All Forum Posts by: Mark Douglas

2 Getting to know your properties really well helps you make informed decisions efficiently.

These are all great points. I'm in the process of buying my first investment, owner occupied small multi family. I'm personally leaning toward a management company because they typically handle leases, screenings, evictions etc. Also, if at all possible, I don't want my co-tenants knowing I own the property. Has anybody used PMs for this reason? 

Pretty much what Russel said. If they're in your name or a single LLC, then one account would be adequate. Good record keeping is the key.

It is good to keep your business account set up separately from your personal acct. however with a good software package such as quick books by intuit you do not need to have a separate bank account for each property. In fact I strongly recommend you do not have a separate account for each property. You should also be looking into doing your real estate business under a dba or setting up a LLC. If you don't have any accounting exp take a course

I have my personal account....then I have one business checking account. All the rents, and all my agent commission checks go into it. I think having an account for each property is overkill most likely. That is with the caveat that you own the properties in your own name.  If each property is owner by individual llc's, then each one would need their own accounts.

@Mark Douglas I'm somewhat in the same quandary right now myself. I've been rehabbing homes for resale to build up the capital to start accumulating and building a rental portfolio. Even though I'm doing REI full-time, I'm leaning more towards finding a property management person/firm even for the 3-4 properties I'm presently trying to close on to rehab-to-rent. For me, it isn't a function of how many doors should one own before it makes sense economically to hire a professional, even though that is how this question is almost always answered and addressed in these forums. My business plan & strategy is to buy C/D properties in the "path of progress", rehab up to rental grade for the area, and keep renters in those properties for the 2-5 years the property values appreciate and then renovate those properties again for resell after they've doubled or tripled in value. Even after acquiring and rehabbing the first one, I will find a property manager even for that one because my investment play isn't cashflow (although all will cashflow even with 7.5% - 10% property management fees), it is to build equity through appreciation. If all goes according to plan (and when does that ever happen? lol), I will be able to resell all in a few years and do a 1031 exchange to defer capital gains and purchase an apartment building somewhere near the beach. (Now if my strategy was buying A/B properties, and cashflow was my primary objective, I would indeed manage those properties myself until it became unmanageable for me. The type of tenant, however, in a C/D property is a different animal than those renting A/B properties... so I've been told.)

So, a long-winded response to say the number of units or doors should not be your only consideration in determining to self-manage or not.

Good luck!