All Forum Posts by: Mary M.

sorry for the extra post - there is no "business law' that says you must charge as much as possible. If you do a market survey of any type of business you will find a variety of pricing even for similar products.   I personally charge what I feel is a fair price - it is not the highest price out there even tho my apartments are top of the line and well maintained...  instead I prefer to be in the middle of the pack and do my utmost to keep my apartments filled with a waiting list :)   

@Bruce Woodruff you are not taking into consideration vacancy costs and the cost to flip/renovate the unit, the cost the PM charges to rent the unit (usually half to all of one months rent) .   I have generally found that its always better to keep a tenant if you can raise the rent gradually than to boot them and deal with costs associated  with vacancies. 

@Matthew Chalfant  I just did a global rent increase o my portfolio - I did 3-8% depending on the unit, the current rent, and the current market rate rent.  I dont like to penalize tenants for being good tenants, but with my bills increasing I had to pass some of this along. 

your PM is suggesting  a 23% rent increase.  Does this seem fair to you?  if they leave  you will have costs associated with flipping the unit and vacancy costs.... the cost to have your PM re lease it, etc etc  IMO its always better to have a bit lower rent from a good tenant than to deal with a vacancy of  a couple weeks to a month+ ...  plus you dont know what tenant you will get.  

@Charles Heistand  - I manage my 20 units.  I generally dont have people flake on me altho it has happened twice recently.  

My process is list the unit at the higher end of what the going rate is.  Get the best pics possible. Do a 3d/walk thru video via the zillow app. Put up a well written ad with all the specifics. 

In my zillow add I list the times I am available for showings (usually after 2pm daily) 

When a prospect contacts me I set up a time and then try to set all other showings around that time. I also try to always have a task I can be doing if the folks dont show up so my time is not wasted.  

The most important thing I do is text the prospect in the morning of the showing and confirm they will be there. This has helped a lot and usually that is when I know whether someone will show up or not. 

You will always have flakes and just be glad they flaked as they showed you who they were. Use the time wasted for useful tasks (cleaning the common areas, doing landscape work, etc etc etc) 

ETA: my other most important suggestion is treat people like the customers they are: be friendly, call, text or email them back right away! Have your best customer service face on, and if you dont know how to do this, take some classes or read some books. "How to win friends and influence people" is the old standby. If people feel that you care they will (generally) care. I just rented 2 apartments in one day and have someone waiting for the next one why? because I treat people as customers and respond promptly to them. 

Good luck! 

@Tom Gimer  I dont know....  are realtors that opposed to working? I am in favor of the owner  understanding all their options and choosing which works best for them - *but* they need to know what the options are and how much it will cost them for each option. 

I disagree with wholesaling for one reason only - its not on the open market where the price can be as high as possible. a seller will always make more if it is listed where everyone can see it.   wholesalers have no reason to make sure the seller gets as much as possible because  you want to sell it to one of your clients ....  its basically equity stripping and unfair and wrong.   

@Daniel Smyth you know that it is easy to look up LLCs and see who the owners are, right? any tenant can see you are lying. Best to be honest. 

I find that tenant (at least in the class of rentals I own) appreciate knowing they are dealing with an owner that cares and this is a huge selling point ....

@Brian Sweeney sadly, in my experience, a PM will never do as good a job as you would. They pad expenses, overcharge for terrible quality of work, and drag their feet and never get stuff done. So your experience is similar to mine - I fired my PMs and do it all myself now.  IMO if you are local to your rental you should manage it yourself. If this is a long distance rental? Can you sell it and get something closer to you? 
You can fire this PM, but read the contract - some have 12 month terms and you have to pay to cancel the contract.  

Good luck. 

wow, some of these responses are interesting. so I guess the question is - how much money is the OP taking to do this deal? I mean,  I am anti wholesaling (I think it skims equity from owners) but are you really going to lose this deal for a few hundred bucks?  I can tell you I have not blinked at 10k "gives" because  the sale was that good.  

I think folks are making this too confusing. You cant end a lease until it expires, except usually if the owner wants to move in. So seller can not break the lease but new owner may be able to.  I would just clarify your locales laws (look up landlord/tenant law in your state)

As a seller I would never ask a tenant to leave as a condition to close...  what if buyer walks/ then what?

also, you cant just ask one home to move in with another. that is creative but not doable. 

So step 1 - find out what your local laws are for lease breaks when the owner wants to move in then go from there.