Renting

I have a home in Ms along highway 82. I also have a covered shed for forty foot class A With full hookups, I want to travel and work camp for 8 to 10 mos a year, or longer. What do you all think about renting house and rv shed to snowbirds? Would they stay this far north? Where would I advertise? Location is very rural, secluded, with deer hunting from back porch. Fishing pond in back yard. Large reservoir 30 miles, Grenada Lake, Wal mart 30 miles, MSU 40 miles in Starkville. Oxford, very nice small town with the old town square, location of Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's home, is 50 miles, 2 hours to Memphis.

What would you do?

Divorce won't be final for couple of mos, then I will have to dispose of all unnecessary stuff. so probably won't be ready until spring.

Joe

Joe,

If your rent rate is reasonable, you would probably get some renters. I'm not familiar with MS and have only been in Southern MS a few times. I guess it depends on how cold it gets where you're at, as snowbirds migrate to get AWAY from the cold.

For advertising, you might look into the classified ads of RV magazines. Especially those by the Escapees RV Club and Good Sams. Don't forget to give us Vets a good discount!

Joe,

This has been suggested to us. Personally, I'd just as soon sell the stick house and live out of our motorhome but wife won't have any part of it.

Questions:
Do you plan to move back into the house at some later date? My wife and her first husband, many years ago, moved to South Texas and rented their home in Oklahoma City. When they returned a couple of years later they had to do a lot to make their house livable. She said it was never the same.

Do you plan on renting it furnished? If you do that you may wind up replacing all your stuff when you return since renters are not always known to care for the furnishings as you would.

How will you handle maintenance? Renters expect the landlord to take care of the house when something breaks. There are companies out there that will do this for you for a fee.

Just some thoughts. Like I said I'd like to sell and live in the coach but she wants a home base for us to light in on occasion. Since we retired 7/1/06 we have spent less than six months in this stick house.

At one time I considered selling, but home is on family farm that has been in family since the end of civil war, homesteaded by ancestors after returning from the war. Plus I literally cleared the land and built the house myself. Log home, kit, 2500 sq ft. My Dau. says she wants to move here when the ITIS boys take charge of my life. This is where I want to hang up my keys, for the last time.

Yes, Larry mil gets a good discount, just email me, must be able to back rig up drive way about 250 yards.

Joe

You may want to think about hiring a property management company to handle the renting for you, it be worth their cut if they can get the place rented for you. Along with that you may want to look into the law on renters where you live and find out what rights you and the renter have. It differs greatly from state to state.

Here in CT my Mother used to rent her home when she headed south for the winter and she always left it furnished because you can toss someone out with 24 hours notice and a refund in CT if you rent a furnished place to them. She never had a major problem in 20 years until this past winter, the renter had pets that trashed the place! Mom had to go after them for $5000 in damages.

One other year my brother and I had to go out to the house with the police to get someone out because they decided that they wanted to break the lease but wanted to stay one week of the following month without paying, that person was really shocked when we showed up with the cops who told her she had until Midnight on the 31st to get out. She said you can't through me out with no place to go, the cop asked if the house was furnished, she said yes, he told her she could pay for the next month or get a hotel room. She was mad, but she was also out by 11:45 PM on the 31st with no damage to the property, we had a new renter moved in by noon on the 1st. Agents help with these sorts of problems.