All Forum Posts by: Kim Younkin

@David Marsceau, perhaps you'll want to tell people more about your investment goals first. What type of investment are you looking for? SFH, MFH? In what price range? Are you flipping or buy-and-holding? If you give more information you'll get better feedback. Here's a BP post on "driving for dollars" -- a super cheap way to find distressed and abandoned properties if that's your goal: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/05/03/driving-for-dollars-bible-part-1/.

Hi @Nicholas Dill! Nate Busch is who we use--he owns his own real estate investments as well and our broker has been very happy with his services. 

@Ryan Naylor that model sounds inherently efficient if you're providing three services in one fee for an owner or PM. Takes away a major headache in finding three different service providers, supervising them, paying them, coordinating all three again if something needs redone. Our PM company is small-- we have hired people separately to clean and to paint, and we once had someone who did both at one time (our maintenance staff does the repair stuff). We've hired typically from Craigslist and word of mouth. I think that our biggest problem has been speed. Not that we want shoddy painting done, but we're in business to rent apartments for our investors and we want to turn them around quickly. Offer a quality service package, do it reasonably quickly and right the first time, and you'd have a winner. My two cents! Good luck.

@Robert Lacey we use the county auditor's website that you can search by zip code. Whichever county agency houses the recorded deeds will have that public info for you.

Hi @Tim Dye, I'm also in Cbus, and we were searching for maintenance techs for several months; I posted here since it's a varied crowd and people have lots of skill sets. I didn't get any responses, but I did reach out to a few people who identified as maintenance techs in their profiles and asked them for their input on the position we were hiring for (they responded with good thoughts).  I don't really think there are any cons--you're going to vet people just like you would anyone from Monster or Indeed. Might as well take advantage of your Pro membership and see what happens. 

Want to PM with me with the kind of person you're looking for/job description, or let me know when you post the ad? Recently we've interviewed lots of people for maintenance and admin assistants and I might be able to help.

Hi @Sigmund Reboquio...our investor clients have used Todd Helpbringer at Helpbringer Mortgage and been happy with his offerings. You can Google him (Columbus). Good luck!

Yep @Nikki Grizzle, there can be nightmares on both sides, that's for sure. It sounds like you're going to have a successful investment portfolio in your future with your work ethic! Best of luck to you and thanks for the post for new investors. 

Welcome to BP @Clayton Anderson! It sounds like you're ready to go. We think you're always better off house hacking on a duplex because of the potential for 2 rental incomes in the future when you move out. If that's what you really want, wait for the right one; it'll happen. And we're getting into springtime now--you might just find one as listings pick up. Good luck!

@Nikki Grizzle I think you put up a really good post for new investors...

It's like any other professional service you get--you're not going to hire a domestic attorney to draft your will or an eye doctor to operate on your ACL. I'm not sure why newer investors sometimes think that all realtors know about investing. It might be because some realtors will tell you they know about investing because they want the business, planning to "cram for the test" (so to speak) as they go. I work for a brokerage that ONLY works with real estate investors and I always try to tell people here on BP to search for those types of agents and brokers. Sometimes local real estate associations will list them that way in directories, but ultimately, investors just need to know how to ask the right questions when they're looking for a realtor. 

You're welcome @Markian Sich. I will PM you with a few names of people. You can let me know what your price range is for legal fees, too...