We live about 30 minutes from a house we are trying to rent. A guy in the neighborhood (his grandfather built most of the houses back in the 40's & rented them out), tinkers on cars, etc., & has "junk" piled up and down all around several old houses that have past their usefulness. The houses on either side of ours are not well kept either, so it makes it hard to rent ours. It's no chance these folks want to sell.

Lots of people want to come out & look & then are not interested. So I have started giving out the address to let them pass the 1st phase before making the trip to view inside. That doesn't always help either.

What are some of the "excuses" you been given when people obviously don't like/want it?

We actually had one that asked us to make a special trip, later in evening (we don't like to drive at night). She works in a city 45 miles from here, but lives in our county. Then, all she did was talk about buying this house over in the next county! I mean, who does that? She said if her purchase falls through, she might like to rent it! So, I looked it up on Realtor dot com by her description, and sent her an e-mail saying, "It's darling, but I don't think you can get a loan on it based on it not having a permanent foundation." At least that is what they told us when we sold ours earlier this year.

I've rarely had anyone give a reason. They just don't complete an application if they aren't interested. However I did have one house where the builder put a sliding door that opened into one of the small bedrooms. I had several people say they weren't interested in the unit because of that.

The times when I've had few people applying, or only unqualifieds applying, I found that there were cosmetic problems inside the house that were turning people off.

Since so many aren't interested, maybe lockbox showings for this house, so that you don't waste your time going out there.

Prices are about as high as they are going to get. Banks are likely to raise rates soon which will lower sale prices of homes.

Houses that have bad people, junk piles nearby, trashy neighbors and declining neighborhoods are a waste of time and effort, from my experience.Especially trashy people who will never clean up.

Long distance ownership is a big hassle UNLESS you turn over all management and repairs, etc to a competent, honest management company that is so good you could walk away and never see the property again.

I'd suggest selling that place now. Move the proceeds to a better area, preferably closer to where you live if you still want to own rental property.

Full disclosure..... this was my husband's childhood home. He says he doesn't think it will sell for much, if at all, due to age, water, sex offender next door... etc. It has paneling on walls, which we could paint. We could upgrade the old white metal kitchen sink into a 60" wooden one with a stainless sink, but it's still not going to bring but so much.

He says he wants to keep having the income (600.) a month, but I wonder if it's emotional attachment?

Because of this, I haven't pushed him to sell. But I agree, I think we're making a mistake not to sell now.

I just checked on my picture pages on this site. It is the house with black shutters, covered front porch, holly tree visible on the left hand side of photo, heat pump showing.

As others have noted - emotional attachment to a property clouds ones judgement about the true profitability or profit potential mainly the ability to raise rent.

Junkie neighbor hood - travel distance????

I 100% agree with Richard M.

I had a okay house in a junked up neighborhood. Finding a good tenant was challenging, but keeping them long term was even harder. So I did a test. I advertised "RENT-TO-OWN, No Special Requirements".

Have you considered talking to the trashy neighbors about cleaning up?

I said "sell" earlier but after thinking about it I don't think you (or we) have enough information yet to know what to do with the property.

It's his family home. Is the deed in his name only? Then it's really his call about what to do with it. If you don't have ownership, maybe you have a conversation with him about him taking over the management responsibilites for that house if he wants to hold onto it.

Your husband's statement that the house won't sell for much is meaningless. Getting a comp done by a realtor will help you decide if it's worth selling or not. Right now you don't know how much it will go for.

The RSO living next door isn't the problem. If people had an issue with that they would search government databases beforehand and not go out to see the house at all. Very easy for them to do. It's something else. 6 X 6 idea of asking the neighbors to clean up is a good idea, although they may blow you off.

I have a property that's 30 minutes drive away. Its not a big deal if the house doesn't have lots of problems needing to be fixed during the tenancy and you get reliable tenants. But if there is something wrong with the neighborhood and you can only get tenants who stay short term, or low quality people who cause drama that makes you have to watch them like a hawk, then that 30 minute drive becomes a problem even with lockbox. You need to find out if the problem that's deterring quality renters is fixable or not, in order to decide whether its worth it to keep this place.

Pat,

I can fix up my house but I cannot fix the neighborhood. Your neigh or will NEVER clean up voluntarily.

Even if the city comes down on him he MIGHT remove some stuff but it will still be run down and accumulate more with time.

I am making my life easier by dumping those hard to rent properties. Glad when each one disappears.

Vacant is worse than selling, even at a lower price.

Ask the offender if he wants one more!

Awww. Black shutters, red chimney, four white posts on the front porch? That's cute. :) The photo is too tightly cropped to get an idea of its surroundings, but I do see there isn't a privacy fence (or hedge) (or some other visual/physical barrier separating it from its neighbor).

For me, I don't argue with people, or try to convince them why my place works for them. I want people who like my house for what it is, rather than people who feel like they're settling for something beneath them.

One of the earliest houses we picked up generally tended to be hard to rent because it was right next door to the Family In Town Everyone Hated. The people who had the most success were people who were able to keep their lives separate from the neighbors' drama, and were able to be polite but uninvolved, and were able to ignore the trashy environment the next lot over. (Until Code Enforcement finally condemned and then razed the lot, and it's now a nonissue.) A preacher did pretty well. An older woman who worked for the prison did pretty well. An elderly retired couple did pretty well. A guy/girlfriend/girlfriend's brother who were pooling resources to better themselves did pretty well, also. The ones who were most sucked into the drama were a single dad with an unruly kid, a pair of sisters (one of whose husbands was in prison), and a custodial grandma.