Real Estate Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2016 · 940 posts · 695 votes
9y
First of all, sorry to hear about that! Secondly, we love our property management company! @Douglas Skipworth and Dan Butler at Crestcore Realty (http://www.crestcore.com/) are great to work with and extremely trustworthy. Highly recommend them.
Real Estate Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2016 · 940 posts · 695 votes
9y
First of all, sorry to hear about that! Secondly, we love our property management company! @Douglas Skipworth and Dan Butler at Crestcore Realty (http://www.crestcore.com/) are great to work with and extremely trustworthy. Highly recommend them.
Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2016 · 24 posts · 27 votes
9y
@Steven Mitchell I'll say this not just about property management in Memphis, but about pm in general: Property management is a business. And just like any other business, they exist to make money. I'll concede that there are property management companies that are divisions of larger real estate entities, but the fact remain that they have to make money in order to survive.
So that leads to a question that I'm not sure enough investors ask: How exactly do property managers make money? That answer can vary widely, so I'll leave that to the pm's in this space to tackle, but you can bet that these three items will be there: lease-ups, "fees", and repairs, repairs, repairs! What ends up being a trend in most pm horror stories is transparency. We look at a property and assume what it would cost to maintain/rent it, and for us as investors, those costs are as low as we can get them. I do not believe that property management companies see this in the same light. If we can agree that property management is a business, and that businesses exist to make money, allow me this example: If a repair in your property costs you $100 to fix, for the sake of business, why would the pm ONLY charge you $100 to fix it? There's has to be some kind of a markup or else their business doesn't survive.
The stink on pm's everywhere is that since everyone knows that they have to make money to survive, a lot of people are skeptical that their money and trust will be burned by pm's who want to eat away at their NOI with a seemingly endless array of fees and repairs. There's a ton of merit in that stigma, but I also believe that in the long run, you get what you pay for. Would you cheap out on your lawyer? Your CPA? I think we all just nodded our head no there. So if you're out of your investment area (like me), vet your potential pm as thoroughly as you would any other key part of your business. While there's a chance you'll pay a bit more, I'm sure the peace of mind will be worth it.
I use Reedy and Company for my property management in Memphis. @James Wachob would be the man to hit up to get you set up there. Those guys have a pretty high standard, and they manage to that standard without exception. I've heard good things about CrestCore as well. Them and Reedy seem to be the go-to options in town.
If I'm off anywhere, feel free to set me straight. Sorry for the rant guys, Happy New Year!
Orange, CA · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 17 votes
9y
A few of my colleagues have purchased property from Reedy and @James Wachob and are very happy. One colleagues has 8 properties with Reedy and is satisfied thus far with the service. I went to Memphis last June and met with Jim Reedy and @James Wachob . Thoroughly enjoyed the time spent and the information they provided. Very nice folks....
vent your PM's... talk to them, meet them, find out their process and their fee structures then decide which one you want to go with. Depending on the area of your rentals, some of them may not take you on as a client.
Crestcore, Memphis Turnkey (CB Properties), Reedy, Premier which is part of Memphis Invest, MidSouth Home buyer.
Real Estate Professional · Memphis, TN · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
@Steven Mitchell I am a PM and would be interested in helping. There are a lot of good ones, but more terrible. There are 2 core things that I made the culture of our business. That is communication and transparency. I learned from talking to investors around the country who own out of state properties, regardless of the market they are in, that is all they want. Every week in our Monday meeting, I remind my team to return all emails and all calls to investors and tenants before going home. As for transparency, we use before and after pictures of every photo, we do not create our own maintenance invoices, rather we post post vendor invoice and since most use our HD account, we post the material receipt. Our PM agreement is very clear of the charges. I created an Account Manager model so that our investors have 1 primary contact. The one primary contact is great for creating relationships between PM and the investor. I will not go into details of the compensation package we offer our employees where they make more money when the investor makes more money....I can't give away my entire business model online. :)
I pretty much just gave the recipe for success in Property Management.