Bought a nearly 100 year old house earlier this year, 1.5 hours away from where I live. I work full time.
I’ve spent nearly every weekend and ALL of my free cash (plus credit that I’ll likely be paying off for a few years) to replace the sewer lines, insulate the crawlspace and basement, replace the roof, replace the siding, replace the leaking windows, update the electrical, update the plumbing, replace old appliances, replace corroded cabinet hardware, seal holes around the house from rodents, paint the walls, ceiling, and cabinetry inside the house, remove and clean up a dilapidated wood shed, empty an incredible amount of rotten and corroded junk from the basement, CLEAN the basement, replace the broken door to the basement, fill in and repair cracked and broken concrete, replace the rotten hot tub, and ongoing efforts to prevent water from flooding the basement every time it rains.
And I’m not finished. Not even close. There is so much to be done to make this place work and make sure it stays in good condition for years to come.
The initial priority was pest control, deep cleaning, painting, and furnishing. Once that was done the place was listed on AirBnB. It’s helped to offset the costs, but will take decades to break even. After utilities, taxes, supplies, and expenses for cleaning between guests I’m pulling in maybe a couple hundred dollars a month. But it helps.
AirBnB is also a big part of the problem. If you want to rent your fully furnished apartment for $1300 (net to you), by the time AirBnB is done with fees to you and the tenant, the tenant is being charged $2200. It’s obscene. AirBnB and VRBO were originally meant to help homeowners offset there cost of their homes by renting a room or the entire place while they were away. Now they are these monstrosities that do nothing but syphon money from homeowners and tenants.
I’m glad you’re fixing up the place and keeping it off the hands of investment funds. Once it’s fixed up, if possible, I’d recommend renting it directly to a tenant for a bit under market rate. Management companies tend to price gouge tenants (and owners), and they con you into raising rent every year. They don’t care if the tenant can’t afford it or if the place stays empty for months. If you can find a tenant that is decent and treats your property well, stick with them, even if you make less than maximum on a monthly basis by charging less than market. Pass the savings of not having a middle man to your tenant and everyone (except the middle man) wins.
We are actually fixing it up for family to live in. We have overseas relatives who visit for 6 months a year. When they are not here, we might use it for ourselves as well - but more likely we will rent to traveling nurses.
I’m not interested in being a long term landlord. I’ve lived with enough self-entitled roommates to want to never have to be on the other side of that relationship as a landlord.
Guessing so they can continue the work in between guests. Probably not in a state to lease out as then they are under a lot more
obligations to quickly fix bigger issues
Imagine the contractor that works for a REIT. Should they get full rent because they broke their the same way as you? Or hourly, just like my roommate?
You get the rent because you’re a landlord, not because you work hard.
If working hard on a property, instead of owning it, meant getting all of the high rents then the REITs’ contractor should be collecting rents instead of the REITs but that obviously doesn’t happen.
Don’t defend landlording. Oppose it, you can still be one, but just oppose it.
Would you make the same if you sank all of your money in investments and work a second job as a contractor? Same story but different results?
If you had long term tenants and but they owned the property but contracted you? You would still work hard and be compensated for the work isn’t that enough? If the work the justification for your rental income then why not just be a contractor instead of an owner? And better yet leave the owning part to the people who live there.
So instead of buying a home that needed a lot of work and spending a lot of money locally in order to accomplish that work and making minimal (if any) profit, I should just give my money to an investment firm who will be both shittier AND more expensive to renters, while siphoning money away from that local market?
Please explain how me investing in a REIT rather than actual real estate solves your problem.
This is me.
Bought a nearly 100 year old house earlier this year, 1.5 hours away from where I live. I work full time.
I’ve spent nearly every weekend and ALL of my free cash (plus credit that I’ll likely be paying off for a few years) to replace the sewer lines, insulate the crawlspace and basement, replace the roof, replace the siding, replace the leaking windows, update the electrical, update the plumbing, replace old appliances, replace corroded cabinet hardware, seal holes around the house from rodents, paint the walls, ceiling, and cabinetry inside the house, remove and clean up a dilapidated wood shed, empty an incredible amount of rotten and corroded junk from the basement, CLEAN the basement, replace the broken door to the basement, fill in and repair cracked and broken concrete, replace the rotten hot tub, and ongoing efforts to prevent water from flooding the basement every time it rains.
And I’m not finished. Not even close. There is so much to be done to make this place work and make sure it stays in good condition for years to come.
The initial priority was pest control, deep cleaning, painting, and furnishing. Once that was done the place was listed on AirBnB. It’s helped to offset the costs, but will take decades to break even. After utilities, taxes, supplies, and expenses for cleaning between guests I’m pulling in maybe a couple hundred dollars a month. But it helps.
AirBnB is also a big part of the problem. If you want to rent your fully furnished apartment for $1300 (net to you), by the time AirBnB is done with fees to you and the tenant, the tenant is being charged $2200. It’s obscene. AirBnB and VRBO were originally meant to help homeowners offset there cost of their homes by renting a room or the entire place while they were away. Now they are these monstrosities that do nothing but syphon money from homeowners and tenants.
I’m glad you’re fixing up the place and keeping it off the hands of investment funds. Once it’s fixed up, if possible, I’d recommend renting it directly to a tenant for a bit under market rate. Management companies tend to price gouge tenants (and owners), and they con you into raising rent every year. They don’t care if the tenant can’t afford it or if the place stays empty for months. If you can find a tenant that is decent and treats your property well, stick with them, even if you make less than maximum on a monthly basis by charging less than market. Pass the savings of not having a middle man to your tenant and everyone (except the middle man) wins.
We need solid legislation getting us back to this. It’s a great idea, but now it’s abused to hell and back.
OTOH, aren’t renters and owners alike leaving AirBnB in droves?
We are actually fixing it up for family to live in. We have overseas relatives who visit for 6 months a year. When they are not here, we might use it for ourselves as well - but more likely we will rent to traveling nurses.
I’m not interested in being a long term landlord. I’ve lived with enough self-entitled roommates to want to never have to be on the other side of that relationship as a landlord.
> Spends loads of time and money on fixing up an old house
> Rents it out to offset costs
> Gets downvoted for being a landlord
> Spends money buying microshares of a ruthless real estate fund on Robinhood
> Gets upvoted for gaming the system
Landlords, can’t do anything right
Why AirBnB and not the usual lease agreement?
Guessing so they can continue the work in between guests. Probably not in a state to lease out as then they are under a lot more obligations to quickly fix bigger issues
Don’t make your problems everyone else’s.
You can just buy a REIT.
Imagine the contractor that works for a REIT. Should they get full rent because they broke their the same way as you? Or hourly, just like my roommate?
You get the rent because you’re a landlord, not because you work hard.
If working hard on a property, instead of owning it, meant getting all of the high rents then the REITs’ contractor should be collecting rents instead of the REITs but that obviously doesn’t happen.
Don’t defend landlording. Oppose it, you can still be one, but just oppose it.
Would you make the same if you sank all of your money in investments and work a second job as a contractor? Same story but different results?
If you had long term tenants and but they owned the property but contracted you? You would still work hard and be compensated for the work isn’t that enough? If the work the justification for your rental income then why not just be a contractor instead of an owner? And better yet leave the owning part to the people who live there.
So instead of buying a home that needed a lot of work and spending a lot of money locally in order to accomplish that work and making minimal (if any) profit, I should just give my money to an investment firm who will be both shittier AND more expensive to renters, while siphoning money away from that local market?
Please explain how me investing in a REIT rather than actual real estate solves your problem.