In the same neighborhood, there is another one story house on the market too, regular sale. Everything is pretty good on this one, but there is a two story house behind of it. No any privacy in its backyard, living area, breakfast area, master bedroom and another bedroom if openning blind. This one is in perfect condition and the price is no big difference with forclosure one. How do you think about it? Our only one concern is privacy. Could it be a problem for rental?

dream2009 ~

Looking into becoming a landlord has its own challenges but it also has rewards.

I was confused by your comment about believeing in "feng shui" when buying a house so I did further research and read five articles written by practitioners. No where did it state that it was unwise to buy a house where a couple divorced and then the husband died in a car accident.

I always thought that Feng Shui was more of a focus on positive energy that would be directed in and toward the house so that the people who live there would received the benefit of that positive energy. I did read that the house shouldn't have the #4 in it especially if you were Chinese. I guess that number is associated with death but I don't know why that specific number.

Anyway, if I was a potential renter, I wouldn't want my back yard to back up to the front yard of another house. I do prefer privacy. If your concern is that a man died in a car accident I would have to think that millions of homes have had owners sick, hospitalized, died in accidents either in the home or, most likely, away from the home. That is the situation with the former owner. I don't see why the real estate agent would have to share that the man died in a car accident. What does that have to do with the house? Are you someone who believes that there could be a ghost attached to the home because he died in an accident somewhere else.

From your two posts it seems to me that you have already made up your mind that you don't want the first home. The great thing is that you don't have to give the agent a reason that you don't want the foreclosure home. If you would be ahead financially with the foreclosure home then go with that if your interest is in making money in the long run. If you have too many concerns about why the former owners don't live there anymore then go with the one that offers no yard privacy. It sounds like that may be more acceptable to you so go with that one. Although privacy is a desire for many if you offer the home for a lower rate then someone will want it.

Robyn

Uhhh. HUH???

dream2009,

I don't completely believe in Feng Shui, but there are places with a bad aura. There are homes that bad things happen- people moving in and out frquently, people divorcing, dying.

Take a breath. Being a landlord is not all that.
Are you handy? Will you have a mortgage on it?

This goes for MOST renters, not all: There are a few people who choose to rent (we've all rented at one time ;) ), but most are deadbeats. I've owned rental properties, and I will NEVER again.
Remember that your credit now will be tied to your renters being able to pay rent. Many times renters have other priorities than "paying rent" LOL. Renters ruin properties. Don't pay rent. Don't honor leases. Skip town. Move pets in. I can go on. They all start off wonderfully. In a couple of months they stop paying. Evicting takes up to 6 months in some states. Why do you think they are renters? Most cannot save enough for a downpayment.

You must have a strong stomach, and lots of money to be a landlord. Do not judge according to yourself. That's what I did. Boy was I wrong.

Ask yourself this question: Why aren't there multiple bids on these distressed properties? Trust me. It's not because nobody can afford them, or they cannot spot the opportunites. It's because they are a "headache".

@Robyn,thank you for your advice. We will not go for the one without privacy.
@dabunch, I have same feeling as you about a bad aura. There is another forclosure house on the market today in the same neiborhood with low price. I checked its history from county appraisal web site. This house was built in 05. You can not believe how many transaction occured in past 4 years - It has been sold 5 times!!!

About the rental, it is our first time ever. We consulted several realtors and all of them gave us all positive feedbacks. What you told me and you experienced are totally different story. Sounds like it is no fun at all.

If I were worried about bad aura, I would stay away from a home that sold so many times. Must be something unlucky about it. The first house wouldn't bother me as the owner didn't die in the home. That's a good thing. If the owner stayed home he wouldn't have died.

Okay, that's a stretch...

Good luck whatever you decide,
Jane

@jane__ny, my mom said samething as you. As long as the person did not die in the house, it should be fine. But somehow, when I was in that house after I knew what happened to the poor gentleman and thought about that he lived in it before, I felt a a little bit cold and wanted to get out of the house quickly eventhough someone else were with me. Am I overacted?

Ditto on dabunch. Most renters are (or will turn into) deadbeats.

Just "went out of business" as far as landlording goes. Spent the better part of this morning repairing our last rental house in prep. of sale.

The last tenant on this house was with us for 5 years. I made the mistake of equating paying on time with taking care of the property...Uhh, no. Water damage, pet damage, cigarette smoke damage, appliance theft, on and on and on.

Take your money and invest in mutual funds, CD's, etc. It may not make you as much money, but at least you can sleep at night instead of worrying how you can pay the mortgage while you repair damage on a vacant rental that's earning $0. Trust me...I know.

I am a landlord that has had many positive experiences. I like property investments.
That said, I do not buy single family houses for investment rentals. The finances just work out better for multiple units when investing for long term rentals.
I usually buy usually triplexes in a beach community. Most of my tenants are young professionals that have good credit and pay like clockwork. They are not deadbeats, they are nice people that are at the rental point in their life.
Only advice I can give, don't get emotional about it, you are not going to live there, it is a business decision, does it make business sense or not.
Reading your posts seem to lack the business mindset, decide before you buy if you will be a business person or not.
It is okay if you are not, just be honest with yourself before you get trapped into the ownership.

@jamist649, sorry to hear your bad experience, it is definetly something we really concern about if investment on rental property is good or not.

@cmarlin20, you are right, we are all salary person, not business men. We want to try something for investment, away from stock market :-).

This is someone 's posting on another topic, should we watch out the bad history of residential properties too?

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I remember in a business class I took years ago. Our instructor was talking about business localities having 'the stench of death'. IOW don't buy a building where previous businesses had failed. It sticks in people's minds unconsciously and makes the public connect your business with a failed one. Just out of curiosity, I've watched several locations on our shopping 'strip'. Two of them, have had businesses in them who failed over and over. Both were choice locations, and what you'd consider high rent. Both are empty now.
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Dream2009, as an ex-landlord who had a couple single family rentals, I do not think you should get into the business. It is not the place for sentimentalism or concern about auras.

You have to be hard headed and pragmatic, and you have to treat your rental properties as the businesses they are. That means you can't take things regarding them personally.

You have to mentally separate the business and its accounts from your personal situation and its accounts. It's a hard thing to do. People who can't, but still get into the business, spend an inordinate amount of time agonizing over their units. It's a recipe for ill health and an unhappy life.

Ask yourself this question. Assuming you are NOT incorporated, but are filing with the IRS as a sole proprietor, if upon a tenant moving out you found there was $2,500 of damages that you could not recover by legal action or from the deposit, would you consider that as $2,500 out of your pocket or $2,500 out of the business's pocket?

I think you can guess what the answer should be. Far too many people in business take the opposite view. They are seldom happy people.

Creek_side,

You are so right. Everybody makes "businesses" look appealing.
Your realtors will sell you anything. In fact, there are laws in place prohibiting them to tell you the negatives about RE. Most won't level with you because they want to make a buck selling. You're the one who gets stuck with all the costs of RE ownership. Even some rental owners won't tell you the truth. They'll BRAG about their rentals, pretending to be savvy business people. I spoke to an acquaintance once, and he told me that "he owned properties" and how he was doing really well. As I prodded him further, he said : On this rental I'm only out $20 a month. What he meant was that the rent money collected did not cover the entire mortgage. Plus, the property was NOT appreciating. Doing the math, one can deduce that ALL repairs and additional expenses came out of the owners pockets, as well. I guess he was in denial. He didn't want to admit that his rental was a dud.

As far as other AURAS are concerned, I can tell you that RE is regional. In some states or areas people may be a more responsible than in others. They may pay on time. That is a rarity, though. Tenants behave better where there is a shortage of rentals. I've lived in several states. Most rentals are a headache and are EXPENSIVE to maintain. You get phone calls in the middle of the night because the door lock broke. Many times the renters live better than you do-LOL

The only RE I would invest in is if I found some well priced land only and ONLY in a desirable location. You'll pay out of pocket taxes, but usually that land will triple in value in a short time. You hold on to it for a few years and sell it to a developer and make a lot of money. I knew some people who paid for their kids' edcuation that way. Again, you would have to do some math to see if it would pay off. This depends on the region and the scarcity of land. Around here 1/3 of an acre goes for 200K. That same land 15 years ago would cost 90k. If you were out 2k/yr in taxes, you still would have made 80k. Not a bad return. In the meantime there are no headaches. The land just sits. You must have the tax money, but that's about it.

Being a landlord is not easy, here is the link to a site where landlords posting their problems and solutions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Landlord site

Thank you all for your helps. We were not able to get that forclosure property. Something is wrong. Our realtor was kind of disapeared right after we submitted our last bid. This property was on the market over 2 months and we were only one to work on it. In the meanwhile, the bank reduced some and we almost reached the deal we targeted, this realtor was trying to push us to accept bank's offer, then told us that multiple offers came in and we need to compete with them. It happened before we submitted the last counter offer to the bank. One day later, my husband checked online and saw that property was under cocntract already, but the realtor did not call us or reply our email about our bid status!