All Forum Posts by: David Panzera

Welcome to BP, @Anna Milligan! It sounds like you're on your way to a successful investing career. And you've already seen how great the crowd here is with their feedback on your thread. Let me know if you ever have any property management questions in the future!

Best,

David Panzera

Rafael

I would be happy to help and answer any questions you may have about the Columbus area and residential investment properties. Let me know how I can help.

David

Hi, @Michael Shibko and congrats on getting ready to invest in Columbus. I help investors find properties here and my advice is to be cautious of $40K "dog" properties. Even if you think they'll cash flow well you can never predict how much your cash flow will be chipped away by rehab and improvement costs you might have to make with a more transient renter demographic and by higher turnover. I know you want to reinvest capital, but you want to do it in different properties, not improvements over and over for the same one. :) Shoot for B class, is my advice. And are you married to the fact that it has to already be 100% occupied? You might be narrowing your options if you are. Even if that's what you ultimately want I would suggest you look at vacant properties, too. Feel free to get in touch with me with questions and good luck!

Looking for investment property in Columbus, Ohio? 

We can help! We help investors find multifamily and SFH home investments, and can manage them for out-of-state owners, too. We don't do any other type of real estate--investment realty is our specialty.

Please check out our business page here on BP, or visit our website at PanzeraRealty.com, or private message me today, @DavidPanzera.

Many thanks to the BP community!

@Dan Kelley, congrats on your closing today! It sounds like you're pretty prepared to be a landlord and have great ideas. 

First, I would say yes to put the LLC out there as the owner and you as simply the building manager. If you're just "the manager" it's easier to later blame any issues on "that's the owner's policy re: xyz issue, unfortunately."

We always send a letter first with all of our contact information when we transition existing tenants to our management, then our leasing director goes out and meets them, talks to them, shows them what our trucks look like so they know who we are (we do a lot of drive-bys when we're in areas just to eyeball for outside issues). 

As to lease issues, you'll have to talk with all of the tenants and get their stories and then figure out whether you want them to all transition (eventually) to 12-month leases (or whatever timeframe you choose). I would definitely eliminate the verbal lease and switch to a written one as soon as you can, though. I did hear last week of a landlord who worked successfully with a tenant for 15 years on a verbal month to month because the tenant always paid on time but had just had a checkered past and would never have passed screening requirements; the landlord valued him as a tenant and the tenant later bought the property from him using seller financing! But for the most part, written leases are always better. 

As for payment, again find out their stories. Are they older tenants who hate technology? Then a P.O. Box is great for them. But you might make that the exception and Buildium the rule, since that seems to be your gut instinct. Have fun and good luck!

@Samantha Hopkins

We're in Ohio, and we do basically the same thing as @Fred Heller mentioned above. In our lease we actually list $500 as the threshold notification level, but in reality we're talking to our owners a lot when we have repairs to make that cost less than that because we have a small- to mid-sized company and communication is important to us. Of course it's negotiable, and you want to be with a property manager who, like the others have said, isn't going to abuse that provision. We charge a 100% leasing fee that tiers off at certain rent levels -- 75% for rent of $1000, 50% for rent of $2000 -- and like others have said, it's standard for the industry. We do a lot of work to put the right (not the first qualified) tenant in a unit. We do charge a $100 lease renewal fee on a 12-month lease. Good luck!

Hello @Justin Fryeand welcome to the site! 

Disclaimer: I'm an investment realtor and property manager and don't offer turnkey solutions, but I do see that this question pops up a lot on BP, so I would suggest just putting "turnkey properties" in the search bar and you'll come up with some other great posts and forum threads about it, like @Trent Curriepointed out. There are people on this site who have strong opinions on both sides and it's worth spending the time reading a bunch of things to get a feel for the issues.

My opinion is that you fully research any turnkey company you're looking at. And get opinions from people on this site as to whether they've worked with that company before. Turnkey properties can be a great choice if you're working with a reputable company with proven results.

If you do want to take @Aimee Sowards-Mountssuggestion and work with an investment realtor who knows the city well and can help you crunch numbers, feel free to contact me and I can help you with your questions. Good luck!

Hi, @Clint Galliano. That's a great question. I just found one in my area, and I found him here on BP. Maybe post in the Forum specific to your area and see if you can get any referrals from local people? Unless you already did that. I'm happy with my real-estate focused CPA. We both own rental properties, and he understands investing thoroughly. Good luck to you!

Hi John

Let's schedule a time to talk or meet in person.  I would love to hear what your goals are and would be happy to answer any questions for you.  

Thanks in advance,

Welcome, @John Delia! BP is a great community. Lots of folks to talk with about landlording experience. Feel free to message me any time; we have a PM company and landlord for our clients and might have some insights for you. Enjoy getting to know the site.

Best, 

David Panzera