All Forum Posts by: Jeff Costa

+1 to this. It merits its own category.

OK, you got this technologist's attention! It seems like mainstream tech takes years to propagate into real estate. How many years did companies use CRM before REI adopted it, for example? I love that ChatGPT wrote the answer to the question itself - good narrative you put together there. I laughed because it was the same answers I would have given.

The real question is: can Chat GPT write listing descriptions in ALL CAPS?!?

Add in a percentage for PM fees: you may not always want to do it yourself and you need to see the impact on cash flow.  Landlords pay water and sewer, and you have these set to $0. Maint and capex seem far too low.

If you are getting cold feet with everything lined up so well, an in-person visit is likely the only thing that will quiet your mind. You are about to spend several hundred thousand to buy a property; spend a couple $K more to fly out for a day and see it. You can also meet your PM and realtor in person, which helps put a face to the name.

Find an insurance agent in your market, and start a relationship. Then use them (if the quote pencils out) to write a policy.  After that first policy, they will be more likely to help you in the future. I have two policies with a single agent, and he turns new quotes around in 24 hours or less, enabling me to use actual insurance numbers in my pro-forma, making it more accurate.

Also, the more pro-formas you create with actual insurance quotes, the better your "thumb in the air" swag at estimating insurance for a new property becomes over time.

Wordpress on Linode for $5/month with the STR theme you choose.

@Nathan Gesner Your posts are fantastic and provide helpful feedback to many people Don't stop now!!!

A couple of tiny home communities have sprung up in Georgia here and here if you want a reference.

Identical property tax monthly expenses for before/after are suspect here. One percent seems low, and I would expect property tax expenses to increase post-renovation, not remain at 1%

@JJ: Make a copy of my Property Manager checklist, and review it with a prospective PM. Its alot of questions, so you can cherry-pick from them if you desire. I have only had one property manager balk at answering these questions, ever. I did not select them, as they could not make time for me (a telling signal). Often times, reviewing these questions with property managers helps them self-reflect on their business, including things they could be doing better. I even had one thank me for taking them through it!

https://docs.google.com/docume...