nextsean,
Hang in there. Remember whatever don’t kill you makes you stronger, right.
Most of these guys are good at what they do because of learning experiences like you are having. You are learning very good lessons too and have found a place to teach you what you need to know. Next time will be easier, the next better still. Working through a tough one will give you confidence that you can make other deals work. Look down the road and focus on you goals, then look down at your obstacles and find ways to beat them.
I don’t mind going through this. What’s bothering me is that I don’t know what I’ve learned so far from this besides making the ads more exciting. Unless I’m missing blaringly obvious mistake I’m missing, I don’t know what lessons I can take to the next try.
I don’t know if you said where you live, but in states with winter, the rental activity drops off significantly during the winter. Nobody wants to move when it’s 3 degrees!!! I normally get 30-40 calls per day from applicants. This week, I’ve been getting about 5-6 per day. That’s just the reality of the business.
This is an interesting thread with points that I haven’t seen before. The reality could be that you are asking too much for rent. I have found that when everyone who is calling has bankruptcies or bad credit, that these are folks who don’t care if you are overpriced by 10%, because they never look at their budget, and they don’t care about expenses. I’m sure that population density plays a role with how many calls that you get, but if you are priced right, the place should rent.
Keep in mind that one eviction or one bad tenant could cancel years of rental income due to attorney’s fees or repair costs. I would rather lose one months rent keeping a place vacant, or lose $100 per month in cash flow than wind up with $15,000 damage to the property and three months lost income from a deadbeat tenant and $500-$1,000 in attorney’s fees to evict.
One technique I have used in the past to get a place rented up is to reduce the rent by 5% every week. If you are priced fairly, you can always raise the rent later.
I also look at similar properties in the area of the rental. If you were a tenant, and you could rent a much nicer place to live just down the street for less money, you would do it right?