Most agents show you the rent. Here's what's left.
Owning a rental in Louisville is arithmetic, not a feeling. Move the two numbers below and see what a property actually returns before you sign anything.
Reserves are estimates, not a quote. Real numbers depend on the roof, the neighborhood and the tenant — which is exactly why I walk the property before I tell you anything.
Start where you are
Three different problems. I'd give you different advice for each one, and in some cases the advice is to wait.
Full management for Louisville-area owners: tenant screening, rent collection, maintenance and a monthly statement you can actually read. Funds held in a Kentucky escrow account, never mine.
What management covers I'm buyingWhether it's a first house or a fourth rental, we start with what it costs to hold, not what it costs to close. If the numbers don't work, I'll tell you before we tour it.
How I work with buyers I'm sellingPricing from comparable sales, not from what you hoped. A plain estimate of what you'll net after payoff, commissions and closing costs, before the sign goes in the yard.
How I price a homeWhat I'd tell you before you hire anyone
Including me. These are the questions that decide whether a deal works, written out so you can ask them of any agent in town.
Where your rent money actually goes
Escrow accounts, the fees that hide behind "maintenance coordination," and the markup question every owner should ask a manager out loud.
What a Louisville rental really costs to own
A full year of one property, line by line: the note, the vacancy, the turnover, the furnace. What the listing's cap rate left out.
When you shouldn't buy
Five situations where the honest answer is to keep renting and save. Nobody earns a commission on this page, which is why you rarely see it.
About Peter Lekol
I came to real estate from engineering, and I never really left the habit: measure it, check it, then say what it means. I've been licensed in Kentucky since 2022 and I manage residential rentals here in Louisville, for other owners and for myself.
That means I've paid for the surprise sewer line. I've had the turnover that took six weeks. When I look at a property with you, I'm looking for what it will cost you in year three, not what it looks like on a Saturday afternoon.
My job is to make sure you understand the decision well enough to make it yourself. If that means the answer is no, the answer is no.
If I see something wrong with a property, I'm going to tell you. That has cost me deals. It has never cost me a client.
Ask me something specific
Send the address, the rent, or the question. You'll get a straight answer, and no follow-up campaign.
peter@lekolrealty.com