That's the most important element to making landlording work. Good tenants. But nearly as important is a property that's not falling in on itself. If you can put those two together, landlording is a great way to make a little extra scratch.
Most of you know, but for those of that don't, the house Kate and I live in now used to be a rental property I bought about seven years ago. At some point in the past a previous owner built partition walls, turning each floor into a separate apartment. So four apartments, four groups of tenants, and more than a handful of headaches.
The problem there was two-fold. I had some good tenants mixed with a few bad apples, and a house with a leaky roof, leaky basement, old plumbing, etc. I got calls fairly often to either fix things or arbitrate disagreements. After years of putting up with this I decided to convert it back into a single family home, fixing all the issues at the same time.
So a year ago, around the same time Kate and I were looking to move into University and sell Stevenson the housing market tanked. Selling was not longer a viable option, so I opted to rent out Stevenson. Towson University is right there, so there's always a big demand for housing. We screened prospective tenants very carefully, finally settling on a group of four Towson students.
What a difference! The girls take impeccable care of the house, pay rent on time, don't have any issues with the neighbors, and are all-around great people. And since Stevenson is good shape, I almost never hear from them. Other than a few months ago when the hot water heater started to die, the issues they call about are all very minor. Today I stopped by to drop off their water bill and tighten up the front door knob, which had gotten very loose. A two minute repair.
Especially now, with real estate prices back in realistic levels and interest rates at an almost all-time low, buying rental property is a great idea. Just get a good house and screen for good tenants. It makes all the difference.
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