Not having a tenant is risky
I’m a little nervous right now. Remember a few weeks back that we structured a deal together and came up with a few options in order to purchase it?
Just to remind you about the house, it’s a four-bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, 2,000-square foot double wide on a permanent foundation. And it’s sitting on a little over 1½ acres. It would resale for $185,000 and would easily rent for $1,300 a month. And we looked at three scenarios: to just relist it for sale, to buy it subject-to and rent it, or do a sandwich lease option on it and never take ownership. We’ll, Ashley and I bought that house at the end of December and plan on renting it.
We wound up doing a small rehab on it. And by small, I mean we touched up the paint, adjusted some doorknobs, fixed a damaged piece of laminate flooring and worked on a few other odds and ends.
We also noticed that the ditch next to the driveway was filled in. And with all the rain we just had, it caused water to flow out of the pretty much nonexistent depression and run down the middle of the driveway. This scenario could possibly displace our freshly installed gravel. That’s not cool. So, we also had our septic man dig the ditch out for us to keep from messing with the driveway dynamics. It worked really well.
As I am writing this, the cleaner should be out there getting it ready for us to put on market to rent, and we can have it listed as soon as this weekend. And if all goes according to plan, we should have someone in there by the first of next month.
You may be thinking to yourself that everything I just said sounds like it went smoothly, and you might be wondering why I’m nervous. The reason is because we have a winter weather watch set for this weekend. Now, it’s still to early to tell, but I read a post from a meteorologist that said one of the weather models is predicting an event that could dwarf 1993. That prediction got my attention.
By the time you’re reading this, we should know if we are going to have some pleasant winter weather or if it is going to be a blizzard mix of an ice storm. Either way, we will have temperatures below freezing, along with the possibility of power outages. And I’ll have a freshly rehabbed house sitting there all by its lonesome with no tenant protection.
Have you ever thought about the idea that a tenant’s job is to protect the house? You see, there are many people who think rental property is risky because, and I quote, “You can’t get good renters and they’ll just tear the property up.” That has not been the case for us. We have great tenants who take care of our properties.
One of the reasons for that pattern is that we take time to see if people can do the four jobs of a tenant during our application process. And just to remind you, the four jobs are:
1. Take care of the house.
2. Pay on time.
3. Be comfortable to work with by staying in good communication and being respectful.
4. Be a good neighbor.
Notice the first job is to take care of the house. This means to live in it, care for it, and make sure all the systems are working as they should. My tenants are my eyes and ears at the property and let me know immediately if something is not working correctly.
But they also have the responsibility to protect the home from ice, snow and busted water pipes. And since we don’t yet have anyone in this house taking care of it, it will be at major risk for damage if the weather gets bad.
Some people think having tenants is risky, but from where I’m sitting, not having tenants protecting your house is much more of a risk when there’s the possibility of an ice storm.
I hope the weather is just fun, and the 1993 model is wrong. But I will be anxiously waiting to see how it unfolds and equally as anxious to get a great tenant in that house ASAP.