All Forum Posts by: Spencer Abeyta

NARPM has 2 huge annual national conventions. One is Broker/Owner where only brokers/decision makers for the company can attend. The other is a large national convention and everyone in the company is welcome to attend. I would highly recommend going to both if possible.

You can also check to see if your area has a local NARPM chapter. This is a great resource and will cost much less than traveling to a convention.

When you use a property manager you have a couple options. The most common are full service companies vs lease only. 

Lease only companies will handle the advertising of the property, tenant screening, and getting the tenants on a signed lease. They usually charge a large portion of one month's rent if not the full amount. After this, they hand the property back to the owner and the owner handles all the day to day. The benefit to this is that the owner gets more control and does not have to pay a monthly management fee. But the owner has to account for taxes for the property and handle all maintenance issues and tenant communication.

Full service management handles the full leasing process and then they handle the day to day of the property. The benefit is that the owner does not have to deal with the dreaded Christmas Eve toilet back ups and the owner can lean on the expertise of the PM for the full extent of the relationship. Full service PMs usually provide a 1099 and cashflow statement to make end of the year taxes easier. The downside is that you have to pay a PM a monthly management fee which could cut into your cashflow on the property.

Property managers are very protective of their good vendors. The National Association of Property Managers (NARPM) has a great local chapter in Denver. I would recommend joining NARPM and meeting other property managers face to face. They may be willing to share some vendors in person. 

For smaller jobs like this, you would probably be looking at an individual handyman instead of a company. You could also search online and just work your way down the list. We did that this year and we were lucky enough to find 2 extra handyman to add to our team, but it did take quite a few calls.

Current owners that you work for can also be a huge asset. We have grown largely from word or mouth advertising and this has allowed us to work on other aspects of our business. If you wanted to do this more actively, you could offer a gift card or discount on management. This is also important because if a current owner would not recommend your company, there is something you need to look into and fix.

One of our colleagues in Colorado Springs sold their PM company to Evernest this year. I believe she got paid a nice amount and they agreed to keep her on in the company. They let her go after a couple months and it seems like the owner experience is terrible. We have acquired a couple new owners this year because of owners jumping ship.

This is the first company they purchased in the area so they may not have their footing. But they have a very specific way of doing things and it is very corporate. I have heard from owners that they use vendors from outside the city to do work and the travel time of the vendors is passed onto the owners.

A lot of apartment buildings have solid surface flooring in common areas like LVP. If a tenant spills or drops something on the flooring it can be easily cleaned up and the smell can not soak up into the flooring.

Ventilation could be an issue in hallways as well. You may be smelling stale air. This could be solved by opening a window or turning on the fan of the HVAC system and having it circulate the air.

There is a service called BoomPay we have looked into using. They report to all 3 credit bureaus in exchange for a small fee per month. They only report on time rental payments but if someone looked at their credit you could tell there was a late payment because that month wasn't reported. It would be up to you if you wanted to eat this cost or pass it onto the tenants (it depends on local legislation of course). They say it does increase tenant credit scores. 

We currently use Appfolio. They are great with everything except it does have some hiccups when it comes to accounting. I think they also have a minimum door requirement but I am not sure it it is 50 doors or 100 doors. I know a lot of PMs have switched over to Buildium and they have only said positive things.

Hello Selby, there are a couple other factors to look into as well. Would you be self managing or hiring a property manager? How familiar are you with the area and are you comfortable with the area? Would you be using traditional financing and hoping to refinance when the interest rates drop back down?

If the numbers make sense you should be able to find a hard money loan or even a partner that would be able to contribute the money. If this is your first deal, it would be a great idea to partner with someone experienced and give them part of the deal. This could help you prevent making mistakes that cost you money in exchange for a part of the deal. Make sure the deal makes money and they I would reach out to people in your area.