Don't cross me yet - there will be drama

I have done some things right in my real estate ventures and also a lot of things wrong. My number one mistake has been bad estimating of how long it takes to do certain things. For one, you can't make a good estimate on how long something will take someone else (a contractor for example) to do, because they tend to dictate when they'll come over and how long it will take. Also little things take a lot of time, like sweeping, moving stuff around, etc.

I bought the new house on August 1, and didn't move in until about a week before Halloween. But I got in and the place is mostly livable. My new focus has been renting out my previous house, which I bought April 04 and still isn't done partly because a relative of mine partially did the jobs and then never came back, but also due to my own ignorance/laziness. It seems so overbearing when so much needs to be done.

So now I'm in a rush, as I was hoping to have tenants in that place and a 3rd roommate in my new place by now to help pay the bills. Well November's mortgage payments are due for both of them and I still haven't paid them yet. I can but I'll be at $zero in the bank. There has been some interest in my Philly house from potential tenants, so that may work out soon, but I am going against two of the biggest rules of renting out a property:

1) Take time to screen and get the absolute best tenant
2) Start/end the rent term during the summertime

These two are actually part of the same thing. Most people move during the summer, because it's not all shitty outside and kids don't have school, so it's a lot easier for the little ones to accept a move in between school years rather than in the middle of one. Since you have a bigger pool of potential customers, you get more people to screen and make a good choice. Myself, I am in a situation where I'm stuck renting out at a bad time in the year so I have less to choose from, coupled with the fact that I have negative cash flow eating away at me. Best situation is you have a tenant give you the required 60 days notice in the spring and you then have two months to find a tenant for the summer, all along continuing to enjoy the rent from the previous tenant. So I don't have the time to wait for the perfect tenant, and I have a crappier pool to choose from.

So here is my goal: find asians and have them sign an 8 month lease. Such a lease would end 6/30/06, prime time for new renters should the asians decide to leave, and their asian-ness would have honor demand that they pay me on time and keep things neat. I'll give frequent updates on how my racial profiling is going.