All Forum Posts by: Jason Hsun

@Randall Alan  Very well said and I couldn't agree with you more!  I invest extremely remote and went through years of poor management from three different PMs - finally gave up and self-managed from a distance, but the key was going through those previous years "paying tuition" and finally having enough experience getting to know people in the area and assembled my own team on the ground in the form of a local handyman and his wife who helps with showings, then a slew of various trades and technicians who can fix things that my handyman can't.  

Your advice still holds true though, as my situation doesn't come to fruition overnight.

Quote from @Michael Garofalo:

@Sara Zelkovic congrats on getting started! Pittsburgh is an amazing city and fantastic market for residential buy-and-hold. I actually started purchasing multifamily in Pittsburgh about 7 years ago, and manage all of my units remotely from Washington DC (currently 32 in total). 

For what its worth, I interviewed over a dozen property managers and went through 3 of them over the course of almost 5 years before deciding I had had enough and made the switch to self-management. 

Happy to connect more offline if you would like more specifics. I can also give you my thoughts on specific neighborhoods (including the ones you mentioned) and answer any other questions you might have involving out-of-state ownership and management for properties in the city. 

 @Sara Zelkovic Being that I once was in your shoes sharing both characteristics, new to real estate and out-of-state (for me out-of-country), and knowing what I know today, I would recommend you self-manage once you have acquired your first property.  There is a lot pain, frustration, and VALUABLE lessons learned from hiring a property manager (in my case, 3) which will eventually be instrumental in forming your thoughts and beliefs, not only about investing in and operating rentals, but real estate in general.

From a financial standpoint, you will be in total control and have no one else to blame when things go south, but at least you were the one calling the shots and yes, we all learn from our mistakes.  Just like @Michael Garofalo my backstory is very much like his, starting in 2017 in Pittsburgh and only with half as many units there - went through three PMs and eventually started to self manage last year after having enough.

Please reach out if you have any other questions.  More than happy to help out.

Quote from @Matt Dingus:

Hey what's up Sebastiano,

You picked a great city and market with Pittsburgh. I agree with the areas Jeremy mentioned above. Couple thoughts and suggestions if it helps. BRRRRs in general can be tough to find any more in today's market that pencil out, unless you're ok with leaving a chunk of $$ in the deal. A 2-4 unit BRRRR deal where you pull all of your cash out is a home-run. It can be very tough to find those deals because A) Most 2-4 units are occupied so you can't go in right away and start swinging hammers and renovate all the units and I'd say B) Because most of them aren't totally distressed where there's enough value-add potential, especially in the somewhat decent areas (different story in the D-F areas).

With that being said, I would certainly still target this as your goal for your first deal here because it can certainly be done and would be awesome. However, I would invite you to open your buy box a bit and include single family homes as well. The cash flow may not be as nice on the backend as they are with the multis, but I think the key here is there will be a lot more opportunities for you to get a deal done. Plus there's a large demand for single family home rentals here, the tenants stay longer, pay all utilities...among some other benefits compared to the 2-4's.

So in my opinion, that's one of the most important things to consider when you're first getting started is to start doing deals, get experience, grow your team, etc. - if you're someone that wants to grow a large portfolio and continue doing rehab projects. More important to me than finding the perfect deal is to get the reps and create those opportunities to do so. Hope that helps a bit. Reach out if you'd have further questions.

 I agree with all this especially the part about property type.  Here is what I would look out for:

(1) Real Estate Taxes - some boroughs have super high school board taxes - so look out for that especially when you're buying from a seller whose bought the property decades ago - you're going to get reassessed.

(2) Side-by-side duplex or townhouse is going to be WAY better than up/down duplexes. Townhouses have the privacy that long-term tenants are looking for if they can't afford a SFH, but allow you to cover part of your debt service if you have 50% vacancy.

(3) If you can and have the time, self-manage your properties!

@Juan Carlos CR If you're able to, self manage!  Yes, it's a loaded response and easier said, but you will be much better off.

My properties are in Pittsburgh and I have found that Zillow and Apartments.com to be decent tenant lead generators.  Both are free, you just need to refresh or deactivate/reactive your listing for a few minutes each day to keep your listing on top. 

As for the residential lease, once you have a prospective tenant and you prescreened them, use Apartments.com for taking in online rental applications and use it as your property management platform - it's free and it helps you generate leases once you approve an application - you can also generate lease renewal and collect rent on there.  

Has everyone noticed that the rental market in PGH been especially difficult this year? My properties are in Brentwood, used to be able to get many applicants, but now it's just a trickle in the height of summer and quality of tenants is less than desirable and with much longer DOM.  It seems that good, decent, qualified tenants have the pick of the litter, often flaky and uncommitted when there is so much supply out there.  I understand that rent price is a huge factor, but there is only so much room you can lower it before all you attract is the wrong crowd. 

What has everyone been doing to deal with this reality?

Quote from @Allan C.:

@Mary Jay you’ve got all the good feedback that you need, so I’ll share a tactic that i use in todays market. I’m in same situation as you where I used to get top dollar B-class tenants and vacancies filled within a week. However, these past few months I’ve had slow showings and 30+ DOM to rent.

For my last two vacancies I dropped rent 10% below market. I’d rather get more applicants and choose better quality than deal with higher risk. I now see competitor listings at 60+ DOM, so their extra month vacancy already exceeds losses from lower rent…. and they’ll likely settle with a worse tenant.

Play chess, not checkers. Vacancy (either through longer DOM, unpaid rent or evictions) is your biggest enemy. Don’t anchor so much on maximizing rent price.

I am in the same boat and completely agree with you in that the rental market does seem to be changing quite a bit in recent times- much more difficult to get good qualified tenants these days and decent tenants seem to have their pick of the litter - often very flaky and uncommitted because there is so much supply out there.

Rent price is definitely a key issue but what's the more likely outcome of a significant drop in rent price below market? - attracting the wrong type of tenants or actually capturing those with decent credit looking for a deal?

Look into Fulton Grace.  I used them before and then self-managed because tenant & property was low-maintenance.  They were OK, but it really depends on which property manager in their team gets assigned to you.  PM is always trial and error.  There's never going to be a perfect one.

@Kristina Modares Hey Kristina, just curious, what part of 30A is your property?

@Chris K. when you say world class beaches, are you referring to NW or SW FL?