All Forum Posts by: Austin F.

I would start requiring the tenants to mow. At 35 per cut you could even consider including the mower if you think it would be a barrier for tenants.

Duplexes I have the downstairs unit responsible for lawn care.

Or seek to lower the administrative time and quit requiring verification. If you're contracted with a company that has a name on the door of their truck a few check ins at the beginning of the contract, then put it on auto pay and wait for any complaints. 

It sounds like you have a clear idea what will be required of you, and that is half the battle.

Treat this like a job, spend a lot of time here on the forums reading about things like tenant screening, draw up your own minimum requirements and stick to them.

Youtube stuff like how to fix a leaky toilet, how to reset a circuit breaker, easy common issues are what will suck money out of you. 

Be ready for calls at odd times wanting odd things. I've found that as I've greatly expanded my knowledge of basic household maintenance, and knowledge of my properties I've been able to avoid many maintenance calls by coaching a tenant through how to do small things like unclogging a garbage disposal. They often don't live the idea at first, but everyone has at least attempted after I say "We can try to fix this over the phone, or I can come out and take a look at it bit that will cost xxx"

As your knowledge and systems get better the amount of time you spend should become less. I have double the units that I used to, and currently spend half as much time managing them. 

To answer some of your specific questions:

Listings: go on Zillow and see how like properties are advertised, copy them. I have a Google drive link with an annoying amount of pictures and some walk through video that I send everyone who asks for more pictures. My goal is to do as few walk throughs as possible.

Rent collection: I use Venmo and Venmo only. Collecting rent on a personal account is against their terms of service, make your own judgement call here.

Turnover: I always ask myself "Would I move into this unit and be happy?" Cleaning carpets and scrubbing things is par for the course. You can hire this out if needed.

Fears: Screen well and avoid most of these issues.

Whats your cash flow? Does the fence add value? 

I recently tore down a fence at one of my properties, sunk in new posts, then went to buy pickets and was blown away by the costs. Figured I would just put off replacement until next year when lumber prices fell.

Neighbor saw me packing up my tools and asked what the deal was. When I told her she wrote me a check for half the lumber on the spot.

It seems wide open and open to abuse, but I certainly feel like a 1 to 4 week window for anything is UN-reasonable, and I believe anyone would agree with that

Most of my portfolio is student rentals. I've found the best way to price out a room is to go through the motions of trying to rent one yourself.

Go online to whatever site, send some emails, keep digging, find the local hot rental page (college towns have one, and it isn't Zillow, my town is a Facebook group).

Once you have a handle on the different listing sites you'll probably have a handle on quality level, price, demand, all that. Build your model from there.

In my college town listing sites are key to attract different renters. My nice stuff goes on Zillow, rooms on the Facebook group, and the big student houses on the college's housing list.

As far as screening college kids, I've stopped doing background and credit checks, they usually don't have any, and it isn't worth my $40 (I pay for screening if they sign a lease) to find out their RA and their parents are their only references.

I list early (4 months ideally) and that weeds out most of the riff raff, then I check their Facebook and Instagram if I can find it, you can learn most of what you'd want to know from that.

Theres a lot more, but college kids are fun, just have to keep your sense of humor about it. (I know that window didn't break on Sunday morning while you were all studying).

Good luck!

Drive by again in a week, if it's still broken go change the furnace filter. 

Looking at a deal there, the numbers look good, but I'm not local so I'd love to double check them and make sure no local considerations change anything.

Deal basics are sell for 45k, rehab max of 10k, ARV 75k. Its a 3/1 duplex downtown, haven't found many comps in the area that are as nice as I typically do my flips, so I'm hoping I can slide the ARV up a bit.

Shoot me a message and lets chat.

No harm in listing it before it's done, it generates interest that you otherwise wouldn't have had. I've found if you tell people  you're renovating  they're more interested in the physical space rather than the shape the property is in during renovations (are the bedrooms big enough, what does the kitchen look like etc). I also like to have most of the choices made by then so I can say "this flooring will be going in those rooms" etc. Worst they can say is no, and if they do say no you probably wouldn't have gotten them by waiting.

I don't post during renovation pictures, and I do remove all during renovation adds, and post post-renovation adds immediately upon completion. 

 Thanks Joel! This is a good idea, and opens up a dialogue with the seller that is often hard to get when you're dealing with an agent. Plus offering the seller a smaller more manageable piece of the selling price to finance may be easier for them to agree to.

Thank you Christopher! That's the answer I was looking for.