Totally surprised by the number of people looking to rent a house

[luvflorida]

We put our house up for sale in May 2008. We took it off the market last month. In the year that we had it listed with an agency, we had maybe twenty people look at the house. Most people loved the house (feedback was excellent) and it was priced in line with comps in the area, but nobody made an offer.

We don't want the house to sit empty for another year or so, and we don't want to keep paying expenses on two houses, so my husband and I decided to rent it out. Our first concern was that we wouldn't be able to find a renter. Well, we shouldn't have worried!

We listed the house with several online rental sites, and our daughter suggested that we also list the house on craigslist. We got phone calls and e-mails the first day the house was listed. Craigslist was absolutely nuts! Within hours of putting the house on their site, we were getting calls and e-mails. The first day brought in over thirty people interested in renting our house. There were people calling from as far away as the west coast. When calls started up again on the second day, we removed the house from craigslist.

And the funny thing is, the first person that called and set up an appointment to see the house, ended up being someone that my husband knew. Mid-way through the tour, my husband called (he is in AZ and won't be here for another week) and asked me to ask the guy if he was so-and-so from so-and-so company. Turns out the guy works for a business that is a customer of my husband's software company. He loved the house and has signed a lease with us.

The number of people interested in renting our house really surprised us. I think we could rent another dozen just like it if we had them. I know it isn't a good time to try to sell a house, but I guess renting is a different matter. I'm wondering if it's like this in other parts of the country, or if it's just in the northeast?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Here it would depend on the school district so it is all about location.

I just wanted to say congrats on figuring out a solution!!!!

 

[MushyMushy]

It's nuts in our town! If we were in a better financial position right now, we'd buy a few mid-range houses to rent. It's a college town, so we have tons of college kids wanting to rent, plus we just have a lot of lower-income wage earners, so buying for them is out of the question.

We rented for years and it was always a challenge finding a decent house.

 

[luvflorida]

Here it would depend on the school district so it is all about location.

I just wanted to say congrats on figuring out a solution!!!!

Thanks so much! We are now crossing our fingers and hoping everything works out. I've heard way too many rental horror stories. On the other hand, I know there are plenty of good tenants out there.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My mom did the same thing here in Michigan. She couldn't sell her condo after about a year so she put it up for rent. She had it rented within a couple months. It would have been sooner, but the first person backed out. I don't even think her condo is in a great location or anything.

 

[ajk912]

I think too many people are still scared to buy. I know I would be. If you need to move, you need to move, but I wouldn't buy another house right now.

Plus, I don't know if it's an increase in your area or not but the people who are dealing with foreclosures and get evicted/let their houses go have to go somewhere.

 

[kellyg403]

My dil is in real estate and we were talking about this same thing recently. A few houses in our neighborhood have gone from being on sale for awhile to being for rent and off the market in a few days. She is thinking/feeling that with so many foreclosures a lot of people have poor credit so buying is not an option. The don't have their former home and no way to buy a new one so renting is the only option available to them.

I don't know about other areas of the country, but we have been pretty lucky in this area in the home value side of things. We never took the drastic upwards turn in value like some areas, so we have pretty much kept the value of our home, with a bit of an increase. Nothing major but an upward trend of any kind is good I would guess. While other areas were seeing a trend of making 30, 40, 50 thousand on their homes in a year or two that was not the case here. So the 'bottom' a lot of other areas saw we didn't experience.

Now, beach properties are a whole 'nother story. Those poor people have pretty much hit rock bottom. They are even having a hard time getting those things rented for beach season let alone the rest of the year. Insurance has gone up so much nobody without a lot of expendable cash is even interested in purchasing beach property at the moment.

Kelly

 

[DisneyBabies]

My family rents a house instead of buying. For a while, DH was moving around within the company he works for so we were moving every couple of years. There is no way I am going to buy and sell a house every two years, so we rent. And it is hard to find a good house that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but we managed to do it and just moved into a new house closer to DH's work last week.

Thank you to all those who decide to rent your homes instead of selling. It really is a blessing for those of us who need to rent instead of buy.

 

[Nie0214]

I think I remember you posting a while back about wanting to rent your house in Maine? There is a market in Southern Maine for renters especially Sept-May for the school year.

 

[luvflorida]

We rented for years and it was always a challenge finding a decent house.

And it is hard to find a good house that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but we managed to do it and just moved into a new house closer to DH's work last week.

We heard this same thing again and again from many of the people interested in renting our house.

I think I remember you posting a while back about wanting to rent your house in Maine? There is a market in Southern Maine for renters especially Sept-May for the school year.

Yeah, it was probably me. We thought about doing a Sept.-May lease, but decided it was easier to do a year round lease, especially living on the other side of the country. We're in a touristy, beach town, too. So we thought about renting the house by the week or month in the summertime, but that would be way too difficult to handle not living nearby.

 

[minniecarousel]

Congratulations on solving your problem!

 

[Pakey]

We recently bought a rental/investment home. The realtor said that rentals in good school districts are in high demand right now here. We live in an area of high foreclosure rates and I'm guessing a lot of the people who are not renting used to be homeowners.