Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Not Another Sad, Vacant House

I'm starting to get a little worried. Although I had around 10 inquiries to rent my house at the end of February, no one committed to it. I think that I should have advertised with the web site that I used last year. The subscription was $300 for the whole year but it had multiple web sites and I had my house rented through March last year. This year I opted for the cheap, single web site, 3 month listing for $80. So far I haven't found any renters. My current guests leave in 10 days.

There are 3 things I should do this weekend to increase my chances of finding renters: Lower my price on my web site ad. Right now it's high, $900 per week. I think I will lower it to the off-season level of $700. Second, advertise on craigslist. It's free, it can't hurt. Third, advertise in the newspaper. I have only seen one other furnished rental in the classified ads. That might be because they aren't popular or maybe because they are all rented. I hope for the latter.

It makes me nervous to see For Rent signs as I drive around town. The houses are empty and sad looking and I don't want my house to be one of them. I have earned enough rent money so far this year to keep my mortgage repayment plan going through June. That means I won't fall behind and have to change my 4 year payoff goal yet. I have 4 months to find a renter.

I don't want to jump back and forth between my house and and my RV like I did last year. I am just getting comfortable in my RV and I want to stay here. I need to do everything that I can to get that house rented.

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