All Forum Posts by: Derek Gilbert

This was my EXACT experience as well with the two properties I have from them. I posted in another thread their PM service is atrocious.

i posted about my buying experience here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Here is an update:

TLDR; horrible experience all around with USREEB. Would not deal with again. 

The property #2 has been a train wreck and is getting worse. I hesitated to post here for fear of making matters worse for myself with a property that is going through eviction that they seem incapable of resolving but at this point it can't get any worse. I purchased from them after reading a blog post about how great it was from someone that was in a similar situation as myself, so I'd like to put this information out there for others to have when they make their decision.

The short of it is all the problems that I mentioned in my previous post and USREEBs inability to address them have come full circle.

The long of the story is that I've had consistent issues with property #2 since day one. Most of the issues are around water. Either leaks, clogged drains etc.. which are never addressed and consistently being charged to me. To make matters worse I've had a tenant who has been 2-3 months behind 2 times (thankfully he paid up those two times). We spoke about starting non renewal proceedings but apparently that never happened. I'm now 7 months without rent on this property during which I was told things like "he wants to start a payment plan", "he loves the place and wants to buy it" from USREEB.  We went to court for the eviction and the tenant counter sued showing pictures of all the items USREEB failed to address, all of which I've sent countless emails to them asking why they continue to be recurring problems. Due to this counter suit, the lawyer recommended settling for possession. Needless to say I nearly blew a gasket. This for me was the final straw. Apparently I'm only paying them to collect money when it's easy. Anything else they seem completely incapable of doing. 

Getting any type of information from USREEB is absolutely brutal. I'm coming up on only 3 years and have had probably 6 different property managers and 3 different supervisors. Weeks have gone by where I've sent 3-4 messages in the owner portal and 6 or so emails to my property manager without response. It's absolutely ridiculous.

I hope my issues are addressed soon but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I really wanted to buy more properties but to me it's not even remotely worth the headache of dealing with usreeb / only choice pm.

I have 3 properties in KC two of which are with USREEB. Both with USREEB are "B" neighborhoods. I did the typically fly in, meet, see properties etc.. with 4 companies and decided purchased from 2. I've owned all 3 units for ~10-12 months.

A few quick negative observations from my experience: 

They are very focused on their numbers - this drove my entire experience to date which I have outlined below. 

They are unresponsive on emails and their phone line is often busy.  There are individuals in the organization who you can email that are responsive but their "ownerteam" email is where requests go to die. I would say overall their communication to owners is poor for repairs, missed rents, etc... I often have to reach out after reviewing my owner statements to find out where the money is going.

 On the sales cycle they severely underplay the risk factors. This probably should be obvious with any sales person - but keep it in mind.

One final minor issue - they are slow to pay out rents - often at the very end or after the end of the month.

Property #1)

The first property I bought was suppose to be a 4 bedroom and 2 bath but the basement ended up "costing too much" so they weren't able to do it for our contracted sales price - the rent was able to be raised to make the speculated return line up without the extra bedrooms. Also, there was a garage where the door had been removed. This was apparently not in the rehab budget so I ended up splitting the costs with the company since it was my first unit.

This has been rented and had no major issues otherwise. Frustrating on the sales side but happy with the overall experience.

Property #2)

This property has been a total disaster. The inspection reveled the roof was basically blown out but usreeb were not going to replace it because it "had a few years left". I ended up covering the entire costs via a price adjustment to the contracted sales price because I did not believe the roof was in good shape.

Otherwise in the ~10 months that I've owned the property I've had repair costs totaling roughly $2000 and we are currently processing an eviction. Just by reading this thread it sounds like they are not as thorough as they claim to be with tenant screening so be very careful when calculating your numbers.

On the positive side they do offer good numbers, have a large staff, offer many properties and at the end of the day get the job done.

I hope my numbers balance out with the other two units but given my experience with this second property (and I know this is blasphemy to say around here) but I wouldn't be too anxious to pull money out of the market to invest in these areas where appreciation is likely very low and a few bad days can ruin your yearly return. 

Will I buy more units in KC... most likely. Am I as stoked on it as I first was... certainly not.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately Zillow / Trulia has yet to pull down the listing. I guess those "flag/report" processes don't mean much. I've lowered the price on my listing and listed with the unit number since I couldnt post under the same address. Hopefully this minimizes the damage. 

I'm an owner / landlord in Boston. I had just posted my property on Craigslist and someone took the images I posted, changed the wording a little and posted the apartment as a "property manager" on Zillow/Trulia. I do not know this person and now can not list myself. I have reported the listing on both sites. Do I have any recourse here? Small claims? It seems like this person should lose their license? 

I'm guessing when someone is interested they are saying "sorry that apartment is no longer available but check out these other I have". This is likely costing me leads and is obviously extremely scummy. More so it just downright  pisses me off. 

Thanks for any advice

Sounds like the deal is dead but for anyone else also make sure that you read the condo docs thoroughly. A few things I've seen:

• no rentals under 1 year
• owner is responsible for any "disturbances" so if the tenants are loud, etc.. the condo assoc could fine you

In general I'd be more inclined to look for young professionals than college kids as mentioned though if its the only possibility get a lot of $$ up front and make the parents co-sign.

@Travis H. best of luck!! I'm in a similar position myself and will be following this thread closely. 

I'm struggling with the trade offs between extremely liquid investments vs throwing money into a rental.

@Mike Hurney,

From my research, to get a solid 2+ br or 2+ family building in an area remotely close to the city you have to be in the 400k+ range. The low end of that price point you might be lucky to get 2-3k a month rent. Given a 320k mortgage + taxes payment of ~2.2k  + fees, insurance, etc... that does not leave any room for free cash flow. If you also look at the fact that the minimum risk to get in the door is 80k+ that does not seem like a very appealing investment.

It seems like in smaller cities there may be properties for 50-200k where you could get rent of $700-1500 easily covering a 75% mortgage, fees, insurance, taxes, etc... leaving plenty of room for free cash flow for a relatively small monetary risk.

-Derek

Thanks everyone! I'm curious given the seemly ridiculous housing prices in Boston where it might be a lot harder to get returns can someone point me to some good resources on remote investing using a turn key investor? It seems like the potential returns there could be a lot higher. Any horror stories? Anyone working with someone currently on BP for a few years+ that has had a positive experience?

Hi All,

I'm a long time podcast lurker, first time joining and posting in the forums. I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce myself. 

About me: 

I currently reside in Wakefield, MA. A small suburb 20 minutes north of Boston and conveniently located next door to the Woburn meet-up that I've read about! I work as a "consultant" (a formal term for overworked software developer with decent communication skills) for a marketing services company in Boston.

Experience: 

I have limited "accidental" experience with a condo I purchased in 2007 in East Boston as my primary residence which I've been renting out for ~2 years now. The unit is generating positive cash flow and the overall experience has been extremely positive *knock on wood*.

How I found BP:

The above mentioned unit has led me to spend countless nights running tons of calculations on cash flow, returns and generally just getting excited about the bottom line and other numerous benefits of real estate investing. Naturally I stumbled upon BP articles and subsequently the pod-casts as part of my research.

Goals:

I'm hoping to put some of my cash to work and leverage a few other friends in similar financial standing as myself to invest in properties which generate cash flow. I *think* I'm pretty handy but would be looking for a turn key investment as a first deal but I would manage the leasing and all minor repairs myself. I've spent way too much time browsing listings and trying to find potential online but have been very gun shy to date.

Hoping to learn a lot and maybe pull the trigger in the next year or so!!!

-Derek