All Forum Posts by: Alex Smith

There's a few services out there that you should look into. One of the more frequently mentioned ones are cozy.co. Zillow is also an option. 

It's possible that the tenant changed locks and didn't tell anyone. As a result, the PM doesn't have a key (the PM also could have misplaced it somehow), but that's something that they should be communicating with you. Now you're in the dark, and having to handle things yourself, which defeats the purpose of having a PM in the first place

Kirsten,

If you want someone local, talk to my guy @Jack Smith. He's a stand-up guy and the agency he works for is run the same way!

Definitely understand your hesitation. College students are hit or miss in terms of taking care of a rental. No rental history doesn't bother me as much. People have to start building a reputation some time. Thankfully, college students and people without rental history aren't a protected class, so if you don't feel comfortable, just pass on this particular person. 

Also, this person hasn't applied yet/isn't approved, so cutting ties at this point wouldn't be a big deal. 

Ryan,

To answer your first question, you'll want to check with your state's real estate commission. They'll provide the best answer. 

See if you can get on board with a Third Party PM that specializes in SFH and small multi families. Third party just means that the PM doesn't own any of the houses and manages them on behalf of individual owners. It would give you insight on what it's like to BE a PM, work with one, and would give you a lot of relevant experience that you can use when you decide to venture out on your own for your own houses.

I hope this helped. 

I agree with Nathan. As you get bigger and need more process, you'll want to look at spending money on a software like appfolio or propertyware. 

Matt P is right, it depends on what their lease says about smoking in the unit(s)

Curtis,

Like others have said, you can either increase gradually or rip off the bandaid. Depending on what you think the chances of them leaving are, you can always do an inspection to get an idea of how much work will need to be done if/when they move out. This will also tell you how "quality" they are and will get you to make a decision one way or another. 

It's always easiest to have tenants pay all utilities, unless there's a shared meter situation like Nathan mentioned

TN takes about a month to evict, start to finish