All Forum Posts by: Gene Mattos

The renter's lease does not expire because you buy the property, so no. Asking the seller to raise rents for you is going to be a non-starter.

Yes, and you definitely should.

It depends on the tenants. Usually 50% increase is quite a shock and would cause the tenant to look elsewhere, although if you're charging market rate, they would be disappointed in the results. 

I would avoid such a high increase unless you're trying to turn over the units and place new tenants.

I really enjoy your optimistic analysis about the Sacramento market, @Wes Blackwell.

Do you think this will also affect less popular areas of Sac, such as Oak Park, in "a rising tide lifts all boats" kind of way?

Does anyone know the rollout plan for the water meters?

@Eric P.: It's a duplex. HW inherited both - one of the tenants had turned over immediately, while the other had to be evicted. Another tenant was placed, signed the lease, and immediately wanted out, which was frustrating. As I mentioned in this post, it seems like it's harder to find quality tenants in the area, but it could just be seasonal.

Now I have the duplex rented, and cash-flowing. We'll see what happens next.

It is Holton-Wise as well. 

Except for maybe some communication breakdowns early on, I'm fairly satisfied with their service.

Here's my story from Cleveland:

Six months ago, I bought a cheap property in Garfield Heights for about $60k. Since then I've had to deal with and pay for two turnovers, an eviction, and a bunch of surprise repairs. The investment is more or less stable now, with $1300 monthly income, but it was real rough getting there. If it was my first investment, I would be extremely discouraged and probably give up real estate.

I highly recommend actually visiting the area and looking at properties before buying anything.

@Chase: to answer your question - those numbers are certainly possible, and actually not that uncommon, but you must do your due diligence and take everything into account.

What are the most valued things you believe they contribute?

Once everything is set up and stabilized, it's peace of mind. Let's say you have an apartment building to manage. You would be fielding calls from tenants, prospective tenants, etc. every day. Unless it's your full-time job, you'd want to push that work off onto the PM and focus your time and energy on the business side. You should be worrying about things like YoY return, not whether tenant in 4C is upset at the tenant in 4D about the noise.

What are the worst things about them?

They can be expensive, and not only on the % of rental income. If they're handling a remodel for you, you may not have the flexibility on the price. Here in San Jose and Sacramento, I can pick from a number of contractors I know and trust, while in Ohio, I'm forced to defer to the PM on that.

General issues with how they do business?

If they're a good PM, they probably have a lot of units under management. This means they care about your unit less and less with more units they manage - certainly less than you care about it.

General praises for how they do business?

They work great at scale. I mentioned having many units under management as a minus, but it can also be a positive. They are basically a platform standing between the landlord and the tenant, which means they may be able to match-make much easier between the two. Theoretically, they can also get better prices on repairs, etc.

@Dan Mitchen: I'm not sure how marketing works with the PM firm - I assume it's online postings on zillow, craigslist, etc. I do not believe there are folks specifically focused on leasing. 

The duplex is on the north end of Blythin Rd, and the asking price is $650.

@Federico Gutierrez: Definitely agree on getting someone in there before the pipes freeze. 

Hello fellow investors!
I currently own a duplex in the Garfield Heights area, and I'm working with a property management company. Unfortunately, the duplex has now been vacant for about 2 months. Coming from California, this is an insane amount of time to rent something out. Around here my units will have a deposit placed in a week at most.

I have a couple quick question for you all regarding getting quality tenants in this area.
First is, how long does it usually take you to rent out your units in this area with quality tenants? Is my time too much, or is it pretty standard for the area and season?

I may have made a mistake with my location. Looking at the map from a very popular post here, it is just above the yellow part of Garfield Heights in the red.
So should I just cut my losses and sell? This is maybe 2.5% of my portfolio, so it wouldn't be horrible to just take a loss on this and move on. I was looking to shift a lot of my California portfolio to Ohio, but given the results, it may be better for me to stay put.

- Gene

Just in case folks aren't aware, San Jose Metro includes insanely expensive areas like Cupertino, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Saratoga, etc. 

San Jose itself is not as bad (good?).