All Forum Posts by: Allen Tracy

Yeah that makes sense @Tim Jacob

Finding a good contractor in Columbus will be the most challenging part of investing there.  I've seen quite a few investors asking for recommendations without any good leads.  I need to make some more effort into finding a good one myself, so far I haven't had any luck.  The property management company I use has their own but they're SUPER slow to get anything done that isn't an emergency (I've been waiting three months to get a fence fixed) and the management company charges 10% to manage it.  If you end up finding someone that you really like working with please come back here and post or message me :)  I'll make sure to do the same.

The property manager has been pretty good and did disclose the fee ahead of time.  I guess I didn't think about the fact they'd be charging the fee for everything like lawn mowing, paying utility bills on vacant units, and basically anything they do that is not collecting rent.

@Patricia Steiner that's $55/month.  They also keep first month's rent for securing a new tenant so that should more than cover getting new tenants into a unit especially since they charge a rental application fee.  The $55/month should cover collecting rent.  I don't mind at all paying them the $55/month minimum and 7% above that is very fair.  I just want to know what others have experienced.

My property manager charges 10% markup fee for all service calls.  So a $250 plumbing call turns into a $275 call.  Does that sound crazy or normal?  I already pay them a management fee, you'd think that would be included in that but maybe I'm wrong?  I pay 7% management fee or $55 a door whichever is higher so my lower income/rental properties are actually at around 10-11% management fee.  I would love to know your thoughts.

That's awesome @James Hamling, great advice.  Some day I'd love to be at that level.  I was on a construction crew framing a duplex when I was 20 and continue to love building things so I think I'd also enjoy knowing all of the details and numbers myself.  Eventually I'd love to be able to talk contractor lingo, be able to check contractors work, and come up with creative rehab ideas that fit within my budget without having to rely on others to tell me what they think I need.

Thanks @James Hamling, that's awesome advice.  I don't need complete accuracy, ballpark is good enough for my first go around of estimates.  If I actually end up wanting to move forward then I will get real quotes.  I'm just trying to make sure I'm not wasting contractor time quoting things I'm just thinking about doing or plan on doing down the road.  

Thanks @Alyssa Dyer.  It probably wouldn't be specific to Columbus but I have OKC on my list of places to look into so I'd love to get a copy of that.  I'll message you with my e-mail address.

Thanks @Jeffrey Stasz but I'm out of state so I can't attend meetings.  I also have cost books but I'm looking for real world costs from those actually getting work done in Columbus.  It's turning out more difficult than I thought to get actual Columbus numbers from people so I may end up having to use the estimates from my cost books and just build my own cheat sheet as I get work done myself.  Hopefully once I have something built I will be able to share it with others investing in Columbus.

I feel your pain with trying to afford something in your local area.  I live in Los Angeles and purchased two duplexes in Columbus earlier this year.  @Remington Lyman helped guide me to the areas to invest in and gave me a list of people to help build my out of state team.  There's plenty of those 2-4 unit turnkeys that pop up for sale in Columbus.  They're normally investors that are either flipping a property or they've owned it for a long time and want to rehab it before they sell it so they can get more money.  The cashflow on those will be a lot less but they're much safer purchases since most of the work has already been done and you don't have to worry about running into problems during a rehab.  Columbus is very tough to find good contractors.

The two duplexes I purchased each had one side rehabbed and the other side still needed work but was rented with a tenant.  That way I could start cashflowing right away but had the opportunity to rehab the second side to add value later on.  There are plenty of properties in Columbus where both sides need light cosmetic work so you can still add value.

It's a very competitive market though.  I made 23 offers on 13 different properties before figuring out what it took to win one and landing my first purchase.  Both purchases were cash right at or above asking price.  Good luck on your journey!