All Forum Posts by: Joel Florek

@Haylee Bellamy If your referring to my comment on aligning incentives there is a few things. Lets look at traditional property management structure. They get 10% of income regardless of the occupancy rates. From there you might see a filling fee one months rent and most maintenance, even if its a lightbulb(might be extreme but I have heard crazier things) getting changed often gets passed onto a sub. 

As a landlord I want long term tenants who will treat the property well and pay their bills on time. I will want to be responsive to their needs but conscious of not spending top dollar for every little fix. 

To do this we will provide a commission to the leasing agent based on the occupancy of the property and whether people pay on time. That being said, if they achieve 100% occupancy I dont mind paying 10%. If they achieve 95% occupancy I might only pay 6%. If they achieve 90% occupancy they might get 5%. If they are below 80% occupancy then they may only receive 3%. This way the commission is heavily skewed to reaching 100% occupancy effectively taking my planned vacancy percentage and giving 80% of it to the leasing agent for doing a good job. So in the end I pay very little for property management when I am hitting my planned vacancy each percentage better most gets paid back to my team as a bonus for beating the plan. 

Same thing can be said for the maintenance manager and working within the maintenance budgets. 

@Jeff Chapz @Tracey Hill I am managing the property. There is a maintenance manager on site so I am acting as the leasing agent. Likely only 4 to 6 people moving out each year as most are long term tenants. But I am using Podio to automate my workflows create leases in less then a minute, have applications and inquiries on my website flow right into my Podio database. Little bit of a learning curve to figure out how to set it up but there are so many people using it that youtube has become my best friend. 

@Ramon Huerta@Cathy Hall @Mike Carpenter @Talana Brown @Shavonn Jordan @Raphaele Borie @Tracey Hill @Viv James Thanks all for reaching out, I appreciate the kind words! This kind of reaction helps to keep me motivated to take my business to a whole new level! Im excited to show off my Podio once I get this thing all squared. 

@Joe D. You are absolutely right. When you look at big deals it is definitely a bit scary. I have to thank my employer for helping build up confidence in this area. I have many bids that I am in charge of. The small $100k or less bids don't scare me much given the simplicity in the jobs. However, some of the bids that end up near $50m are very scary for me. Still, we need to put in our bid and ultimately come up with our price the same way we did for the $100k job.

Also, the more you get to know the people who have big properties the more you realize they aren't some genious or super hero. They are average people who took action rather then staying complacent.

I have to give MTU a lot of credit for helping me get a great financial education. There are some fantastic teachers up there and I can say I got some good value for all the dollars and years I spent up there.

@Account Closed Michigan Technological University graduating with a degree in finance.

@Lawrence Smith Will do! 

@Justin H.Thanks! It has been awesome to see the positive responses.

@Hassan Muhammad PM me so we can talk about the deal more. Would love to give you my opinion and see how I might be able to help.

@Haylee Bellamy There is a resident manager on site that takes care of general maintenance and upkeep. I am acting as the leasing agent for the property for now. In the future I will hire that out as I grow. I don't plan to hand over my properties to a property management company ever but plan to find a team to work in my system and align our incentives to achieve the same goal.

@Account Closed PM me with your questions and I will do my best to answer. But for the quotes the important thing is you confirm what the seller is telling you that you will pay for things. Check rates from plumbers, electricians and HVAC techs for service calls. Get you plowing rates, garbage removal, and quotes for major renovation costs like roofs, driveways, or other items that may need work in the near future. These things are often just a 10 minute phone call but they help you to put together a good plan.