far away out of town owner... and a shitty infuriating lying property manager that i try and bypass as much as possible.
My advice would be to interview the tenants yourself, even if that means traveling back to town, then just trust them to be adults. Line up a handyman you trust and tell them "Hey, handyperson will be stopping by every other month to check up on the place and deal with any issues you have that are minor. if anything ridiculous happens call the manager". But seriously, no stupid neighbor spies, and be a bit more hands on than just letting the manager do 100% of it. Managers, or spies, can paint a really stupid unrealistic picture of whats really going on.
posted by emptythought at 4:19 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the thoughts everyone! I really appreciate it.
posted by waylaid at 7:56 AM on December 23, 2014
posted by waylaid at 7:56 AM on December 23, 2014
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The owner of a house near me was grateful to know about a bad situation their tenants were creating and their property management was not aware of yet. But I had to search out the owner's contact info, and a lesser sleuth might not have found it, and a lesser noodge might not have tried.
posted by Bentobox Humperdinck at 10:09 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]