All Forum Posts by: Kenny Hall

@Gabriel Higuera hey! Let’s connect. I can help! Looking forward to chatting soon.

What do you do with your rental when you're ready to list it for rent? Do you take photos as-is and list it empty or do you stage it before taking photos and listing it? 

I've found greater success in listing a rental property staged. It decreases the days on the market, increases monthly rent and increases the number of tours. Most people are sitting on their couch or at their computer looking for their next place to rent and you want your place to stand out from the rest. Having the property well staged and good photos taken will drive a greater number of inquiries on your property. 

Recently, we had a property sit on the market for almost 80 days. Of course I'm not proud of that. Losing almost 3 months of potential rental income is hard. The property was listed in the middle of the winter so it was a hard time anyway. We were shooting for top dollar rent we should be able to get in the summer. And the house had somewhat of a weird flow. We had almost 40 showings and only a few applications (all which weren't approved). We marketed this property through multiple channels and even dropped the price and it still didn't rent. I decided to offer the client free staging. I got the crew in and out same day, got new photos taken and uploaded them to the listing. The next day I had 8 new tours. I was shocked by the feedback - "This home is so cute", "It's nicer than the other places we visited", and "It has a nice flow into the kitchen". I knew the place had a weird flow but to get feedback specifically about the nice flow! That evening I had two more applications and we accepted a tenant that moved in two weeks later. 

Sometimes a property just needs some help in showing your prospective tenants the potential of the property. People can have a hard time visualizing what it might be like to live there. You can help them by being intentional about staging it.

What do you think? Worth it? I'd love to hear some thoughts on this!

House hacking can definitely work in Indy with duplexes. My wife and I have considered it as well. There are several on College ave that would be a great place to live and have the other side cover at least your mortgage and probably more. If you buy the duplex smart and put the right updates into it, good finishes, good photos for marketing, you can pull some great rent and likely come out ahead with the house hacking. Then once you're able to move on to your personal house, you'll be able to rent out the side you've been living in and likely have that side cover your personal mortgage. Good way to get into it and I think Indy is a good place to do it. Lots of duplexes here, just focus on the right areas/neighborhoods to get the outcome you're looking for.

Hi @Chris Howell! I'm not familiar with NY market but I can speak to the Indy market. It is street to street for sure, especially in certain neighborhoods. But of course, you have your stronger neighborhoods as well that are easier to jump on if something pops up on or off market. Feel free to shoot me a message if you'd like to talk more details.

Hey @Rubin Thomas! Feel free to shoot me a message and we can talk all-things Indy, property management and hone in your criteria. It's definitely doable if you're looking in the right areas and have some money set aside to do some minor rehab to it once the lease is up if/when that happens. Often when you purchase property tenant occupied, it'll come with a lease that is month-to-month so it's in your best interest to get a long term lease signed right away, or decide you want to part ways, do some minor rehab and target a higher rent that aligns with the market. Looking forward to talking more. 

You should ask your PM if they carry these things with them at all times. 

When I'm on the road visiting properties, either for showings or making rounds doing walkthroughs, I've found it frustrating in the past to not have some tools needed to fix quick repairs. I would resort to calling our on-staff maintenance team member and have it addressed. Our maintenance team is very affordable, but it kills me to have a client pay for some simple repairs like a leaky faucet, door knob falling off or not lining up right, bedroom door not closing properly, dryer vent hose fell off, can light came loose, toilet not flushing well, no heating/cooling, the list goes on. Sure no heating or no cooling could be a much bigger issue, but if we're requiring and reminding tenants to be changing filters quarterly the chances of the heating issue being a quick reset on the motherboard or troubleshooting on the thermostat are high. 

Knowing I can make a lot of these repairs on my own, I decided to start carrying the necessary tools needed to make quick changes - if I can fix it with the tools in my bag, in about 10 minutes, I don't charge the client. Saves my handyman time to focus on the bigger issues, and keeps money in my client's pocket. I'll share every tool I carry in a handy tool backpack but here's my top 5 you should ask your PM if they carry with them:

1. Drill or screwdriver. Pretty much every problem requires accessing something that's fastened by a screw. I've gotten to the point where I keep one in my bag, one in my truck and a few at home in different spots. 

2. Channel locks. Often times, a leaky faucet or drain pipe just needs some minor adjusting. Having the channel locks handy allows you to tighten everything up and mitigate that leak pretty quick. (Bonus if you carry some plumbers tape or a few rubber washers in case some have broken or become old and brittle!)

3. Knife or boxcutter. Square off a drywall hole so you can patch it clean, cut open those hard-to-open plastic packaging for a new lockset you're installing...you can always use a knife.

4. Dust pan and brush. You don't want to be leaving a mess behind you when you leave a tenant's home, leave it cleaner than you when you arrived. Or, show up to check on a contractor's work and realize they didn't clean up good enough to your standards? It's always good to have this handy.

5. Electrical wire pliers. Sometimes you run into old switches or need to change out an outlet or light. I like having these on me to make small electrical work quick and simple.

Those are my top 5 tools I carry and have put to use the most. What do you think? Do your PMs carry tools and do quick fixes for you? Do you think a PM should or shouldn't do these things? Would you rather the handyman just go out and fix it? This should probably be a blog post but I'm curious to hear thoughts here. 

Thanks for the input @Alora Glaze! You're close! Directly west of washington park but directly easy of fall creek. Winthrop and Guilford seem to be the streets that are getting the attention right now, with some on Sutherland. There's some run down commercial development around there I'm not sure how much the area can improve until that's developed but just noticing the activity and curious. 

Hey Indy Investors!

I'm looking for advice/thoughts on a smaller pocket in Fall Creek area, southeast of the river and just north of 30th. Looks like there's plenty of activity there right now with a few remodels happening, a few listed on the MLS and I know of a couple off-market opportunities. Seems the money is headed this way but looking for more insight some may have about this pocket. Thanks!

Hey Indy Investors!

I'm looking for advice/thoughts on a smaller pocket in Fall Creek area, southeast of the river and just north of 30th. Looks like there's plenty of activity there right now with a few remodels happening, a few listed on the MLS and I know of a couple off-market opportunities. Seems the money is headed this way but looking for more insight some may have about this pocket. Thanks!

Hi Lisa! Sounds like Cozy - it's $40/person and runs a background check and credit check. I use Cozy for rent collection, maintenance requests and tenant screening. Prospective tenants and current tenants love it and like how easy it is to work with.