Capital investment and world trip - unconcerned and yet secured
Corinna rents out her flat to rentcast. We met Corinna in the north of Stuttgart, at Mönchstraße 9, directly behind one of Stuttgart's biggest malls. A young woman in sportswear leaves the building and walks towards Unterer Schlossgarten, which is only a few minutes away.
In the flat, you notice immediately that Corinna prefers to buy small flats, so-called micro-apartments. The growing number of singles, students and commuters increases the demand for small furnished flats in city centres and creates a high level of rental security, something Corinna has also discovered for herself.
Hello Corinna, thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experiences with rentcast today. Are we right in the centre of Stuttgart?
"Almost. Strictly speaking, Stuttgart Central ends directly on the other side of the street. We are in the north of Stuttgart, but ultimately at least as central as in Central Stuttgart."
Please tell us briefly how you came to own your property.
"I came to my property through my partner, who already owns five flats. It's the second property for me, the first flat is right next door. Before that, my partner had bought a property in the east of Stuttgart through an estate agent, and in the course of that we came across the flat we are currently in. This is also the first flat I rented to rentcast."
What made you decide to rent your flat to rentcast instead of taking care of it yourself?
"In June 2019, my partner and I decided to take a sabbatical to travel around the world. However, due to the pandemic that arose, at the beginning of 2020, we unfortunately had to cancel the trip. Then we thought that we would like to do this more often, but then we were faced with the problem that we now own seven flats. And who then takes care of the management of the flats when we are not there? Whether it's a change of tenants, loss of keys or other challenges, we always have to be available and on site."
"I want to be able to decide freely whether I might be somewhere else tomorrow and still know that my capital investment is in good hands."
"After we had enquired about what solutions were available here, we very quickly came across rentcast. After an uncomplicated contact, we had an appointment with a rentcast employee. An appointment to view the flat was also quickly arranged and it was already clear to us that this was the service we were looking for."
How did the handover process work?
"When we decided to rent our flat to rentcast, we sat down with an employee and discussed the rental price. We told them our ideas and the employee checked them again with the corresponding parameters. We then met to sign the contract. At a second viewing, we signed a flat handover protocol, handed over the keys and from then on everything went smoothly and I received the first rental income."
Were there any special features in your flats?
"Yes, indeed, there was no kitchen in my partner's flat, so a rentcast employee took care of a kitchen studio as well as design and installation, always in consultation with us, of course. I have to say that it worked really well and the result is impressive. As owners, such additional services are of course perfect, so we don't have to commit to a fitted kitchen when buying a flat, but can also buy flats without a kitchen and know that we will get a great kitchen at a fair price and without any extra work for us."
Are you satisfied with rentcast so far?
"Yes. Unfortunately the first tenant cancelled at short notice because his work project was cancelled. Nevertheless, we receive the rent on time and rentcast will advertise the flat again as soon as the contract with the current final tenant has expired. The parking space of this flat is rented separately, rentcast also intervenes here for us, so we have no contact points and can relax and take care of the next travel planning."
Not having to worry about anything was exactly what we were looking for.
What would you like to see from rentcast in the future?
"In the future, we would like rentcast to be able to prepare the service charge statement independently in coordination with us, with the relevant property management. Currently, rentcast supports us in the service charge settlement, but cannot hand it over to the current tenant without our consent."
Our goal is to hand over all properties to rentcast so that we can travel in peace.
Dear Corinna, thank you very much for your time and the insight into your flat.