All Forum Posts by: Allison Park

I am just starting my investment journey, so have only used Real Estate Agents to assist with buying and selling my primary residence. In those cases, the compensation % for seller and buyers agents was set and I signed a 6 month commitment. What is the current status quo for Real Estate Agents for investors in terms of compensation and contracts. I don't want to sign an agreement with any one agent because I would be looking for which ever agent could bring me the property fitting my requirements. I am completely capable of searching with Zillow, so I would be looking for deals that are not in MLS or coming soon and ~10% below market or so. Also, I would not be on a particular timeline to buy something, would wait until I really liked a deal that fit my strategy. Also, I am hearing that recent legislation has affected buyers agent commissions. How does that affect things?

What are the pros and cons of a Single Family Homes vs a Townhouse for rentals. Seems like a lot of folks prefer SFH, but I bought a Townhouse because it seems like it is easier to maintain (HOA covers external, landscaping, and neighborhood amenities).

I thought with using a regular agent I would be able to get a higher price for my house, but I did not, so really the only major difference was the staging and I don't think that really helped.  I would be fine with non-licensed door openers who were background checked.  I will most likely always do discount brokers going forward or for sale by owner.

 I had a lot of tire kickers with my recent sale and I had full service agent fee of 6%.  

I have done this before, there was a flat fee of $3K and they did pictures, open house, listed on MLS, and went over the offers with me. No staging. It worked great, I had 2 offers from the open house. This was back in 2019 when the market was hot. I would definitely consider discount broker next time since I am pretty familiar with the selling process now.

I just did an analysis of 5 PM Software Tools for DIY Landlords under $20/mo. I was not able to find any recent comparisons in the last year and since features and pricing change over time, wanted to share my research.  The analysis is targeted to small time DIY landlords with 1-5 properties with minimum requirements to be able to do the following tasks online:  Listing/Syndication, Applications, Screenings, Leases with eSignature, Payment Customization (i.e. Recurring, Single Time Fees, Late Fees) and Tax Support (export financials for tax reporting).

Summary:
Inaggo is the only completely free option that meets the requirements. The only drawback was it did not list/syndicate to as many sites. Standout feature include the ability to completely customize a lease with fillable fields and eSign.
TurboTenant only provides eSign with the Premium version but it meets t$12.42/mo. Some impressive features including extensive listing/syndication and state specific guidance provided such as max security deposit.
RentRedi is a flat fee for the most part and has some cool features like pre-qualification and integration with QuickBooks. Requires you to upload a pdf lease from outside the tool for eSignature.
TenantCloud only had the Starter Plan under $20 and was a bit difficult to determine what was included. The 14 day trial requires your credit card information. Major drawback was the starter plan did not allow you to customize a lease.
Avail had very basic functionality and was missing features such as income verification.

They all require a fee for ACH and Credit/Debit, but Inaggo and TurboTenant allow for offline payments such as Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle.  Based on research it appears Zelle is the only option that does not have a transaction fee for landlords.

I did not include maintenance as a category since this can be done easily in a spreadsheet, but all of the options actually had pretty good maintenance and expense tracking.

For Tax Support, all of the tools met the minimum for being able to export the financial information. 

@Nathan Gesner Thanks very much for the information...I never would have thought to check on Etsy.  The biggest advantage of a software for me is they allow online forms and esign.  I want to be able to do everything online since I value my time.  Other than that I would be fine with a spreadsheet to start.  I am already doing an analysis...will share it with the community when I complete it.

I am looking to rent out a single property in the next 6 months and wanted to get recommendations on a property management software for small time DIY.  The Top 5 in my search so far based on minimum requirements. 

TenantCloud: https://www.tenantcloud.com/
Inaggo: https://innago.com/
RentRedi: https://rentredi.com/
TurboTenant: https:/turbotenant.com/
Avail (Realtor.com): https://www.avail.co/

Minimum requirements:
-Low (<$20/mo) or No Cost
-Listing/Syndication
-Background Check (Credit, Criminal, Eviction, Income)
-Application and Lease with eSign
-Automated Payments (prefer an option without fees)
-Easy to export financials for tax purposes

Questions:
1. Are there any software options that I am leaving out that I should look at? Any major pros/cons for the ones listed?
2. Are there any other min requirements that I should include?
3. It seems like they all want to charge for ACH and Credit Card Payments.  I would prefer to have a free options.  Thoughts on this?
4. It seems like most are tailored to long-term rentals. Are there any that allow you to convert to short-term?

@Greg P. 

I am in a similar situation with corporate job, looking to diversify into real estate. End goal is a bit different though since I am looking to supplement retirement income with cashflow which is 20-25 years out. I am also looking for low time commitment and of course maximize cashflow. I bought my first property, a new construction townhouse. Benefit of new construction is that there is usually a 1-year warranty from the builder and you will have very low maintenance costs for the first 10 years on the property. The HOA fee takes care of external up-keep and maintenance so you don't have to worry that the tenant isn't taking care of it. I was also able to get a special rate from the builder at 4.5%. It's a 7-Yr ARM, but I am comfortable taking the risk since I could just pay it off if the interest rates are really unfavorable, otherwise will refi into a fixed. To maximize cashflow, I looked in my local area (on Zillow) to find favorable Rent to House Price ratios. Usually these are trendier areas with nice houses and amenities close by. You can also search vacancy rates to see how strong the rental market is. Price was $360, put $100K down, cashflow is about $180/mo and equity is about $325/mo. Planning on 3-5% rental increases. I am planning to rent it in late spring/early summer. You might consider buying this winter since houses are on the market 60-90 days right now and you have a good negotiating position.

One positive on the higher interest rate is that you can deduct the interest and lower your taxes.

Thank you, appreciate it!  This was my first house sale, so I probably should have asked for the advice earlier :)