If you’ve been considering buying some property and becoming a landlord, now might just be the perfect time to take the plunge.

According to the an article by Pew Research Center, the amount of households in the U.S. that are renting their homes is an a 50-year high.

“The number of households renting their home … rose from 31.2% of households in 2006 to 36.6% in 2016,” the article states. “The current renting level exceeds the recent high of 36.2% set in 1986 and 1988 and approaches the rate of 37.0% in 1965.”

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University released a report that said the percentage of homeowner households has been on the decline for a while.

“Although the number of homeowner households grew by 280,000 in 2016, the homeownership rate fell to 63.4 percent, marking the 12th consecutive year of declines,” the report states.

Sarnen Steinbarth, the founder and CEO of TurboTenant, said that for the reasons stated above and more that now is a great time to consider being a landlord.

“The rental industry is growing very rapidly,” said Steinbarth, who has been in real estate since he was 18 years old and at one point had a property management company and has managed more than 1,000 tenants. “… You have the United States population growing and you also have net positive immigration. But really the crux of it is you have the largest generation in U.S. history, the Millennials, coming to this age of graduating college, having student loans. It’s harder to get a home purchased. So you have a huge population base that is at the prime rental age. And they are renting longer.”

The other population that is renting a lot are the Baby Boomers.

“Less and less Baby Boomers are moving back in with their children like they might have 20 or 30 years ago,” Steinbarth said. “They are also opting to rent, oftentimes.”

Steinbarth’s company, TurboTenant, is a service based out of Fort Collins, Colorado, that takes some of the hard work out of being a landlord. The company provides free tools for landlords to use, including rental marketing, rental applications, tenant screenings and renters’ insurance. TurboTenant makes its revenue from tenant application fees instead of charging landlords to use its service.

When Steinbarth was running his own property management company, he was paying $300 to $400 for software to help manage his properties.

“More rental units are owned by the little landlord as opposed to the big landlord,” Steinbarth said.

And paying hundreds of dollars for software isn’t very feasible when you’re just one guy managing properties.

“Like many companies, it was founded out of a need,” Steinbarth said.

Using TurboTenant can save a lot of the headaches that go along with renting. Tenants can apply for rentals and pay their rent online. Landlords can get background checks on applicants. Landlords can post their open rentals all over the web with a single click. They never have to deal with messy handwriting or missing information. They never have to wait for an application to come through the mail.

“When was the last time you filled out a paper form to book a hotel room or book a rental car? … Yet it is still the norm in the United States to fill out paper applications for rentals,” Steinbarth said. “… Now more than ever, that’s going away very, very rapidly.”

Since its founding in January 2016, TurboTenant has grown to have 90,000 landlords and more than 500,000 renters using its service, and Steinbarth expects that number to continue to grow with the way the housing market is right now.

Steinbarth also thinks part of the reason for the rental boom is because renting, especially long-term, isn’t as frowned upon now as it has been in the past.

“Renting has really been destigmatized in society,” Steinbarth said. “It is certainly more acceptable to rent for maybe your whole life. In fact, luxury rentals are fastest growing categories. So you have the confluence of all these factors and the net effect of that is that the rental market is growing faster than ever.”

Steinbarth thinks it’s a good time to be a landlord.

“You have the net effect of a lot more rentals, so there’s really high demand,” Steinbarth said. “There’s not a risk of this being outsourced. There’s not a risk of the need for housing going anywhere, and you have a lot more people getting into it. You combine that with this wave of technology boom, and you have tools like TurboTenant that make it easier than ever to be a landlord.”

According to that Pew Research article, rental rates have risen in all demographics.

“Certain demographic groups ­— such as young adults, nonwhites and the lesser educated — have historically been more likely to rent than others, and rental rates have increased among these groups over the past decade,” the article stated. “However, rental rates have also increased among some groups that have traditionally been less likely to rent, including whites and middle-aged adults.”

Idaho, especially, might be a good place to be a landlord.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho is the fastest-growing state in the nation.

The state’s population increased 2.2 percent to 1.7 million from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. The other top states were Nevada, Utah, Washington, Florida and Arizona.

Greg Johnston manages 65 rental properties in Pocatello and Chubbuck under the umbrella of Johnston Property Management and he works as a realtor for Keller Williams Realty. He has been working in the industry for 19 years, and he says that now is a great time to get into buying real estate in Pocatello.

Pocatello, especially, is a great place to be a landlord. There are low vacancies and the market is consistent.

“It really is a great time to be a real estate investor,” Johnston said. “In my experience, we have very low vacancy rates and a very high demand for rental properties. ... Pocatello traditionally has had low vacancy rates. Part of it is because we have Idaho State University. A lot of students fill up a lot of these apartments. And some of our larger employers pay a good wage but maybe not high enough that people are buying (houses).”

Also, the rental rates in Pocatello are fairly low, which is attractive to renters.

“If you compare what we pay in rent to places in Utah or the Boise area, our rental rates are low,” Johnston said. “So people will say, ‘Boy, I’ll just rent a house. Look how inexpensive it is.”

Johnston also sees quite a few people from outside Pocatello who see the low real estate costs and want to buy up property in the Gate City.

“A lot of people from outside of Pocatello are attracted to buy rental properties here because they see our low real estate prices compared to their town and that we have a very stable economy and they want to invest here,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that people on the fence about being a landlord should keep in mind that there are four ways you’re making money as a landlord.

“You should generate some monthly cash flow with your tenant. You have the mortgage being paid down every month by your tenant. The property should be going up in value. Plus there’s tax advantages because (there’s) so many things you can deduct,” Johnston said. “So you have four ways that you’re making money on a rental property.”

With all those ways of making money, even if you’re only making $100 directly from your tenant, you actually are making several hundred dollars more than that. Also, if you don’t want to directly manage the property yourself, you can get a property manager, who usually only takes 7 to 10 percent of the collected rent.

Johnston said there are a lot of reasons why, maybe, people aren’t buying houses right now.

“Ten years ago, it was a lot easier to purchase a home and now it’s not as easy,” Johnston said. “You have to have higher credit scores, a little bit more money in the bank. … It was very easy to purchase a home, and then things tightened up when the economy was bad seven to 10 years ago.”

Johnston said a lot of people don’t necessarily want to buy a house right away when they move to a new city. And Millennials also might not be as interested in buying homes because they want to be free to move.

Johnston said real estate is one of the best investments.

“Overall, it’s one of the best investments you can find for stability and income,” Johnston said.

If you have questions about real estate investing in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area, you can contact Greg Johnston, or his father Jim Johnston, at Keller Williams Realty in Pocatello at 208-232-9041.