I have taken some concrete steps towards renting my house.
First, today I asked somebody to please email me the phone number of the Housing Office on the marine base. Supposedly marines make good tenants: they get a living allowance so rent is always on time; and also the marine base holds them accountable for the house. If there is any damage the marine base will pay and the marine gets in trouble (supposedly).
I talked to somebody over at First Choice Management, a local property management company. (They took over Glen Realty’s property management division.) After three phone calls, I finally reached Robin and got the skinny on How to be a Landlord: or Dear God, This is Too Stressful.
They have two management options.
- 1-Time Management – costs 100% of the first month’s rent. This option only takes care of finding a good tenant. The homeowner takes care of all subsequent house maintenance and rent collection.
- Full Management – costs 50% of the first month’s rent and then 10% of every month thereafter. The management firm takes care of all repairs (at homeowner’s cost) and collects the rent every month.
Then I asked the wrong question. I asked, “So, how’s business these days?”
Robin answered the fateful, “The rental market is very slow at the moment.”
Gulp. I investigated further, “How many rentals do you have right now?”
She said, “I have ten 3 bed/2 baths ranging from $750 to $1150. Most have been sitting for a while. The lowest one’s in Joshua Tree on Jadeite and the highest one is a brand-new 1,600 square foot home in Sky Harbor. I have one on La Mirada for $1050, that has been vacant for 3-4 months.”
Gulp. “How about the real estate market – that’s slow too, right?”
“Yes, it’s slow.”
“You mean I get to choose between very slow and slow?”
“Ha, ha, I like the way you put that.”
Gulp.
Do I use a property management company? Or do I just advertise with the military myself? She says that if I listed at $950, I would be the lowest 3bed/2bath (except for the house on Jadeite which is on a dirt road in Joshua Tree) and that the house should rent pretty quickly. But that means $475 to the company and then again $95 to them every month. Since my mortgage is $1150, I would coming out red $295 every month.
Then again, if I were doing it myself, I would have the headache of learning all the lease stuff myself, the calls from the tenant for repairs, and still be losing $200 every month.
see what I mean? a choice between not good and worse.