Hi guys, I have 5 properties and I am struggling to manage them. I do have a full time job and a family but besides that, its only 5 properties. By managing I mean paying utilities when the tenant moves out, getting a new tenant in, paying mortgages , keeping track of expenses for taxes and which mortgage company sold which mortgage to who and registering on the new companies website so I could pay the monthly mortgage...
I know a full time job does take a lot of my time. But I dont have many properties either.
How do people deal with 100-200 properties?
May be they have bookkeepers? Or their accountants are paying mortgages for them?
But you have to trust those people. You hear so many stories about athletes who trusted someone but those people scammed them out of their money...
I would love to expand but not sure how if I am already struggling with only 5 properties...
And I get it, property management companies help to find new tenants and place them, but I still have to pay utilities when the tenant moves out, pay mortgages, keep track of which property management transferred the money into my bank account and which has not, so I have to call them to ask if the tenant paid or the management company is being slow, making sure termite treatment/maintenance on the property has been done, etc...
You know the answer, hire a property manager. If you can streamline 10, you can streamline 100. Build a efficient system.
Set up as much as possible so it is automatic. I've never had a mortgage company change on me, but I have mortgage payments set up to automatically come out of my bank account. Property taxes for those not attached to the mortgage get paid as soon as I get the bill in the mail (I can post date the payment). Insurance is automatically renewed every year without me having to do anything, also on autopay.
Anything you need to do once a year, add it to your calendar with a reminder.
Being organized helps as you don't have to remember to do things or look for things. Fill all of your invoices/bills after they are paid (and write paid on them) in your tax folder. Have a folder for each property.
You know the answer, hire a property manager. If you can streamline 10, you can streamline 100. Build a efficient system.
Property managers don't do those things that I am asking about...
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Set up as much as possible so it is automatic. I've never had a mortgage company change on me, but I have mortgage payments set up to automatically come out of my bank account. Property taxes for those not attached to the mortgage get paid as soon as I get the bill in the mail (I can post date the payment). Insurance is automatically renewed every year without me having to do anything, also on autopay.
Anything you need to do once a year, add it to your calendar with a reminder.
Being organized helps as you don't have to remember to do things or look for things. Fill all of your invoices/bills after they are paid (and write paid on them) in your tax folder. Have a folder for each property.
Thank you!
" I've never had a mortgage company change on me"
How is that possible? All my loans were sold to a different mortgage company Withing the first 6 months after the purchase. Then in some cases, after 4-5 years some were sold again...
"Have a folder for each property."
Thats a great advice! Thank you!
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Do you have a full time job besides managing those properties?
The reason I am asking is: I was thinking that may be I should go part time so life would be easier for me...
Set up as much as possible so it is automatic. I've never had a mortgage company change on me, but I have mortgage payments set up to automatically come out of my bank account. Property taxes for those not attached to the mortgage get paid as soon as I get the bill in the mail (I can post date the payment). Insurance is automatically renewed every year without me having to do anything, also on autopay.
Anything you need to do once a year, add it to your calendar with a reminder.
Being organized helps as you don't have to remember to do things or look for things. Fill all of your invoices/bills after they are paid (and write paid on them) in your tax folder. Have a folder for each property.
Thank you!
" I've never had a mortgage company change on me"
How is that possible? All my loans were sold to a different mortgage company Withing the first 6 months after the purchase. Then in some cases, after 4-5 years some were sold again...
"Have a folder for each property."
Thats a great advice! Thank you!
I'm in Canada and I get my mortgages through my bank.
Thank you, Tim!
Set up as much as possible so it is automatic. I've never had a mortgage company change on me, but I have mortgage payments set up to automatically come out of my bank account. Property taxes for those not attached to the mortgage get paid as soon as I get the bill in the mail (I can post date the payment). Insurance is automatically renewed every year without me having to do anything, also on autopay.
Anything you need to do once a year, add it to your calendar with a reminder.
Being organized helps as you don't have to remember to do things or look for things. Fill all of your invoices/bills after they are paid (and write paid on them) in your tax folder. Have a folder for each property.
Thank you!
" I've never had a mortgage company change on me"
How is that possible? All my loans were sold to a different mortgage company Withing the first 6 months after the purchase. Then in some cases, after 4-5 years some were sold again...
"Have a folder for each property."
Thats a great advice! Thank you!
I'm in Canada and I get my mortgages through my bank.
Do you guys who manages more than 5-7 properties, do you also have full time jobs besides managing those properties? Or may be you have a spouse that manages them for you?
I have 5. Two have a PM (due to potential conflict of interest with the tenant pool and my job) and the others are self managed. Most have one or two things come up each year, but I call a repair person to deal with it.
Do you guys who manages more than 5-7 properties, do you also have full time jobs besides managing those properties? Or may be you have a spouse that manages them for you?
I have 5. Two have a PM (due to potential conflict of interest with the tenant pool and my job) and the others are self managed. Most have one or two things come up each year, but I call a repair person to deal with it.
Thank you, Theresa! How many properties are you planning on having in the future?
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Do you have a full time job besides managing those properties?
The reason I am asking is: I was thinking that may be I should go part time so life would be easier for me...
I do work full time. Fortunately I have flexible hours. But I really only need that if there's something urgent which doesn't happen often. What part is causing you the most headaches?
Do you guys who manages more than 5-7 properties, do you also have full time jobs besides managing those properties? Or may be you have a spouse that manages them for you?
I have 5. Two have a PM (due to potential conflict of interest with the tenant pool and my job) and the others are self managed. Most have one or two things come up each year, but I call a repair person to deal with it.
Thank you, Theresa! How many properties are you planning on having in the future?
Not sure if I'll be buying anymore. If I do, I'd sell one and buy another.
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Do you have a full time job besides managing those properties?
The reason I am asking is: I was thinking that may be I should go part time so life would be easier for me...
I do work full time. Fortunately I have flexible hours. But I really only need that if there's something urgent which doesn't happen often. What part is causing you the most headaches?
The fact that I dont have any days off. On my days off from my regular work I deal with my rentals...
I am tired...
I take a vacation, but then I come back and its the same thing... Working non stop till another vacation.
I cant say rentals take up much time, may be its the whole thing, cooking, cleaning house, taking my kid to a doctor, etc...
It all adds up and that is why I feel like I have no work-life balance...
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Do you have a full time job besides managing those properties?
The reason I am asking is: I was thinking that may be I should go part time so life would be easier for me...
I do work full time. Fortunately I have flexible hours. But I really only need that if there's something urgent which doesn't happen often. What part is causing you the most headaches?
The fact that I dont have any days off. On my days off from my regular work I deal with my rentals...
I am tired...
I take a vacation, but then I come back and its the same thing... Working non stop till another vacation.
I cant say rentals take up much time, may be its the whole thing, cooking, cleaning house, taking my kid to a doctor, etc...
It all adds up and that is why I feel like I have no work-life balance...
What type of rentals do you have? If you are having to work on them all the time, why not sell them off slowly and replace them with more turn key rentals (ie ones that don't need as much work). Sometimes you get a bad tenant and lots of repair requests, but that is not the norm.
I think everyone feels that way at some point. Do you think owning the rentals will help you spend more time with your family in the future? I go months without a day off and actually enjoy it. I know what I am working towards. The sacrifice now will pay off in the future. Start by getting organized and trying to automate some of your payments. It gets easier!
Try to take small steps to make things easier. Set up automatic mortgage payments. Make your utility payments automatic. Make it easy for your tenants to send you money directly. I manage 15 properties at the moment and find it fairly easy. I do all the repairs and maintenance as well. You don't need expensive programs or property managers to manage rentals. All I use is a computer, printer, and my phone. Try to keep everything organized. Have a binder or folder for each property. Put a copy of every expense and rent payment in the right folder. I've been managing for almost 10 years. It gets easier the longer you do it. You'll find better systems. Good luck!
Do you have a full time job besides managing those properties?
The reason I am asking is: I was thinking that may be I should go part time so life would be easier for me...
I do work full time. Fortunately I have flexible hours. But I really only need that if there's something urgent which doesn't happen often. What part is causing you the most headaches?
The fact that I dont have any days off. On my days off from my regular work I deal with my rentals...
I am tired...
I take a vacation, but then I come back and its the same thing... Working non stop till another vacation.
I cant say rentals take up much time, may be its the whole thing, cooking, cleaning house, taking my kid to a doctor, etc...
It all adds up and that is why I feel like I have no work-life balance...
What type of rentals do you have? If you are having to work on them all the time, why not sell them off slowly and replace them with more turn key rentals (ie ones that don't need as much work). Sometimes you get a bad tenant and lots of repair requests, but that is not the norm.
Well, one of my tenants is a section 8 in Florida, and I am getting her out because she was too needy and not clean. One tenant just got evicted in Arizona. Everybody else is ok, knock on the wood... So 2 tenants turn over withing 3 month might be a bit difficult...
I think everyone feels that way at some point. Do you think owning the rentals will help you spend more time with your family in the future? I go months without a day off and actually enjoy it. I know what I am working towards. The sacrifice now will pay off in the future. Start by getting organized and trying to automate some of your payments. It gets easier!
Thank you for your support, Teagan!
And you are right, it will help me to spend more time with my family in the future...
Hi guys, I have 5 properties and I am struggling to manage them. I do have a full time job and a family but besides that, its only 5 properties. By managing I mean paying utilities when the tenant moves out, getting a new tenant in, paying mortgages , keeping track of expenses for taxes and which mortgage company sold which mortgage to who and registering on the new companies website so I could pay the monthly mortgage...
I know a full time job does take a lot of my time. But I dont have many properties either.
How do people deal with 100-200 properties?
May be they have bookkeepers? Or their accountants are paying mortgages for them?
But you have to trust those people. You hear so many stories about athletes who trusted someone but those people scammed them out of their money...
I would love to expand but not sure how if I am already struggling with only 5 properties...
I feel you on this one, Mary. We did a 1031 exchange for all of our local homes and got into properties in a couple of Florida markets. The freedom from property management is well worth the 8% (for 2 properties) and 10% (for 2 properties) of management fees.
Generally, people scale by getting into multifamily properties, self-storage, or other larger assets.
Do you guys who manages more than 5-7 properties, do you also have full time jobs besides managing those properties? Or may be you have a spouse that manages them for you?
I only had 20 or so when I was working. No mortgages, I pay cash for everything. I easily tracked everything in Excel. It only took a few hours per month to manage. Problems came in via text and forwarded them to my handyman. Took seconds to handle.
Have more properties now, still use Excel. My time goes toward acquiring more properties and rehabbing them for a tenant. I check on rehabs once a week. I write checks and the rest of the week is my time to do what I want.
You know the answer, hire a property manager. If you can streamline 10, you can streamline 100. Build a efficient system.
Property managers don't do those things that I am asking about...