May 13, 2006

If You Rent Houses or Apartments to Other People

is it a sort of calling, an opportunity to be of service while securing your financial future, or simply a business?

How often do you raise the rent? Does the rising value of your rental property justify raising the rent as little and as infrequently as possible?

Is it better to charge market rates, or slightly below?

Is the business of providing housing different from other businesses? How?

Posted by Attila Girl at May 13, 2006 05:58 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I would qualify renting houses as "a pain in the ass."

Charge market rates if vacancy doesn't bother you, slightly lower if it does.

Fundamentally, providing housing is not different from providing any other rented product. However, in some jurisdictions rent control has taken away most of the landlord's rights.

Posted by: John at May 13, 2006 06:52 AM


Okay, so there's no special "calling" in being a landlord/landlady.

Do you feel the same way about doctors and teachers?

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 13, 2006 10:02 AM


Maintain the properties well and keep the rent just below market rate.

Raise the rent as your costs increase. The rent isn't really based on the value of the property is it? Isn't it based more on market demand for rental property?

Posted by: Patrick at May 13, 2006 10:47 AM


Well, MajorMom and I are both landlords (she's got her previous house...and I've got one I've had the same tenants in for over 10 years).

First answer: No, I don't think that there's a calling for it...but rather an investment vehicle. If nothing else, you have someone else paying the note on an asset that's appreciating. You get all that appreciation and the tax breaks while it's being paid for by someone else. SWEET!

Second answer: It's all about risk like someone else said. Sometimes it's best to forgoe a little profit by knowing you've got the right people in your property. My 10 year tenants have put an awful lot of money in my pocket over the years and they take care of that home (2600+ sq ft) probably better than I would. Keep your expenses covered and be happy you have tenants. Of course, the market will dictate what your initial rent is.

Third: Market or less? I'd say you charge what the market will bear, but don't pass up the opportunity to make what you can. No sense in turning your nose up at money. On the flip side, if you charge a little less, then you might rent it faster. Seems to me that if you're running with the pack, you shouldn't have any trouble keeping the place rented.

Finally: Unless you've got hundreds of properties, you're not going to get RICH. The profit margin is VERY small and when tenants leave a property vacant, all of a sudden you're back being responsible for the entire note.

Hope this helps.

See you on the high ground!

MajorDad1984

Posted by: MajorDad1984 at May 13, 2006 02:02 PM


Renting for less then the market gets you long term tenants. Higher rent usually means high turnover.

The wrong renters mean damage, be sure to have a deposit and get references.

1% is what I have heard for rent. Property $100,000 then rent should be $1000/month. This can go up with the market. But less means you are supporting someone else.

Posted by: Jack at May 13, 2006 05:44 PM


It a calling to renters. For everyone else it's a business. If you're not making what you could in an alternative investment, you should think about selling the property and moving the money there.

Posted by: Darrell at May 13, 2006 07:40 PM


My tenant got all huffy when the management company sent him a notice with a late fee, after he forgot to pay the May rent for ten days. He thought someone ought to have given him a friendly reminder before the fees kicked in.

The way I see it, the water company or the credit card company isn't going to do that before they tack on late fees. Why should the property manager? Stuff happens and you forget. But when you do, there's a price to pay.

It has to be a business, or eventually you're going to get burned.

Posted by: Desert Cat at May 13, 2006 10:47 PM


Doctors and teachers are interesting examples to cite, for they belong in very heavily regulated industries.

For doctors, the regulations, and the malpractice feeding frenzy, have resulted in a work environment which is making it even more difficult for doctors to enjoy their work.

The Socialization of the school system has resulted in an situation where many teachers look on their job not as turning ignorant children into learned adults, but simply presenting lesson plans.

The founding fathers knew what they were talking about when they wrote "pursuit of happiness" instead of just "happiness;" virtually everything that has gone wrong in the US (and Europe) is consequential of the failure to learn the importance of that.

Posted by: John at May 14, 2006 08:52 AM


I used the examples of doctors and teachers for two reasons:

1) they are often used as examples of professions one gets "called" to;

2) their "industries" (quotes are their on behalf of public school teachers) are regulated.

I felt that this might provide an apples vs. apples co-mparison for landlords.

If you'd like to consider a less-regulated arena (at least by government), you might consider the minister at your local church.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 14, 2006 12:11 PM


Any profession that one feels passionate about pursuing can be one's calling. But doctors charge plenty, and I don't know too many teachers who really would work for free, despite their pledges to the contrary.

It's important to make the distinction between "social worker" and "landlord". Social workers (whether government funded or private ministers) are paid by someone else to do their work. A landlord only stays afloat if she keeps her properties rented to tenants who pay the rent on time and take reasonable care of the property.

Trying to combine the two is a recipe for disaster, as I see it. Unless of course money is no object. But then why not start a private charity?

Posted by: Desert Cat at May 14, 2006 05:14 PM


If I ever get a rental property, I'll make sure to get tenants who can afford the place, and intend to take care of the property (and know how).

But when I hear people talk about raising the rent on good tenants every single year, just because they can, I don't know . . . it seems to me that extracting every last possible dollar out of people isn't the way to go.

Of course, I live in a part of the country where the high cost of housing (lovely as it is from the property-owning perspective) has gotten ridiculous, and appears to hurt a lot of economic sectors.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 14, 2006 07:52 PM


Eeeekkk! I got so caught up in this one I posted about it and tried to do a Trackback to you, but it won't take the trackback address. Rats! I did plug in the archive address to this post at least.

'Scuse please!

Love,

Your Lame-Ass Blogdaughter

Posted by: k at May 14, 2006 08:35 PM




Share photos on twitter with Twitpic "Let the issues be the issue.

About Joy W. McCann: I've been interviewed for Le Monde and mentioned on Fox News. I once did a segment for CNN on "Women and Guns," and this blog is periodically featured on the New York Times' blog list. My writing here has been quoted in California Lawyer. I've appeared on The Glenn and Helen Show. Oh—and Tammy Bruce once bought me breakfast.
My writing has appeared in
The Noise, Handguns, Sports Afield, The American Spectator, and (it's a long story) L.A. Parent. This is my main blog, though I'm also an alumnus of Dean's World, and I help out on the weekends at Right Wing News.
My political philosophy is quite simple: I'm a classical liberal. In our Orwellian times, that makes me a conservative, though one of a decidedly libertarian bent.


8843.jpg An American Carol rawks!
Main AAC site (Warning: sound-enabled;
trailer starts automatically.)


button01.gif
Buy Blogads from the
Conservative
Network here.



AttilaInLCF.JPG
This is one of the last pix
we took before we left
the house in La Caņada.
I think it's very flattering
to Bathsheba the .357.

"The women of this country learned long ago,
those without swords can still die upon them.
I fear neither death nor pain." —Eowyn, Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings


KhawHeadShot.jpg Free Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani!
See Jane Novak's "Yemeni Watch" blog,
Armies of Liberation.
Free journalists and dissident bloggers, worldwide!

Some of My Homegirls— ERROR: http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display_raw.php?r=59e4b55f70f50de810150859b200a635 is currently inaccessible



My Amazon.com Wish List


ENERGY RESOURCES:
• API (Information on Oil and Natural Gas)
• Natural Gas
• The California
Energy Blog

• The Alternative Energy Blog
(Solar, Wind, Geothermal, etc.)
• The Energy Revolution Blog
• Gas 2.0 Blog
• Popular Mechanics'
"Drive Green"



MOVIES & TELEVISION:
Criticism—
• Libertas
(now on hiatus, but they'll be back!) • Pajiba

Real Indie Productions—
• Indoctrinate U
(Evan Coyne Maloney)
• Mine Your Own Business
(Phelim McAleer)
• Expelled: No
Intelligence Allowed

(Ben Stein, Logan Craft,
Walt Ruloff, and John
Sullivan)

Real Indie Production
and Distibution
Companies—

• Moving Picture Institute


THE SAGA OF LIFE IN
THE R.H. HYMERS, JR., CULT:

• First Installment: The Basic Story
• Hymers' History of Violence

• How Fun Is It To
Be Recruited Into Hymer's
Offbeat Church? Not Very.
• How I Lost My Virginity


THE LITTLE MISS
ATTILA SAMPLER:


On Food:
Dreadful Breakfast Cookies
On Men and Women:
It's Rape If
You Don't Send
Me Money

Women Talk Too Much;
I'll Date Dolphins

Heterosexual
Men Are Kinky

Hot Cars,
Hot Girls

On Animation:
Freakazoid!
—the Commentary
Freakazoid!
DVD

On Religion:
Athiests and
Christians Talking
To Each Other



TESTIMONIALS:
"Good grammar, and better gin."
—CalTech Girl
"I enjoy Little Miss Attila's essays."
—Venomous Kate
"Joy is good at catching flies with honey."
—Beth C
"Your position is ludicrous, and worthy of ridicule."
—Ace of Spades
"Sexy."
—RightGirl
"Old-school."
—Suburban Blight

HAWT LYNX:

Teh Funny—
• Dave Burge
Interesting News Items

Civics Lessons—
Taranto on How a Bill Becomes Law

Editorial Resources—
• Better Editor
• Web on the Web
• Me me me me me! (miss.attila --AT-- gmail --dot-- com)
Cigars—
Cigar Jack

Science—
David Linden/
The Accidental Mind

Cognitive Daily

Rive Gauche—
Hip Nerd's Blog
K's Quest
Mr. Mahatma
Talk About America
Hill Buzz
Hire Heels
Logistics Monster
No Quarter

Food & Booze—
Just One Plate (L.A.)
Food Goat
A Full Belly
Salt Shaker
Serious Eats
Slashfood

Travel—
Things You Should Do
(In the West)

Just One Plate (L.A.)

Cars—
• Jalopnik
The Truth About Cars

SoCal News—
Foothill Cities

Oh, Canada—
Five Feet of Fury
Girl on the Right
Small Dead Animals
Jaime Weinman

Audio—
Mary McCann,
The Bone Mama

(formerly in Phoenix, AZ;
now in Seattle, WA;
eclectic music)

Mike Church,
King Dude

(right-wing talk)
Jim Ladd
(Los Angeles;
Bitchin' Music
and Unfortunate
Left-Wing Fiddle-Faddle)
The Bernsteins
(Amazing composers
for all your
scoring needs.
Heh. I said,
"scoring needs.")

Iran, from an Islamic Point of View
and written in beautiful English—

Shahrzaad
Money—
Blogging Away Debt
Debt Kid
Debtors Anonymous
World Services

The Tightwad Gazette

Sex—
Gentleman Pornographer

More o' Dat
Pop Culture—

Danny Barer
(Animation News) • Something Old,
Nothing New

(And yet more
Animation News)
Sam Plenty
(Cool New
Animation Site!)
The Bernsteins
(Wait. Did I mention
the Bernsteins
already? They're
legendary.)

Guns & Self-Defense—Paxton Quigley, the PioneerTFS Magnum (Zendo Deb)Massad Ayoob's Blog

THE BLOGOSPHERE ACCORDING TO
ATTILA GIRL:


The American Mind
Aces, Flopping
Ace of Spades
Argghhh!!!
Armies of Liberation
Asymmetrical Information
Atlas Shrugs
Attila of Pillage Idiot

Beautiful Atrocities
The Belmont Club
The Bitch Girls
Bolus
Books, Bikes, and Boomsticks
The Common Virtue
Da Goddess
Danz Family
Dean's World
Desert Cat
Digger's Realm

Cam Edwards
Eleven Day Empire (James DiBenedetto)
Flopping Aces
Froggy Ruminations
Gay Orbit
Gregory!
Jeff Goldstein

Mary Katherine Ham
At the D.C. Examiner
Hugh Hewitt
Hi. I'm Black.
Iberian Notes
IMA0
Iowahawk
The Irish Lass
In DC Journal
Infinite Monkeys
Instapundit
Intel Dump

Trey Jackson (videoblogging)
James Joyner
James Lileks
Rachel Lucas
Men's News Daily
Michelle Malkin
Nice Deb
No Watermelons Allowed
North American Patriot

On Tap
On the Fritz
On the Third Hand
Outside the Beltway
Oxblog

Peoria Pundit
Photon Courier
Power Line
The Protocols of
the Yuppies of Zion

Protein Wisdom

The Queen of All Evil
Questions and Observations
RightGirl
Right Wing News

Scrappleface
Donald Sensing
Rusty Shackleford
The Shape of Days

Sharp as a Marble
Sheila A-Stray
Laurence Simon

Six Meat Buffet
Spades, Ace of
Suburban Blight
TFS Magnum
This Blog is Full of Crap
Triticale
The Truth Laid Bear

Venomous Kate
VodkaPundit
The Volokh Conspiracy

Where is Raed?
Wizbang
Write Enough
You Big Mouth, You!


milblogsicon.jpg

Support our troops; read the Milblogs!

LinkGrotto
Support a Blogger
at the LinkGrotto.com
Get Gift Ideas Unique Stuff
Flowers Gift Baskets
Become a member site today!