I recently bought my third rental property. The other two are currently managed by my PM. My wife and I want to attempt to manage this one by ourselves. Personally, I want to hand it off to my PM but she really wants to gain the experience of managing on her own. This is an out of state deal. Parents live in the state where this house is located. I have a reliable HVAC and plumber. The house is in good standing condition. I wanted to write a post to get some suggestions or advice before attempted to self manage. I’m using Zillow to advertise as well as running a background check. Using Cozi for collecting rent. My lease I bought from BP. What are some rookie mistakes that are made and how can I prevent them?
Thank you,
Find out what online platforms work best in that area for advertizing. It differs between towns.
Make sure you know the local tenancy laws and see if there is a standard lease you can download and modify.
Trust, but verify when it comes to tenants. Many are good, but a few will try to take advantage of you.
Hi Cara,
Going through policies, you brought up many great points of things to include in the listing. Is there a breed of dogs that you will absolutely not accept and if so, how do you proceed with notifying/denying a tenant? I also made sure to include that a minimum credit score of 600 is a must.
Love the Tenant binder idea. Never crossed my mind. I think that's huge and will also reduce the numbers of times my phone will ring. I definitely need an all around handyman. This is something I'll need to work on asap.
A problem I find while advertising on Zillow is that when potential Tenants apply for my listing, they apparently pay a $30 fee for using Zillow. This allows them to apply to as many properties as they want within a 30 day period. If I use Cozy.co for the background and credit check, then they'll need to pay the $40 in order to run those reports. So i'm think of keeping Zillow to find a Tenant but also list the property on Cozy.co and run all managment through Cozy.co. What are you thoughts? Why would I want to have Tenants who uses Zillow more now to use Cozy.co. Seems like they'll just ignore the listed due to the added expense UNLESS they're really interested in the property. Does that make any sense?
Hi @Nadir M.!
Brandon Turners, "Book on Managing Rental Properties" is filled with helpful information and I'd highly recommend it.
I'm sure you might know this but BiggerPockets has a landlord resources tab. You can find the landlord resources tab by hovering over the "tools" bar and clicking "Landlord Resources". Some of the companies on the resources page offer free forms and other resources for landlords. Some of these resources might make self managing easier for you!
Best of luck! :)
You may decide to rent to someone with Section 8. I made a playlist on Youtube which is basically how I trained my staff on just how to work with Section 8 successfully. Search for Section 8 Secrets Revealed. I have tips in there too on phone screening and running someone's background. These tips work whether your tenant has Section 8 or not. Best of luck!
@Monique Burns learn your state and city’s landlord tenant laws. Not being familiar with them is the quickest way to land you in a mess.
Hi Cara,
Going through policies, you brought up many great points of things to include in the listing. Is there a breed of dogs that you will absolutely not accept and if so, how do you proceed with notifying/denying a tenant? I also made sure to include that a minimum credit score of 600 is a must.
Love the Tenant binder idea. Never crossed my mind. I think that's huge and will also reduce the numbers of times my phone will ring. I definitely need an all around handyman. This is something I'll need to work on asap.
A problem I find while advertising on Zillow is that when potential Tenants apply for my listing, they apparently pay a $30 fee for using Zillow. This allows them to apply to as many properties as they want within a 30 day period. If I use Cozy.co for the background and credit check, then they'll need to pay the $40 in order to run those reports. So i'm think of keeping Zillow to find a Tenant but also list the property on Cozy.co and run all managment through Cozy.co. What are you thoughts? Why would I want to have Tenants who uses Zillow more now to use Cozy.co. Seems like they'll just ignore the listed due to the added expense UNLESS they're really interested in the property. Does that make any sense?
You are correct each platform charges for app/screening. The tenant can use their app/screening the same way on cozy. They can pay for it once and send it to anyone on cozy who they want to consider them. Since it’s free to post your rental listing, there’s no harm to you to have it on both platforms. The Tenant’s looking on Zillow will use that app. The Tenant’s on Cozy will use that app (and my guess is those will be stronger tenant apps).
Consider Redfin as well. That is a growing platform with some good traffic to it.
@Cara Lonsdale
In regards to Redfin, I didn’t use that site specifically but I did sign-up with Turbotenant and that site advertises my listing on Redfin by default. I feel like I’ve advertised as best as I can utilizing all possible sites. I will ultimately use Cozy.co when I find a tenant and set up payments etc. I don’t expect much action being a holiday week and this time of year. Will stay optimistic and see what happens.
@MikeMcCarthy Did you mean to @ Nadir M, not me? I agree with you fully about knowing your state's laws. Each state is a little different. Different states have their own Fair Housing add-ons too.