All Forum Posts by: Monte Blunk

@Douglas Vogel how did you find the company? I’m in a different market but have never heard of this before. I think it may come in handy for the future and would love to know how to find out more about it or where to look.

Thank you all for your advice! I’ll look into Quickbooks.  I already have buildium but I’m a little clunky with it.  

Thanks Michael! 

Looking for easy book keeping and accounting programs to help get us organized.  We have 11 doors (5 units) and are starting to feel disorganized especially with the accounting.  We are in the process of looking into a good real estate CPA in the Salt Lake City area but want to find a program that helps us organize our real estate business.

Does anyone use Buildium alone as for property management and also for book keeping/accounting?  Is it easy to use?  Any tips or advice? 

Do people use quickbooks and a property management software with small portfolio's?  It seems costly and they don't interact so would have to do them separately and learn both programs separately as well.  

Any tips or advice on recommendations for book keeping for a small but growing portfolio appreciated.  OR any recommendations on CPA's in SLC, UT area that are great with real estate portfolio's and taxes?

Thanks @Andrew B. -  

Question: We are buying a 4-plex that currently has a PM company in place that holds all the leases and deposits. This is the first time we have dealt with a PM company instead of a seller who manages their own property. We are deciding if we just want to continue with the PM company they are using or taking it over ourselves. We manage our other properties so the questions is ...

If we do take it over from the start how do I make sure we get the rental amounts for the new month and deposits transferred over to us? Do I have to have the tenants sign a new lease on the day we close? How does this work?

Any other issues I need to be aware of when buying a property that is managed by a PM company?

Would love any thoughts on this from other investors.

Thanks @Travis Sperr and @Scott Weaner.    

We have a duplex that we are thinking about taking out 30% of the equity to look for other things to invest in.  We currently own 218K on a 15 yr loan at 4.5 % and make around $800/month cash flow with it.   IT appraised at 450K so we have $90K that we can take out if we refinance it.  

Back story- we bought it in 2010 and put 40k into it to rehab and add value to it.  A year ago we took out $95K (what we had originally put into in) and bought another duplex with that money.  We are trying to build our portfolio but are finding it hard in this market.  We currently have 3 duplexes and a vacation rental and have a lot of experience in rehabbing properties. 

Options are:

1.  Refi at a 30yr loan-   PRo- duplex still has around $90K of equity I can pull out which is enough for a deposit on another duplex/triplex in our area.  The refi rate is 5.675 and the mortgage is only around $100 more a month with the 30 yr refi so we could still have good cash flow.  Con-  rate is higher and costs $3000 to do the loan.  Market is really hot and so I don't have anything to put it into right now and good properties go quickly with multiple offers in our area. 

2. Do a HELOC on the rental- PRo- only have to pay interest on it if I use it. Con- Hard to use it to use it for a buy and hold property and not sure who does this type of loan.

3.  Just sit on it for now and wait for it to appreciate more and when I find a good property do the refinance at that time or not at all.

Would love any thought seasoned investors have on this idea.  Would love to hear what others have done in the past to get the best return on investments and not just have money sitting in rentals when it could be put to better use. 

Thanks!

Hi Jared-  looking for subs to help get things turned over.  Right now looking for help to do mostly finish work for kitchens and bathrooms (laying tile, putting in cabinets, trim and painting).  Thanks! Monte

Anyone have any recommendations of a handyman/subcontractor or someone who is looking for some extra rehab work in SLC, UT. We have duplex in the Avenues that we are trying to rehab and get ready to rent and looking for some extra help to get it done. We also have a flip coming up in Aug/Sept that we will be looking for extra help with as well.

I have over 10 years experience in rehabs but I'm looking for additional experienced handymen/women so I can turnover the rehabs quicker to get them rented or sold. Also willing to work with new investors that want experience in learning to do rehabs and have a strong work ethic and are dependable. Would love any recommendations or to connect with anyone interested in rehab work.