Falling prices and historically low mortgage rates are bringing a flood of new real estate investors into the metro Phoenix market. It’s fairly easy in many parts of the Valley to buy a small house, put a renter in it and realize a positive monthly cash flow immediately.
Here’s a very brief tip for all the rookie landlords. Budget to replace the carpet and paint the entire interior every time a tenant moves out. Set aside several thousand dollars for this.
This way, if the house needs it you’ll have the money. A freshly painted & recarpeted home will rent quicker than one that’s been only cleaned. And if The Perfect Tenant just moved out and the home doesn’t need new paint & carpet, you’ve got a nice little savings account. Which is good because houses always need something.
Rookie landlords: Budget for the expenses, not just the income.
Heather Barr is a Realtor. She's a chow hound, a gym rat, and a political junkie and a happy workaholic.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Pat, I totally agree. Carpet is truly icky. Dirty, filthy, icky carpet. Back in the day when I was looking for a rental for myself, I purposely ignored any properties that had ANY carpet in them. Landlords, take heed. Carpet is cheap to replace but you keep replacing it over, and over, and over. Tile = mop, not replace.
even better–ditch the carpet and TILE or finish the cement. Icky, icky carpet!
Rookie landlords might want to take a look at what’s going on in the rental market. I’m relocating to Phoenix and decided to rent instead of buy until I figure out where I want to be and the housing market calms down a little. I’ve been searching regularly on your MLS portal in Glendale, Peoria and North Phoenix to learn what’s out there and get a feel for the market and rents are dropping. I’m seeing stuff in the under $1,000/month market going for $150-$200 less than a year or two ago and still there’s more “price reduced” listings dropping into my search range every day. And they’ve been sitting empty for quite a while too. I wonder how many of those houses are getting dumped back into the market as the flips you commented on earlier?
{ 1 trackback }