All Forum Posts by: Greg Weik

Hi @Monique Munoz, one of the best places to start your search is with a PM company's Google Reviews.  Read them, see if they respond to negative ones (all PM companies will have negative reviews) and get a sense of their company culture there.  I would recommend this over searching the NARPM site, as @Nathan Gesner suggested - the NARPM site is like the BBB, anyone can pay to be a "member", it doesn't tell you anything about how they do business.  I've worked with plenty of property managers over the years who were NARPM members but who I would never recommend. 

Your initial post and concerns tell me the PM company you hired doesn't have systems, where they should.  PM is a business based on thousands of mini-transactions, all of which need detailed systems, process and consistency.  Tracking lease end dates is low-hanging fruit in our world, so if they don't have a system for that, you definitely want to move on. 

Last, I don't believe pricing has anything to do with service in the PM world.  Most companies charge far more than they need to, for the services offered because they are terribly inefficient.  Reall, you're looking for value more than anything.  Do these guys answer their phones and emails?  Are they professional and articulate?  Do they have clear and direct answers to my questions or is it a lot of "let me check on that for you" and "let me see what I can do"?  

Good luck, sorry you're having a rough experience.  I'm sure you'll find a good PM in your area.  

Hi @Ashley Montgomery, you can offer the renewal just to the girl tenant.  The guy signed a lease and that lease is expiring. You are under no obligation to offer him a new lease term.  Give him a non-renewal notice so he knows he has to vacate.  If he does not vacate, your recourse then is to post a violation notice (unauthorized occupancy) and then file an eviction to remove the person.  

My best guess is that the non-renewal notice (to the guy) will do the job, and you can just sign a new lease (or lease extension with 1 tenant removed) with the girl.  Good luck!

I disagree with almost everything @JD said.  In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that property management probably shouldn't even be legal without specific training.  Kind of like driving a car.  Here's what I mean:

Private landlords can (and have) literally kill people.  We've taken on the management of so many properties over the years that were veritable death traps before we came in and brought them to code; non-working smoke detectors, missing CO detectors, mold issues, myriad safety issues and on and on.  Those landlords "took it upon themselves to learn" and were a danger to society.  Many had been at it for years and years.  

I'm not a "big government" fan, but being a landlord is a situation where the lives of other people hang in the balance.  It should be regulated.  Even now, I'm pushing for radon mitigation to be required (it's not in Colorado, and it absolutely should be), because it's the number 2 cause of lung cancer, behind smoking.  Tenants move into a property and often have no idea if it's safe, but they assume it is.  

Unless you're willing to truly take on the responsibility of knowing what you're doing (unlikely, in my experience) you should probably not learn on the job, potentially at the expense of the public. 

Depends on the PM more than it depends on your property or what you're willing to do. 

For example, a great PM is going to know the law, the market, how to screen and evaluate tenants, have the best lease possible, the best way to reach prospective tenants, they're going to have the best vendors possible (who usually are willing to do more for a PM than they would for a private O), they're going to have the best systems, and they're going to be a lot faster and more efficient than you could hope to be because they have processes, systems and checklists for everything.  They're also going to reduce or nearly eliminate the turnover time between tenants, which is the major killer of cashflow. 

Great PM makes clients more money than they save by DIY management.  On the other hand, most PMs aren't great - but many are decent.  

If I didn't own a PM company, I'd hire one for my rentals - that is, if I could find one anything like the one I run.  :)

It's typical pricing/services, but also too expensive IMO.  Also it looks like they "in-house" maintenance, which is another profit center for them at your expense.  If a company has in-house maintenance, they are far less likely to try to walk tenants through basic troubleshooting - they need to keep the maintenance division fed.  

I'd try to find a reputable company that charges less and doesn't have revenue streams at your expense, such as maintenance.  Also, find out what fees they charge tenants - this can be a big one when it comes to getting units rented and keeping good tenants. 

I'm not sure where they're marketing that it costs you an average of $150/month. Zillow is $9.99/week/listing and most other sites are free, such as Facebook Marketplace, the MLS, Craigslist, etc. Seems to me they should eat that cost - it's another revenue stream at your expense.

Good luck!

Hi @Adam Knickelbein, we manage properties in Boulder also and I think the advice in this thread is spot on. 

I did want to add, that when you're listing a property in the winter, plan on going lower to get it occupied and plan on raising the rent to market level at lease renewal - in the summer.  We always end leases May-July/August, so when we're taking on a new winter listing or if we have a winter lease break, the initial lease period just has to end in the summer (this summer or next.)  

The idea basically being that once you have the property occupied and rent coming in, you also can use that last 30 day period of occupancy to re-list at a higher rate if your tenants are not going to renew.  Don't hold out for top-of-market pricing in February. 

Also, you don't need to pay for professional photography.  You do need better pictures though, especially the exterior.  Also, the photos should be ordered exactly in the most compelling way - exterior, kitchen, most attractive features, etc. Lights are not on in all your shots and you really need a wide-angle lens.  If you have an iPhone 11Pro Max or newer, they take professional-level photos.  Zoom out, crank up the "brilliance" and you are off and running. 

I like your pre-screening - this is really important.  But don't tell tenants your minimum credit score, just ask them what theirs is.  Ask them when they're moving, what their combined gross income is and what their credit score is and if they have pets. You'd be amazed at how forthcoming people are about this.  Even with these changes, I think you're a little high at $3195, especially for February.  

Good luck!

@Patrick Parker we manage about 500 doors and we require ddls (digital door locks) on all of them as long as it's permitted by the HOA and feasible (some older style/antique doors cannot accommodate a DDL.)

I recommend something like this because there is not a motor to turn the deadbolt, which means the batteries last longer.  These ddls do come with a master key as well, in the event the lock fails.  

We've been using them for about 6 years now with only a few small issues. Not having to chase key copies or deal with broken keys, lost keys, lockouts, etc. leads to the kind of efficiency we value :) 

Just keep track of your programming and user codes and change the codes at turnover.  Also nice is that you can give vendors a one-time use code, delete codes if you need to, etc. 

Hey @Kayla Givens, unfortunately, I don't know muich about Airbnb.  And you're very right, there's always another!  :) Good luck! 

Hi Kayla, 3% down is usually not possible for an investment property, so you are asking where you should buy your primary residence?  Just trying to make sure I understand. 

If you're planning to live in the home and rent it out in the future, the area west of 25 and south of 6 isn't too bad.  We manage a number of properties over there and they do pretty well in terms of stable, long-term tenants.  Appreciation should be decent in that area as well. 

My advice is generally to shoot for a single-family home if you can swing it.  The area you're looking at doesn't have any HOAs, so that's also a plus when investing.  $365 definitely isn't what it was 10 years ago!  I'm sure it's a frustrating process for you to find a property.  If you are open to different areas, Englewood tends to be strong, and so does Littleton.  Parts of Aurora would be great for your budget too.  Even a small single-family home is a great place to start.  

I'm guessing you're working with a Realtor.  If you're not, my very strong advice to you as someone who wants to become an investor is to get your real estate license.  It's pretty easy, doesn't cost that much and you will be paying yourself $10,000 back on that first home.  (2.8% of $365k) That's a lot of money to walk away from, IMO.  

As a Denver area property manager, I really like what @JD Martin suggested. But it sounds like $500 plus the security deposit, however much that is, that would be forfeited. 

It sounds like there may be lease violations that could be enforced by the current PM company, regarding the upstairs tenants. Most likely, the smoking on the premises could be proven by the downstairs tenant and sent to the PM company and the PM company would have an obligation to enforce the lease (assuming smoking inside/on the premises is a lease violation.) 

When does either lease end?  If they can stick it out until the end, they can avoid losing their deposit + $500.