All Forum Posts by: Melissa W

Congratulations! Also thanks for posting this, as I didn't realize you could now do online coursework for real estate licenses. When I got mine three years ago I had to take it in an actual classroom. I need to get my broker's license now and I'm going to do it online. I am busy running my business and the classes offered here really don't fit in my schedule.

Property managers are like tenants - there are a lot of bad ones, a lot of mediocre ones, and some real gems. You have to screen them well and keep an eye on them.

If I had your goals I would try and learn as much about the areas you are thinking of investing in and then narrow it down to one or two specific neighborhoods.

Concentrate on learning as much as you can about these places online and from visits. Check out local real estate blogs, property management company web pages and more general type publications like newspapers. Look at apartment rating sites for the area and you can see what types of things people are complaining about.

Look at Craigslist and see what types of places are available and see what management companies are renting what. Contact the ones who manage the types of properties that you are interested in and see how they respond. If someone like you contacted me and said they wanted to invest in properties like the ones I manage I would be happy to talk to them and explain things about the local market. I'm also busy managing other people's properties and wouldn't be able to spend tons of time with a maybe prospect.

Property management is very local. If you buy and manage properties in your area you wont necessarily know what will be the problems with the types of housing and tenant mix that you will be renting to. You have to know the local conventions, like what people expect in their rentals, what is a good item to attract good renters and what is a waste of money.

For example, in the properties I rent in Syracuse, it is good to have washer/dryer hookups, stove and fridge and have replacement windows. But if you spend a lot of money on stuff like granite counters and fancy appliances you probably won't make your money back. You need that info about the areas you want to rent.

There are some universal truths to property management, such as many people lie on their applications, people come up with stupid reasons not to pay rent, etc. You can pretty much learn those from reading on this site.

If there are investment clubs or landlord meetings in your chosen areas attending meetings would be a very wise idea.

Good luck with your investments.

Just because someone has a license doesn't mean the property has to go on the MLS and have a sign in the yard. I'm a real estate agent and I have people who are looking for properties they can buy quickly for cash. I get paid a flat fee commission, which is added to the price my buyer is paying the seller. So it's the same thing for the seller - they sell their house quickly for cash. I can function as a licensed wholesaler, except the sales contract isn't started until I have a buyer and a price.

Sellers like dealing with someone who is professional, whether it is a licensed agent or a skilled wholesaler.

You are providing agents with the address of a house that someone needs to sell - a valuable sales lead. So in trying to con them into doing your job for free, you are actually doing their job for them for free.

Make sure that your furnaces are in good shape to begin with - have them inspected and serviced at the start of the season. Use one hvac company, that has a 24 hour service so that you can just call them and they will already have you on file and be familiar with your properties and the furnaces.

Also train your tenants what to do if the furnace stops - they need to check the breakers before calling.

Since you will have already serviced the furnaces it's unlikely that you will have many problems with them.

It really depends on your area - if it's customary to include them than

In my market stove and fridge are almost always included. If one of my apartments didn't have them, the tenants would get them at rent-a-center at high rates and have another monthly expense to compete with the rent. It's also a lot of wear and tear moving appliances in and out of buildings.

We do sometimes rent washers and dryers to tenants

Google voice does give you a separate number - then you can just have it forward to your current phone. So you would have a "business only" phone number. You can set it so that calls coming in from the google voice number show that number and not the actual caller's name. The voicemail is also different, it doesn't go to your phone's voicemail it goes to google voicemail.

I have one that I use for running ads on craigslist, when that number pops up I can tell it's craigslist call and not a current client or tenant. Very useful.

Whenever possible, the tenant should pay. Some buildings have one central boiler/furnace for the heat and hot water and those have to have the heat included.

If someone has to have the utilities included it frequently means they owe the utility company a lot of money and if you rent to them they will soon owe you a lot of money.

People also will be wasteful with utilities they don't pay for. They crank the heat or AC with the windows open and leave it on when they are not there.

My area has a lot of duplexes with heat included and separate electric. On a lot of the ones I manage we have blocked off the vents to one unit and put in electric baseboard heat with individual thermostats for each room so that both units can pay their own heat.

Great topic!

For the properties in very low rent/high turnover areas I use a high gloss off white paint for everything. It can frequently just be wiped clean.

I remove dishwashers from lower rent units. They will rack up much more in repair expenses than they will bring in increased rent.

I buy curtains in thrift stores and yard sales, and usually use those instead of blinds. Blinds are always thrashed when people move out but curtains will usually be ok after a trip to the laundry.

I also put a little effort into staging the low end apartments - it makes a big difference if you put up shower curtains, toilet paper, soap, paper towels, dish soap and a dish sponge. I get all this stuff at the dollar store and it costs under ten bucks to do but people really like it and you can attract better tenants who are less wear and tear.