Gebber

As some of you know I have been trying to sell my house as the result of a divorce but the market is not being very kind so I am going to try and keep the house until the market picks up. In order to do this I need to rent a room.

Here is what I have.

3 bedroom 2 bath House off of 209th in Aloha.
You would have 1 bedroom and the main bathroom
You would also have full use of the living room (I have no furniture in it)
I have all my stuff in the separate family room.
2 car garage for motorcycles or storage if needed
Central Air conditioning
All utilities, cable and High speed internet included

for $600

So if anybody is looking for a place or knows of someone looking let me know by PM. I would be happy to show you the place.

Thanks

Geb

DucatiGirl

Hi Geb,

I'll check around for you. Good luck on the search!

Carol

dogger1044

damn I wish i made more money, i'd be all over that. good luck finding someone though.

Gebber

Thanks Carol!

sodapop

I will see if I can find someone that may be interested in that deal. You can't beat garage space, a room and all other stuff at 600. I think that is a great deal. If I can't find someone to give you a holla Good luck on finding someone.

ApexGirl

if I hear of anyone, I'll send them your way

Gebber

Thank you all for the help!

Gebber

Anyone, Anyone?

trayson

Sure you can...

I'm renting a room in my 3 bedroom house for $475 w/ all utilities included.
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/roo/813170267.html

Of course, on the flip side, I'd have room for another bike in my 3rd bay but that's about it. (I've already got more vehicles than garage spots. LOL)


Oh, and since I'm up in Vancouver, I don't think I'll be all that much competition for the OP in aloha. Good luck on finding someone. I had a SWEET renter for about 9 months, and then he got fired from his job and bailed back to Arizona w/o telling me. Just found his room empty one morning, and that was at the beginning of June. Damn, it'd sure be nice to get that rental stream coming back in! (helps offset the Ex-Wife's entitlement fund---Oh, I mean Child Support.)

But I feel for ya man. My divorce was final a year ago. If you can manage to hold onto the house and get the rental steam flowing, you'll be way better off than if you would have to downsize. At least you can keep your familiar surroundings and have someone paying equity into your pad while you get all the tax benefits. Good Luck!

Silver788

Thread crashes suck. Start yur own thread newbie

trayson

Settle down there sparky. Someone made a statement about their opinion of the "Value" that was being presented. I've been in this market of renting a room for quite a bit longer than the original poster, and from my experience it would be near impossible to get the price that he's asking. So, I had a choice: Sit back and let sunshine be blown up his a$$, or add some feedback. The easiest way to show feedback was to give an apples to apples comparison. My place sounds VERY comperable to his and I'm at about the bleeding edge of what the market will bear pricewise.

So, ask yourself, what's better? For the guy to be asking a price that's probably too high for the market and have his room sit empty while he sinks deeper into debt? Or for him to get some feedback from someone that's been doing this longer and has done a fair amount of market research? It's way better for this guy to get $450 to $550 a month rather than have the place sit EMPTY asking for $600.

He's in Aloha, I'm in Vancouver. I hardly think that I'll be competing with him when we're that far away. And do I *really* think that I'm going to get a flood of potential renters from here? Probably not. It was more a really quick and straigtforward way for the guy to get a feel for how his place would compare to mine and in turn have a chance to evaluate his price relative to a good comparable in the marketplace.

Furtherfore, I gave him support for his situation since I've been in his shoes. And threw in a little bit of free financial advise from me as a CPA. Plus, he got a couple of free bumps to the top of the forum.

Sheesh, it's not like I was trying to buy a drink for a girl that's he's sitting with at the bar...

Gebber

I actually have 2 people interested from my craigslist ad that I will be interviewing this weekend. They both have said the price is reasonable for what I am offering. I based my price by comparing what I have to what others are offering in area. Plus this is the first time I have tried to rent a room and do appreciate the feedback.

trayson

Good luck man! Divorce sucks, and the financial reorginization afterwards really sucks. But you can come out okay. I've managed to keep my sportbike, keep my house, and have even been able to get myself into a convertible M3. Hope it all works out for ya.

trayson

By the way, I just closed the deal with my new renter tonight; and he doesn't have a sportbike... So you can quit worrying about alleged "thread crashing".

And Gebber apprecaited my feedback anyway, so I guess no harm was done.



Gebber, good luck on the interviews this weekend. Some more advice:

1. I tell them I need about a $40 "application fee" and tell them that I use that to pay for an online background check.
2. I asked this renter for a $250 refundable deposit
3. I am drawing up a contract for us to sign
4. I am requiring a 3 month minimum
5. I am getting a copy of his pay stub to verify his income and employment
6. I am going to call his current roommate as a reference
7. If I had more concerns about his income/employment, I'd inform him that I'd like to run a credit check (haven't had to do that though)
8. Rent is payable on the first of the month
9. We've agreed on 30 days notice if he's going to move out after his 3 months.
10. If he moves out before the 3 months, he's on the hook for the full 3 months rent. (this is simply because looking for a roomie is a PITA, and it's not worth it for someone that's gonna be there less than 3 months)
11. The contract will have stiff penalties (probably $50) for rent paid past the 10th day of the month. I was very up front with him that it makes more sense for me to have stiff penalties that give the renter incentive to pay for the roof over their head FIRST rather than their car, insurance, bike, whatever.
12. Be hard nosed from the get-go, then later you can be a nice guy and exercise lenience. if you're "easy" at the beginning, they will expect that in the future and gain a sense of entitlement.
13. Try to both be as up front as possible about expectations.
14. If your renter doesn't have a TV that they're going to bring and put in their room, give them one of your extra TV's to use (or find a 19" on craigslist for cheap). Giving my last renter (who was basically living out of a suitcase) his own TV to use in his room was the best thing I ever did... He would very often just disappear into his room to talk on the phone and watch TV and it was like I still had the place to myself. I mean, he was welcome to use the family room, but it was nice to have control of the 50" DLP when he went upstairs!

Oh, and see if your new renter has a hot, slutty sister--because being divorced is lonely!!!!!

MCA8690

Can I swing by your place one of these days?

Geb: good luck with the search; I have been looking for a place myself to move into, but yours is simply too far away for a practical commute for me. Otherwise, I'd have hit you up by now.

Gebber

Trayson thanks for all the info that is great advise


Mike I sent you a PM.