All Forum Posts by: Jarrod Kohl

I really love Buildium and we use it for the properties that we manage, but I know that the company I work with in Ohio uses and loves Rentmanager.  

I agree that you should run the demos of all three and take your pick from there, in the end they should be pretty similar.

As much as it would be useful to have the option to turn it down, in MA there are very few reasons you would be able to deny section 8.

Make sure that BEFORE you sign anything with section 8 that your whole rent would be covered, as in the total rental amount did not lower.  You may also ask to re-sign a new lease and make sure to notify section 8 every year of rent increases.  It is certainly more of a process and you must make sure to do paperwork correctly, but it is not a bad program, just some more leg work for you to get set up.  

Just to add to this, if they start shorting the rent, you should send them notice to quit immediately.  Make sure that you have money coming in from both parties before they just start paying you less.

 TO add to what Russell said:

If you are buying a fixer-upper and looking to add value it probably has a lower cap rate. If it had a perfect cap rate, how would you add value to it?

To the OP, as others have said, that is quite the list.  I personally would choose Ohio or MA, but that is because I have great property managers/rehab teams in both locations.  If you are doing out of market deals it is sometimes better to find something where you know somebody. 

Not sure about Maryland specifically, but you should be able to get some of those forms from the real estate board or online.  

Those look great! 

I would send one word of caution, the open ceilings look very good and certainly work well in a one bed.  If you decide to do any 2+ beds I would think twice before leaving it open like that.  I have a property with an open ceiling it looks beautiful, but everything always sounds like they are in the room with you.

When you say they will all rent for $600 is that as is? If so I would get the properties cleaned up and get them rented asap. 

Otherwise as others have stated, pick 1 (maybe 2) and sell the other properties. Do minor rehab to fix them up, or just do the clean-up/demo if they are in rough shape and sell them for a small profit. 

Ideally if you have three, you clean up one outside and in and sell it to an investor.  You take the second one and fix it up enough to get it rented so it is generating cash.  The third and best one, you use the money from the first two to either do a full reno, or if you are still short, fix enough for a rental and get more cash flow.

Here is the caveat though.  I would not rent any of them until you are sure that they are in ok shape.  If you scrape by and have no money and rent one, you could put yourself in a very bad spot.  If you have a tenant who stops paying (eviction lawyer) or a major appliance/furnace breaks, that could spell trouble.  So I would still recommend selling one of the properties and trying to grab some cash for it.  

 I believe it is just a bad use of phrase.  They are just doing a remodel or "flip" though both terms: inflated and flip can be seen as negative.  In reality they are updating and adding value, I am not the OP but at least that is what I am assuming from the post.

 I think the key here is Trusted PM.  I have also worked for several companies and now I have started my own (so yes probably bias) thing is those relationships that you mention can also mean a better price.  One of the companies that I previously worked with could get plumbing and electric work done quicker, cheaper and better than a normal property owner could, since we gave them so much work that it was in their best interest to give us their best prices. It is hard to have that clout with a vendor without either a relationship or a promise of future volume work, both of which are easier to achieve as a PM company than an individual. 

I would not say that all PM companies are good at this, and sometimes certainly they will use the same companies out of laziness or personal ties, but not often.  Hiring a property management company is not right for all investors, but as you start to want to become more hands off (or need too because of volume) a great property management company can become invaluable.  

@Mark Vandzura

I was trying to say that it would be much more expensive to hire a person to manage than it would be to hire a management company.  Between training and the other things that would possibly be needed (like licensing) it would probably be much simpler to hire a management company.  

The exception would be if you would need an assistant for other things as well and were thinking about hiring one anyway.  Perhaps this could put off using a PM for a few more properties or months.

If you have multiple properties you are in a great position to answer your own question.  Before you bring on an assistant to be a jack of all trades, maybe it makes sense to pay a PM for one or two of your properties and see how it goes.  

Yes it does "cost" more than what you are currently paying.  But I don't believe that it would cost less than hiring solid full time help.  I personally would go the PM route, just make sure to find a good one.  I say this as an investor and a property manager though.