All Forum Posts by: Adam Craig

Thanks for the reply. yes all my purchases are through my hard money lender and then refi so I guess I will have a hard time finding one. Someday I hope to get Bank financing again but for now thanks for staying away from me. Those were the good old days when I had less assets and less in comes but somehow less risky that I am now. :)

I have used LendingOne to refinance my last 5 deals using the BRRRR strategy. They have really been great to work with and have pretty decent closing costs and rates. But they have a 6 month seasoning period before I can refinance and we are rehabbing/renting houses in 2-3 months.

Has anyone used any non bank lenders to refinance they can recommend? 

 Robert -

I do understand what your saying but that is a very far fetched example and my guys who do important stuff like plumbing/hvac/electrical are licenced with insurance. The handymen maybe not so much. But we buy about 10 houses a year and we gut nearly every house so I have some pretty extensive experience managing contractors. I also have backups I can call if someone doesn't come through. And cheaper is not always better, but in my case it has saved me tens of thousands using the "cheaper" guy rather then the big name brand because I have negotiated down pricing in exchange for volume work. No way is my property management company going to compete with the wages I am willing to pay. Its true, I do deal with headaches now and again by using lower cost guys. But the tens of thousands I have saved is well worth the hic-up from time to time.

Brings me to my second point. When I let the PM manage the repairs, they essentially called a guy like me who manages a bunch of contractors and sets it up. So not only are they getting middle man pricing, the guy is essentially sending guys like mine and taking his cut. So when a work order comes in, its easy enough for me to pass along the tenants phone number to my HVAC guy who will set everything up and handle the repair. I still dont contact the tenant even though I manage the repairs so its pretty easy and doesnt take much time.

I am not sure why a property management company wouldn't let you handle your own maintenance requests. If a furnace goes and they send some big name HVAC company who wants $3500 to replace the furnace when I have guys that do it for $1600 how could I not handle those requests on my own. 

In my Cleveland market there are 3 major PM firms - I am with the second largest company in Cleveland and the biggest player has all kinds of issues according to 2 other investors I spoke with. I dont feel the smaller companies have enough systems in place to handle properties spread across the entire county based on what I hear from other investors. I have researched other firms and hear major complaints so I truly believe I have the lessor of all evils with my PM company.

And regarding the 32K a year - I dont feel I am getting 32K a year in service from them because I handle my own repair requests and have completely rehabbed properties they bring in high rents and rent quickly.

Thanks for the input all - I think my first step is to negotiate my fees with them, bringing up my concerns and offerings to manage certain areas. They are a pretty big company with 700+ units under management so I am not sure how much pull I have with 23 units.

If not I do like bringing in someone in house

I have 23 single family homes being management. The terms are pretty standard - 10% monthly rents - 1st months rent on new lease - $200 renewal.

Most of what they do is fine but they are not on top of tenants as much as I want and I am not sure anyone will care as much as I do about my business - which is understandable. Most of my issues with them is not getting properties ready and relisted quickly after tenant leaves and they dont post 3 day notices and are not aggressive enough with late tenants.

Here is why their job is easier then it could be.....

When a work order comes to my email I handle it every time. I used to let the PM handle it but they cost of sending their people is crazy compared to the people I send. So for the past year or so I have been sending my guys to handle all work orders. In addition to that, the last 12 or so properties I purchased have been completely rehabbed... kitchens/granite/baths. So most of my properties get a premium rent and rent quickly (1 week or less) because they are brand new which makes is easier for the PM.

The part of PM I dont care for and not too sure on is tenant screening/legal issues/collections/showings. I run a real estate business and a separate business I never intended to self manage. But I forked over $32K to them last year and that number keeps rising with additional properties. Would you recommend self managing? Or maybe I can negotiate a lower wage. Or maybe I can find someone do do the screening/collections/showings at a lower rate and I can handle the work orders?

I am not sure what to do but I feel like something needs done. 

Just bought this house which needs scrapped and painted. What color would mix well with this brick?