leasing your home questions

[ballrific]

We are thinking of moving soon and leasing out our home. I've looked around at managment companies and the average stuff I've seen is 50-70% of 1st months rent (I think that's just to find a tenant) and then 8% per month to manage. Seems high to me. Anyone have any experience and can point me in the right direction?

pros/cons using the management service and if I did it on my own, where wouuld I draft a lease contract from, etc.?

 

[kmac30]

there's a company called Kemp Management
i'm not sure their rates, but probably worth calling.

 

[busterbrown16]

I could be wrong, but I think you can find a standard lease form on the TREC website. The first month sounds a bit high, but I think 8-10% per month is about right.

 

[ballrific]

yeah, I might just do the 1st month fee, let them screen people for me, get the house leased, and then just collect the monthly rent myself. Not too jazzed about giving up $100+/mo. just for them to collect rent, assuming that's all they do.

 

[Scipio Tex]

I've yet to deal with a leasing management company that wasn't absolutely and totally corrupt. Seriously - the people in this industry are such uniform pieces of **** that only the occupations of tow truck driver and pederast draws more scorn from me.

It's not their money, it's not their house; you are a giant profit center. Your house is a giant credit card with a high spending limit and your overinflated management fees are a small part of their scam.

Many encourage the tenants to call in repairs (literally, will send workmen there to troll tenants for fix-its: I once got a $150 bill for changing out lightbulbs), they inflate cost of same, will blatantly lie when it suits them, trade kickbacks with their roster of workmen, screen tenants based on their possession of opposable thumbs, and go by your property as often as Haley's comet.

I've dealt with two management companies directly and watched a half dozen friends agonize through the same ****.

I now rent a house out myself with a crew of reliable handymen on my speed dial and would never do it any other way.

I'm sure you could get a lease contract from a friend in real estate or on the web. It's a standard form.

Go buy a book advising how to rent a home. It's not hard.

 

[brntorng]

Agreed it's not that hard to manage your own property, especially if you're in the area, the property is in good condition, and you can handle routine maintenance yourself. I've found all my renters on Craigslist with no problem. I request enough information--employers, previous landlords, etc-- to do an acceptable screening and haven't had a problem yet. I use a detailed Texas lease that I bought from one of the online legal firms (it didn't cost much) and tweak it as necessary. It also included all the other forms I needed. In most cases, you'll be lucky to maintain a positive cash flow without using a management company. If you use one, they're the only ones making a profit.

Also, I've leased out single family homes and condos and the condos were 10x easier. With a single family home you're also dealing with the yard which is a big hassle, especially when it comes to watering, etc. Personally, I'd never lease out a single family home again due to the time involved and the likelihood that there will be kids and dogs that tear up the property.

 

[Smurfette]

I'd say manage it youself. It's always possible you'll get a crappy tenent, so manybe consider "renter-proofing" your house-- like replacing carpet with tile.

As someone else said... it's your house, if you want it maintained and such you need to take care of it, not expect someone else to.

 

[SullHorn]

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