Hi Everyone!
I'm a new MMM reader, and am quickly becoming an avid fan. I am really enjoying MMM's blog posts, and will be incorporating a lot of his advice into my own life as soon as possible. I even went and opened a Vanguard account today. YAY ME. I already had my Roth IRA there, so opening a standard account was very simple, and luckily I had enough money to start the funding. I am excited to be earning a little interest on that cash instead of letting it sit in my 0% interest checking account.
As for the landlord stuff, I am not a property owner or landlord, but about a year ago I built a tool for my local community that I thought you guys might like to know about. I apologize in advance for this post if it comes across as SPAM. It is not intended to be, so if you don't find the information useful, please ignore it.
Here's the story...
About three years ago, I moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to take a job as an IT Manager for a local bean company. Moving was a great decision, which I haven't regretted for a moment. It has actually turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. The cost of living here is extremely low, while my salary is fairly decent. Living here has enabled me to eliminate all of my debts aside from my mortgage (I purchased a 100K house and closed about a month ago, after two years of renting) and car payment.
The only issue I had with the move was that there was nothing online regarding rentals in the area, so it took me a bit of legwork to find a place to live when I first moved here. I was moving from Omaha, on the other side of the sate, and was relying heavily on information on the internet to assist in the move. Sadly, there just wasn't anything regarding rentals available. Scottsbluff in general struggles with attracting skilled workers to the area, simply due to issues finding rentals for newcomers. Not everyone is in a position to do what I did, and take a four day weekend, shack up in the local Super 8, and scour the town for a decent place to rent.
So I decided to fix it. I took it upon myself and built a website to host rental listings in the area. I built it all from the ground up during the evenings and weekends, when I wasn't busy working on projects for my employer.
The site has a few neat features that I haven't seen on other similar sites. For example, when you register as a property owner, you will see a My Properties link which allows you to add as many properties as you like, at no cost. Once the property profiles are created, you can list the properties for free, and control whether or not they are listed in the search results, you can upload and attach images, etc. There is also a waiting list feature for the properties as well, so interested potential renters can add their name to the list, and when a property becomes available, the owners will have a ready pool of applicants to work thru. This should help keep the vacancy rate low for your properties.
The site is still very young. I think I have only got 5 properties listed at the moment. I am hoping in time that it will get a lot of tenant eyeballs on the site, which in turn will help the landlords who list keep their properties leased.
Check it out here:
www.rentsource.org.
I thought that the MMM readers could get a little value out of the site, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to share. It's a simple management tool that you landlords can use to help advertise your rentals, and keep track of potential future tenants even when your properties are under lease. I originally built the site to fill a need in my small little city, but I think it has the potential to be useful in other areas as well. Give it a look, and let me know what you think.
- Wyobraska