All Forum Posts by: Marina Shlomov

Hello BP folks,

I am looking for a lender to cash out a few of my rentals in Atlanta. Do you have any suggestions on reputable lenders?

Hi Bryson,

I have written many articles on this topic on my blog. I am a property investor as well as the owner of a property management company. Started out just like you, with a few rentals, and a couple of years later found myself managing over 50 properties. There are up and downs to property management, but I am lucky that we also own a construction company that does all the maintenance on now more than 50 homes. I focus on the Atlanta market, but the strategies are applicable to any market.

Good luck.

Marina

Hello Lane,

we do property management in Atlanta. Please check out our site at www,alhpodand.com

Hope to hear from you.

Marina

We do our evictions ourselves. We email the letter (I have it in the lease as one of the methods of communication) and follow up with a registered and non-registered letter. Usually, after the email, the rent is paid, if not, at the end of the given time, I go to the appropriate county office to file the documents, I also use an expediting service to serve the papers (they are approved by the county) and service is done in 24 hours. Then wait for the court notification and go to court on the appointed date. 

Our servers charge only $25 more then the county sheriff and work within 24 hours, I think its money well spent. The rest of the process is pretty simple.

I think most states (I am not sure about that) require certified mail, which is still simpler than hand delivery.

Check your states statutes about the dispossessory notifications. Actually, on landlordology.com there is an article on each states statutes. Read up on yours. It helps a lot with knowing the legal requirements.

Good luck to you.

Marina

I work with Propertyware, but for smaller landlords it can be a bit pricey. Cozy.co is a great software solution for a smaller landlord. There is also Appfolio.com and Buiduim.com. There are more smaller companies out there, but Propertyware is amazing with reporting and flexibility that you might need. Appfolio is simpler to use, a bit cheaper, but a whole lot less flexible. It's meant for a complete novice. Builduim is kind of in between Propertyware and Appfolio. Didn't use it, but heard that it's a bit limiting. I know nothing about pricing.

I hope I've given you plenty of information. Good luck.

Marina

Hi Carol,

It sounds like you need a little vacation! Landlording can be overwhelming at times and taking a weekend off would do wonders for you. Now, as far as dealing with tenants, I always tell them that I work for the landlord, this puts you a step away from feelings and emotions. It makes it simpler to say no, to enforce something, as you are just "supposedly" working for the landlord and just doing your job. It also makes the tenants sympathetic to you as it seems that you are no longer the "bad landlord" and just someone trying to make a living "just like them". Try it out. It has worked great for me for almost 8 years.

Good luck,

Marina

Hi Eli,

From my experience, it's easier to have section 8 pay the full amount. When a tenant works, section 8 does a yearly review and changes the amount they pay every year. Sometimes even more often. 95% of my section 8 tenants who had to pay the difference, I've always had problems with payments. It seems to be simpler and more reliable when section 8 pays the full amount. 

Do make sure that you run your section 8 tenants credit and references. I've had a lot of issues with section 8 tenants. If you do choose a section 8 tenant, make sure you do quarterly inspections of the property. I'll be posting a video of a section 8 inspection shortly, and the house is destroyed! Over $25,000 worth of damages. This is the second time it happened. 

We have stopped accepting Section 8 tenants into our properties for most areas of Atlanta. There are a few left in an area where we couldn't get anyone else, so we are still renting out to section 8 tenants, a lot more cautious. I'll be checking police reports in the area where they used to live (just learned to do so with the section 8 tenants) for disturbances and violet behavior in addition to the regular screening.

I hope that helps in answering your question.

Marina

Hi Eli,

I wouldn't accept a tenant whose only information I had was a name. There are too many issues with section 8 tenants and you need to be prepared to deal with the whole Section 8 paperwork as well as the tenant. @Lucas Hall is right, I wouldn't turn over my investment either. Get the application, do the screening (and at this point, I'd insist on doing the screening myself) and then make a decision. Sounds fishy. I wouldn't accept just a name. Section 8 tenants are harder to evict then a normal tenant. Landlord, we aware!

Marina

I have seen a site called Cozy.com. This site is owned by Lucas Hall who writes a lot of articles on landlording. Prices seem to be reasonable and services are vast. Check them out.

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