All Forum Posts by: Rebecca Lebowitz

Welcome to BP and REI, @Mark Fischer

I also live and invest in Rochester, NY (and belong to FFREIA of course) and love meeting other people who are involved in real estate-if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask!

If Illinois is the same as NY, you will need to get your real estate license to become a property manager, and work under a broker. I'd suggest trying to find a broker in your area that has a background in REI, and can kind of help you get into the business.

Also-start networking as much as you possibly can, especially with other people involved in REI-people are usually very generous in sharing their knowledge and experiences.

Welcome and good luck!

I agree about the carpeting-whenever I can, I ALWAYS get rid of carpeting and go with laminate, refinish the hardwoods (if they're in decent shape) or put in tile-depending on the room (tile usually only for kitchen/bathrooms, fairly standard). Yes the initial cost is more, but if you plan on owning the property for any length of time, it will pay itself in less maintenance and less hassles with tenants. Plus it probably will look nicer, and be more appealing to potential tenants during showings.

And if there is spray paint on the deck that clearly was caused by them, then take that out of their deposit (take lots of pics of the damage, of course) and re-stain the deck. Show before and after pics, as well as the move-in punch list, if it ever comes to you having to go to court. You should definitely be covered.

Personally, if the deck needed to get done anyways, I would probably split the cost with the tenant-since it wasn't in great shape to begin with, but it is now forced to be painted now because of their overspray. I think that's a good compromise.

I have a few tenants that pay cash every month, I always give them a receipt. One tenant has a small notepad, every month I just write out a 'receipt' in the next page of his little notebook. I then head straight to the bank. Never had a problem!