Rental Houses

Critical Success Factor #2 – Selecting the Perfect Deadbeat to Give Your House To

That’s harsh I know. And the way that I run my business it’s not at all accurate, because I have some of the best renters that you could imagine. But think about it – you have a house that’s worth, say $100,000. You’ve bought it, done some work to it, and you’ve made sure that you’ve complied with the rental-unit laws in your city. Then you spend time looking for someone to GIVE the house to.…

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Rants and Raves

Off-Topic Friday: Trivial Pursuit, or More About The Author

The meme bug is sweeping the real estate blogging world again.  @ToddWaller tagged me a couple of days ago to reveal potentially embarrassing facts, after he had supposedly done so himself. I didn’t see any embarassing things on his list, but there were a bunch of interesting things that I learned about him. So in the spirit of TMI and full disclosure, here are a few mildily interesting things about me that very few people actually know:…

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Rants and Raves

Off-Topic Friday: Boston-Edison’s History Being Sold for Scrap

I have always been a fan of old homes. Not 1930’s and 40’s. Boring. I’m talking REALLY old ones from the turn of the century.   There’s something about walking through one of them when it’s vacant and listening. When I do this I can almost hear the sounds of the families that lived there. I imagine conversations about hopes and dreams, and others about the simple routines of everyday life. It’s at these times…

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Rental Houses

CRITICAL Success Factor #1

Here we go again.   Don’t you just love it when someone asks your opinion of something that you actually happen to know a LOT about, you give them the answer, then they proceed to argue with you?   It happened to me again last week.   And unfortunately it was one of those I-already-made-the-decision-so-I’m-only-asking-you-because-I-want-to-validate-in-my-own-mind-that-I-was-right kind of questions.   I’ll spare you the details, but the person bought a trashed out house in a marginal area that he’s…

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