The Rentish Podcast

Philly’s New Rent Rules + Listener Q&A

• Zach and Patrick • Season 1 • Episode 17

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In episode 17 of The Rent-ish Pod, Zach dives into Philly’s newly proposed renter-friendly security deposit law and breaks down what it means for both tenants and landlords. It's a big shift that could have ripple effects far beyond the city. 👉 Read the article here

Then, the spotlight turns to you—our listeners. In this week’s crowd-sourced Q&A, Zach and Pat tackle your most pressing rental questions, covering everything from late fees to lease loopholes. It's practical, punchy, and packed with advice you can actually use.

From game-changing rental policy to your real-world dilemmas, this episode shows why Rent-ish is your go-to for smart, street-level real estate talk.

Got questions, hot takes, or real estate horror stories of your own? Email us at questions@therentishpod.com—you might just make the next episode.

Check Innago at https://innago.com/podcast/ to learn more. 

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UNKNOWN:

you

SPEAKER_03:

What's going on, everyone? I'm Zach, and I'm here with my co-host, Patrick. What up? We're your hosts for The Rentish Podcast. Like I said at the top of the show, it's a podcast about rental properties and hosted by two guys that work in the real estate industry and sort of know what they're talking about. That was a good time for a sip of coffee, wasn't it? You're panicking now. But mostly don't. There you go. That was literally, you couldn't have timed that anywhere. No, you went fast. Dude, you speed ran that. All right, well, I'll try to go a little bit slower. But yeah, mostly we don't, Patrick, which is why I think you're going to have fun hearing us talk to experts and learning with us or laughing along at how little we know. We had to get started El Rapido because producer Miss A over here was like,

SPEAKER_00:

guys, it's already 2.30 and we gotta hit the pod, we gotta go record.

SPEAKER_03:

That's how you sound. That's a good impression. Somebody

SPEAKER_01:

has to hold you guys.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, no, it's true. We were talking about Art Nouveau and we were like, why aren't they educating the kids on these black and white movies? So we got a little bit distracted, but I guess we're back. Patrick,

SPEAKER_02:

how's your day going? Oh, how's my day going? I'm I'm good, how are you? Pretty

SPEAKER_03:

good, pretty good. Better than the last time we recorded, which I was battling a massive headache the whole day. Today I'm all caffeinated up.

SPEAKER_02:

Watched the Superman trailer 15 times, the best medicine.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, still. Tickets secured. I've got my tickets for opening night of both Superman and Fantastic Four. Gonna see 28 Years Later this weekend, and then Jurassic Park, I guess, the week after that or something like that. So summer movie season is here, baby. Are

SPEAKER_02:

you seeing F1? Please tell me yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Please support that movie. Yeah, I do want to see that in the theater. Yeah, I'll see it in the theater. Okay. That's what I'm excited about.

SPEAKER_02:

Because it's an original movie with a$300 million budget. And if it doesn't make its money back, I'm afraid that Hollywood won't make big budget movies of that budget anymore. Because they're going to be like, see? Original movies don't make money. So even if it sucks, I hope. But it's based off a very

SPEAKER_03:

marketable property. That movie's going to make money. I don't think you need to worry about F1 starring Brad Pitt about the very popular sport.

SPEAKER_02:

No, yeah. But if it didn't make money, then we're in trouble.

SPEAKER_03:

sure I think it's gonna be fine I think you can it's the guy that did Top Gun Maverick we all know that we all know what we're in store for so yeah gonna be good but awesome well you're good you're good today you got your coffee I'm good I'm almost done with my coffee so

SPEAKER_02:

let me take

SPEAKER_03:

another sip okay you're gonna have to have the producer go make you another one right he won't he won't thank you for listening to this episode of The Rentish it's gonna be a fun one we got a lot of fun stuff to talk about today but before we get into that please remember to like the show on various platforms If you go to Spotify, if you're subscribed there, hit the notification bell and subscribe to the show. Follow us. Give us a five-star review. If you're using Apple Podcasts, give us a review there and leave us a comment. Subscribe to the show. Email questions at therentishpod.com. If you have a question, comment, or any kind of topic suggestion, real estate topic, movie thoughts, summer movie season, whatever you want Patrick and I to talk about, there are no limits. Nothing's off limits. Isn't that right, producer Merce? You're going to comb through that email box and

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Nothing's off limits. I read through them. We get a lot of questions from our listeners and I will respond personally. Oh, you have a personal response. How about that? Didn't

SPEAKER_03:

even know that that was something we were offering yet. Yeah. And then that's it. Yeah. Like and subscribe and hang out. And we thank you all for getting this far in the show and we appreciate you listening. And we're going to talk about real estate and property management. It's not all just ha-has and yuck-yucks. We're going to talk about Philadelphia renters, which is going to be an interesting thing to learn about. And then we're also going to talk about listener questions. I've got an article here from Y.org. Big changes coming for Philly renters. No more giant security deposits up front. So it's an article about Philadelphia, the renting market there, and security deposits. Pat. Did you read the

SPEAKER_02:

resource? I actually did. I started reading it and then it was about Philadelphia so then I ended up not finishing it. I looked up top 10 best Philly cheesesteaks in Philly. What did you find? I had the thing. It was like Delicat. Let me find it. You can't even have a cheesesteak. I love a Philly cheesesteak. No cheese.

SPEAKER_03:

That's not a cheesesteak. Yes, it is. It's a steak, I guess. It's a Philly steak. Philly dry steak

SPEAKER_02:

yeah yeah I mean as long as it's got like a little bit of mayo on there I love a Philly sandwich however you want to call

SPEAKER_03:

it I mean I can see that being good vegan

SPEAKER_02:

cheese I've not had a vegan cheese on a Philly cheesesteak because can't you buy vegan whiz like yeah they've got vegan everything nowadays I haven't had it yeah I haven't had it on a Philly I just like you know I don't feel like I'm necessarily even missing anything like I love a Philly cheesesteak as long as it's got some mayo some sauteed onions and peppers oh it's like a flavor of it It's

SPEAKER_03:

a good sandwich. Yeah. Well, we're not talking about the food of Philadelphia, unfortunately, Patrick. We're going to be talking about some rental stuff that's going on right now. Philadelphia renters may soon get major relief on move-in costs. A new bill passed by city council would let tenants pay security deposits in installments, which has been a big shift from the typical lump sum payment. If signed into law, it could change how nearly half of Philly rents. Pat, before we get into some of the details of the article, thoughts on this? Paying security deposits installments. Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think? Security deposits in installments? Paying your security deposit in installments.

SPEAKER_02:

I can– I don't know if it's necessarily– I think it's going to– I think landlords are going to like it less. I think tenants might like it more. Yeah, it seems

SPEAKER_03:

– I mean obviously from the article title, it seems like it's pretty pro-tenant.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely see landlords not being– I don't necessarily– this is not something I have like super strong feelings about. Okay. I mean because security deposits ultimately is like something that you end up– usually getting back as you know I feel like I might feel more strongly about like the cases that landlords like as I've gotten screwed over by landlords like keeping security deposits for BS reasons you know how the security deposit gets paid is not something like I necessarily feel as strongly about yeah what about you I

SPEAKER_03:

mean I think that any pro-tenant is usually a good move but I'm saying that as a tenant like I'm a renter so like if they provided me the option with their like hey you can either pay this$1,700 security deposit all right now pay the money, or it's like, well, it's like a deposit that you're theoretically gonna get back, so what if we just break it up into 12 installments and put it on your rent? It's like, okay, I mean, theoretically, if I treat the place nice, I should get that money back anyway, so what's the harm in me paying you that money over time? Especially if it's in the lease contract. That's just my takeaway from literally just a few seconds into reading the article. All right, well, let's dive a little bit deeper. So what is gonna be changing specifically? So security deposits can pay over time, can be paid over time. Sorry, landlords with three plus units must allow tenants to split security deposits into three monthly payments. I'm guessing this is... The article is stating this if the bill is passed. A new bill passed by city council. So I think this has already been passed. It's enacted. Holy cow. Landlords with three plus units must allow tenants to split security deposits into three monthly payments. But can the tenant just pay it all up front? That's a good question. I don't have the answer for you right now. Okay. I would assume yes. Yeah. I don't know why they would prevent that if the tenant was asking to do so. Yeah.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

But yeah, this breaks up what's normally a huge upfront cost,$4,500 for a$1,500 unit. How does that math work? I think that's

SPEAKER_02:

an excess. See, that's something I feel like I don't think security deposits should be more expensive than a month's rent. Yeah, that's a

SPEAKER_03:

weird thing for me too. Every security deposit that I've ever had has been equal to or less than-

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah,

SPEAKER_03:

a month of

SPEAKER_02:

rent. A month of rent. I agree. I think absurdly high security deposits are bogus.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Application fees are also going to be capped and they're limited to$50 max.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that makes sense, charging someone$50. I think

SPEAKER_02:

more than$50 is also outrageous.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I personally, as a renter, would not fill out an application that costs more than... A hundred bucks. I don't even know if I'd scratch the$40 limit. Somewhere around there. If background checks cost less than that, landlords can only charge what it costs them. Small landlords are exempt from this rule, though. Only landlords with three-plus units are required to follow the new rules. 73% of landlords in Philly are considered small, owning one to two units So the law really won't apply to that. Interesting. So. If you're a big-time landlord, you've got to follow big-time rules. It applies to you. That should have been the title of your article. No, that should be the title of the podcast. Big-time landlords follow big-time rules. This isn't retroactive, though, Patrick. These changes only apply to new leases, not current ones. So the law goes into effect 90 days after being signed.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Like, you know, theoretically, leases already... enacted, you've probably already paid the security deposit, I assume. Right. You know what I mean? So

SPEAKER_03:

this is probably null for a lot of people. Right. I mean, like you're in the middle of your lease, no sense in going and being like throwing a fit about like, well, I could have paid this in installments. Yeah. I want my security deposit back and I want to

SPEAKER_02:

repay it in

SPEAKER_03:

installments. Exactly. Yeah. No, it makes sense. But yeah. So a couple of things that we can talk about here. So why does this matter for Philly tenants? I mean, obviously... you could probably, we kind of said at the beginning, it's very pro, it's pro-renter. Paying$4,000 plus before move-in is a major barrier and installments can make it more manageable for a lot of

SPEAKER_02:

people. I'm just still at this$4,000 thing. That's just like, that bugs me. Like a security deposit that expensive? I've never had to do pay one like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Producer Musse for the, we need an expert Google search or like a web, or no, not Google. We don't use Google. We use a pro real estate service. Experts sitting around a table like Dr. Strangelove.

SPEAKER_04:

That's what I'm picturing.

SPEAKER_03:

Can you figure out for us what is the average security deposit amount in the U.S.? And then New Philly,

SPEAKER_02:

maybe.

SPEAKER_03:

And then maybe New Philly, yeah, too. Because I was thinking like average security deposit. Didn't we do an episode recently where we talked about that current average rent across the U.S. is like$1,500 right now or something like that? I think it was definitely less than that. Less than that? Yeah. For the average rent? Yeah, I think. I don't know. I could be wrong on that, too. But I feel like this the average security deposit in the U.S. would be close to that. Somewhere around there. Anything from the experts?

SPEAKER_01:

So average rents in early 2025 range from$1,500 to$1,850. Wow. That's according to azibo.com and Zillow.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And then for Philadelphia, Philadelphia. Is this for rent or security deposit? That's for...

SPEAKER_02:

I just didn't think that people charged that much for a security deposit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It should be your month's rent.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. No, like$4,000 seems excessive. But yeah, I mean, obviously, if that's what people in this article saying is$4,000 plus on security deposits, obviously tenants are going to need to pay that in installments. Like that's not feasible.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, that is a substantial amount of money to have to be forced to pay up front, which is what makes me think that this might specifically be referencing like not all deposits are$4,000. Like there's no way. Maybe that's like a commercial thing. So according to the article, it says right now for an apartment that costs$1,500 a month, a landlord can charge.$4,500 to be paid before moving oh wow so I think it's just the fact that it's like that might be like law that that's the max that you can do or there's like an amount if you have this much money paid in rent you can charge up to this money for a security deposit so this certainly isn't the way with that every landlord's gonna do it but it just sounds I think they're just expecting in the article it's like on the extreme level if you end up finding a place you really like it it's got a good you know affordable rent for you it's in a good location fits your needs for you and your family or whoever you're living with, and the landlord wants to charge up to$4,500. This is what they're targeting, is that landlords could theoretically charge that much. Gotcha. On the high end, but I still think that's outrageous. Oh yeah. Personally, it's like. Totally. Unless you're living in like New York or Los Angeles and your rent is close to$4,000. That makes sense. But yeah, so does this help low income renters the most? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Pretty straightforward. Many renters have had to borrow money or delay bills just to move in. So this could ease that burden. So again, like you get saddled up with a really bad security deposit. You may have to take out a loan or go into debt to be able to pay take out money, withdraw money, do whatever you got to do. This helps lighten that load, ease that burden, and work within the landlord's terms. Will pet fees or other costs be affected? And the answer to that is no. The law does not cover non-refundable pet fees or pet rent. Oh, so they can charge$3,000 a pet deposit for the dog. Your cat can stay with you for$50 a month, but he also owes$5,000 a security deposit. Poor Whiskers is going to have to take out a chime loan. And then on the flip side, though, those are some things that tenants have to keep in mind. On the opposite side, landlords, should landlords be worried? If landlords own fewer than three units, nothing really changes. So, I mean, those kind of people, small mom and pop landlords, don't really need to be worried about this. For larger landlords, it just really means that you have to be more flexible with your timing. And considering the fact that if you are a larger landlord and you have more than three units... you could probably stand from a financial perspective to have a, an installment plan with your tenant. I don't think it's going to shake up too much of your finance.

SPEAKER_02:

It shouldn't shake up any of the finances. I'm confused about because like landlords, it's not like rent, it's not income for them. Like there's, they're supposed to put the security deposits in like a separate account and hold that and then give that back. So I'm, I'm wondering if like the only thing that this should, I mean, if landlords are doing things like legally or whatever, the only thing would be is like if a tenant is paying an installment and then like in their first month, causes more damage than the security deposit installment can cover. You know what I mean? That's an interesting thought. Yeah. I'd be interested to hear because it's$1,000 in damage, but they've only paid the first$100 installment. That would

SPEAKER_03:

also, though, mean that either it was damage that they did and reported to you, which I feel like is, I'm just guessing, is rare, or you're a landlord that does a monthly inspection, which also seems rare. I feel like that's not as common.

SPEAKER_02:

That's Because usually, yeah, you're right. It's

SPEAKER_03:

at the end of the lease that those... part of the security deposit thing is that yeah a lot of people do take that deposit money and put it into a specific account to hold security deposit amounts to then be able to return them to the tenant so cash flow it really shouldn't I don't think there are many scenarios in which the unless you're again like this might really only affect small mom and pop landlords where you're taking security deposit of money and putting it directly into like a checking account or something like that seems a little bit less common

SPEAKER_02:

well I know like certain states though every state has very specific legislation I know certain states you have to put the security deposit in an interest bearing account like a separate account that's not you know with any of your other stuff and then return the security deposit at the end of the lease with the interest that it collected yeah okay I don't know what Pennsylvania is one of the states though

SPEAKER_03:

yeah again check your local you know make sure that you're thorough with reading the laws in your specific state and Check with your financial advisor or CPA or anybody that you can get good advice from. You definitely want to take anything that comes with money advice. Maybe you can listen to us, but make sure that you're checking with the professional. What's the penalty if landlords don't comply? Well, tenants could file a complaint with the Fair Housing Commission or take them to court. So if you have a tenant that is going to act on it, I mean, there could be pretty serious consequences. So just, again, make sure that you're– Complying with the state laws, you're not trying to swindle anybody or do anything that's shady. Just do your due diligence like we always talk about. Patrick, do you want to hear some numbers? Yes, I love numbers. I like numbers too. I find stats always very fascinating. It's very cool. Stats to know. 48% of Philadelphia households are renters. 48%. Okay. Almost half of people that live in

SPEAKER_02:

Philadelphia rent. I feel like that. I don't know. I would be interested to know what the national average is for a big city. But that feels right. Half the people renting, half the people living. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know. I mean, it's interesting because it's like just Philadelphia. I'm not as familiar with Philly, but it's like you call Cincinnati Cincinnati, right? But like where we live kind of goes off. north quite a bit into the burbs and so you have a lot of home ownership but then like it would be surprising to me if 50% of Cincinnati rented as well because it's such a big city with so many neighborhoods I feel like there's a lot more home ownership but I don't know I could be wrong Philly has about 55,000 landlords and 73% of them are considered small so I'm guessing that falls within that 1 to 3%

SPEAKER_02:

yeah that's what we I think you

SPEAKER_03:

had mentioned that earlier so this law really is only going to impact about 25 26% of people. Yeah. Which is interesting. I, you know, I don't know. Again, Do the math. Check out, check if you're eligible for this law. 25% of landlords own between three and 24 units and would be affected by this law.

SPEAKER_02:

So then that means, what's the, so

SPEAKER_01:

that means 2%. Let me chip in. So Cincinnati, according to rentcafe.com, has 61% of households are renter occupied. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Really? So it's more.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but like that. Fascinating.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I'm assuming they're not just talking about like houses. I'm sure that, includes any residence, like apartments, like an apartment would probably count as a household. So you got to think about all the apartment buildings, you know, versus like, you know, I feel like an apartment building that has like a hundred units, let's say is, would be the same number as like a neighborhood, cul-de-sac neighborhood with a hundred houses, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I guess it's just surprising to me considering how many like suburban neighborhoods there are. A lot of those places can't be renters. So. But you're, I mean, you're in a house and you're renting, right? That's true. That's true. That's true. Yeah. All right, so what happens next? So the bill is on Mayor Cheryl Parker's desk. We got the name there. So you can reach out to your mayor if you want to voice your opinions on this. She apparently has 10 days to sign, which is as of Monday, June 16th, veto or let it pass automatically. So it's not enacted. So it's on the desk. We were wrong about that earlier.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that that's a fun fact, Mayor Cheryl Parker. Mayor Cheryl Parker. So that means it passed the Congress or whatever of Philly. I don't know if that's what

SPEAKER_03:

it's called. Can you tell we know a lot about local government? It passed the Congress of Philly. It's the official name for

SPEAKER_02:

it. There's got to be some sort of lawmaking body, you know, that is like what Congress is, Congress and the president. Like that would be like something and the mayor. Yeah. And I don't know what that something's called.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know. Me neither. But if vetoed, city council, which passed it 13 to 3. So there you go. City council.

SPEAKER_02:

City council. Boom. That was the word. Some governing

SPEAKER_01:

body. I don't know what

SPEAKER_03:

the term is. But yeah, so they passed it 13 to 3. But if they can override it and push it through. So it seems like as long as the votes don't change for city council, this is pretty much a lock.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it seems like that's a lock. Pretty much a lock.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. And we got a quote here to end the news segment. This was from the article from council member Rue Landau. Rue Landau. I'm not sure. Sorry,

SPEAKER_02:

Rue. If you're listening, correct us in the email. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03:

email questions at therentishpot.com. With phonetic spelling. Yeah, your phonetic spelling of your name. Quote, many times tenants are scraping together every single cent they can. Wages haven't kept up with rent. We need to make it easier for people to move into safer homes, end

SPEAKER_02:

quote. Well, I completely agree. But$4,000 security deposits, even if you're splitting that into installments, that's– I don't know. That's

SPEAKER_03:

just– That's outrageous in my opinion. I think that– I would be curious to know what the legal motion has been so far of people trying to lobby to lower security deposits. I wonder if that's even a thing, because it's really just like... I mean, if you're a mom or pop landlord, you could charge whatever you want for the security deposit. I don't think that there's, like, a legal limit. There might. I mean,

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know about Kelly, but there might be.

SPEAKER_01:

I think they were just, like, showing the high end. The high end. Like, because some places want two months of rent on top of your rent. So, like, that would be three.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's probably one of the, you know, there's probably a landlord who requires, like, a huge security deposit and first and last month's rent.

SPEAKER_03:

I've seen places like that. Like, apartment hunting or whatever, where I see that on the Zillow. and I'm like, nope. I just scrolled right by. Not legally saying that or dissuading any of our listeners that may be property managers or landlords that are listing their apartment, but if I see a lease where it requires first last month and a security deposit, nope. I scroll right by. I'm like, I don't, I'm not, I don't need to put that much money up front for an apartment.

SPEAKER_02:

I had a lease where I had to pay the first month, last month's rent, which was annoying up front. But also like when the last month came, it was like, oh, I'm renting for free now. It was like, it was a good feeling in the last month. Yeah. It was like, you know, I'm living for free this month. What a nice treat.

SPEAKER_03:

What

SPEAKER_04:

a treat.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I just feel like

SPEAKER_01:

it's a barrier to Trump. No, I, so much of

SPEAKER_03:

a barrier. Yeah. But all right. Well, that's been the news. The, the, the, Real news. Forgot to intro the segment, really. We just kind of started talking about the article. But it doesn't matter. We're having fun. We're jazzing. It's like, it's a beautiful symphony over here. Ad-libbing and laughing and joking and having a good time. Patrick. Yes. Why don't we dive into the mailbag and take a listen to what some people are asking the podcast. Don't know why I said it like that. I'm down. All right. Well, I think you're leading this segment, so. I

SPEAKER_02:

am. Okay. Well, welcome to Listener Questions, where we listen to your questions.

SPEAKER_03:

That's pretty cute. I

SPEAKER_02:

like

SPEAKER_03:

that. Welcome to Listener

SPEAKER_02:

Questions, where we listen to your questions. And do our best to answer them. Yeah.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, first... As

SPEAKER_03:

a reminder. As

SPEAKER_02:

a reminder. You

SPEAKER_03:

know... We're two guys that sometimes know, but mostly we don't. You know what I mean? So it's like take our advice. We're just here to have fun. But make sure that you consult your real estate professionals. Do your own research and make sure that you're making an educated decision. We're just here to have fun and share with you some of the things that we've learned from our professionals.

SPEAKER_02:

We could be a good starting point, but, yeah, definitely, definitely don't take everything we say as holy text. Okay. What's up first? Denise from Chicago asks, how do you budget for a flipper rehab when the price of materials seems to change every week? Is it worth moving forward if your numbers were based on last month's Home Depot prices? This

SPEAKER_03:

is a great question, Denise. Patrick and I have never flipped a house. So we don't really know house flipping, but budgeting– I mean, obviously you have to plan for a lot of different things in life, but like changing, cost changing of materials, you know, I mean, how do you, how do you budget your, your money? Like you're an adult, you're, you're not living with, with mom and dad anymore. You're on your own. How do you, how does Patrick budget his money?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh, so I'm probably not necessarily the, like, I don't necessarily have like a super good strategy. I have a feeling that you probably, you seem like somebody who has a really good like organization with, with things. Thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. Like, yeah, I do. Now I'm even more curious to hear what your strategy is. My strategy is like, I kind of just, I've got like all of my bills on like auto pay, you know, and I have a general idea of like how much that's going to cost every month. And then I kind of just like, um, I'm not like a huge– the only thing I spend money on is like restaurants basically and like I get groceries but like not as much as most people because I eat out at a lot of restaurants. And Criterion Blu-rays. Yeah, I don't buy as many Blu-rays as I used to. But my budgeting technique is like after I have a few big expenses, I freak out and I stop spending stuff for like– a week I'm like I live super bare bones until I feel comfortable to start spending again which is not a good strategy but like I had like what did I have I accidentally spent like$270 on like a restaurant that was like way way more expensive than I was expecting right and I had to buy like a flight to Seattle for August and then I had to get like my car worked on this was all within the span of like a week and a half okay and I was like oh crap and I'm like I can't spend any money and it was just like every every meal was like a turkey sandwich and I didn't you know so it's not really a good strategy I just kind of you know my main thing is I just I try to like I have a specific number that I try to save every month and I just try to make sure I'm like hitting that at the end usually around the end of the month I try to make sure I'm moving that number into my savings account and I kind of just like feel it out okay so it's not really A good answer, I feel

SPEAKER_03:

like. Got it. Yeah. So your strategy is pretty much wing it based on feeling. That's basically well said. Can I spend money on this or am I too broke to do so? That's funny, man. Yeah. I mean, not to be the lame duck in the room, but I am very... What is it? Is it type A is the one that's like really analytical? Isn't that the one? I'm very type A when it comes to money and finances just because it makes me feel a little bit better to plan everything out and be prepared. So I have a master spreadsheet in my Google Drive. I called it. Which has all of my basically money, income. And then based on like, I typically go off like the 50-30-20 method,

SPEAKER_02:

which I'm not sure if you're familiar with

SPEAKER_03:

that. But it's just a way to kind of like generally break down. It's like, what do I absolutely need to spend money

SPEAKER_02:

on? 50 is needs,

SPEAKER_03:

50%. 50% needs, 20% is wants, and then 10% is savings. Or I think you might flip to something like that, whatever, yeah. But it's, I don't really like, I'm not like religious like follow that, but just an idea of like, okay, so if I have this much money coming in per month, these are the things that I know I'm gonna be spending on, this is what I'm gonna be budgeting for, what's left over, that goes to the next thing where it's like fun things that we have planned to do that specific month, and then it's like how much money left over for that do I It just goes directly to savings or to investments. And so I just kind of map that out on a monthly basis. And it changes month by month. Grocery is different this month. Gas is more expensive this month. Travel for a wedding, travel for this or like... You know, so it's like, I generally have an idea of that. And then any like unforeseen expense throw into that sheet and then it'll auto adjust like for the rest of the categories. Like what, what, what is left? Like, can I spend a little bit more this month? Maybe I can afford a second video game as opposed to my typical, I spend one, like on one video game a month or something like that. So it's like, I, I, I can't imagine that that's that different of my advice for how I would go about, you know, budgeting for flipping or rehabbing is take what you've got coming in faster. Factor in your necessary expenses. Factor in the things that you need to spend money on and the things that you maybe... Just want to, because you can and see what that leaves you with and see where, what flexibility you have.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And specifically about like the, in the question they're asking about like fluctuating prices. That's difficult. Yeah. So like, would you like, if that was you with your spreadsheet, would you like plan for like the, the highest end of that just to be safe? So that way you're not short of money for like the monthly payment

SPEAKER_01:

sort of thing. That's difficult. We'll go ahead and say, that's a good idea because a lot of people, they have like a contingency, like, they'll put 10 to 20% aside. So like if you're, because I feel like a lot of people when they do this flip, they're intentionally thinking, okay, if I buy a house that's fully good and I don't need to flip it, it's 300,000. But then if I'm flipping a house and it costs 220, then I have, I don't know, like 50K set aside for the flip. And then they add like a 10% to that. And so you would also... just in case materials switch, you'd have 55,000 instead of 50 just in case. Right. That makes sense. That's sort of what people do.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I mean, it's going to work differently for everybody. So it's like, obviously... If you're doing a house flip and you need to budget, I would probably recommend not using the Patrick message. Where it's just like, we'll be fine. We'll just wing it. How are we feeling? It's like, we'll spend this much money on getting a new roof and then I can't eat food for the next week. It's just ramen. It's just ramen. It's just ramen, yeah. But yeah, okay. Well, thank you, Denise, for your question. That was a fun one. I got another one here. How about that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you can do this one.

SPEAKER_03:

Amina from Raleigh writes in, says, I'm tight on money right now. I just bought this duplex and want to renovate some of the flooring and paint to... Sorry, Amina. I'm tight on money right now. I just bought this duplex and want to renovate some of the flooring and paint to give it a clean, fresh look. We just spent a lot on this home and I'm not sure painting or installing new flooring is the way to go. So she's asking us to choose for her. Spend money on painting... Or spend money on the flooring? Oh, so is that the question? I think it's like in either order. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02:

What's more important to you? What do you think is more important to getting a... I think, in my opinion, I would say that paint is more important. Really? In terms of just like immediate... Yeah, I mean, well, it depends on... I guess it kind of... There's a lot of... variables there it's like what is the current state of the flooring and the paint right like if the paint is fine and the flooring is terrible like obviously like the flooring

SPEAKER_03:

yeah I mean it's not being very specific with some of your details but I do think that it's based on necessity what's the most urgent for are you trying to rent this place are the floors not Are they like jagged or rough or you need carpet or you need to redo the hardwood? It's like, if that's the case, then you should probably focus on the thing that's gonna impact tenants from moving in. But if you're just renovating the house and you can take it slow, I don't know. I would say maybe do whichever one is cheapest or most feasible at the moment.

SPEAKER_02:

I would say like– yeah. No, that's a way better answer. I would say when I walk into a room, like the color of the wall– there's like– different paints have like completely different vibes and sometimes a room feels like really just like not welcoming if it's like a really ugly– like really ugly wallpaper or something like that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03:

If you could paint your house any color, what would you paint it?

SPEAKER_02:

Ooh, I would want different rooms to be different colors. But are you saying like every room has to be the same

SPEAKER_03:

color? No, no, no. You can have different colors, different colors.

SPEAKER_02:

Like a warm, I like a warm salmon. A warm salmon. Kind of like your shirt. Is that warm salmon? This is a little, I would say a little like lighter salmon. I like salmon a lot, like an orangish pink. Big fan of that. I like it with

SPEAKER_03:

a little bit of lemon and asparagus. Yeah, I

SPEAKER_02:

don't know. A light blue. What about you?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm a big fan of olive as a color, like olive green. I think it kind of has like a natural sort of vibe. I feel like it would go well with– I have a lot of like– I have a wood bookcase that I love and my TV stand in entertainment is like a natural wood kind of thing. So it's like I feel like that would fit in really well with an olive wall color. So that would be my go. That's a good one. All right. Well, thank you, Amina. We got one more question. Patrick?

SPEAKER_02:

Gina from Philadelphia. Hey, we were just talking

SPEAKER_03:

about Philadelphia. Gina eating a Philly cheese stick or eating a Philly dry steak

SPEAKER_02:

right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Paying

SPEAKER_02:

rent and installments or security deposits and stuff. Gina asks, what's the best way to get resources on real estate that you find beneficial?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, this is a cheat code for us because we get such great knowledgeable producers that know all about the real estate and property management world. They're able to kind of help educate us. But a lot of stuff that they find is basically based on their own pure research. I mean, we say you own property, you rent it out. What were the best resources or tools that you went to to find out about that kind of stuff? Or your questions, your fears, your concerns, any of that stuff? Bigger

SPEAKER_01:

pockets. I feel like that was helpful because I would just put questions in there. Like, what do I do with this if you do that? And then there There's people that respond on there. So I feel like, you know, I think you do have to pay for that membership, but BiggerPockets is really helpful. And then just constantly asking people who are in the same kind of boat, who've done it for a while. I

SPEAKER_03:

mean, I would go even a step beyond that and just say the internet and forums in general. I think you can get a lot of really good knowledge from going to places like Reddit, like large online forums where there's, I'm sure there are millions of subreddits for landlords or property investors or people that that are doing house flipping or house hacking. So it's like you can go there and get a lot of really good insight and use websites and tools that you trust, resources online. I think that's all a great place. I mean, the internet is a bountiful place of knowledge that you can use. Just make sure you trust the sources you're getting the info from. And as always, you can listen to this show for insightful resources on real estate. We talk to pros like we've had John Blatchford, we've had Mary Regano on the show. Yeah, we say, not like... We say... levi abramson a lot of great minds intellectual minds in the real estate and property management world that can provide a lot of really great insight for you so i'm beneath you guys i'm not an

SPEAKER_01:

expert

SPEAKER_03:

no that's not true at

SPEAKER_02:

all okay no but you're no like you're you you know you've you've bought property you have rental property that's more than we have so like i think that we've had people on different like parts of the journey you know which i think is important you know yep because not everyone's trying to own like you know 50 properties some people are just trying to get into that first property like for example for me i would seek advice from people like you you know who are like who've made that first step and just asking a bunch of people who like are one or two steps like ahead of me i think that's really important just gathering all sorts of different opinions from from different people

SPEAKER_01:

you know nice

SPEAKER_02:

for sure

SPEAKER_03:

well Now that we got the hug session out, the emotional hug session. Thank you all for listening to this episode of the Rentish Pod. It's been really fun, Patrick. It's been really great to talk with you today. It's pouring buckets outside right now.

SPEAKER_02:

I was supposed to do trivia in the park tonight. That's a little

SPEAKER_03:

bit of a bummer. You know what's not a bummer? This show. You can follow it on many different places. Like I said at the top of the show, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Rate us, review us, give us a thumbs up or a comment. Subscribe to the show. Hit the notification bell if you want to be notified when new episodes go live. And you can email questions at therentishpod.com. Find us on social media at therentishpod on Instagram. We thank you. We appreciate you for listening. I've been Zach. That's been Patrick. That's been Moussey. And we'll see you guys next time.