All Forum Posts by: Andrew Dorazio

@Joe Villeneuve If you lose a tenant in a single family who is paying the mortgage on the property (or any of the other costs)?? how long can you sustain a vacant single family home? My point is, if you own a 4 unit, and one unit goes vacant, chances are the three units filled will at least cover a majority of your fixed costs, if not all. Not the case, in my opinion, with SFRs. So I stand by my point of the risk being reduced with more units.

Hi Tushar, I work for EY as well and am an active investor and would love to chat if you had the time.

Hi Mark,

Welcome! I am former military and had a lot of experience investing while on active duty. Would love to chat more about it at some point. Although I do not know a ton about the San Diego market, I have experience with the VA loan process and investing while active.

Talk soon

Hi All,

I am considering expanding into the property management business and wanted some feedback on good property management software that some of you may be using as either the property manager or the client. Both perspectives would be great. Most of the software I have seen or dealt with has been home grown or very basic. Some of the things I am looking for to make a determination:

Price Structure

Functionality

Back End Support

Ability for Customization

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

Andrew

Welcome to the site and good luck! It's really great to see younger people taking action and getting started with real estate early. You will find this site is very helpful and you can learn a tremendous amount from other people's knowledge.

Good luck 

Property is located in El Paso, TX. Thanks everyone for the replies, I just asked to take back control of the property and they complied, so on to vet some new managers.

Back in 2010 I deployed out of country with the Army and had to find a good property manager to watch over my 5 units while I was gone. By all standards the managers I found and hired did a great job and overall there were very few problems, and really gave me piece of mind while away. I continued to use this company since then and had very few issues in 5 years. I recently added to my portfolio and bought an 11 unit property in the same market, and since I now live out of state, asked this same team to take over the management of the property.

Since acquiring the 11 unit building, this team has done an awful job of keeping it rented, and has not filled a single empty unit. Its been 6 months since owning it, and we have gone from 9 units rented to 3 units rented! They have yet to put in a single new tenant yet. On top of this, it takes days or weeks for them to respond to me, and when they do they give me vague answers and completely beat around the bush. I have called to talk through strategy on how to get these units rented but they won't do a thing that we talk about. They refuse to lower rents or offer any other incentives. I have been direct in my communication, but can not seem to get across to them. What surprises me is that these things NEVER came up with the other units in the past with the same managers.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to fire these individuals, but am stuck in a year long contract which doesn't end until January of 2016 for this property. I am looking for any advice on what could work best on how to handle this. Should I just tell them that I want out of the contract because of performance? Should I consult a lawyer? Or do I have to ride it out until the end? I physically will run out of money if this property keeps going at this rate. I know this market extremely well and there is no logical reason why these units are not rented (units are updated, new appliances, decent area etc.)

Please help, thanks!

Andrew

Hi everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself, I am a multi family real estate investor located in Chicago. Looking to connect and network with anyone in the area. I invest in Texas and Chicago area. I have been investing for 7 years, but am looking to grow. Look forward to connecting!

The fewer units in a specific building that you have the more risk you would have when there would be a market meltdown (ie if you are renting a single family home out you have only one renter bringing money in, hence higher risk of you having 100% vacancy for a while) Your line of thinking is accurate though, and as long as your renters don't all lose their jobs simultaneously and move out you would be fine. The ones who lose their shirts in these times are the ones who are not properly prepared or the ones that invested on speculation and over paid. Even if your property goes underwater it doesn't matter as long as you do not need to see immediately. As a general rule I keep 6 months operating expenses on hand at all times per property to weather any storms. Theo Hicks for the 6 months operating expenses I typically take everything from mortgage, taxes, forecasted repairs, CAPEX etc. and tally that number up to get to my 6 month number. I like each of my properties self sustaining, which is why each has their own reserves. This becomes helpful when you have different LLCs and partnerships for each property so you are not comingling funds across the different properties. As for the ten property question, of course it depends on whether or not there is a better opportunity to use that 60k, and what market conditions are like, but cash is king, so depending on your risk appetite you have to make that call yourself. Also, you don't have to have the 6 month amount right up front, typically I work to get to that point then start drawing excess once the account hits the amount. I am in a situation now where there are several initial evictions and repairs on an 11 unit that I just bought that is eating all my cash flow, so it may take longer to get to that reserve amount going. Also to consider when your taxes are due, because if they are not escrowed you will have to factor that lump sum amount to come out once due. Let me know if this helps. Good luck. I started at your age and love real estate more now then ever. Your making good decisions. Keep it up

The fewer units in a specific building that you have the more risk you would have when there would be a market meltdown (ie if you are renting a single family home out you have only one renter bringing money in, hence higher risk of you having 100% vacancy for a while) Your line of thinking is accurate though, and as long as your renters don't all lose their jobs simultaneously and move out you would be fine. The ones who lose their shirts in these times are the ones who are not properly prepared or the ones that invested on speculation and over paid. Even if your property goes underwater it doesn't matter as long as you do not need to see immediately. As a general rule I keep 6 months operating expenses on hand at all times per property to weather any storms.