All Forum Posts by: Alberto Nikodimov

Hi @Benton Shortridge,

I agree with everything that Tyler said. I would also like to add couple of things. It seems like there are 4 ways to househack in Central Florida and Orlando right now:

1) Buys MF live in unit and rent the others.
2) Buy a single family home and rent out the rooms individually.
3) Buy a single family home with a mother-in-law suite and rent the additional space.
4) Buy any of the above and do Short term rentals (Airbnb) with the additional space if legally allowed.

I know people implementing each of these tactics and some of them have also worked for me. With that being said I also know many people who implemented those strategies and things did not work out because they did not consider all moving pieces.
Your success of failure will depend on how well you handle the investment, your preferences and personalities.

Here are things to consider before implementing one of the strategies:
1) Are you willing to share spaces? Each of this strategies requires you to share either your backyard, living space and some times even bathrooms. Based on your level of comfort you will have to pick an approach that suites you.
2) Is your partner/girlfriend/wife willing to share spaces with other people? Believe it or not this is one of the most common factors for failure in my experience. I helped couple of college students to setup a house-hack and everything was going great for few years until their girlfriends moved in with them and they were not willing to compromise.
3) Do you have exit strategies in case things don't work out?
4) Are you planning to provide cleaning for the common areas? Cleaning issues are the most common cause of conflicts between roommates. I highly recommend investing in that. You will have happier tenants who will pay more because you provide that service and most importantly you will avoid conflicts and reduce vacancy.
5) Are you willing to deal with multiple tenants? Having 3-4 tenants and living with them is NOT easy and it is definitely not for everyone.

I just realized I can keep going with that list for hours! I will be happy to connect with anyone who is interested in house-hacking, share my experience and even help set it up.

Hope this is helpful!

Thank you @Vessi Kapoulian

@Elias Kaplan I will be happy to connect and share some knowledge. I started my RE journey and Property Management in Miami. I'm currently based in Orlando and I also have experience in other out of state markets!

I appreciate it @Santiago Marquez! 

After 15 years of experience in property management in Orlando and Central Florida our team has settled on the following conclusion:

There are two types of investors and two types of property management companies, and they attract one another.

The goal of this post is to hear the opinion of BP investors who are using property management companies. Specifically, seasoned and successful investors with multiple properties handled by a PM company.

Which of the two types of investors are you?

What type of property company are you partnering with?

Do you believe the above is correct based on your experience?

Part of my role is helping new investors/owners understand our product and decide if we are a good fit for their property management needs. Over the years I realized that no matter what the investors needs are or how many properties they own, at the end of the day there are only two types of property owners/investors. Correspondingly, there are two types of property management companies.

1st Type Property Management Company:

• · Poor customer service on both owner’s and tenant’s side.
• · Lack of communication (Getting them on the phone feels like winning the lottery).
• · Dishonest.
• · Lower Fees on the front end when signing up for services. Owners later discover a multiple hidden fees they were not expecting.
• · Overcharging for repairs and pocketing the difference (Markups).
• · Cheap software if any. Often understaffed to maximize profit.
• · Horrific experience on the tenant’s side.
• · Part timers or side hustle instead of a professionally operated business.
• · Neglect maintenance which leads to bigger and more expensive repairs down the road. Therefore, damaging the investment by not performing regular maintenance.
• · Trying to find things to do/charge for when there is no need in order to create additional income.
  
• · Long term agreements – trying to make as much money possible of the home while have it locked under contract
• · Subcontracting!! Does this surprise you? Yes, this is not something uncommon. There are "Property managers" who sign up owners for their services and then subcontract a cheaper company and keep the difference.
  
  

2nd type of Property Management company:

• · Honest, Transparent & Trustworthy.
• · Clear fees disclosed upfront. No hidden fees, up-charging or unpleasant surprises.
• · Looking for long term relationships with owners and helping them grow their portfolio.
• · Great softwares, accounting and bookkeeping which better the experience for all sides.
• · Always having owner’s best interest in mind.
• · Provide premium service which usually comes at a higher price.
• · Great reviews on all platforms, mostly from property owners.
• · Great reputation & highly recommended by realtors and other local professionals.
• · Always answer the phone in good and bad times.
• · Regular inspections and maintenance which save investors money and prolong the life of AC, appliances, water heaters etc.
• · Using great vendors who only go out once, complete the job and guarantee that if anything goes wrong, they will be back to fix it.
  · Better rates from vendors because they have large volume of work for them and get special treatment.
• · Quick turns when property becomes vacant, quality work at reasonable rates.
• · Saving money for their investors.
• · Providing great experience for tenants and realizing that a happy tenant is the key for a successful investment.
• · Help plan repairs and keep you updated on upcoming repairs in the near future.
• · Willing to admit they made a mistake and correct it.
• · MOST IMPORTANTLY - Manage the investment not just the property – maintain the asset in optimal condition, constantly increase cashflow, limit liability and avoid issues with the investment.
  
  1st Type of Owners/Investors:
  
  
• · Appreciate the work done by their property management team.
• · Pleasant to work with.
• · Treat the relationship as a partnership.
• · Extremely diligent in their initial search for property management companies. Often ask a lot of questions in the beginning until they understand the values and processes of the company. Once they feel comfortable they let go and trusting their team to do their job.
• · Conservative with their numbers. Account for PM charges, repairs, and vacancy.
• · Happy to pay premium for premium service.
• · Not micromanaging.
• · Have reserves and plan for big ticket future repairs.
• · Base their choice of Property Management Company the experience & expertise and services rather than price.
  
  2nd Type of Owners/Investors:
  
  
• · ALWAYS GOING FOR THE CHEAPEST PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY.
• · They think they know it all.
• · Always want to do work on the property themselves even if they have no experience. Most of the time this ends up taking much longer than anticipated and costs them more in time, effort and vacancy than hiring a contractor.
• · Micromanaging.
• · Having troubles trusting their property manager. Most of the time with a good reason because they initially selected a bad property manager.
• · Never keeping enough reserves.
• · Always trying to get the cheapest contractor they can find who 95% of the time ends up doing a terrible job.
• · Not willing to take advice from his/hers property manager.
• · Never appreciative of the efforts of the Property Management Company.
• · Pointing fingers instead of taking responsibilities.
• · Negative, expecting bad things to happen to their investment properties and they usually do due to the poor management they have selected.
• · You will often see them jumping from one property management company to another while complaining about the entire industry. At the same time, not willing to pay premium for premium service and always end up going with another cheap and unreliable property management company.
  
  

The second type of investors are sometimes new investors who have not learned their lesson. Other times, they have had several bad experiences with property management companies due to prioritizing low prices and lack of research. In property management you get what you pay for.

A good analogy - If you have a health issue are you going with the cheapest doctor available or are you trying to find the best & most experienced specialist in town?

Good investors know how important it is to find a reliable and honest property management company which is competent enough to handle their property and ensure a profitable investment. At the end of the day a good property manager can make or break your investment.

Which of the two types of investors are you?

What type of property company are you partnering with?

Do you believe the above is correct based on your experience?

Thank you @Drew Sygit!

These types of posts don't necessarily get multiple clicks, comments and votes but they are truly helpful. I decided to invest the time and put this together. I hope at least one person would be able to see this on time and avoid being scammed. The person who called me was desperate to find a home for his pregnant wife and he was ready to pay "first and last month rent" on this property which was advertised for $2,400 a month.


We already reported to DBPR.

@Jeffrey Donis I found out who they were. The person actually sent me screen shots of their texts. I was able to confirm that they were actually two licensed real estate agents. This was the worse part. They are giving a horrible image to our industry. We reported them and hopefully this will stop them.

Yes, that's not a bad idea. My only concern are the MLS regulations. I don't think they allow watermarks.

I recently had a weird experience with Home Partners. I wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience as a realtor or as a tenant.

Here is the story:

I had a listing posted for sale and I received a call from a gentleman asking if I also have the property listed for rent. I said no and then he started questioning me. I felt like I was interrogated and the other party was very upset. After few minutes of convincing him that I'm not trying to scam anyone and I simply have an exclusive agreement to sell with the seller, he trusted me and started sharing his experience. He told me he was talking to two different realtors who had my listing advertised for rent on Zillow without disclosing the address. He reached out to one of them and he mentioned their criteria in order to get approved for the rental property. At that point he was not suspecting anything and he gave them all the info they requested. Then he proceeded asking to see the home. This is when things started getting weird. They told him he can drive by but he cannot see the home until his application is approved. They gave him the address and he agreed to drive by. Up until this point they are not mentioning anything about Home Partners. When he drove by the home he saw our For Sale Sign and felt that something is wrong and decided to call me.

The potential "Tenant" sent me screenshot of the entire conversation and also a recording of the call where he confronted them and asked if this is a scam. They then said this is not a scam but they will have to give him a call back. He was given the details of another person who eventually called him and started selling the Home Partners program. Meanwhile the zillow listing was deleted.

I looked up both of the people who were talking to him and they were both licensed agents in Florida. The listing on Zillow was actually listed under an agent. The phone numbers they were texting and calling from were also matching the ones listed on the MLS. I tried contacting them, left multiple messages and text and never heard back. I won't mention any names because I haven't heard their part of the story but I wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience.

I don't agree with the misleading, sneaky approach. Even if they are not doing anything illegal, they are definitely not very ethical.

Here is a quick summary of their actions:
- Using listing pictures and information without permission.
- Listing home for rent without agreement with the owner.
- Misleading a person who was rushing to find a rental property for his pregnant wife before her delivery.
- Not replying to my calls and messages to give explanation.

 

Recently I was contacted by a person in regards to one of my listings for sale. He said he is talking to someone else about the home and asked me if we also have it listed for rent with someone else. Because of my previous experiences in this industry I immediately understood that someone is trying to scam this person. He was rushing to move to Florida because he was starting a new job and his young family needed to find a place urgently. He was getting ready to send about $4,000 via Zelle to someone but luckily his gut feeling was telling him something is wrong. He sent me a Zillow link with my listing posted for rent and screenshots of the conversation. We reported the listing and saved this person a lot of money.

When you’re looking to find a new rental property, it’s important to know the signs of a possible scam. Recently, the high demand and lack of inventory has presented an opportunity for scam artists. They have been stealing rental listings, lowering the price and posting those fake ads online, especially on Craigslist, Facebook & Zillow, and posing as the landlord. They’ll price it attractively, remove the address and contact information, and wait for someone to message them through the site’s messaging portal.

The reality is that the rental market is very competitive. We are a property management company in Orlando and Central Florida and we get multiple rental applications on the majority of our properties even when pricing the homes high! The results is denied applications, disappointment and desperation from tenants to find a place where they can move in because they are being pressed by a deadline. We are getting tenants coming to showings with the move in funds and asking what they can do in order to have higher chances to get the house. This behavior is ideal for scammers!

Knowing the red flags of scams will decrease your chance of being a victim of a scam and possibly losing out on a lot of money.

Scammers can be identified a few different ways:

• - Using out of state numbers or Google Voice numbers. Scammers will hide behind a fake phone number. Google Voice numbers can be regenerated and once you’ve been scammed and catch on, the scammer will change their number and you won’t be able to contact them.

• - They won’t be local, familiar with the property or able to meet you at the property. They won’t know many specific details about the property and will sometimes just give you a code to enter the property yourself. Legitimate companies do use electronic lock boxes for convenient self-showing, but those systems often require you to register through a site and verify your identity before entering the property.

• - They ask you to send, wire or transfer money-will say things like “Disregard the Real Estate company information, we fired them and are leasing it ourselves”. It is best to just to double check with the real estate company before you get more involved. Try calling them to ask about the property and get more information to confirm.
  
  - Non traditional methods for payments could be requested like Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo etc.
  
  Here are few tips which can help you prevent a scam:
  
  - Check the public records of the property in your local county and see if the owner's name matches to the person you are talking to.
  
  - Ask if they have office and look up the business.
  
  - Check if the property is currently listed for rent or sale on multiple places by different people. If the answer is yes, try to identify who is a realtor because most likely, they have the real listing. Then contact this person and explain the situation. You can also look up their name and license in the public records of your state. Make sure the phone number you are texting or calling matches the one on the public records. Price differences in the different listings are a red flag.
  
  - Question the lease and other documents you receive from them. Most of the time they don't look very professional, there is no company logo and some of the things you agreed on are not reflected there.
  
  - Scammers never run a background check! If background or credit checks are not mentioned throughout the entire conversation, this is a big red flag.
  

Keep these things in mind and you won't fall prey to a scammer!

Have you or someone you know had any similar experiences? Share them here and help future tenants avoid the scams!

I completely agree with all of the above. I would like to add the following:

Ask the seller to offer cash for keys to the tenants rather than giving you a credit. This is another tactic we have used in the past. There is a form which they can fill in and send to the tenant for signature. If the resident agrees to vacate before a specific date he/she gets cash or money order for the amount you previously agreed on. This could save you a lot of issues down the road and you will get a vacant property. The tenant gets some cash which they can use for their next home and it's a win win situation for everyone.

At this point you will have to get creative and work with the seller and the tenants. I would encourage you to be pleasant to work with and accommodating without appearing as desperate to close the deal. You need to determine where you draw the line and if you are pass that point, you will just have to back out!

Good luck! I'm excited to hear a positive story about overcoming this challenge. Definitely a great experience for you!