All Forum Posts by: Andrew Fingado

@J. Martin Hey thanks for the quick reply, and no worries about the email. I may have entered it wrong or something. Anyways, looking forward to connecting with you in the future and hopefully see you at one of the meetings I have been hearing about.

@J Martin Thanks for the help, I was a bit confused about how to do that.

I see you are from Richmond as well. Small world, huh? I tried emailing you a while back before I was a member as I am trying to network with people around my area (I was a lurker before I joined). But we never seemed to touch base.

If you ever find a good income property in this area that I might be interested in investing in...or need some property managed, let me know.

Right now cash flow seems to be extremely difficult to find in most parts of the bay area.

@Erik K, thanks so much for the welcome! When and where do these meet-ups occur? I'd be very interested in attending. I'll also try and reach out to @J Martin, sounds like he would be a great person to talk to about local Real Estate issues.

@Evan R, hello and nice to meet you. Thanks for the warm welcome as well. What I hope to get out of this community is to connect with some local investors and brokers, and learn as much information about investments as possible as I am always on the look out for an income property. In addition, I would enjoy talking with other property managers to see exactly what works for them. There are always scenarios in which a property manager hasn't encountered yet but some other manager has a story about how he solved it. Anything to increase my real estate IQ is a good thing, and from what I have seen this website is like the real estate bible.

I see you are from Oakland too. Are you an investor? How did you find your way here?

I am a property manager and Real Estate Broker here in the SF Bay Area. I live on the other side of the bridge (near Oakland), and I would personally stay away from SF. As you know, it is a rent controlled city. Although you have made money there in the past (as so many others have), I always think its best to stay away from rent controlled cities. I manage a 15 unit building in Berkeley with 3 rent controlled tenants costing the owner 30K a year in lost revenue. I know it probably hasn't affected your properties that much, since you did make a good profit on prior buildings, but it only takes a few to throw a wrench into your cash flow. I just wouldn't take the risk. Plus if one ever starts making trouble, rent control laws give tenants special rights not seen in most cities which can make it very hard to evict them. I am not as familiar with SF rent control as I am in Berkeley, but let me tell you....I have seen it firsthand, and its a pain in the you know where.

As far as cash flow goes, Real Estate prices have skyrocketed recently here in Northern California. The numbers certainly don't work in SF right now. I would either wait it out or look in the Sacramento region. What I have seen recently in multifamily housing in Sacramento and central Contra Costa County, you are looking at around 1% (one months gross rent equals 1% of purchase price). For Northern California, its not bad, but not great either. People around here typically get rich from appreciation, not cash flow. However there are always exceptions to the rule if you can find a deal.

Hello, I own my own Property Management company and currently I use Landlord Max. What appealed to me about it was it was a one time fee (something like $100). I also use Quicken Deluxe for accounting in addition to Landlord Max.

I cannot speak for Quicken Property Manager as I have never used it but if you go to Amazon you will see it has a lot of complaints. Apparently it is pretty bare bones too and comes with a host of issues (freezes and what not). I think the biggest question here is: how much property do you own? Right now Quicken/LandlordMax is enough for my portfolio. However as my company expands I am looking to start an internet based software system. I did the free trial with Bildium and was quite impressed. They are also by far the cheapest out of all the online property management software.

Greetings,

I am excited to join the Bigger Pockets community. I am a property manager and owner of a property management company here in Richmond, a city in the SF East Bay Area. I am looking forward to networking with local property owners and investors, other property managers, or just anyone interested in talking Real Estate.

I started out as a teenager working for my father, who is an experienced Real Estate investor and owns a number of single family homes and apartment buildings here in the bay area. I started doing grunt work, such as prepping apartments before tenants moved in. I moved on to being a bookkeeper, then assistant manager, and finally senior property manager. After graduating from college and getting my Brokers license, I took over his entire real estate portfolio and expanded to offer services to others outside my family. So, I have seen every aspect of the business and feel extremely thankful to have a family who has let me "learn the ropes" from bottom to top.

What I most enjoy about property management is being able to change a property owners attitude about the business. With some owners having past negative experiences with other management companies, I pride myself in being prompt, professional, and always enthusiastic in a business that needs a breath of fresh air! As a young Real Estate broker (26 years old), I like to think there is a new wave of property managers taking over with a better level of technological expertise and business strategies that will help change the face of the business.

Although I am not a Real Estate investor myself (yet), I am always interested if the right deal comes my way.

Looking forward to being a member!