[quote=svelte]When my father owned rentals, he came to the conclusion it was more desirable to have a few higher end rentals than many low end rentals for a variety of reasons that basically boiled down to the quality of tenants.
People who are struggling to make ends meet are far more likely to leave you holding the bag and more apt to do more damage to the property. There were a few horror stories at my dad’s lower end rentals and I can still see the damage when I close my eyes. It was disgusting.[/quote]
I haven’t yet experienced a malicious tenant (knock on wood). But what particularly concerns me is all these moratoriums and all these movements to do a rental strike. On one hand, I can understand that there on a lot of people who are barely surviving and unable to pay for basic food and shelter. On the other hand, it’s unreasonable to expect the landlords to fix this issue. And seeing where the winds are blowing these days, I really want to try to stay in the higher tenant pools if I can. It’s still not a guarantee things will go well, but the way I look at it is that it increases the odds.
But to see what sort of tenants you possibly might get, I would try to list a fake for rent on Craigslist with as close to the real property stats as possible…. based on the response rate and the quality of the responses (or lack there of) it could provide a valuable preview of what to expect in that submarket.
One thing to keep in mind, I don’t think the entire San Diego rental market is at risk. We have a pretty diverse industry when it comes to industry and employment center, so that while parts will probably suffer, I don’t think it will be catastrophic. Other places like Orlando or Las Vegas that count significantly on leisure/ entertainment, that could a be a major problem. Personally, I wouldn’t want to venture into those geographies just yet. But that’s just me.
This isn’t criticism for those that want to try to get things to work in these higher risk areas, as the rewards could be much larger. It’s just for me, it’s not worth taking the extra risk.
