All Forum Posts by: Laticia Braxton

I just started with Buildium not long ago and in my opinion, the accounting features and ability to receive and send all payments electronically are worth the $45/month alone.  You will have to get the "add-ons" for the inspections with photos and the electronic lease signing, but you could price other companies such as Docusign to see how much they charge for that piece.  I, personally, have my own customized inspection form and take my pictures with my phone and just upload when I get back to the office. I actually prefer that method because I'm a little old school LOL!   The system can handle everything else you mentioned.  The tutorials are also really great and their customer service is as well.  Once I get several hundred I may consider Appfolio but I am completely satisfied for now.  

Best of luck to you!

Hi Kim. Congrats on your journey! I have a really great 203k expert. Sending you a colleague request now :-)

Hi Mike!  I actually just signed up early last week and am going through the accounting webinars right now LOL!  

I can tell you that the training videos on Buildium Academy are great!  It appears as long as you enter all of your tax information at set-up time (you can enter it at anytime but they suggest you do it early), tax time will be effortless.   I chose Buildium for the same cost reasons and am glad I did!  Would love to answer any other questions and get the statement credit :-)

Laticia

You definitely need to start the eviction proceedings as soon as possible. Send her a letter via certified mail demanding full payment of all money owed,  that she is now in default and you are now filing for an eviction.  If she owes you July, August and now September rent, you should be demanding July & August at a minimum.  Hopefully, it will scare her into paying you something. If she doesn't budge, you just go to court.   As long as your lease terms are clear, you shouldn't have a problem getting the judgement in rent court.  Make sure you have a clean ledger of what she owes and what she's paid as you will need that.  

When you allowed her to negotiate payment terms, she realized she had room to play and that's exactly what she's doing.  Never let them play on your heartstrings because you end up getting burned 99% of the time. The more money she owes you, the more unlikely it is that she will ever be able to pay you.  Don't delay, start tomorrow and don't be afraid to be the "mean landlord" that gets his rent on time going forward.

Best of luck to you!

@Andrew Johnson "If your DNA is such that you get small heart attacks if you think you could have saved $10 on HVAC service by using a coupon you found a week later...don't invest remotely and don't use a PM"

I could not have said it better myself!  Coming from a very experienced property manager who has dealt with investors EXACTLY like that, you should definitely self-manage if this is your personality. Your PM will grow to dislike you as a client and will want to fire you before you can fire him/her for sure LOL! 

I would, however, suggest you at least find a PM who offers inspection only services so that you have property conditions documented with a report and pictures.  As we all know, tenants can change on you but if you here someone to do regular inspections (and require them to show you they are actually doing those inspections), you will sleep better at night :-)

Best of luck to you!

Wow!  The good news is that you're only 45 minutes down the road so you can keep an eye on it throughout this process but you absolutely need to get this project completed ASAP.  Let me know if you would like a few local contractors to call and interview or need any other help.

Best of luck to you!

My pleasure!  I totally understand your strategy.  Some training at KW is mandatory and basically all is geared toward agent sales success.  I hope you are able to find a broker that suits your needs :-)

I would first verify that all of these repairs and replacements are actually needed.  Your PM knows you are overseas and are unable to check the validity of his/her repair list and estimate yourself.  Sometimes people get greedy and take advantage of the very people who are feeding them.  For an estimate of this size, you absolutely need a second opinion on the necessity of the repairs and you also need comparison pricing. 

In six years, you should have had at least 6 inspection reports, the move out inspection should not have been the first one.  All of that trash didn't land there in one day or one month - it sounds like your property wasn't being monitored.  Some of the items on the list are indeed normal wear and tear items, but many are still really overpriced (at least for our market).  

Make sure going forward you require them to send you written reports backed with date/time stamped photos.  It will not stop your tenants from trashing your place after the inspections, but at least you will sleep much better knowing the condition of your property at that time.  

Lastly, your PM should be providing you with a yearly budget which properly accounts for future repair contingencies and capital expenditures, per his/her recommendation. If it's budgeted and the funds are there, things like this won't be such a huge pill to swallow.

Best of luck to you!

Great advice here.  There are also quite a few free tenant screening services that you can use if you don't have a large number of units.  I am not sure if I can post the sites so just Google "free tenant screening".  

I would add that you should ALWAYS verify previous landlord references and don't forget that they could actually just be friends or family members so you should always run the address through your state's real property data search just to make sure the owner of the property matches the name they gave as their landlord. 

@Jeff G. "Jerk is not a protected class"!!! I love it! Thanks for the afternoon laugh!

Best of luck to you!

Hi Jackie and congratulations!  Let me know if you need any help with the pre-licensing course and preparing for the exams. I remember those days all too well LOL!  

With regard to your question about a broker, your best bet is to connect with a broker who offers great training. I don't believe it's necessary for you to go into too much detail about your investment goals initially, as it may deter some brokers from welcoming you.  I had a few who weren't interested in me when I first got licensed because I was a dual career agent and they only wanted full time agents who could dedicate all of their energy toward sales.  That leap took a little over a year for me but I of course went with a broker who was willing to wait until I was ready. 

I would suggest you interview with several brokers simply as a new agent and not an investor. Walk around the office, get a vibe for the culture, talk to a few people about their experience and see how you feel after the meeting.  I'm here if you need me and best of luck to you!