Tenants appear to be few and far between this winter.
Well, I had the cute little gal with 3 kids who applied for my $1050 house, and had an income of $200 a month. But I am not really sure I should count her.
My local TV station does a straw poll of the local movers every few months. For the first time in forever, they discovered that there are more people moving out than are moving in to town.
I have my own theory why.
For several years, we have had a huge influx of workers in the building trade, coming to get their bite of all the new construction jobs. Now that building has slowed, they are moving on, looking elsewhere for work.
For several years, all of my tenants have had their income somehow related to the construction industry. But no new construction related tenants for nearly a year now, and none applying for the current vacancy.
I’m seeing the exact same thing in Southern New England. BIG TIME shortage of tenants!!
In addition to the shortage you also have an EXPLOSION of competition from UNSOLD condo projects now be turned into apartments and countless single family homes that can’t be sold and are in the rental pool.
Maybe these people are moving to JBaldwins and Roger J’s area of the country!! They seem to have missed out on this INSANE boom we had up here. They always write “not in my backyard” They didn’t see the crazy runups in pricing that we had, and their markets remain stabile, BUT they are NOT the MAJORITY. If you bang nails for a living you have NO choice but to GET OUT OF NEW ENGLAND!!
Want some proof that I’m not EXAGGERATING the situation. Check this post out from the area newspaper. The carpenter pictured says…"The only thing keeping me working now is BOARDING UP FORECLOSED PROPERTIES for the banks!!!
Jbaldwin…If you look REALLY close in that picture you CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE SKY FALLING. :biggrin :biggrin :biggrin Oh one last thing J… believe it or not, I can GUARANTEE you that my postings on REICLUB had NOTHING to do with this down turn in RI.
What Roger and Jbaldwin need to understand is there are VERY LARGE MARKETS in the U.S.A. and THE WORLD that are truely suffering. When this is occuring in your back yard and you see the effects up close and personal, you wirte about it because IT’s REAL. Unfortunately it seems New England’s reality is fast becoming the WORLDS reality. Real estate markets in England, Spain, Italy, and Germany are ALL seeing the exact same thing I am. People purchased homes that they financed with BS mortgages and they are LOSING…BIG TIME!!! This was a GLOBAL EVENT and it’s effects will be felt GLOBALLY.
We’ve got plenty of tenants here! I’ll send you a few. Would you prefer a drug dealer, drug addicted hooker, or someone who was evicted 3 times in the past 2 years? We’ve got plenty of these. What we have a hard time finding are honest citizens who pay their bills and aren’t criminals - those are few and far between indeed!
It might be the part of the country one is in. I’m down in Georgia where it seems that people are still moving in rapidly. I wonder if the downturn in real estate has caused more people to become landlords, driving up the need to market for qualified tenants.
I think people are moving out of depressed areas and going INTO parts of the country like Georgia where the cost of living is lower. If there’s no jobs where you are, you really have no choice but to go where the work is, or where you can live for less.
I have also noticed a shortage of tenants here in WNY. I have a newly rehabbed apt. that’s been vacant for 3mo. I’ve had a handful of people look at it, and now have a choice of two young men in their late teens or, a couple w/ two large dogs :rolleyes Not much of a choice.
I’m hoping to have better luck this weekend as I sexed up the newspaper ad a little.
BTW, the two young men are friends with the downstairs tenant who is a single mother (18yrs old) with two kids. Can you say Animal House! (or WORSE!)
I also have no shortage of tenants. I have a waiting list a mile long. I am able to rent the units out as fast as the other tenant is evicted.
Which brings me to the non-payer problem we seem to be having in the area. Many people would have you to believe this problem is caused by the current economy, however I think it is because many of the non-payers are to lazy to work and when they do have money they are spending it on drugs and booze instead of paying their rent.
After they fill out an application, I check previous addresses, work history, and references. If they pass the basic requirements, I’ll pull their credit.
By basic, I mean did they tell the truth, were they attempting to hide anything, and do they make enough money to afford the property.
If you are thinking of entering the landlording business, I can not stress enough to get the proper education before starting. The education is cheap if applied before hand. Very expensive afterwords.
I screen the applicants myself, but have a credit bureau pull credit. I need a few more properties and I’ll be able to hire someone to do this for me.