All Forum Posts by: Greg Weik

Hi @Bob Foglia with the current state of the rental market (very tough to rent most things), I would strongly discourage attempting to rent the property out furnished (short, medium, or long term.) It's my opinion that the pool of tenants is simply too small to make the vacancy time worth the effort. 

We have experience managing furnished "house hack" properties and within a couple of years, our clients nearly always decide to go the traditional route of an unfurnished property and a single lease.  Many reasons for this (some of which you touched on), and I'd be happy to discuss them in detail if you would like. 

The most competitive and profitable strategy, this time of the year and with current market conditions, is to have a vacant home in excellent condition, priced competitively. Hire a management company with excellent marketing and processes in place to rent properties quickly and to the best tenants.  I may know just such a company :) 

@Zack Dasbur I believe your first contact should be with a real estate attorney to ensure you have an elevator addendum specific to your unit.  

Said addendum will incorporate everything from the operation, maximum weight limit, whether it can or cannot be used for moving furniture, how repairs are handled, exculpatory language in the event the elevator is out of service (i.e., you are/are not required to provide any rental credit), how power outages are handled, etc. Your addendum will be part of the file for this townhome and can be used with all future leases.  

It's not just a question of insurance coverage, it's imperative that tenants sign off on the property usage of the elevator, permit routine maintenance inspections, a requirement to report any potential repair issues with the unit, etc. 

If the leases only go for another 7 months, I'm not sure there is all that much risk.  I would verify the presence and operation of smoke and CO detectors, ensure there are no apparent safety hazards in the home, and make a plan to non-renew the leases when they come up for renewal. 

Another consideration is to review the leases.  There may be language in the lease permitting termination of the leases for specific situations related to habitability.  If the property cannot be insured due to the non-conforming bedrooms, it could well be argued that this is prima facie evidence of a habitability issue and you could terminate the lease(s) needed.  

I voted against it.  As the owner of a Colorado PMC, I know my clients are fed up with government meddling in the rental world, as am I.  Re-directing tax funds to "affordable housing" is a very nebulous concept, short on specifics, and likely to not move the needle.  I'm not convinced any of this is really about helping people or providing "affordable" housing, however that term is actually defined...  

These programs steal money from Peter to pay Paul, and for people who work hard, pay taxes and do it right, it is frustrating to have tenants get handout after handout to "help them".   That so-called free money comes out of the pocket of people working hard, hustling, and paying taxes. 

I've seen multiple tenants in our portfolio get over $20,000 of completely free money "cuz covid" (yeah right).  The more you give people, the more they will take. It's not like making housing cheaper will suddenly cause the recipients of this subsidized housing to save money or budget properly or "get ahead" as is the common vernacular. They will still be broke. The cycle of people receiving handouts of any kind is extremely difficult to break.  I've yet to see any tenants get off section 8. 

Rant over! :) 

Happy to help.  We did direct marketing a lot back in the day when we were trying to get our PM business off the ground.  It's a long, tough slog.  At this point, I don't even recommend direct mail (in my industry) to franchisees, as there are a lot of other ways to reach your target audience for less money and spending less time.

Again, I don't know much about the buy houses for cash industry, but it seems like there are probably facebook groups and next-door posts you could follow/search to place the right comment at the right time to generate interest. You could target FSBO listings on Zillow and elsewhere.

My experience with direct mail has been that you have to hit the right people at the right time with the right message - and even then it's a small percentage of people who will pick up the phone.  

Hey @Sam Spoerl, while this world of "sell your house fast" is not my lane, some things jump out at me from a marketing standpoint that may help. 

1) Your personal photo.  I'm not sure this helps.  Maybe it does maybe it doesn't, but the idea is that this is a quick, cold transaction of money for keys.  The personal touch seems contradictory. 

2) Your email.  I would suggest changing the @gmail.com to a domain.  Cheap and easy to setup through Gmail, but will give you credibility.  Your target audience needs to believe you actually can close.  Anything that seems "small time" isn't going to help you. 

3) Offer for people to text you.  Most people don't want to make a call, get a spiel where they feel sold to.  You can have "soft contacts" with people where you can evaluate them and they can evaluate you, via text message.  I would suggest creating some templates you can send off (that don't sound like templates) via text. 

4) I would stick with a more professional font.  

Take it or leave it, just my $.02.  Good luck! 

Hi @James Ross, we would be happy to chat with you to see if RES is a good fit. 

I own the company and we've been in business for 15 years.  I own multiple rental properties and I can say with confidence that my team knows what it's doing.  My office manager is also a broker and also an investor who owns properties.  This dramatically impacts company culture around here.  We understand what our clients are looking for in terms of value and wealth generation because we are looking for the same things. 

We will always steer you and all our clients to their highest ROI.

That said, if your tenants have weeds, you will always hear from the HOA before us. We are not on-site and we are not likely to see issues of that nature before an HOA that is cruising the neighborhood looking for issues like this. If we are made aware of issues, however, we always act swiftly and competently.

The process of switching PMCs is pretty simple in our experience.  We take on doors from other PMCs almost every week, and we will be in the Springs this afternoon picking up another 10 units from another company.  

Please feel free to drop me a line or contact my office directly and we can go from there.

Hi @Lakshay Gopalka, I have used and highly recommend Steve at Advantage Home Inspection Service.  They were referred to me by one of my investor clients and now that I've used them on a few deals, I will only use Steve and his team.  Very thorough, and very professional.  

303-843-9770

I don't have any referral fee or arrangement set up with Steve, I was just very impressed with his work.  

Hi @Tori Wienke, what a frustrating situation.  I'm sorry to hear you've gone through this stress with these tenants. 

It sounds like you did everything right - legally and ethically. 

The rental market in our area is not great right now. If you let them leave without penalty on 11/30, you may well be sitting on an empty unit for over a month.  Just something to consider.  It sounds like you have no obligation to let them out at this point. 

@Patricia Steiner is right that in the event you let them walk, you need to have a detailed agreement signed off on by you and the tenants, indicating the tenants will vacate the property and relinquish all rights to the leased premises as of X day and X time.  Failure to vacate by X day and X time shall result in holdover rent being owed as well as an action for eviction being filed against the tenants.  Tenants shall be entitled to receipt of their full security deposit within X days of vacating the premises notwithstanding any charges, if applicable, related to damage to the premises or cleaning needed upon inspection and determination by landlord.  <-- something like that. 

In situations like this it is usually better to part ways and try again with new tenants. 

Hi @James Cheang, we'd love to chat with you to see if we can be a good fit for your property management needs.

I will DM you as well, but we are highly recommended on BP as well as on Google.  We've been helping landlords for 15 years and I can tell you that communication is the #1 reason I see clients leave a PMC and come over to RES. 

The process to switch over your PMC to Real Estate Solutions is very straightforward and probably easier than you might anticipate. 

I look forward to chatting with you - and you are welcome to call our text us at the number in my signature.  Either I, or my Office Manager, Chris, welcome a discussion with you about moving forward.