All Forum Posts by: Brandon M.

@Robert Musallam - I know having a Facebook page would likely help, but I really don't ever get on there. I don't even have a profile picture on mine, I just get tagged in all of my wife's photos, and I only go on there once every few months and can't take more than 2 minutes of status updates of who ate what for dinner or who did what workout......

I really should create a page and ask all of my friends (or just have her ask all of her friends) to like my page to get more publicity to my property. 

 You are correct about the paint, it could use a refreshing coat of paint. As for the do landscaping, there is a gully/ditch that runs between the back of the property and the MHP directly behind the park. There isn't a fence separating the two so I am okay with the weeds staying high, I don't really want the property to be accessible on foot to anyone from the MHP. 

The referral incentive is definitely something I am considering implementing. I can't really do any signage on 52 because I don't own that property, the owner of the strip center does. I can work with him on that, but I currently have to figure out how to work out with him the fact the previous owners agreed to pay him a certain amount for the big sign on the street and he claims they didn't pay their portion yet. I could just tell him I am not assuming any of their bills but I want him on my side and I need him to help me advertise my property (since his property sits between mine and being visible from the street). 

I have gotten my building on Google Maps, you wouldn't have been able to find it at all until last week, and have contacted some of those other sites. A lot of them want payment up front whether they bring you any traffic or not, I would rather just pay for the ones that do actually bring in business. The flyers/door hangers is one step I am definitely considering as well, especially marketing to the MHP right behind my property because it is so convenient. 

Recently acquired a small self storage building, your basic run of the mill self storage. On the lower end, no gate, no climate control, no office on location, just a block construction building with 42 garage doors. Property is not in a big town but gets 30k cars up and down the street each day, 1/4 mile from US19 which gets 50k cars a day. 7249 State Road 52, Hudson, FL 34667 is the address. 

The building sits directly behind a small strip center so it is not visible from the street, but the sign in front of the strip center does show my company name. Looking for thoughts on best/most effective marketing options to get the rest of my units leased up. Plan on doing a combination of: 

-Chamber of Commerce- costs $250 so possibly not.

- create a webpage for my company

-mailers/flyers/door hangers: directly behind my building is a MHP, I have considered hanging flyers on each door of the MHP and offering deals

-offering discounts to existing tenants if they refer new tenanty

-offering cash to businesses located in the strip center in front of my building

-Paying someone to stand on the street with a sign/banner offering deals

- pay per customer self storage advertising- I am looking into the cost of these now

-social media: I don't do much with Facebook/Twitter/other social media so I don't know how effective I could use these. 

Anyone else have any recommendations on what has worked best for them? 

Joshua, 

A few of the people have made some good recommendations, but I will suggest a few more. Of course continue to read everything you can, be heavily involved on here, read all of the forums and blogs you can on here. 

My next suggestion would be to seek out a job/internship with someone in your local area. A rehabber/flipper, something of the sort that does the type of work you are interested in. Could be paid, might be unpaid. You might be asked to do a lot of remedial tasks, but the point is you will be there involved in the business to glean as much information as possible. Formal education is important but you can't beat the real life "education" you will get from being fully immersed in the field. You will be amazed at the information you could learn by tagging along with an expert. 

Just look up rehabbers/flippers in your area and reach out to them. You will find one who would be glad to take on an intern to do some of their tasks for them. 

This could be done while in high school and through college as well. While in college, try to take any real estate classes you can get into, this will help teach you the basics. 

To follow up on what Joel said, to rectify the situation of the lease ending in Nov/Dec maybe look to get an 18 month lease signed when you do find a tenant, that way you can have the lease end in the summer months when more people are moving. 

Chris, 

I would suggest going for a 30 year loan to get the lower payments, but you could pay it down on your own 15 year term. That way you don't HAVE to make the higher payment if any issues arise where you need to spend some capital. You will have a higher interest rate with the 30 vs the 15, but in the grand scheme of things the interest difference won't be that much. 

Unfortunately he is on a 1 year lease and not MTM, so an increased rent cannot be done until this time next year. There was not really anything in the background check that drew red flags, that is the frustrating thing. 

And in this case paying the power bill will not be negotiable, you want to grant yourself access to my house prior to me granting you access, then you will pay for 100% of the power bill that was incurred from day 1. 

I will keep you updated once I finally talk to him, he seems to be conveniently unavailable/slow to respond when I try to reach him regarding late payment, etc. 

Payal, 

I am born and raised in Charlotte, lived there all my life until a few years ago, still maintain property there and go back to visit every few months to see my parents. If you have some certain areas you want to ask about you can PM me and I can tell you whether you want to own rental property there or not. There are certain areas of town you don't want to touch with someone else's money even! 

Send me a message if you have some neighborhoods you want to ask about, you don't even have to tell me the exact address. 

To follow up on Nathan's post you could go with a 30 year mortgage to lower your P&I payment to $393, which would make it a profitable investment. 

The bigger issue has already been brought up, never rent to friends and family. Just think of it this way, if your "tenant" stops paying rent/can't keep paying rent/wants to pay rent late, what will you do if it is your MIL? Eviction isn't a good option, not if you want a pleasant holiday dinner. Paying the rent for her if she can't pay? That doesn't sound like a great option either. Or if something breaks, much harder to require your tenant to pay for damages if they are relatives. 

Just some things to consider, it COULD work out okay but it could also make for some unpleasant family get-togethers as well. 

Maybe "rip him a new one" is not the correct term for what I intend to do. I of course will be very professional about it, no profanity, but I will be very stern about what will go on and what will not be tolerated. What he did is borderline criminal and I plan on making him aware of that. He has shown a tendency to not be truthful in the short time I have been dealing with him, multiple times of him telling me he was sending full rent (before I was to give him the keys) only to have a check for 1/2 month rent in my mailbox, another time of him telling me a check was in the mail only to tell me a week later money was sent via Western Union. 

What I also discovered this morning is that the power has been in my name the whole time (which it was supposed to be until last Saturday when I met him to give him access to the house). Since he decided to give himself access a month ago I am going to inform him he is responsible for 100% of the power bill. 

This is the only property I manage in North Carolina so I don't have attorneys/agents/PMs, the rest of my properties are in Florida so I do have the appropriate people for my properties here. 

If you give a tenant an inch they will take a mile, that is the moral of the story.