All Forum Posts by: Jeff Gates

Once you look at an applicant you pre screen. If a person states their profession is paralegal or attorney, you already know your plan is to find someone else. Never rent to one of these!

I have accumulated some interesting data. 70% of the online advertising is done by property managers or real estate agents. 30% of the online advertising is done by landlords. This data does not include Craigslist. 

Simple, use a free property management application with a good accounting package. In the GL accounts you have separate accounts for each property. However at the bank you use only one bank account. Each transaction has a transaction id that is mapped to the individual property id. The correct software does this behind the scenes and the user need not get confused. At the end of the year the accounting package generates the complete correct Schedule E which is IRS compliant in PDF form with the IRS requiring each property to be itemized separately..........  Simple, why spend the time and money on so many bank accounts?

Never get in these confrontations with tenants. If she gives you 30 days notice and threatens things, just don't say anything. Wait for her to vacate. Let her keep the keys but don't say anything. Once she has vacated, this is no longer a eviction. Once you are sure the unit is empty, then call a locksmith. If she really did move out the law is on your side. Then you take the inventory of damages and locksmith charges and issue the deposit refund if any with deductions very carefully with a detailed document.

Personally I believe Property Management as we know from the past is a shrinking industry. However there is huge growth in the rental market at a clip of 59% of new household formation in the next four years will be rentals. The PM industry will shrink as percentage of the market but might grow in total units under management. Currently of all the USA landlords only 22-24% are professionally managed according to a few studies I have read over the years. Many landlords just prefer to self manage. Some landlords can't or won't. But the self managed portion of the market increases and the managed percent of the market shrinks. If and when the total number of units managed across the USA decreases, we should see a price war with shrinking management fees. 

Something to think about:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/08/06/earning-a-living-with-rental-properties-should-you-be-a-landlord/#7b41bfc65694 

Many like this

http://try.mileiq.com/mileage-tracking/

Call these folks https://www.taskrabbit.com/

If you do credit cards and you get to the end of the lease, then the tenant moves out, they can initiate a chargeback.  And who will pay 2.75% on monthly rent just for a payment?

Good question. So far I would not. I have revisited this so many times. The deductible is so high, I just don't know how this ever works out. Example last time I looked. If you make a $85K claim and they want you to pay the first $20K before insurance kicks in. And they charge $1000 annually for this. So if you do this for 10 years, your out of pocket is $32K. These earthquakes happen every 75-100 years. Now it can occur much sooner. A better solution is to pull out as much equity as possible. Hedge your risk in a 80% LTV scenario.

I just get an email from Zillow with a interested applicant. The Zillow message said I should respond within ten minutes. I am guessing no landlord can do this in this time frame.