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Updated almost 2 years ago on . Most recent reply

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Brandon Dillard
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First Investment Property Advice

Brandon Dillard
Posted

Hey BiggerPockets!

I work in real estate financing as loan officer / mortgage broker.


I live in California and decided to buy my first investment property in September of 2022 in Kissimmee Fl. I had a buddy who had a rental near by there and had been reading and thinking about it for a year or so got pre approved and didn't pull the trigger but finally did. I put 25% on a conventional loan with United Wholesale Mortgage at a 6.875%.


The property was a Duplex 2 bed 2.5 bath on each side with a garage. Behind the both garages is a in law suit. I bought the house with one half full. So on one side the in law suite (separate door) and main 2 bed 2.5 bath was rented out. Total is 6 bedrooms, 6 full bathrooms, 2 half baths.

I finished renovating the other side, put in the in law suite a little bar, fridge, oven, cabinets, etc. This way I can rent out 4 units in stead of just using it as a duplex.

It now has the 2 main units and the 2 studio / efficiency units. The only bad part is I have to have the 2 studios / efficiency units under the same electrical and power. Long story short I did not due my proper due diligence property is zoned up to 10 units but HOA wont let you. So in order to make the PM broker happy I put the water and electricity in my name. because so much cash flow once rented I didn't mind.

Fast forward to today. The property is under a property manager that my buddy also uses.

The property now has 1 tenant. I had lots of issues PM missing drop offs from home depot more than once, the contractor or whoever she used to paint etc. was very slow.


I finished renovations on the one side. I had a leak in the garage and then I had a slab leak on the other side. One tenant moved out and flipped that side and re did. Listed the property then I had to do a  re-pipe on the entire property since it was original copper pipes from 1985 when house was built. It is now all fixed up. Figured better to do it now when it was mostly vacant rather than later or if it was rented and then something happened.

My PM is not the best and this whole post is on what I should do with her. She is responsive but not very and I am just so stressed paying the mortgage and renovations for this long. It was like the renovations took an ungodly amount of time which isn't necessarily her fault but it just seems like this is the most god awful experience. 

I'm bleeding cash and just want to get the place rented. The pictures and description are not great. I have asked her why she used the same pictures for both main units and to update the description. The company had pretty good reviews on most sites.

Looking back I probably would have not converted that last unit and just opted to get it rented as 3 units but just really need advice.


I'm also working on building my company / branch up so this stress is starting to affect my work life.

Really need help / advice on what I should do. Do I just try to rent it out myself? Do I hire another property management company? Really need to get this place in the green. Once I have it fully rented the cash flow will be $2,000 a month after PITI and PM expenses.

Most Popular Reply

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Justin Hammerle
  • Realtor
  • Providence, RI
262
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404
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Justin Hammerle
  • Realtor
  • Providence, RI
Replied

Yeah I would start speaking with some other property managers in the area.  As an out of state investor the worst thing you can have is an unreliable team managing your property.

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