All Forum Posts by: AnnMarie Bacchus

@AnnMarie Bacchus

Put it another way, what are you tracking?  While certainly its "always nice" to have a full blown or even partial program, its not always necessary.  If its just your Property Manager's number, just program it into your phone.  Who else would you need to track?  Maybe you have a real estate agent and lender?  Its only a few numbers.

I self manage my rentals and I've just used my phone and jotted their numbers down on my spreadsheet corresponding to the property.  In the old days, I would put an "w" in front of their name so all the rental contacts would be in the same place.  Nowadays, at least with an iphone, you can put a note in the contact which will be pulled up when you search your list, e.g. "rental."

One needs a CRM, or any other tool, depending on your level of organization / sophistication.  Lets face it, some 10 or even 20 numbers you could just write it down on a piece of paper or an old fashioned addressbook...

You mentioned:  "I'm assuming PM collect the payments, manages the lease, track tenant activities etc."  All of those activities wouldn't be in a "traditional" Customer Relationship Management tool anyway.  For those activities, it really depends on how organizaed you are.  I know some people like what I am going to describe as "whiz-bang" webtools.  You could save yourself lots of headache just be starting a small notebook, to pick a somewhat extreme example (i just use spreadsheets).

Your profile says you are starting out.  So, I am figuring you do NOT have dozens of units.  other than rent collections, you really shouldn't have many recurring entries at all.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.

@AnnMarie Bacchus - CRM to do what exactly? Collect payments? Then yes that makes sense. 

CRM to track a lot of tenants, when leases are ending, etc. makes sense depending on how many tenants you have total. 

I use apartments(.)com

I’ve created my CRM using Podio by Citrix. It captures all my lead sources and catalogs them based on their origins. 
I send out drip campaigns and also auto pull property vitals, financials and current owner info based on my integrations. This makes a good platform for a VA(s) to cold call potential leads. When I started, I was just using it to collect contacts. Now it's evolved into a fully functional system. Let me know if you would like for me to show it to you.

Patrick  

One of my first investments when I started 18 years ago was to invest in a scalable , versatile CRM. Haven’t looked back since. It’s been my foundational platform. 

Congrats on getting started in investing! You'll want to make sure you do your research in the local market, find an agent that works with investors, and put together a team of contractors or find a local GC. 

That's awesome!  If you do decide to invest the in the Cleveland market, I can definitely send you some good referrals for agents, contractors, lenders, property managers and brokers in the area that I've had great experiences with!  Best of luck, I already know you'll do great!

Quote from @AnnMarie Bacchus:

I need some BRRRR advice !

I live in Miami so starting to invest in properties that are local will not be the best move. I read into BRRRR in Ohio. What should I know before I start investing out-of-state? BTW I have 0 experience

Hi AnnMarie, I personally love Columbus Ohio and as someone who works with a lot of out of state investors - there's so many catalysts for why you should invest here. Specifically, there's job growth (Intel, Honda, Amazon, Nationwide, etc) and the population is growing (unlike Cleveland or Cincy). I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years. Plus, there's still so many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here in Columbus Ohio. Just this month, I’ve gotten under contract for my clients for multiple 20%+ cash on cash rental properties so there’s definitely tons of opportunity here. As a local investor and agent here in Columbus, let me know if you have any questions or want to connect!

Seconded to North Coast Commercial Group. Just did a deal funded with them and they were easy to work with.