All Forum Posts by: Christopher Cole

ACH payments by their nature take a few days to know if it actually clears (you can know faster for credit card payments). 7-10 days I'm guessing is something like this:

2-3 business days Tenant -> Zillow
2-3 business days Zillow -> Landlord

So in summary, you'd almost surely know within a couple days if the tenant sends a bogus payment, even if you don't get it into your bank account until later.

Here's another automated option: https://diycostseg.com/contact-us/

Here's an article about it: https://www.vestmap.com/the-hu...

I had this happen to me - in my case it was the basement. Garage seems like a better place.

We had to do several layers of paint and new carpet. Then we setup these ozone machines and let them run for a few days all over the house. The smell lingered, but it got good enough for me to rent it out again. It's completely gone now.

Good luck!

I'm a big fan of keeping your job for as long as possible. Some say to burn the bridges so you can't look back, but for me, having a W2 income can launch and fund your real estate empire much faster than you would be able to otherwise.

Your job can also be real estate related. Tons of active investors here are actually real estate agents as well. Or you can go to work for a house flipper or syndicator or something in order to learn the business.

There are other schools of thought, but I think when you're just starting out, the best location is somewhere close enough for you to drive to. It might not be close enough to manage yourself, it can be 3 hours away, but you'll do much better learning this way before you don't have that option.

I just put a lockbox on the door. Sometimes low tech works best.

You can get higher tech though. There are locks (you frequently get them on airbnbs) that have a set of 10 or so codes you can program them with. Some are internet connected so you can add/remove them as needed (of course only works if you have internet there). There's also SimpliSafe security systems, which I believe you can get a discount on through biggerpockets.

@Russell Brazil I'm surprised there are only 4 multifamily sold in NVA per year? I'm not an agent, but my experience living in the area is there were quite a lot of (likely non-conforming) houses with basement units and that sort of thing. They probably hit the MLS as single family, but they'd make great house hacking opportunities for Sid.

Zillow was mentioned. There are others, but Redfin, Realtor.com, and Trulia are good resources too.

You also mentioned you were having a hard time figuring out rents. BiggerPockets has a tool for that, but Rentometer is a very popular tool that gets used. You can also check Craigslist and Facebook marketplace to see what rents are advertised in your area.

Bad situation, but silver lining is you now get to see how the PM handles the situation. Meet with them in person, state your concerns, and see how they respond. If the response is inadequate, get a new PM.

Some property managers only know how to manage properties/tenants in good times. This is not the PM you want managing your property.

I've used The Property Guys for many years, and they have been consistently excellent. I can't post the contact info here, but if you search and find Steve Winder, that's the right one (note - outside of being a happy client, I am not affiliated with them)