All Forum Posts by: DL Martin

Valerie Carr at Huesman-Schmid. 

Others were all around $11k per annum. Huesman-Schmid came in at around $6,700 on 38 units...

BP won't let me post her phone number or email. Text me if you want her contact info. 

Chris, Erik Nowacki has offered to "bounce ideas with him" with regard to moving your family from CA for the purpose of cash flow investing. Based on his post (from which I quoted above), he would be THE person from whom I would seek counsel if I were you. 

Like Erik (but on a much much much smaller scale!!!), I 1031 exchanged my California 4 plex for a 38 unit in suburban Cincinnati.  It was nearly an even trade, 4 plex = 38 plex !!! 

DL

Simple. 

@Brandon Turner... 1. Does your wife love it? 2. Are the public schools excellent or very good? 3. Is the Distance to your church less than 20 minutes drive? 

If yes, yes and yes, then = destination home. 

Move in and Make your Life there. 

Good Luck buddy.

DL

Will, why the need to pick on us Cave Men???

DL

P.S. It was great meeting you at your Agoura Hills Meet Up.  I learned a lot that day. 

@Michael S. 

Marty, when I click "view all", only 19 of the 71 come up...

I'm trying to find some people who were at the BP Meetup tonight...

DL

Is there a way that I can see a list of all of my BP colleagues? 

As it is, I can only see 19 of them at a time. There are dozens of them that I can't view, no matter how I "sort" the list. 

DL

Joel, believe it or not, the "Greater Cincinnati Airport" is in ... Kentucky.   : )

@Coleman Nelson

Coleman, many of your questions will take care of themselves. The info below is based on my experiences in CA. 

1. When 3rd party owners contact you, they will probably already know what they "want" from property management. Most owners will want you to screen and place tenants, collect the rent, subtract your fees and send them the balance every month.  The owner will pay the mortgage himself, as well as the taxes. Keep in mind that if you agree to pay mortgages for owners, if that payment is ever late, then that late will show on the owner's credit report and the owner will be very very angry at you. If you agree to pay mortgages and taxes for an owner, I would include a premium for that service. Electronic bill pay may mitigate that risk, but on the flip side, will mortgage companies allow you ongoing access to their customer's online account? If so, how much management company time will have to be devoted to setting up and maintaining electronic mortgage paying accounts for all of these customers? What about password changes which are being required more and more often by financial institutions? What if the owner changes the password, fails to notify you, and your payment to their mortgage company doesn't go through? Now the owner has a 30 day late and blames you... 

2. Most owners will want you to handle maintenance issues for them. I believe this is the area where most owners have conflict with property management companies. A tenant has an electrical circuit that goes dead. The tenant calls the management company. The management calls the owner. The owner says "handle it." The management company sends a reliable, licensed electrician whom the company trusts (and has a long relationship with) and is 100% sure will fix the problem and not overcharge. 

THEN this happens. The management company takes the electrician bill, adds a "management fee", re-invoices the bill to the management company's invoice and sends that bill to the owner. The owner is either A. happy that the problem is solved, or B. thinks that the bill was too high and wants to know who did the work and what the electrician's invoice amount was. 

So the management company must take the position of "we use quality, reliable, experienced, trustworthy contractors whom we KNOW and TRUST, and who gives us a volume discount,  to handle maintenance issues in an expedient manner and WE CHARGE YOU A FEE FOR THAT KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE."

The alternative to that is that the management company simply calls a reliable, well known company with a good reputation and nice newer model, shiny trucks with professional graphics and cool slogans on them (AND VERY EXPENSIVE), pays the bill and then passes that bill on to the property owner. 

In the first example the property owner might believe that the management company is ripping them off by adding a management fee to the repair. In the second example, the property owner might feel that the property management company didn't "look our for him" by attempting to keep the cost of the repair down. 

You will keep and maintain a trust account to pay your bills. No need to have dozens of accounts. 

***the single best reason to have a property management company is to have the inside track when an owner inevitably sells his/her property. You will have your hand on the pulse of that owner and know exactly what his pain level and motivation for selling is. You will know every single TRUE operating cost of that property, deferred maintenance, true rent roll numbers. And if you don't want to buy it yourself, you might be able to broker an off market deal, selling the property to another of your owners who is looking to buy more units.***

DL

LOL... 

I also am puzzled by all of the Californians investing in out of state turnkey for "cashflow." 

And why don't these crazy Texan and Midwestern "cash flow investors" just buy "turnkey" California rental properties, tread water for ten years on the mortgages/maintenance/management and then, at the top of the market cycle, BANG!!!! Sell that baby and reap the profit? 

Buy low/Sell high. Is it really that hard???

DL

Well played Ron. : )