All Forum Posts by: Jessie Dillon

i'm buying in the austin neighborhood of chicago and subsidy programs are great there. not a LL-friendly state though.

for 100 units, i feel you should absolutely 100% have professional PM in place. you could hire someone in-house and train them to your liking to cut the cost down if you want to invest the time up front. but holy moly, self-managing 100 units just creates a new full time job for you guys, and NO ONE is left to sit in the ASSET manager role. that's the role you guys should be in. also note that commercial lenders usually make you have a PM agreement in place before closing, and 10% is high for most areas.

- engaging a ton in local investor fb groups

- paid google ads 

- possibly paid fb ads

- a really great website

- going to local rei networking events

- a great referral program

- incentives for clients posting about you in local investor fb groups / leaving you online reviews

my first thought would be "if/when other tenants in the building find out about this new tenant's past, will they want to leave?" ...if it could lead to a surge in vacancy and turnovers for me, i'd be weary. but if your average resident wouldn't really care, i'd probably give them a chance! be mindful of any local laws around what you can/can't deny a tenant over. be sure to touch base with a RE attorney.

1. i look up similar units for rent and prefer to keep mine a little under market, to entice them to stay. turnovers can be expensive. 

2. if the woman is still on the lease and the kids are all over 18, i wouldn't worry, i would just be sure to continue doing annual (or maybe even more frequent) "checks for deferred maintenance / furnace filter changes" to keep an eye on the place. she's still legally on the hook for rent and the kids are legal adults. if the bong was in the shed, be happy it wasn't in the house mid-use. being worried that one person moved out and is still on the lease (but isn't trying to get off of it), and that people might be smoking weed outside, doesn't justify a rent increase.. you could just a) contact the mom and ask her if she is still living in the unit, and if she's not, let her know that since she is still on the lease she is still responsible for the unit and you just wanted to make her aware of that and ensure that she feels the property is in good hands, and gently remind her that smoking is not permitted inside. i wouldn't call the shed 'inside' though. if your lease didn't clarify, then they didn't do anything wrong.

self-managing one STR from afar is super easy. with the proper systems and automation it should not take up more than 2h of your time per week, and that's with you never going there. i don't think it's wise to do turnovers/cleans yourself even if you're trying to save money, because you're not a professional cleaner (i'm assuming) so guaranteed you wouldn't do it quite as well as a professional + would run into issues accordingly.

i'd suggest having it in your corporate lease agreement that the person renting from you handles all maintenance calls + coordinates and pays for repairs under $___. i would also have them get renters insurance with a company who knows what they're doing with the property, and make sure YOUR homeowners insurance company is aware and would cover you. also consider whether or not you want to share a wall with an airbnb. i probably would not.

some things to note:

- you probably can not turn around and say the tenants who are in leases have to suddenly pay for those utilities, if it's in their lease that they don't have to. this might be something you can only put into effect as leases expire.

- in some states, there are very specific rules about when/how you can charge tenants for water. in MA, there is a specific way you have to submeter it. something to check on.

- the cost of having this done could be a huge burden. get a few quotes, then weigh them with the option of just increasing rent to "market rate plus heat" (water is USUALLY included for tenants in multifamily properties), and consider adding nest thermostats throughout so that you can control the max temp.

there are attachments you can buy to put on the machines, but i'd imagine machines not designed for those attachments might be easy to mess with. i'd suggest putting sec cameras in your laundry area if you're going to do this. if your machines are older, consider just replacing them with actual commercial coin op machines.

i would connect with a RE attorney in your state! it'll be hard for anyone not local and experienced in CA to give a real legit answer here, especially as all the nuances of landlord/tenant laws are always changing. best to CYA.