All Forum Posts by: Josh Cissell

@Daniel Lozowy

I'm going to say plainly what the replies above said in between the lines. According to your statements it appears you have zero experience and and you're trying to do a large deal. If you don't know the answers to your first question you don't need to buy a multiple unit property like this. Start with a duplex.

@Nat Chan No way would that guy get paid. I don't care if it took him a month. He screwed up. Putting down the wrong tile is one thing. Mixing two different tiles? Unless there is more to the story than what you told us.... His unwillingness to fix his mistake shows just how terrible he is. If you're supplying the materials he is just out some days of labor? I'd never use him again. He'll screw you again.

As it has been said several times now. Get you a good real estate agent. I only read through the first page of comments but in your few comments I can tell you don't have enough experience to be dealing with a property with major problems. Not trying to be a jerk. Just being honest. You're asking some pretty simple questions that you should know the answers to if you're getting into a property like this. That $22k savings will be gone quick with the problems you're talking about. Water in basements can get really expensive quick.

@Karen S. I think there should be some incentive and disincentive for the property manager regarding late fees. It helps keep people honest. That is why, as I described above, I get to keep the fee if I still get their payment to them by a certain date. Then only my percentage if not. That makes me work hard to get good tenants on the front end and then rewards me the few times that a good tenant is late and it throws off my processes and causes me lots of extra work. I manage for 40 different owners and if one person is late, it throws off the entire process and is a pain. I would much rather have the rent paid on time even though my late fee is $10/day which can add up.

Collecting late rent isn't so cut and dry as it is made out to be above. The theory from some of the guys above sounds good but isn't always the best for your bottom dollar. For instance I manage property in a market that is very cyclical. Meaning there is 1 big move time per year around August 1st. Every lease that I and most any other manager in town have comes due at the end of July. 

If I have a problem tenant that is constantly paying late I would love to serve them an eviction notice. They aren't worth the 10% per month I'm making. But in my case, dealing with someone who is paying even though they are a thorn in my side and are late is much better than having no tenant at all, paying the attorney's fee, court costs, and turnover costs. It's better to ride the lease out and not renew.

I think you should have a conversation with your property manager. They may be doing a great job and saving you lots of dollars and you think because the person is late the property manager isn't doing anything. Or they may be a terrible manager and you should get rid of them. 

Josh

 Can you tell us how Entrata structures their pricing?

@Trung Thai In my opinion you need a program that does two things: 1) keep a full accounting of all the money 2) runs the operations. Most of all the cheaper "online" solutions seem to not have adequate accounting. I don't know about Appfolio because their monthly cost is pretty high so I haven't used them. I would like to take a serious look at it, but at this point I can't justify spending $250/month for software/website. For a small property manager, I've found that the stand-alone version of rent manager is the most economical, is capable of doing anything you need, and is very efficient. I've ended up spending about $400 - $500/year on it. I'm not the biggest fan of their online solution but it works and isn't too expensive either. If you use their online solution and have a website that syncs it will cost you $150/month which is doable. Many people complain that rent manager is complex and not user friendly, but I don't think that is the case. It just has a learning curve. When you're maintaining the books for millions of dollars of investments it will have to be somewhat complex.

Josh

Hi Karen,

That is going to depend on your contract with each property owner. I tell my property owners up front if I am able to schedule their rent payment to them by the 10th or first business day after, I keep the late fee (100%). If I'm not, I only get my percentage of the late fee which isn't worth my time. In your case, I would only get 10% of the fee because it isn't getting to the owner in a timely manner per my process.

Josh