Whats holding me back is my lack of "boots on ground" network here in Longmont, Colorado.
All my properties are SFR class A type, so almost no maintenance in last 2 years (leaking vacuum breaker for sprinklers is the only little task I can think of). Also, I have First American home insurance and they say they will cover if there was anything in the house (electrical, plumbing, appliances etc) that breaks. Thankfully, I have never had to use them so far, but its just piece of mind.
What I need ground staff for:
Mainly showings to potential tenant if there was a vacancy. I only do month to month leases, offer less than market rents and that ways my vacancies are really low and I stay in _control_. Tenants know they have to fall in line or their nuisance will be dealt with very swiftly. Dont want to pay property manager first months rent and tenant finding fee every time there is a turnover.
Problem Im trying to solve:
Have somebody who is local and open to doing a side gig. I dont mind paying someone 100 dollars/month just to be on standby even if there is zero work. Work is only when showing needs to happen and for that Im happy to pay 25 dollars per hour on top of standby fee of 100/month, once the tenant moves in they again go back to zero work and get paid 100 a month. Ideal for teenagers, single mothers etc looking to make extra cash. But reliability has been a big issue so far.
Other thing I have done is tried to recruit people from rover.com (pet sitting service). My thought was well these people have time and resource (mainly a vehicle) and they are looking to get paid, so will they really care if I need them to feed or walk my dog or have them actually show the property to a potential tenant. I have have had some success there but reliability has been a big issue.
Startup idea:
1) Airbnb chewing up hotel industry (anybody gets to be part time hotelier)
2) Uber/Lyft chewing up taxi services (anybody gets to be part time driver)
3) Rover chewing up kennel services (anybody gets to be part time pet sitter)
4) Ebay/Amazon chewing up brick and mortar retailers (anybody gets to be a part time retailer)
I need a platform where I can find part time property managers and by that I mean somebody who can show the property around. All other aspect of property management I feel I have automated except for showing the property. I have used neighbor's teenage kids, my already existing tenants from other properties etc in past and that has worked but Im looking for a more professional solution to this. I hate having to explain people on Rover that I have actually got no pets. I understand that with this model reliability will still be an issue but what Im hoping we could solve that problem by flooding the platform with loads of other part-time property managers. The sort of thing I do when my Uber driver does not show up, I simply raise another request on Lyft. If the driver from Uber shows up good or I go with the Lyft driver, point is my options stay open, I can throw a stone with blind folds on knowing it would hit a bird.
So thats what stopping me :-)