rent rates these days

Did I mention that we're paying $755 for no electricity and 40% water/sewer... IN A CRIME INFESTED GHETTO? Our celing leaks from the upstairs bathtub, we don't have a (functional) laundry vent, and our bathroom is falling apart. We're not even in city limits! The sheriff AVOIDS this area!
But gas is between $2.80 and $3.05. I hate Washington.:mad:

Hey! if your house's conditions are that bad, please call your city health inspector. I know that, working with the landlords we do, they have to inspect the apartments periodically; when a new tenant moves in. Well, they will Fail the whole apartment if one silly thing is wrong; such as, peeling paint on an upstairs window. So I would think that, if they are so anal about things like that, they would definately make your LL fix things if they saw a genuine problem!

Wow, rents in your areas are high! I know of one of our tenants that rents a whole house (decent sized, not sure of the sq. footage) with a nice yard for 650.00. A "regular" apartment with three bedrooms, bath, living room, kitchen dining room and basement access goes for around 550-600. These are 2 family houses, an upper and lower apartment, with decent sized yards and porches in front/back.
I can honestly say that the cities' taxing the landlords' resources is the reason for these high rents. That, and the astounding damage done by former tenants.
We are doing pretty good financially (my boyfriend and I) but we really prefer renting at this stage. If things go wrong, we fix them and take it off our rent; our LL is a very cool guy. I guess we got lucky; we are out in the mid of nowhere though.

I'm on long island and I guess the difference we see in our own state Gin, is due to the rediculous property takes here. Everyone seems to be selling their houses and jumping ship.

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

We own a property management firm (we work for the investors/owners who own the rental houses.) "Property Management Services, LLC, to be exact, if you are a landlord looking for management in Buffal. :) I can honestly say, the reason that rents are pretty high, is that we need to offset the costs from when people stiff us on rent and skip town. We just painted a house today in which someone's kid wrote all over the house walls with red crayon, pink nail polish, and left potato chip crumbs in all of the window sills! And since this is a family forum, I will not go into what they did in/to the attic... wow.. and there is one house we haven't even tackled yet; in one of the rough parts of Buffalo, it is full of castoff junk the people left, not to mention cockroach city! This should be a fun cleanout...

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I work for my landlords cleaning apartments, you dont have to explain some of the costs of rentals..LOL Most places that claim to be cleaned around here, ARE NOT, the stoves are dirty, the windows are dirty, the carpets are 8yrs old and falling apart.

We just cleaned one we nicknamed "Nicotine Alley" it had to be practically remodelled. New paint, tile, cabinets, fixtures, appliances, fans, mirrors, carpet. Before we could even paint we had to spray acid on the walls to remove the thick layers of brown nicotine so the Kilz would stick!! It was unreal! Took about 2months, and I made $400 ($10/hr) just to do the basic cleaning. I think they said they dropped $10K in it, and they rent them for $600/mo.

I pay $425/mo and I like my place better than the other ones. I have good landlords, and a nice place for what I pay.
Most places locally are real slums, (like living w/o heat during the winter because of a malfunction in a new apt complex, and leaking sewage tanks, black mold, crappy neighbors, drugs and what not) and those places charge $600/mo for a shabby 2BR with dingy carpets.
I will say the cost of living here, unless you work for Wal mart or Tyson Foods, SUCKS! My husband is a journeyman electrician and makes HALF what he would in Texas, Oklahoma, or Missouri.

gas is $3.08 here

http://biz.yahoo.com/special/re0912_06_article2.html

Article on yahoo about high rent rates...you'd be surprised how much people pay per month in the city...$30,000 per month in some cases...now that is rediculous

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Originally Posted by amercnwmn

I work for my landlords cleaning apartments, you dont have to explain some of the costs of rentals..LOL Most places that claim to be cleaned around here, ARE NOT, the stoves are dirty, the windows are dirty, the carpets are 8yrs old and falling apart.

We just cleaned one we nicknamed "Nicotine Alley" it had to be practically remodelled. New paint, tile, cabinets, fixtures, appliances, fans, mirrors, carpet. Before we could even paint we had to spray acid on the walls to remove the thick layers of brown nicotine so the Kilz would stick!! It was unreal! Took about 2months, and I made $400 ($10/hr) just to do the basic cleaning. I think they said they dropped $10K in it, and they rent them for $600/mo.

I pay $425/mo and I like my place better than the other ones. I have good landlords, and a nice place for what I pay.
Most places locally are real slums, (like living w/o heat during the winter because of a malfunction in a new apt complex, and leaking sewage tanks, black mold, crappy neighbors, drugs and what not) and those places charge $600/mo for a shabby 2BR with dingy carpets.
I will say the cost of living here, unless you work for Wal mart or Tyson Foods, SUCKS! My husband is a journeyman electrician and makes HALF what he would in Texas, Oklahoma, or Missouri.

gas is $3.08 here

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WOW.. I thought our last one was bad. That seems to take the cake! I know that landlords get a bum rap, and in some cases they definately deserve it. But some tenants are slobs.
Being a tenant myself, it is interesting to be on both sides of the coin. We seriously lucked out here because electric, gas and well water are included.
Anyone looking to start a business; give property management a try. No startup costs, and once you get a good base of investors/landlords, you will have to actually turn people down or be worked to death.