All Forum Posts by: Christen G.

Congrats on closing on your first investment! Missed rent when you didn't own the property is not yours. Missed rent after you close is your problem. You should keep going with the eviction for sure. Make it swift, make no exceptions and show them that you mean business from the jump. I wish inherited tenants weren't always a pain in the ***, I've had 1 or 2 that were the exception to that rule, but on the whole, if it's not this, it'll be something else. Best of luck to you.

I'm reading Multi-Family Millions by Lindahl. It's a super-fast read, really just some basics and has good real life scenarios. I'd suggest it - it has some good nuggets.

Do you want to keep the tenant or no? And a follow-up for you: how much work has to be done on the unit if the tenant moves out to make it market-rent ready?

If that work is something you think you can do quickly, I'd firmly raise the rent and see if they opt to move or not. If they opt to move, turn-it super quickly and get your own new tenant in there before winter. Inherited tenants (for us anyway) are usually more of a handful than the ones we screen ourselves. If they don't move, great - more income for you. Just be firm with rules, posting notice when they're late, etc... Best of luck!

I'll co-sign what @Michelle Bright had to say: dive into the podcasts! You'll see what interests you there and it'll help define your objectives and give you concrete steps to take on the way to meeting your goals. Best of luck, I too think you'll enjoy this community.

Agreed with the folks above. A solid B with almost an A+ = a good equation to me. Hell it's better than I did in Algebra. :) Best of luck to you.

May I suggest buying Brandon Turner's book The Book on Managing Rental Properties? It's a very fast read and has suggestions and answers to everything you've posted in here! Best of luck.

Hey all,
It's been a pretty good 2 years for my partner and I. We dove-in head first after identifying our strategy (buy and hold SMF for cash flow, reinvest, continue to grow) and have acquired 8 doors (3 buildings) in just under 2 years. Our systems are just about rock-solid (some lingering P&L clean up, could use a better GC/Handy-person on call) and our occupancy should be taken care of through this weekend's showings. So we've decided to find and hire a PM to free up some bandwidth. Yay!

Some observations and questions for the group: First, I've done some reading and asking around for recommendations in local REI groups and got 5-6 contacts of PMs or PM companies that I contacted via email. Honestly, I was shocked that all of them responded so quickly and eagerly - and somehow all of them had the time and bandwidth. (Am I in the wrong business>?!) From there, I was even more shocked when 2 of them sent me docu-signs with their agreement and asked me to sign before they even would look at the property, get on a call or meet up in person. What a business model!

Fees:

7-10% of monthly rent seems to be commiserate with our area but the rest of the fees are really all over the place depending on the company. Some are flat rates for re-leasing, some are no-fees, some are a % of rent, some have maintenance call-out fees, some have in-house no fee maintenance calls.

Questions:

- Is it unrealistic to ask someone to meet up with me to walk the (vacant) properties with me and/or meet up nearby the occupied ones to show them the place? A couple of them balked at that.

- Is every fee/number negotiable with these folks? It seems that way.

- Is there a standard accounting method? Do they open up a new account for us and send us statements and cash flow monthly or just take our current accounts over/get access to our current banking systems? I'm getting a little hung up in the minutiae of this aspect

- What questions should I be asking these (hungry) PMs? I feel like I have my bases covered, but am wondering if I'm missing anything obvious or if you have any tried and true questions that help weed out the bad ones.

Overall - can you help me get over the fear I'm having about handing my units to a company who (seemingly) will sweep in, re-lease to their paperwork (thus charging me 8 re-leasing fees), disrupt the tenant and their current habits (all of which are well-trained save for an older Section8 gentleman) and ask them to make changes? 

I worry because quite frankly our tenant pool isn't one that adapts super well to change, they aren't that technologically inclined (online / app = payments - lol - some of these folks are depositing cash into our bank accounts on the 5th) and I worry that this change will disrupt, cause move-outs, more fees, etc...

Thanks in advance for your insight, heckles and advice.

Congrats on your first place and here's to many more! I find that giving out my mobile isn't a big deal if you set boundaries. Give them "office hours" (M-F,  8am-5pm) and stick to that. And I absolutely, 100%, no-way-the-the-world text (or return texts from) my tenants. It's way too easy to fire off something via text or email that's emotional or unnecessary. I can hear them now, "My landlord is so lame, she doesnt even know how to text..." but honestly, this way, when they do call...I know it's serious. Also, this "2 am toilet" issue -- rarely/never happens, and my phone is on silent when I go to bed anyway. As I learned in college - nothing good happens after 1am. :) Best of luck - and may I suggest picking up a copy of Brandon's "Complete Guide..." to get ya started.

Just sent you a PM with someone I used recently who was great for me, and wanting bigger projects.