All Forum Posts by: Aaron Cooper

I have 6 properties and a total of 12 units.  It all depends on what kind of properties you have though.

To give you an idea a full time Property manager usually manages 50-70 on their own and that is considered to be a full time job...and it is. 

I think 90% of it is time.  It can be extremely time consuming especially when you get no shows. 

Best thing to do is have a very detailed phone screening and make sure they will qualify before you even show them the house.  This can save lots of time 

do not do it your self.  Unless it's perfect it will look bad.  I have had dozens professionaly done and they do great with tenants. 

It's one of those things that is better left to the pros...trust me. 

I use propertyware but it's not good for someone who has just a few rentals.  I would look at buildium,  I think they have a good program for smaller portfolios.  

With just 1 or 2 you can probably get away easily with Excel. 

in Florida I believe it's very similar.  Here you can pretty easily hire a broker to oversee "a real estate company" however an agent can't own the re company.  An llc can own the company that the agent may own.  If that is the same in NJ and you try that route, interview a lot of brokers who provide this service.  There are great ones and there are horrible ones that can get you in all kinds of trouble. 

Doing both is very difficult unless you have a lot of experience and even then is hard to pull off effectively.  To be successful and profitable in property managment you need to have a lot of properties because the margins are pretty thin and the accounting and software are fairly expensive if you only have a few homes.  

If you don't have proven experience as a manager then most brokers are not going to let you do both.  In Florida e&o insurance for a property management firm is about $600/yr so it really isn't that big of deal.  

Personally I would pick one or the other and spend my time building my own rental portfolio.

 How is a season rental defined as?  I am only familiar with short term and long term (6month and 1 day -12month). 

I am finishing the a renovation of my first vacation rental and I could use some advise. 

So BP Community could you give me your advice on How to Collect Security Deposits? Is there an easy way to collect them online or is mail in a check still the best way?  Also, where do you hold the deposits?  Do you set up a separate account for the deposits?

Does anyone have any advice on creating a website? template vs custom design?

Thanks!!

Thanks Jack.  I will check it out.

ac

 Thanks! I will check this out for sure!