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Originally Posted by freebeard
That was my brother's experience when he tried that path to riches. Plus he had to drive to the location in Oregon City.
Was the rental management company involved with the refrigerator?
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Yes, the property manager was involved with the refrigerator replacement - that is why I pay them 10% - to manage the property and deal with the renters. Not just finding them, evicting them, and collecting rent - but managing all their little complaints and also minor to major repairs. This month it was a clogged toilet and the fridge.
For the fridge the renter called the property management office and said the fridge had stopped working. They sent a maintenance guy to confirm the fridge had stopped and do some basic troubleshooting. That is when they sent me a text as they need my authorization for anything over $500. The property manager said they could either call an appliance repair company that would change $120 to come out plus parts and labor for an estimate of about $400 or I could buy a new refrigerator from Lowes with free delivery and disposal of the old fridge. I chose a new fridge over spending 1/2 the price of a new fridge replace one that is more than a decade old.
The management company sends me an itemized receipt that includes the Lowes receipt and the charge for their maintenance guy. Looking at their web portal that fridge cost me $791 all in. (I forgot that the management company gets a 20% discount at Lowes)
There certainly are cheaper ways to do things if you self manage but you can't really do that from 2500 miles away and I didn't even entertain taking my father up on his offer to manage the property.
For example when I sold my super cheap and crappy electric stove that came with the house in Alabama on Craig's List for $50 it was purchased by a guy that self manages homes. He buys up cheap and crappy by still technically working appliances when they come up for sale and stores them so when he has an appliance failure (which is often as he buys crappy used appliances) he has spares ready to go. Which is fine if you don't value your time, don't travel away from home, and are fine with all the hassles that come from renting in the very bottom of the rental market.
A co-worker in Alabama did something similar and self managed because no management company would touch the properties she and her husband owned. ($30K shotgun shacks in North Birmingham) However, that was a full-time job on top of her full time job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
Zillow shows a 225-square-foot trailer in Apache Junction I can afford with my housing allowance.
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What do you mean by "housing allowance" Is that just your budget for housing or are you still getting benefits from the GI bill?