Let's Get Renting!

I remember the saying: Be careful what you wish for. A couple of blogs ago, I talked about how I wanted to have an apartment vacant to test if I’ve gotten better at renting out apartments. Well, it looks as if I got my wish because Gary, the upstairs tenant of property Chi, is moving out.

Gary texted me last night and said that he can no longer stay in the apartment. My first guess was that he’s being charged with a felony and lost his job, but something tells me there’s more to the story. It doesn’t really matter anyway, as he’ll be gone by the end of the week. I really wanted to be able to show the apartment last weekend, but I wasn’t sure what was going on with him. He asked about the security deposit and I told him that he would have that back by the end of the week when he moves out. On Friday, I’ll let him know that I can only give back $400 of the $500 deposit back because of the short notice. I don’t want to tell him now because he still has possession of the place.

Best case scenario is getting someone who wants to move in this weekend. I can charge them $500 security deposit plus pro-rated rent of $150 for the remainder of October. That would make Gary’s moving out a profit of $250! In all likelihood, I probably won’t be able to do that. In my history, I’ve noticed that the only people that want to move in immediately are those that are running from something, either an eviction or whatever. I’m not going through that again. But as long as I can rent out the unit before the end of this month, I’ll profit from Gary’s dilemma by at least $100. I just called Hanna and the Africans (downstairs tenants) to make sure the lawn is mowed today. I’ll put the ad up on Craigslist at around 10pm tonight, and that should do it. I also cut my hair last night so that I don’t look like a total bum.

This should be interesting. Profiting off a turnover is extremely rare in the tenant management business. If I can pull this off, it will show that I’m getting better at this and am more prepared for handling turnovers in the future. I’m hoping that this doesn’t blow up in my face, and that the saying of “Be careful what you wish for” won’t apply to me.