All Forum Posts by: Julie Marquez

@Chris Sweeney Welcome to RE investing an Bigger Pockets! My career field is also construction project management, working for a general contractor. I did a lot of office remodels, and then a large school. I think real estate work will be an easy transition for you. For investing in this area, we go north an hour to Skagit County (which is also getting too expensive). We rehabbed our primary house and are now building a duplex from the purchase of an off market lot, all with owner occupied financing from a portfolio lender. I think you have a great edge up on real estate construction!

We manage our own properties in Skagit, but I know of about 15 PMs in the area. Search BP because I wrote out the list on another forum thread. You can interview them all and see who you like best and what fits for your criteria. I've talked to Piazza who manages about 700 properties in the area. I have done a little work with Preview Properties and can recommend Eric and his team.

I've only worked with one guy in the area, but I thought he was excellent, fair pricing, and very thurough.

http://www.fleshmaninspections.com/default.htm

@Zachary Pilz What a cool opportunity! Through all of your research did you come across any investors, any money people? There could be some private money in your area. If it is a solid deal there could be an investor with some private money to fund the deals. Is there a real estate networking group in your area? Keep telling everyone you know. If you shared the area, maybe you could find interested parties here on BP.

@Maurice Cariaso Did you check out @Nathan Gesner's website? So much great information there! One of my new favorite line items is that your new rent can't be more than 25% more than your previous rent.

@Jim Adrian So far I've scared off a lot of applicants, but I guess that's better than getting a bad one and doing this turnover thing again in two months. Score sheet is new for me, I'll look into that more too.

@Nathan Gesner Thanks so much for the response, as I write it and it makes sense to me to be very specific and has already made it easier for me to get the better tenant.

I love your scoresheet! How has that worked for you? It seems to take away the human opinion and discretion. Your website is very helpful!

In Washington State, you must present each potential applicant with your rental screening criteria (aka acceptance policy). I am fine tuning my form for our C/B class apartments and am wondering what is best: a page of general things, or a super specific criteria? Our applicant pool is not coming up the greatest and I'd like to prevent so much turnover in the future. While our apartments are not designed to attract the cream of the crop, do I create a criteria that demands better, or just be a little more loose and general? To all the PMs, how specific do you get?

Super specific:

https://www.rentalswpm.com/requirements/

Kind of more general:

https://madeson.appfolio.com/listings/rental_appli...

@marcia maynard shared a good one:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/Marcia/fi...

@Derek Meehan I just want to thank you again for stopping by and hanging out during one of our busiest open houses, and even changing the locks! I'm sure my dad talked your ear off, but any time you want more real estate stories, feel free to stop by, we will have another open house in the future. Good luck with your endeavors, I think that is a fabulous idea, and I know you will succeed!

And to anyone else looking to get into real estate - do what Derek did. He said he was willing to work, so I invited him to an apartment open house, and he basically got 3 hours of mentoring from a seasoned investor (that's my dad, not me).

@Grace P. We are in Skagit and use Legg & Watne for our taxes, but I don't believe he is a real estate specialists, but does just fine in our small real estate business and is a great accountant. I'm following along on this thread to see what others recommend, but have though of going out of the county to get more specialized real estate advice.

@Nathan Gesner I definitely agree about your assessment of SF vs. MF. Our MF is an ongoing work load while the SF are set and forget.