All Forum Posts by: Adam Craig

I am in the beginning stages of ditching my PM. I have 26 single family homes. What is a good software? So far it seems like Buildium is a go to but I also like the reviews on Avail.

Most important things to me are online rent collections with little or no fees per transaction and being able to market properties that syndicate to all sites.

Thanks for the tips all! I am excited to get this going. Even though I am busy I tend to micromanage my PM anyway. I am going to be doing some research but is there a cheapish good software to use? I already use quickbooks for both my businesses so I am more interested in a software to help accept rent payments/post leases ect...

Would it make sense to look for and hire a real estate agent with experience in property management?

I am trying to figure out if I want to implement my own system and find my own software or hire someone who has there system in place.

I am looking to ditch my property manager in the near future. Looking to find something halfway between me 100% managing and a property manager.... 

My portfolios consists of 26 single family - most are fully rehabbed using the BRRR strategy so they rent quick. Right now they are managed by Howard Hanna Property management who I have been with from the start - 5 years + years. I never wanted to deal directly with showings/accounting/collections/evictions/legal so a PM was a good fit.

My business has changed over the years - its grown and expanded into flipping so I have multiple full time crews working daily. For that reason I dont have the PM handle any maintenance issues because my guys do much it cheaper. I also have my photographer take photos and I send the PM photos and a description for each new listing because they dont do a good job with either.

I have negotiated 8% of rents - They take 1st month rent on a new lease - no renewal fees. I now understand that my PM who will never care about my properties and tenants like I did. All in all she is pretty solid but I have a few gripes. I dont think they are worth the 36K I paid them last year.

At the very least I am considering marketing the properties on my own to save on the leasing fee. But eventually I think I can phase them out all together and find someone like my PM to manage them at a fraction of the cost.

I have 2 businesses so I am too busy to manage the whole thing. I would like to continue with repair requests and listings. What I dont want to do is showings/accounting/collections/evictions/legal.

Any ideas on a good route to take? And is there a go to PM software for something like this?

We listed a property at 137K. After we had the final city inspections it was determined that we needed to build a new garage because our fixes were not sufficient. So we let buyers know a brand new garage is being constructed.

Right after that we got a full price offer with a 2 week close because their home was selling and they were living out of a hotel. I told the buyers the garage might not be ready in time but we would escrow funds and write it in the contract.

We tore the old garage down and pored the pad. The builder wont be ready for 12 days....We are 5 days from close and the lender appraised the house for 134K  (3K shy of contract price) because he had to appraise it with no garage.

What are my options in order to get this deal done without walking away from 3K? The buyer needs to move in next week so I dont want to delay closing

Background - I have 20+ rentals and we rehab about 14 houses a year. Some flips some turn into rentals.

I have several crews working on multiple projects at all times. The big companies I used for things like windows/roofs always pull permits. But sometimes I run into issues when we need something simple done like installing a fence or fixing a sidewalk block and the city requires a permit. Many times I can slip this work by the city and all is good but so many times it has come back to bite me and certain cities are not happy lol.

Where is the best place to go to get bonded and insured so I can pull a permit now and then? And what trade would I say I am in - I dont actually do any of the work but it would be nice if my guys are building a fence and I can go pull the permit myself.

Please help choose exterior paint on difficult house. I know its a strange front entrance but budget does not allow me to move it so we are doing landscaping and painting.

I hate yellow but I cannot figure another color to go with all this orange brick/roof

We are about to start a flip with and the house has no garage. The city requires one and we bid accoirdingly. I am in the process of getting quotes from "garage builders". 

I know I might be paying a bit of a premium for the guy that takes is from start to finish - permits/pad/structure/roof/siding/electrical. Some quotes I received so far were 11K-15K for basic 20 x 20 2 car garage but I have more coming in.

Ive been told I can get it much cheaper if I call a lumber/building supply store and get a "garage kit" and have someone build it. Any thoughts on this? I was also thinking of getting the concrete pad done because I have a good priced concrete guy then getting quotes from there?

I like the idea of the guy that handles all of it but at what cost?