All Forum Posts by: Kim Younkin

@Katie Shults, our criminal criteria for rentals is no felonies or misdemeanors of a drug or violent nature. You'll have to think about what you want your policy to be. Was it an aggravated offense with a weapon? If not, then think about whether he qualifies in all other ways. Maybe check his eviction history too, because that could be a deal-breaker on its own--our criteria is any eviction MUST have a zero balance and there must be 2 clean years of rental history. If he passes all of the credit and eviction criteria and has sufficient income for your standards and the drug offense wasn't violent, maybe those things weigh in his favor that he'll be a good tenant? Good luck! 

Hi @Chris Trull, here is a link to a thread I was on the other day where a similar issue was addressed. Hope it helps you! https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/87/topics/438029-sales-letter-feedback---tax-delinquents?page=1#p2731842

Congrats @Cassidy Burns! That's awesome about your new investments. I would have the tenants sign one-year leases so you have standard business practices across the board with all of your tenants and can avoid any other hassles that might come with a month-to-month tenancy. (Just make sure you give the appropriate legal notice to your tenants.) If they've been in those units for at least a year anyway, they probably won't mind. You could give them a little perk like a grocery gift card or something as a thank-you, and then just be a great landlord so they want to stay with you even longer than that. Also maybe let them know that you will work with them in a reasonable manner if they get into trouble with timely rent payments? Your call. Just my two cents and good luck!

Hi @Cassidy Burns...I wonder how many units you have? My thoughts are that month-to-month leases are way too much admin work for a landlord, and handshake rental agreements are never a good idea. We manage some C class properties in lower income areas and all of our leases run for 12+ months. We do work with tenants on payment arrangements in certain circumstances to keep them out of eviction.

Hi @Todd C....I've seen a handful of threads like yours in the last year, so my thoughts are to use the search feature and hunt around for them. Lots of opinions and interesting reading on here so that you might not have to reinvent the wheel. Maybe just put "property management" in the search bar and browse through? Good luck with your research!

@Lauren M. I have an acquaintance who uses 123Landlord.com and he loves it. He has about 10 tenants and self-manages. There's a free version and a $13/mo version that might interest you. Good luck!

@Daniel Paloscio, I like the angle of putting the delinquency in with a bag of other issues to protect a person's pride and perhaps create more willingness on their part to get in touch with your company. The copy is fantastic; I'd just make sure it fits on a page and doesn't look like too much to read. Good stuff; good luck!

I have to agree with the posters on basically everything. I've worked for two years creating and populating social media and we have not gotten a single tenant or new investor via that route. (But I keep doing it!) Our new investor clients come from here on BP, word of mouth, and local networking, and tenants come from yard signs and Craigslist/Zillow. However, I do think that if you DON'T have social media accounts that are active and add value, your credibility can be affected. I know that for myself, if I'm interested in a product or service and their website is outdated, they haven't written a blog post in two years, and their social media accounts were opened in 2011 and not populated, then I "bounce." Not only does (updated) social media give your potential clients easy contact with you, it gives you and your business credibility in this techno age. 

Maybe tax delinquencies??

@Leo Gonzalez, I've had the same question since I've been a BP member bc I work with agents who help people buy MFH properties. I've considered direct mail to small MFH owners in a target area but that's the thing that holds me back from spending the money--I'm not convinced there are a lot of MFH owners with equity who are motivated to sell--and if they are it's because the property is a hot mess. I talked with an investor last week who wanted out of 3 SFH properties for cash to buy a larger MFH; maybe smaller MFH owners want to do the same? But how many of those people are there, really? I feel like it's a great method for targeting motivated SFH owners but not so much MFH owners. I'd love to hear others' comments because I've had the same question for so long. Thanks for asking it!