How to Rent a Place to Live

Don't be so quick. Those who hurry often stumble.

I just moved, and I've been a renter all my life. I like being on both sides of renting. Some day, I would like to own a home that I rented out while renting my own living space. I know that sounds weird to most people, especially in America, but I just don't see real estate the way most Americans see it. I don't look at it as an overly emotional investment. That's easier to do when you're renting. Sure, you have to ask yourself if you could be happy in the space that you're considering, but there's a lot more to think about when you're thinking of a place. You have to be sure that the deal you arrive at is beneficial, and contrary to popular belief, rentals are as negotiable as purchases.

I want to share what I've learned about renting on three continents

First, think about what you really  want. Do you want cheap? Do you want big? Do you need a place that's good for kids? Do you want quiet or downtown? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to get what you really want? If you like downtown vitality, don't think anyone is going to take you seriously when you complain about noise or parking. If you want a kid-friendly neighborhood, don't think that you'll be able to have loud parties late at night. Big and cheap? Don't think you're going to be in the nicest neighborhood.

Appliances. How new are the appliances in the place you're scoping? Are you going to have to call the landlord a million times because the pilot on your old stove is out? Is your electric bill going to be incredible because the refrigerator they have in there is old and inefficient? Do you really want the ancient washer/dryer that cost too much to run? How many gallons is that water heater? Is it gas or electric?

With appliances, two other questions come up:

1. What kind of person/organization is my property manager?
2. What kind of utilities am I looking at?

Utilities are going to be a BIG deal! Does the owner pick up any of them? Do they have any records about what they cost?

Appliances WILL break down. When they do, do you trust the landlord or manager to replace or repair them in a timely fashion?

What changes would you like to make to the place before moving in? Remember, you can rip out carpets, paint, do whatever you want, as long as you tell the manager before hand. Get that into your lease before signing it. Actually, before I go on, GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. I am guilty of not following that advice sometimes. I trust people to do what they are going to say, but if you ask for something in writing, and they balk, walk away from the deal. If you're willing to do the deal, you have to be willing to walk away from the deal. Say that last sentence to yourself ten times.

Finally, how much do you want to pay?
This one is interesting because it sounds simple, right? "How much do I want to pay?" Well, the truth is that you can only afford to pay a certain amount, and the amount you want to pay may be quite different from that. A good landlord has an idea in his head about what he'd like you to pay; a better landlord knows what he needs you to pay. You do not want to live in a place for which you're paying less than what the landlord actually needs. That's what makes a slumlord.
Slumlords are not born; they are made.
They take less than what a building needs to maintain, and therefore, their buildings fall into disrepair. Then, once that goes on long enough, they just stop caring about the building and take what they can get for their dilapidated investment. It's a cycle you want no part of. Don't do business with a landlord if you're not going to be compassionate about his and his building's needs. A good landlord knows exactly what he needs to make on a property so that he can fix the roof every 20-25 years, replace the floor every 10-20 years, replace the carpet every 5 years, repaint however often, treat the siding, keep the grounds, and everything else. He knows how long it will be empty after you move out. He's studied this. He has a number if he's good at what he does. That doesn't mean that he's going to give you that price. That's what negotiation is for.

So, say you ask for a per-month cost that's low, and he says he can't do it. OK. What do you want if you're going to pay what you can afford? Here's where you start talking about appliances and heating and everything else. Don't give up for nothing. Make an offer like you would on a house. A good landlord will counter offer. If he doesn't, walk away. You don't pay sticker price on a car, why would you on an apartment?

Once you move into a place

1. Communicate with your landlord. It's in his best interest to keep you there and make you happy. He doesn't want to go to court.He doesn't want to have to be a jerk. COMMUNICATE!!!
2. Report problems. People think that problems are things people want to avoid--not true with landlords. They want to know what the problems are with their buildings. They don't want something going on that they don't know about. Even if it's a problem you don't care about, email them and tell them what it is and tell them you don't care. If they feel like fixing it great. If not, that's great too.
3. Try to pay on time. Yes, everyone pays late. People who have the money pay late. Try to not make a habit of it. Let the landlord know what the problem is and make sure he knows that you're going to pay on time in the future.
4. Work out a plan. Landlords love plans. They amortize everything; they depreciate everything. They look at objects unlike other people. They look at doorknob, e.g., and they think about how long that doorknob is going to last and how much it's going to cost when it finally dies. They plan for that doorknob's failure. So, if you get into trouble with payments or anything else, write up a plan for your landlord. He'll thank you for it.

Here's three (3) more for good measure:

1. Take pictures of anything you think is nasty or bad. If things go south, you'll need them in court. Judges love pictures. Landlords love pictures. Renters, you need pictures. Take as many as you need. The more, the better. You do not want to walk into a courtroom empty-handed.
2. Keep records about your place. Make sure you keep business cards and names. Stick them in a file. You don't have to be super organized, but when push comes to shove, you're going to go to that file. Your landlord has a file on you. You need a file, too.
3. Don't be emotional. Walls and land make people crazy. Don't let it make you crazy. Don't *love* your place. Live in it.

Real Estate Websites and Consumers

I've been working on the Madison Monroe website. It's not easy-going. We have a lot of different properties and services, and I'd like to get them all online in a very organized and interesting way. The page hierarchy needs some major work. We have to put ourselves in the place of the consumer; and the different consumers, when it comes to real estate, are extremely different.

As it is right now, in my limited experience in real estate, I see our prospective consumers as follows:

1. The Investor
   The real estate investor may want to buy a piece of property and sit on it, they might want to buy a property that is already generating revenue, they might want to take a piece of property and spruce it up into a property that generates revenue. And then, they might want you to manage it, or they might want to manage it, and they want you to lease it. Maybe they just want to flip it. "The investor" might need its own blog entry to really get into comprehensively.
2. The Would-be Home-owner
   The would-be home-owner is someone who wants a house to live in. But they want to OWN it for whatever reason. Maybe they think that there's an investment opportunity there. Maybe they think they're fulfilling the American Dream, or they just want to do what their parents did or what their parents always told them they should do. Whatever the reason, they want a house that's theirs. They usually are in the midst of becoming experts on the subject and will quiz you. They'll also want to show you how much they know.
3. The Residential Lessee
   The residential lessee wants a place to live. But do they want a house or an apartment. How many people will be living there? How much do they want to spend. What neighborhood do they want to be in. It's hard to get lessees what they want. You have to check their credit and criminal reports and it's a dice-roll for a lot of them.
4. The Commercial Tenant
   The commercial tenant wants a place to do business. The best ones have clean business plans and think about bottom lines and square feet. They think about utilities and labor and all the things it takes to do as much as you can with as little as possible. The worst ones are dreamers who have ideas that sidetrack the real estate professional. They will sit in your office and tell you all the impossible things they want and how unwilling they are to compromise. But they don't ever have enough to build. The ones with enough to build sometimes do, but they often realize that what they've built is more than they need or less they need, and then they're stuck with a building they can't really use.The commercial tenant is very interesting because they are business people. Sometimes you can see which ones will make it and which ones will be unsuccessful in the first few moments talking with them.
5. The Developer
   The developer wants to buy land and improve it. The developer is either a gambler or a scientist or a scientific gambler. They want to put a lot of money on the table, and the best ones have studied the game. They know soils and rocks and angles and laws and the cost of almost everything. Developers are good people to know because they know a lot about the whole business. They are interesting and know a lot of people. They move millions and billions of dollars sometimes just to make a little bit in comparison.

If I thought about this more, the list would be longer. Trying to create a website for all of these kinds of consumers is difficult. It's probably why most real estate websites really suck. I could imagine having whole different sites for each type of consumer with a portal page simply linking to each.

Men and Women on Real Estate

When Trees Meet Houses

Is that a rafter I see before me? I know that rafters are in these days, but this is ridiculous!

I'm working on coordinating a house rebuild. It's a home that was vacant after a foreclosure, and it's managed by a faraway company. While vacant, a tree fell on it, and now we have to put about a third of the real value of the house into it in order to make it salable again, or at least an insurance company will. As you can see, rafters are peeking though the ceiling. I was impressed. It reminded me of that scene in The Lord of the Rings (the book; not the movie) where the Ents destroyed the tower with their root arms.

Trees are very powerful things when they're growing and when they're dying.

The addition might have been a solid investment to the little house. It looks like, at one time, someone really cared about this place. It has a decent deck out back, there are big windows in the addition, and a high open ceiling in the living room. It's a shame what's happened here.
Plus, it's in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. Right near Montgomery Hill Park, it's a great spot for raising kids and doing other "young family" type things.

It's got a nice kitchen. I'm not sure where all the appliances went. It's got a good floor, it's got a nice working area, and it's got a two-basin sink. It's OK. I can see how it would become the center of the house because it's nicely situated in the house right between the living room and the addition, which would probably double as a dining area. The kitchen's big enough for a small kitchen table, though.

If you can ignore the nasty roof, it's a nice little joint. A cute walkway up to the door, off-street parking, a little landscaping, some "curb appeal." It's by far one of the nicer houses on the block. Most the houses in this neighborhood are very similar, and someone obviously invested some TLC here.

Here's where the addition meets the rest of the house inside. The tree had different ideas.

Poor roof, but I think if I had a little dough, I'd snap this house up "as-is" and get a contractor to do it myself. A great opportunity sitting there, methinks. But I like to think of the potential of spaces. YMMV.

It looks worse than it is. And it could be worse. Pretty lucky that just the addition got smashed. I'll get a general contractor to get in here and fix up the addition, and then get him to paint the rest of the interior, and this thing will look "good as new."

I hope that this might be my first listing as a real estate agent. That would be nice.