House and Rent Update
Our house has been on the market for nearly two months already and we still don’t have a buyer. Things were looking pretty good when we received an offer in the third week. However, it failed to go through as we were not able to reach an agreement with the potential buyer, even though we accepted the offered price that was $20,000 below our listing price with a few conditions. There are quite some showings every week, but no other offer came in.
After discussing with our agent, we decided to lower the listing price by $10,000 this week to see if anybody would be interested. I told our agent that this is the lowest listing price we can go right now. If it still doesn’t work, then we will have to wait another time to sell it. We plan to give it one or two more months, then we will move it to the rental market before winter comes. According to our agent, we could rent the house for anywhere between $1,800 and $2,100 a month, which is significantly higher than our current monthly mortgage payment plus HOA fee.
Even though we can rent the house at a decent price, we are reluctant to do so because we are not ready to become landlord. There are just too many things to do and with us being 250 miles away, managing the property won’t be an easy job. So instead, we may have to heir somebody else (such as our agent) to manage it for us. Plus, if we only want to rent it out for one year, we will miss next summer to sell the house. We don’t like this idea of getting into the landlord business, but will have to do that if nothing happens in the next month or two.
On the other hand, our search for a place to rent in Virginia has finally come to a close, almost. We made an offer to a 3-bedroom condo last week, however it was turned down because on the same day (maybe a little ahead of us), the owner received another person who can move earlier than we do. I told our agent we are upset not because we didn’t get the house, but that the owner will not let us get the house anyway (because he told me he doesn’t want to lose any rent) if the other applicant qualifies, but he still ran a credit check on both of us. I don’t understand why he had to check our credit when he already has a preference of whom he wants to rent his house to. Then we made another offer to a 3-level, 2-bedroom townhouse, which was accepted almost immediately. We have already received the least, but haven’t signed it because there are some issues need to be addresses. For example, the owner has already agreed that if we don’t ask them to have the carpet professionally cleaned before we move in, they will not ask us to do the same when we move out. However, they still have an item on the lease, saying that carpet, gutters and chimney need to be cleaned by professional company acceptable to the landlord with paid receipts as proof. Even though we have never rented a private house before, I think this is too much to ask us to do. Well, don’t count on us to clean those stuff for them if they don’t clean them up first and show us the receipts.
Update: After going through the contract carefully and thoroughly, we decided that it’s not a contract we want to sign because it contains too many clauses, making it not worth it to rent the place for only one year. Instead, we got an 2-bedroom apartment. It’s much more straightforward to rent a managed apartment then a private house.
photo credit: TheTruthAbout…
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Sun,
Congrats on getting a place, almost. I would be interested in seeing more on the details of the lease for the townhouse and what is stipulated. I had never heard of asking a tenant to professionally clean the gutters/chimney.
“saying that carpet, gutters and chimney need to be cleaned by professional company acceptable to the landlord with paid receipts as proof.”
I am not sure they can put that in the lease. That is a very extreme provision.
FYI – You are covered under the VRTLA (VA Rental Tenant Landlord Act). I would read through that so you know your rights. I’ve never heard of having to produce paid receipts for cleaning service and asking you to maintain gutters and chimney is far beyond anything I’ve ever seen. (Though it could be within their rights, but is it your fault if a bird nests in the chimney?)
Why not just hire a management company to manage your rental for you? Like you said you don’t want to get into the rental business, but a typical management company would charge you 10% of the gross rent and take care of everything for you. Less hassle on your end while still getting most of the income… plus you can use the rental as tax deductions.
@mapgirl Thanks for the information. We also think the landlord has asked too much for the place. So we eventually withdrew our offer and got an apartment instead. It’s just not worth the trouble.
@No Debt Plan A management company is what we eventually have to turn to if we can’t sell the house and have to rent it out. There’s no way we can manage it ourselves. So we have to heir someone. But still rental is only a temporary solution. If we want to sell the house later, there’s still a lot of work to do. Since we are living so far away, it’s not going to be easy either.