All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

We use CSC Serviceworks in our CT and MA portfolio. At first glance it appears they may service the California market as well. Also, check out smart coin box. It essentially makes any unit a coin operated machine. Link here: https://www.smartcoinbox.com/c...

@Gary B. your PM is incentivized incorrectly.

1. If he wants that late fee, he needs to collect the rent AND the late fee. You should correct that clause moving forward. Those are fertile grounds for a lackluster property manager to take advantage of you. 

2. Our website has a tab where tenants can report maintenance issues. It's a google form that is embedded into the website. It sends the requests to a google sheet and we dispatch contractors accordingly. Your property manager should be tracking these however, not you. 

What kind of issues are you having? 27 units should not be resulting in 3-4 maintenance calls a week. 

Get the 30 year and pay it off as a 15. If something comes up that would cause you to need to stock some funds away @Dana Hendrix you can do that without having to worry about not being able to pay the mortgage. 

At the end of the day you should do whatever suits your goals and comfort levels regarding risk best. Don't let others tell you how to run your investments, ever. :)

@Mark Edler, check out this thread: How do you select a contractor?

Here's my response in that thread

Did you have a home inspection as a part of your purchasing process? If so, your inspector likely knows a few good contractors, and that's where I would personally start.

The next best thing you can do beyond networking and local real estate groups is to search your local Facebook groups. Every day somebody's asking for a plumber, electrician, Etc. These groups have been vital for us to expand our contractor list as a property management company.

That brings me to my next point, a local property manager. Call up a few of them and see if they are willing to share their list of vetted subs. We have a tab right on our website where people can view who we recommend and use in CT.

Best of luck!

@Account Closed I have advice, but it's probably not the advice you want to hear. 

The sellers are simply offloading their problems onto you and hoping that you make them disappear. To be honest, as a listing agent, this is not your problem. Sellers need to help you sell the property by putting their best foot forward. If they are not willing to help you do your job in the form of enforcing their own lease, then that tells me exactly just how serious they are.

I can tell you put significant time into getting this property sold, and are just not getting the results that you're looking for. I have learned in my few years in business that if I am frustrated with a client over and over again, the money is not worth it at the end of the day. I would rather spend two times as much time and money in marketing and growing my business than make the money I would have gained with that sale / commission.

Best of luck. Probably time to let them go.

"The reason was given as follows:" when the seller bought it, he agreed (and subsequently forgot) that he would have close with the same attorney who handled the tax sale for him and there was some issue that arose with the title insurance that required him to go back to that same attorney." ------ I don't really know what is actually going on."

@Michelle S. is something stopping you from finding out? This is YOUR money. These people are working FOR YOU (or to get your deal closed if they are on the other side). I'd start pressing for answers...You shouldn't have to pay for two attorneys - it may be time to ask your agent to clarify, and if they don't understand - they should consult their broker for advice. 

This is a civil matter, not a landlord problem.

Tell the tenants to have a police officer present, and you stay out of it. You are not a mediator, and what if one of them claims that a certain belonging belongs to them vs the other person? Do you really want to be involved with that? HINT: the answer to that is a 2 letter word that starts with "N" and ends with "O"! 

Hi @Apostoli S Hillas, 

First off, you should check out this post. It's kinda sorta similar to yours, and there's some usable advice there for you: "Real estate investing. I am 19 year old with $20,000."  https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@David M. posted really solid advice above, and it would be wise for you to read that post over a few times. 

As far as this:  "I need to know the more technical details of getting started such as raising my credit, qualifying for loans, potential tax deductions, and any thing else I should know to be qualified to invest in my first property."

They really should teach this stuff in school, but they don't. 

It's a lot of information to type out, but I'm happy to get on a call with you and discuss. Basically it comes down to having the income, credit and debt to income rations necessary. Banks care little about the rest if those 3 things line up. 

Best of luck, go get'em dude!

@Desha Charles I'd argue that any market is a good market for wholesaling. Something is always selling cheaper than the average, you just have to find where that something is. 

I think you want to know if it is easy in MA - which I don't have an answer for, but I do know that generally wholesaling is not something that you find success in overnight. It takes time, systems, trial and error and persistence. Multiple touches is what's needed here, with the exception to the lucky break here and there. 

@Saurabh Verma

CT is likely the most landlord friendly of the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT). While Upstate New York does have some decent markets, unfortunately the policies that are Incorporated in the city also impact Northern parts of the state.

100-200K doesn’t get you much outside of bad neighborhoods these days, unfortunately. You may be able to find something in the high one 100s, but at that price point I see a lot of awkwardly laid-out units with mediocre tenants at best. Sure, you make cash flow, but you need to ask yourself if this is something that you want to hold for a long time or just a few years.

I try to buy properties based on where I want to be in the future. Sometimes that means paying a little bit more knowing that in the future I want to have better tenants and less headaches.