There are several landlords on here, I expect this thread to expand a bit later today - they tend to sleep in lol.

My parents and grandparents owned rental houses but sold them by the time my brother, sister and I were born. My younger brother borrowed 3 grand off my dad when he was 19, flipped his first house and has been doing it for 30 years. He's the only one of us who didn't go to college. He's also the only one with a custom built house on a lake.

I became an accidental landlord when I was laid off in 2008. I moved in with my (now) wife since I was there 4 nights a week anyways. So I've been renting that house a little over 10 years. Had a couple tenants that weren't the best, but I've never been stiffed on rent or anything. Kept a couple security deposits to cover bills/repairs over the years, but for the most part I've had good tenants. One pair of girls stayed 6 years, another girl a couple years. My payment on it is about $650/mo all in, I rent it for 1k/month.

My wife's health took a downturn around 2008 also. She was eventually diagnosed with MS. She ended up losing her house in the 2008 collapse, along with her 401k and all her savings, trying to stay afloat. Her house went into foreclosure, and was eventually auctioned off at the annual tax auction. By that time (2011 or so) I had landed another job, and we were able to bid on the house (we were still living in it) and buy it back for $18k. She had owed approx $120k - the bank never tried to repossess it, they had already been paid off by the bailouts.

So when we finally bought our OWN house together 5 years ago, we started renting hers out. There's no mortgage, and we rent it for 1k/month. The same family has lived there since day 1, no problems. So the $ from that rental pretty much covers the mortgage on our new house.

She wants to flip a house next time to get some cash to remodel our new house. So we're always looking for another opportunity.

I've never raised the rent while anyone is living there, but have adjusted prior to a new tenant moving in -

I charge a $25 late fee if rent paid after the 5th. They get one freebie - it's a lesson people learn quickly if they actually have to cough it up. Some of my longer-term, good tenants I've let slide though.

No discounts for early payment - not gonna reward them for something they're supposed to be doing.

A good friend of mine has over 60 "doors", a majority of them in Ann Arbor MI, big college town. He's virtually guaranteed a constant tenant pool. Most of these kids don't want to move once they're settled and many stay for 3+ years during their entire program. The parents always sign the leases - that's a must. Most of his are larger 4+ bedroom houses as well as apartment buildings. He also has a couple mobile home parks but he mostly complains about those lol

To super-oversimplify it, think of it this way - you plop down 20k on a 200k house, and even if it only breaks even for the next 15 years and never appreciates, your tenants have paid off a house for you and you can now sell it for $200k, or you can continue to get rent payments for the rest of your life from it -

No, Helmut U....German gentleman.

On the contrary, you're only insuring the building, not the contents? My rental insurance is only about $475 a year on each house - ?

OK, here's a question -
I've never asked a tenant to sign a new lease when their old one expired, it simply went month-to-month at that time. And it's been fine, one couple stayed another 5 years, and another stayed a couple more. Nobody has ever packed up and left the day their lease ended.

But this next time, I'd like to lock the current tenants in for at least another year - what do you guys do if they DON'T want to sign for another year?

So, say for whatever reason they don't want to get locked into another year (job may be relocating, whatever), you kick out otherwise good tenants and have your property empty?

I've never done this. I've had people on month to month leases for 5 years. And I've never had a problem renting a house no matter what time of year - someone always needs a roof over their head. You could almost argue that you could ask MORE in the winter since inventory is lower, and 80% of the population wants to move when it's summertime. As for a 6 month vacancy - the longest my place has been empty is 6 weeks, and that's my fault because I take forever to paint and stuff. I must get asked every time I'm there if it's for rent. I'd rather have 2 18-month tenants than 3 one-year ones.

I can't see ending a lease with a good tenant just because they're uncertain about committing for another year. But I do see the logic of your choice.

Agreed.

What extent do you guys go to when tenants move out? And how often do you do renovations, large or small?

I usually wipe down every door/wall/trim and repaint, but this last time I just touched up paint where there were nicks or scratches.

The house was built in the 50s (bungalow), and I shudder to think the number of times the interior doors and trim have been painted. The doors don't close properly, the trim is banged up - the past few years I keep wanting to replace them but I never seem to have time and tenants lined up already.

I tore up the carpet and had the wood floors sanded/finished 4 years ago ($1000), and just had them touched up again ($750) but I think I'm going to do some kind of LVP/vinyl flooring that requires no maintenance next time. I don't want to drop a grand on getting floors touched up every time someone moves out.

Fixtures in the bathroom have been replaced over the years but it needs to be gutted and remodeled too - I was quoted 5k on that 10 years ago, tiny ass bathroom. I can only imagine what it would cost now, even if I do the demo (old school plaster and lathe).

I was just over there cleaning last week and within 2 hours had 3 different people stop and ask if it was for rent or sale, so there's never been a problem getting people in there - i just feel like I need to offer a good quality "product".

Awesome! Good for you! Ive never used a property manager, I'm pretty handy and live close by, but I bet that's good peace of mind.