What a summer so far

[rldemas]

Hi, I just wanted to share my success story for this summer so far.

I have one rental property that I bought years ago and kept when I moved into my current residence. For the first 8 months, my sister rented from me but she gave her notice to leave at the end of June, so I had to find renters for the first time. Not only did I get lots of calls but I rented it for 1950/month even though I was advertising it for 1800. Success #1

Success #2 - I just renewed both my mortgages and will finally make the jump to variable rates which will save me about $300/month.

But my proudest success, I have been a REIN member for over 2 years now, I love the information I get and the resources are awesome. But until now I had not actually made an offer to take the jump into Joint Ventures. Well I did it tonight! I made my first offer, I don`t even know who my Joint Venture money partner will be yet but I made the offer, and it feels good! I feel confident because I have done my homework and I know that the property will cashflow between $100-300/month so I am sure that I will find my JV partner.

UPDATE: Well that was short, we have been working on this one for almost a month and it turns out that the day after I make an offer, he gets a better offer, I am a little disappointed because we had room to counter but were not given the chance before he accepted the offer (unique situation, when we first started talking, he had no realtor but when we made the offer, he had hired one with the condition that she would not get her commission if we made a deal) so ultimately I can`t help but feel that the realtor gave a gentle push towards accepting the other offer before calling me. But oh well, I will get over it by focusing on the fact that I made my first official real estate investment offer.

 

[DonCampbell]

Congrats on the action you`ve taken.

The key word of course is action... you jumped in with both feet. Sure the offer was rejected, no big deal, it will happen again.

One thought... tell the vendor that your offer still stands when the other deal falls through. Keeps you in line.

 

[rldemas]

QUOTE (DonCampbell @ Aug 13 2008, 07:31 PM) Congrats on the action you`ve taken.

The key word of course is action... you jumped in with both feet. Sure the offer was rejected, no big deal, it will happen again.

One thought... tell the vendor that your offer still stands when the other deal falls through. Keeps you in line.


Thanks Don, it does feel good and I have already done what you suggested. See you on the 23rd!

Roger

 

[weenapratt]

Hello Roger,

Congratulations on your successes! It`s amazing.

Could you please share with us on how you were able to get higher rent than advertised. Was it because of the ad you wrote, the location or the property itself that attracted lots of interest and got the place rented successfully?

Thanks,

 

[rldemas]

QUOTE (weenapratt @ Aug 14 2008, 01:13 PM) Hello Roger,

Congratulations on your successes! It`s amazing.

Could you please share with us on how you were able to get higher rent than advertised. Was it because of the ad you wrote, the location or the property itself that attracted lots of interest and got the place rented successfully?

Thanks,

Hi, I would gladly share. I hope it was a combination of the ad, the location and the interest. I used 3 web sites to advertise; Rentfaster, rentspot and kijiji. I also put a lawn sign on the front of the property (free from rentfaster). I got 2 - 3 calls per night, quite a few from the lawn sign but the ultimate reason I got more $ is because I rented to some younger folks (19 & 20 yr olds), they gave me a good impression and I checked their references and found them on facebook and it all seemed fine, but there were 5 of them so I suggested (through some help by other members) that I would increase the rent due to the extra wear and tear and they agreed. After all it was only $30/month more per person. They were just happy that I would rent to them. I was young once and needed to rent too, so I gave them a chance. So far so good.

Roger

 

[weenapratt]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for sharing the story with us. Good luck with your new tenants.