All Forum Posts by: Michael Smythe

Weekday: Mondays

Day of Month: end of month dealing with MoveOuts.
-We've pretty much automated our early month rent collections efforts, so we have a spike in activity mid-month when we have to decide to send eviction notices to attorneys for court dates.

@David Hersh we have at least a dozen clients from Canada, so PM us for more info:)

Not following the RV bit...

@Rahul Bhatia we're in the business and we have challenges with contractors ALL THE TIME!

If you don't know what you're doing, you'll get taken advantage of.

Where is your property located?

@Aj Bellamah does Rent Manager allow custom fields and reports?

You could create a custom field to track Due Date and then setup a report to auto-run monthly, sorted by Due Date.

@Kyle Hendricks Detroit is outperforming Columbus:)

@Richard Dunlop you may want to mention why you aren't pursuing a mortgage or HELOC and what you currently owe on the property...

@T. Harris you don't want a PMC, you want a personal assistant!

What hourly rate are you offering?

@Thomas Jacobson how much are you paying PMCs to come out and do a bunch of work?

Or are you expecting them to invest a few hours for free?

If only 1 company came out, then the rest are politely telling you they don't need to visit your property and work for free. 

We can give an owner ballpark numbers from our desk in a few minutes. Anything beyond that isn't a good use of our time.

In the end, your properties will be published for rent at a certain number. If there's not enough market interest, you'll get a request to lower the rent - until the property rents. In some cases, the reverse will be true and high activity levels may lead to an increase in the published rent rate.

@Edvin Babakhanyan

Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.

Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.

Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.

Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.

In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.

It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator – so, they often select the first PMC they call or that calls them back!

So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.

EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean? What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.? You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!

This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.

The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!

A well written management contract should clearly spell out what is expected of both the PMC and the owner, to PROTECT both and avoid misunderstandings. Why do you think purchase contracts are so long and have such small print?

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

P.S. If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general. Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊