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Category Archives: rental properties

The Little Travis House That Can

Just look at that window with no paint splotches on it! Look at how much space there is between you and your neighbor.

We’ve had our Travis 2 house for rent for a while. It’s been frustrating that Mandi and Lee keep going out there to show the house to people who just don’t show up. So, they’ve changed the plan, and now you don’t get to go in the house if you haven’t filled out a rental application. At least that lowers the frustration levels. Unfortuately, it doesn’t stop the stream of callers who, after looking at the sign, call and ask what the rent is, then, after Mandi explains, they ask if we would take $300. Yes, in Cameron, the expected rent seems to be $300 a month.

These cute built-ins lead to a HUGE master bedroom that no longer has three entrances.

That would be fine if we had one of those falling-apart rent houses, but we don’t. We’ve fixed this house up, and would like it to remain in good shape when it’s rented, so we’d prefer someone who’s in a position to keep it up. We know they are out there! We have two good tenants in our other houses, one of whom just power-washed the deck for us. That’s a good tenant! Continue reading →

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Landscaping and Rental Properties

Here’s Lee adding more to my old shade garden, because “helpful” workers had dug up my perennials. Some came back!

One of my coworkers had a really good question for me today. She has a rental townhouse, and the back yard of it is completely shaded by large trees. That sounds great in a hot place like Austin, but then you have to remember that when there’s no sunshine, turf grass has a hard time. And her tenants have two dogs, who have turned the “lawn” into a muddy mess.

She wondered what I would do if I had a property like that. What a good question! Here’s what I’ve done to answer it:

First I was going to suggest she consult a landscape designer, but ha! She’d already done that, and got a plan full of pea gravel, not her favorite.

I then thought back to my Braesgate house, which was always completely shaded over, even after we cut down one big tree. There, we made a large covered porch, which meant the dogs had to traverse it to get into the house, wiping off some of the dirt, at least. And even before the porch, I’d planted a shade garden full of local plants that like shade (inland sea oats and Turk’s cap are my favorites). That took some experimentation.

This grass did not last long. We ended up with just a small grassy area and a lot of crushed granite.

Later, we did a landscape featuring that crushed granite stuff for paths, and large stones elsewhere. That worked great, except that, even with landscape cloth under it, weeds showed up like crazy. You need to remember that weed seeds are often air-borne (or bird-borne), so they got deposited ON the rock. The leaf litter from all the trees provided a great growing medium, no matter how hard the lawn dudes worked to clean it all up and put it in the mulched areas.

But, that was my personal house. Would I go to all that trouble for a rental property, my friend asked? The answer to that was a resounding NO! You want the landscaping in any rental property to be as low maintenance as possible, and you sure don’t want to spend money on a fancy design or expensive lawn maintenance people (just having them mow and trim is expensive enough).

The best idea I could come up with was to just mulch the whole back yard, and keep top-dressing it yearly. The mulch would keep the mud down, and look tidy.

What Do You Think?

I don’t think my answer was all that great, so I would love to hear your ideas for keeping a shady back yard in a rental property from becoming a mud pit in the rain and a dust bowl when it’s dry. It seems like something many of us who own rental properties must deal with.

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How to Rent a Property the Mandi Way

The kitchen now features a stove and refigerator, for your beer and hot dogs.

We’d had a couple of people interested in our Travis 2 house, but not as many as you’d think (probably because we price our rentals above market, so we can get tenants who will be more likely to take care of the properties). Mandi’s been screening them, showing the house, and handing out applications and such. She has discovered a sure-fire way to find prospective tenants: sit in front of the house.

Yesterday she had an appointment at 6, so she went and sat in front of the house in her van to wait on them (she’s a pro at sitting in front of the house, having lived there so long).

Prospect #1

A truck drove up, and out came four burly, muddy men. They did not resemble the husband and wife she’d been waiting on. But, she barged on up and started talking to them, anyway. They seemed impressed that they hadn’t scared her off. They wouldn’t come in to look at the place, because they were coming back from working at the pipleline construction (which is everywhere in Milam County at the moment). That is some black dirt they turn up; no wonder this is such good ranch and farmland.

Who will be sitting on this front porch next?

She let them know it’s just a two bedroom house (though one is huge), and they seemed thrilled. It turns out they are currently renting an RV with just one bed. Yes, this would be an improvement. Mandi told them the house isn’t furnished. They said as long as there is a refrigerator for their beer and a stove to cook their “weenies” on, they’d be fine. Since the pipeline work isn’t permanent, they asked if they could go month to month, and yep, they can, if they pay $50 more per month. Lee’s so smart.

So, off they went with their applications in hand, presumably to take a shower. And enjoy some hot dogs.

Prospect #2

As Mandi was talking to the Muddy Buddies, a small, red car kept passing by. Mandi assumed it was the other appointment. When they pulled up, two women came out. And, no, they weren’t the married male-female couple who she was expecting, either. They were also looking for a larger place to live than an RV, and wanted to have three dogs. Oh sure, pay our hefty pet deposit and you can have all the small dogs you want. Then they wanted to know if they could build a privacy fence. Um, why the heck not? That would be nice, as long as it just covers the lot the house is on.

We like free home improvements. They loved the house and its lack of carpeting, which pleased us a lot. So, these ladies eagerly took Mandi’s last rental applications, saying they are interested in a long-term rental. Ahh. We like those.

That’s OK, because the original folks didn’t show up. Mandi declared the evening a success, nonetheless. We sure appreciate that she’ll do these things at whatever hour a potential renter wants to do them!

Now we just cross our fingers that one of these potential renters signs on.

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House for Rent in Cameron

This is it!

Mandi reports that the Travis 2 house at 1604 N. Travis Avenue in Cameron is about ready for a new family!

We are now accepting applications to rent this 2 bed/1 bath. Application fee is $50/ person over 18 (all persons over 18 must turn in the application), $750 deposit and $750 per month rent. Call Mandi at (254) 760-4411. If no answer, please leave a message.

We’ve been finishing the updates on the house, so it will be all sparkly and ready for you! Huge back yard and screened-in porch, too.

Finished living/dining

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Making a Nice Home for Renters

The kitchen is big!

We’ve been busy with our rental properties over here at the Hermits’ Rest Enterprises area of the business.

When we moved out of the Travis Avenue office, it morphed into the new home of our friends Mike and Martha, who plan to use the warehouse for a business, eventually. They are already making some great improvements to the place!

Huge windows and really good ceiling fans make the bedrooms comfortable.

Next we needed to work on the house where Mandi lived while the Rattlesnake House was being renovated. It had taken some abuse from dogs and four kids living in a two-bedroom house, so we got David and Kim on the project of making it ready to rent to a new family.

Windows have been repaired, painting will be done, and some flooring issues have been addressed. We still need to get appliances in the house and a good clean-up.

Why do we do all this? We want our renters to see that we value our properties, so that they will value them as well. And keeping the house in good shape means we will have to do fewer repairs while tenants are in the house.

My favorite part of the house is the screened in front porch.

If you are interested in renting, please contact Mandi at (254) 760-4411 for more information.

Stay tuned. Other possibilities await!

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