All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Dai

@JJ Mayer hope your call goes/went well.  I purchased several properties with Memphis Invest, and have been very happy with them.  There are probably lots of posts on good questions to ask turnkey providers, but since you asked... I felt the most helpful questions I would suggest are:

On rehab/purchase side:

What happens if property underappraises?  What kind of evidence will I get for completion of rehab and addressing inspection deficiencies?  What happens when I want to exit, are there examples of how MI has worked with investors who want to sell?

On the PM side, sounds like you already have some experience, but some questions that might give you more insight:

What's a standard lease document look like?  Do you collect management fee when property is unoccupied or if tenant is delinquent?  How do you qualify tenants?  How do you retain tenants?

Good luck, I look forward to hearing about your experience investing out of state!

Michael L. And Joe Chin did your units end up getting out of abatement? I'm wondering how long it took... for comparison, one unit I had took over 6 months. Still haven't figured out how much of that was due to CHA nitpicking, or tenant issues, or PM responsibility.

Maria Stagart also, make sure to talk with and ask about the folks who will actually be handling property management, if you end up investing in Chicago. Many of the properties offered will likely have section 8 tenants, and the PM needs to be able to resolve inspection issues with CHA and HACC. CHA, in particular, has been difficult to deal with, in my limited experience.

Does anyone have recommendations for home inspectors for the Detroit area and nearby suburbs?

Great episode on how real estate doesn't have to be a full time job! Thanks for having such a variety of angles in the BP podcast.

Welcome, Mike. Thanks for committing to become an active part of the community.

Thanks for sharing, Chris. Hoping you have found a great long-term partner for investing in real estate.

Liz Chen thank you for sharing your experience. I'm interested in hearing which market you end up selecting. Hope you enjoy your real estate journey!

Great podcast episode, covering both business ethics as well as real estate. I'm always impressed when I hear Chris Clothier on one of these podcasts.

Update on property - Letts Property Management has come through on getting one unit off abatement. The other unit is still pending some administrative action with CHA, as far as I understand.

I do get responses from the property manager when I have questions.  It's tough getting answers from anyone else at Letts, though, including the portfolio manager or maintenance or bookkeeping.  I understand that they have limits on their time, and my one property is a (very) small portion of the portfolio.  Still, I've worked with other property management firms that can keep up clear communication.  So, that seems to be the main issue now - communication.

Otherwise, Letts seems to be performing in terms of getting my units off abatement and turning the property back into a performing asset, although this activity has taken more than 5 months now.

Also worth noting - the seller's warranty on the property hasn't been worth anything to me so far.