All Forum Posts by: Chris Matson

I’m interested in buy and hold opportunities in Hickory and looking for vendors in this area.  Any recommendations are appreciated!

Interested in seeing if any investors or property managers have worked with SMS Assist for rehabs and major make-readies.

@tyson horsley Sorry to hear about your experience.  You should not have to pay that management company back.  They can fight the credit card companies.  They’ve been hired to navigate the minefield of property management.  Credit cards are not bad in my opinion as an emergency option.  To avoid situations like this, we have a simple eviction policy that is explained to tenants upon move-in.  The eviction process is task and time driven so delaying constantly in hopes of collecting the money only exacerbates the situation.

Good luck moving forward.  

@julie walker Sorry to hear about your experience.  Start the search process online and see if they are members of NARPM (North American Residential Property Managers) associations and how are their reviews online? Meet them in person and get eyeball to eyeball.  As a property manager, I always like to meet owners in person.

Hope things work out for you.

@Jonathan Massey Having dealt with challenging and in some case tenants who think they can bully those around them, I recommend landlords focus on two primary things.

1.  Keep emotions out of it!  

2.  Follow the lease.  If a standard TX lease was used, it’s pretty clear on most things and as mentioned above, you have 30 days in TX to return those funds if a forwarding address was provided.

In the end, remember that this is a business and not personal.  Do that, and owning rental properties is a scalable  and profitable business, let it get personal and it can eat you alive.  Best of luck to you.

Having dealt with challenging and in some case tenants who think they can bully those around them, I recommend landlords focus on two primary things.

1.  Keep emotions out of it!  

2.  Follow the lease.  If a standard TX lease was used, it’s pretty clear on most things and as mentioned above, you have 30 days in TX to return those funds if a forwarding address was provided.

In the end, remember that this is a business and not personal.  Do that, and owning rental properties is a scalable  and profitable business, let it get personal and it can eat you alive.  Best of luck to you.

For you buy and hold investors in Houston, what are the basic numbers (minimum cap rate, IRR etc) do you look for in an opportunity to determine if further exploration and research makes sense?

Something else to keep in mind.  Managing your own properties is fine but in TX if you open it up to others you need to operate under a broker’s license.  Good luck!

Erin,

Most of my customers are out of state investors.  My advice, get your team of trusted local advisers lined up before you buy (agent, manager, contractor, etc).  Treat them like your cabinet and run opportunities across them for multiple perspectives.  

When their perspectives align and the opportunity's numbers meet your investment criteria, you might have a winner!

Good luck.