You may have found and purchased an investment rental property in a close San Diego neighborhood that initially seems great – low property cost, high rent, great residents, and only some minor maintenance that needs to be done. The drive is only about 45 minutes each way, and you only plan to visit about once per month. Everything looks good, so what could possibly go wrong?
To begin with, residents do not last forever. Indeed, the average resident of a single-family residence will last a year and a half. People purchase their own homes, move for job opportunities, and other life events can result in a resident turnover. Once your resident leaves, you will need to get the property cleaned and prepared for the next tenants. You can hire professionals to do this work, but at the very least you will need to drive to your rental property to do an evaluation of what needs to be done, and then a return trip to ensure that your vendors did the work as expected. If your vendors have missed a few tiny items, then this may require additional trips on your part.
Once your property is ready, you will need to advertise your property. Did you remember to take pictures when you inspected your vendors’ work? If not, then you will need to do another trip. Also, for each showing, you will need to make a trip. On average it takes 7 to 15 showings to find a quality and qualified applicant. You could try to schedule multiple showings for the same day(s), but often what works for your schedule does not work for applicants’ schedule, and so it is important that you have the mindset that you must attend to your residents needs first.
Once you have found a solid resident, you will need to make an additional trip for the move-in process. However, residents often have a number of follow up requests soon after moving in, whether it be a question on how to operate the dishwasher to small maintenance requests, and so you will need to plan a handful of trips within the first few weeks after move-in.
Okay, you now have a great new resident who pays the rent on time. Everything goes smoothly for a few months, but then the toilet overflows. Your resident must be at work and is unable to meet the plumber, and so there is another trip for you. No problems for a few more weeks, but then your resident has an altercation with a neighbor over the weekend, and there goes your Sunday. Everything goes smoothly for the next few weeks, but then a fuse blows, but your resident cannot find the fuse box, shutting off the heater in the middle of the winter…and you get a call in the middle of the night.
Although that 45-minute drive seemed so easy when you first purchased the property, it’s now a drain on not only your time but also the cost of gas, as well as wear and tear on your vehicle. How much is your time worth? Driving both ways for 45-minutes adds up, regardless of the reason as to why you had to visit your rental property.
Purchasing a property in a neighboring city can be a great investment with the low purchase price, high rent, and solid residents that you had initially anticipated. Don’t let the time and cost of driving to your rental property turn your ideal investment into more of a nightmare. Let Realevate Specialists do the driving and the property management for you!
If you have not yet considered the savings benefits of cutting back on driving costs, then please contact us online or call our Mission Valley office at 858-997-2100 or our Temecula office at 951-461-0100 for more information.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
