Let's hear your experience with rental properties.

[TX_92_Notch]

Now for a look at my rental experience. When I sold the big house in Allen, I couldn't find what I needed so we rental a small home in McKinney on the West Ridge golf course, very nice view as the home backed up to the 17 hole.
We rented from an Asian couple that sucked balls. First year no problems, second and third year the main sewage line would back up because of a willow tree in the front yard, who ever thought planting a tree above the MSL was a complete idiot, of course all the toilets and showers would back up and make a complete mess, both times it happened on a weekend. We called the owners the first time and they showed up with a handheld snake for cleaning sinks. Then they then told us to call the warranty company, day 4 and they come out, they snake the MSL from the street and run a camera and tell me about the roots. Next year it happens again, I call the owners tell them they need to send a 24 hours rotor rooter, because this issue is on a weekend, they refer me to the warranty company again. Day three or four and they show up do the same thing but inform me that the warranty company will not pay again for this re-occurring problem and the tree needs to be removed.
We finally found a home in Melissa and moved out. Before we moved we asked if we could clean the home ourselves since it was just us two, no pets and we keep a clean home anyway. They agreed, we had the carpets cleaned, we left it better than we found it. When we went to get our deposit ($2700 hundo), they refused, they said that the house wasn't cleaned correctly they found a couple of spider webs on a few windows and they had to paint a few rooms?!
We had used our realtor to find the house, she owns a few rental units and she never asked for anything like that, she said that she would usually take care of things like that especially if she had good renters, which we were, never late on the rent and gave her back the house and in better condition than we rented it from. We actually spent a few days cleaning it when we moved in since it was not professionally cleaned, I got into an argument with them no engrish speaking clowns and told them according to the rental agreement they had 30 days or they would be hearing from my attorney. I didn't wait, I had him send a letter threatening to sue and in a few days I received my entire deposit.

Yikes! Sounds like the landlord was pissed at you guys over the front yard and wanted to extract some repair money.

My brother is currently being sued by his previous landlord (for $5,500) for damages, unpaid rent, etc. I keep telling my brother that treating people like this is going to bite you one day and he got bit. The landlord gave him a verbal agreement to break the lease so he would leave and then came after him for unpaid rent after he left. Plus came after him for repairs. Brother claims the house was 'perfect' when he left but I seriously doubt it.

[Big A]

So genuine repair needs like that sucks balls, even when it's your primary residence, that's the cost of owning a home in some regards though. I'm not concerned with a tenant that wants the house in working order, and a landlord can't begrudge a tenant for it, in a sense I'm signing up for it as soon as I rent the house. The likes of your brother is who I am more worried about TX_92_Notch, someone who causes needless damage and/or skips out on rent. The deposit will take care of a lot though, so I am still not seeing it as a hugely losing proposition in the long term.

I'm not expecting to get rich or even supplement retirement, but if I could keep decent renters in it and weather the coming recession, that's the primary reason I'm even looking into it. Maybe refi to a 15-year note with a super low interest rate presuming there's enough equity or cash available to make that happen, but my gut says that this isn't the kind of house that I want to do that with.

[Rick Modena]

Yikes! Sounds like the landlord was pissed at you guys over the front yard and wanted to extract some repair money.

Yup, they were fucking assholes. We were there just under three years, we had a lawn service take care of their yard and bushes. We hardly cooked and when I did maintenance on my cars never spilled any oil.
It's OK though, we stayed friends with our next door neighbors and the people that came in after us did a midnight move two months into it. And they had a revolving door after that, every year or six months and no one ever took care of the yard like we did or the house from what I heard.
Karma motherbitches!

[Gasser64]

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to rental property. The math works completely different for someone that owns a property with no mortgage versus someone that just mortgaged the property at market value to try and make money renting it.

What are the nuances of how the math works out when it's paid off? Anything besides the obvious: You get to keep a hell of a lot more money. I ask because I've managed to accumulate enough to start looking for a rent house or perhaps a duplex. So I'd want to just buy it outright, don't want to deal with any payments.

We have some friends living in the house now and there hasn't been a single maintenance call in roughly two years since dumping the management company. Imagine that.

Suspect some kind of a scam? I always get suspicious when I have to trust some company in that manner. They could've been running their own rental properties, and putting your good used appliances in to use in them. Saving plenty of money by doing it. The renters aren't always home, and the management company does have a key to the house. So maybe they just go over there one day and see to it that something temporarily stops working. Then you end up giving them a free disposal and water heater.

[beefed88]

I would never rent a 2 story with a pool. That is a recipe for a disaster.

[TX_92_Notch]

What are the nuances of how the math works out when it's paid off? Anything besides the obvious: You get to keep a hell of a lot more money. I ask because I've managed to accumulate enough to start looking for a rent house or perhaps a duplex. So I'd want to just buy it outright, don't want to deal with any payments.

I'm no rental expert. I have one rental property that I've legitimately rented one time. There are a million resources online to read and learn. Stuff like www.biggerpockets.com and a plethora of online articles. As far as paying cash, a lot of people will tell you to invest that money in some sort or retirement account and take out a mortgage for the rental property. Let the tenant pay the interest on the mortgage and you get to write off the interest every year. Plus you've got retirement accounts growing, starting now. And then other people will argue that there's nothing better than a rental property with no mortgage. Your mileage may vary.

Suspect some kind of a scam?

No. This MC came highly recommended. While I don't agree with the decisions they made for repairs, I really don't think they were taking my old appliances to use somewhere else just to buy me new ones. Why not just take the new ones to wherever they would've used my old ones?

[Gasser64]

Why not just take the new ones to wherever they would've used my old ones?

If they kept the new ones, you and the renters would likely notice that the old ones were still in place. Yet you still would've paid for new ones.

But if they just got you to replace the old ones with new, and the old ones were still functioning, they could just put the old ones to use on their own properties somewhere. If they managed enough rent houses, and if they owned enough of their own properties, this practice could save them a ho lotta of money. Some management companies manage an awful lot.

Maybe I'm just too suspicious. Always possible

[TX_92_Notch]

If they kept the new ones, you and the renters would likely notice that the old ones were still in place. Yet you still would've paid for new ones.

But if they just got you to replace the old ones with new, and the old ones were still functioning, they could just put the old ones to use on their own properties somewhere. If they managed enough rent houses, and if they owned enough of their own properties, this practice could save them a ho lotta of money. Some management companies manage an awful lot.

Maybe I'm just too suspicious. Always possible

It's possible and the whole maintenance issue is one reason why I'm no longer using them. I don't feel they did any due diligence when the tenant called with a problem, they just replaced whatever he called about. And usually with a lesser product than was there before.

[Gasser64]

Ah so laziness and or cheapness. Didn't want to pay the guy who could knows how to fix it, to go out there and see if he could fix it.