I was just wondering if it is a good investment idea to buy a duplex, live in half and rent out the other half? I’m a single woman, and I thought this might be a good way to make owning my own home affordable? What would I need to do to become a landlord? How much home maintenance stuff do I need to know, or every time something goes wrong, can I just call the plumber or electrician over to fix it? Just some general ideas. I’m a relatvely handy person but have not done a lot of home maintenance. How much extra time and money is involved in getting this set up rather than buying just a townhouse or something? This would be my first home that I would own. Any advice would be appreciated.

The landlord must keep the rental habitable at all times. Habitable generally means:

Clean and sanitary buildings and grounds, free from accumulation of debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents and vermin, and safe for normal and reasonable uses (these obligations only apply to common areas after the tenant moves in);

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What does this mean for me? My cat has caught 4 mice in the past 6 hours.
I think I’m going to stay awake all night for a week, or until this problem seems solved.

The landlord has provided a mouse trap, but they are not getting in. My cat has to grab them. I don’t like this, as she could get sick!! This is not healthy, but how can I request that my landlord become more active in this? He should be searching the place for holes in the walls, etc. shouldn’t he?

It’s not nice worrying about your cat, or if your food is being touched by mice.
Are you crazy?
It’s a 1 bathroom, 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen and living room in one.
You want me to stuck my cat where?! I don’t know where the freaking mice are coming from.

I’m quite sure the landlord should be responsible for finding out how they are coming in, given the apartment is clean, there has not been recent damage that I have noticed.

If it was my own house, yes, it would be my full responsibility. But it is not my house.

My grandmother’s home in Maryland is now in my brother and my name. I want to obtain a loan to buy him out and fix up the house a bit in order to rent the house out. Who should I contact first to get the ball rolling? How do I become a landlord? What should be my first step and what do I do next and then after that? Is there an agency that I can call who will help me to know what to do and in what order?

I plan on becoming a landlord, but I’m just doing it to move in w/my boyfriend. I’m actually taking a loss to do so, i.e. my mortgage is 1110.00 a month, my condo fee is 300.00 a month and I will be renting out for 1300.00 a month. Do I claim it? If so, how? I feel like I shouldn’t have to pay taxes if I am not making $?

I am interested in purchasing manufactured homes (mobile homes) on loans, and create a mobile home park. How do I go about it? Where can I buy the houses at factory prices? What permits, licenses do I need? What kind of loans should I get? What is the minimum down payment required? I want to start with five, then use the profits to purchase more mobile homes. Must be in Ohio for the time being. With more money, I will consider other states. Another option I have thought of is apartment houses from Ritz-Craft. Advices given would be appreciated. Landlords or owners of apartments and rentals only. No people thinking they know what they are talking about, please.

And I do not want to live on the same property among the tenants.

im just curious if your a landlord or manager of an apt building do you get to live for free? what are your responsibities and also how do you become a landlord or manager?

We have our house on the market, but the housing market is poor right now. As an option we are considering renting until the house sells. What is the best way to go about this? Hire a management company? becoming a landlord and handling it our selves? We have to relocate as a part of this sale, we have a contingency on the home we are purchasing and do not want to lose out on that house and cannot afford 2 mortgages. Renting out our existing house seems like a potentially good option. We are not sure how to go about this if you have any ideas please suggest them. I appreciate the inout.

Ok so I’m a young woman & recently I’ve been thinking about becoming a landlord because what I know of them so far is that they make decent money but what I also know about them is alot of damage can be done & alot of trouble can be stirred,especially when It comes to the people that you’ll be renting to! so I was wondering if anyone can give me any tips on how to prevent this? & any advice that you’d like to share? My aunt was a landlord for about 8yrs & her & her husband made a reasonable amount of money? do all landlords make reasonable/decent amounts of money? enough to support them & there family? I want to buy & apartment complex anywhere from 4-10 apts & the rent will be anywhere from 0-00,is there anyway that I can make sure that I’m renting to decent people that are willing to pay there rent & avoid starting trouble? I want to make sure that when & if I decide to persure becoming a landlord that I’m ready & I won’t get screwd over!! so any advice & tips?

I am thinking of getting into real estate (owning houses which I would rent to tenants.) However, I don’t want to deal with the problems all the time, like fixing some broken plumbing system or something. I have heard that property managers take care of this and act as secondary landlords. How would a landlord go about finding a good property manager who also satisfies the tenants? Why would a property manager not decide to become a landlord?

Here’s the short version there are alot of empty houses here due to the fact that the housing market is so low, many of the empty houses aren’t even registered with Realtors because of this, and many people do not want to become landlords because of maintenance that they would be required to do or having to deal with tenants, even though some are open to doing land contract. The other day I was out driving around and I saw a house that was empty there was a sticker on the door that just said that the house was winterized in July 2009, unfortunately there was no other Information on the tag that was even readable. Well the door was unlocked (again not uncommon for empty houses around this area, so my sister and I decided to take a peek in, the house is exactly what my husband and I would love to own, absolutely what we have been looking for. The problem is there was no house number posted on the home and no mail box, it was at the end of one lane but a lane from the next road over ran right to it also so I don’t even know what road it is considered to be on, if I had an address for it I could call the assessors office and they could tell me the owners name, the acreage, and any other helpful information such as if the taxes are paid up also I have done this before. The problem is does anybody know how to find an address out for a property if you don’t have a house number, do not know where the property boundaries are, and have no idea which road it is even considered to be on because of the way it sits? Any help would be a godsend!

I need to become a landlord of a house for the next two years. The area that i’m renting out to is fairly popular so do you think it would be hard to get tenants. when I hear about stories with tenants doing bad things to the home or not paying rent I usally would expect its because the landlords can’t find many tenants to rent out the home. I live in Australia and would get 0 a week rent its a basic home. After costs come out to look after the home with the tenants in how much will I get after the 0 its only to fill in a gap so i’d might only have the home for a couple years. Any advice thanks.

I’m 23 years old and have had around 3 years experience in leasing, and being an assistant manager for an apartment community. I know all the ups and downs of how the business works, and I would like to rent out a few small properties.

Any magic ideas on how I can purchase small properties (very little outpay…remember I’m 23, so I’m broke).

I need some serious advise as to how to invest this money. I already have RRSP savings, we are home owner (still paying a mortgage). What suggestions and how should I invest so that we can continue to live and enjoy life. I am interested in short term investments where I can get my money at short notice. I have suggested to invest in another house and become landlord. He is saying put it in the bank and work with the small intrest given. *We live in Canada*

I have a landlord who, it is becoming apparent, is pure evil. She has a large deposit from us, and I’m concerned we won’t be able to get it back. She has a history of keeping most or all of her tenant’s deposits. She’ll do thing like have a friend over to the house to drink wine, and then said she "hired someone to come do some work" and charge tenants /hour for labor. She also will not pay us if we win in Small Claims Court. Everyone around our house has sued her and won, but she changes addresses, won’t answer her phone, and basically makes it hard to track her down. They all have leins out on the house now.

I want to just withhold our last months rent (which is still less then the deposit) but am pretty sure she’d try to sue us. I feel like the only chance we have at recovering some of our money is to withhold rent, but don’t want to put myself at legal risk. Any ideas? We have written proof of harrassing behavior from her, and could get affadavits from previous tenants.

With all the problems popping up with the economy, and a few horror stories we’ve heard about banks foreclosing on property and the tenants not knowing and not having time to prepare for such actions, we’ve become suspicious of our landlord paying on the rental property where we live.

We know he’s gone through a divorce and we’re wondering if that’s affecting his ability to pay on the properties he owns. We’d ask him in person … but that would be rather awkward.

I currently rent a room in a house. My roommate owns the house and would be considered my landlord. We have become friends, but now I want to move on to my own place. I can’t figure out how to start this conversation. Can anyone suggest exactly how I should start this conversation? I tried bringing it up once but I just couldn’t think of the words to say.

We are moving from a 2 bedroom condo in Toronto into a bigger place in the burbs. Because the condo is in such a ‘high demand’ place to live we are thinking of keeping it and renting it out as another source of income. Any experiences – positive or negative – are welcome. We would like to make a decision with eyes wide open.

I have houses that I rent out throughout the Detroit area. Most of my tenants are low income families, which I understand, completely. The rental houses are below average cost. I.E A house that should rent for 0 is 0

Most of my tenants recieve State Aid such as welfare payments, S.S.I, or social security….

I try to show up on their doorsteps the same dates as the checks are issued to ensure that payment is made. Alot of these families state that they have not been paid and waiting on the mail still. Days go by and the same bs.

Should I just give these tenants 7 day notices to move the same day they are late? Or should I hold out until a certain number of days have passed?

Or should I harrass them until they pay up?
My biggest problem is being soft hearted. But the problem here is that I am not the actual owner of these properties.

My gf and I are fresh out of college and want to move out of her townhouse which is in a favorable location for a military renter. We’d like the extra income and equity build up but we’re only a year and a half into our relationship. This will be a new thing for us. Does this seem like a situation for failure??

Hi All,

I’ve just became a landlord recently and I was wondering how other individual landlord keep track of their finance and file tax? Any recommendation or suggestion is appreciated.

What do I need to know?

should i start a llc to keep my business issues from personal issues? i read this was a good idea when flipping houses, is it the same for renting them?