All Forum Posts by: Tyler Caglia

 Thanks Nicholas. Will Do!

 Thanks I appreciate it!

 Yes, he did! With his experience owning his own rentals, he is very familiar with the whole process, and would stay involved in the rehab work. Check out Marco Polo. Great app for sharing videos, and he uses it to send me videos during initial walk-through, rehab check-up, etc.

Nice! Where at in Columbus are you buying?

 No problem, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you to all who have reached out so far. I am blown away by the positive response to this post, and am honored that so many of you appreciate the details I’ve provided and would like to learn more about my journey so far. I was up very late last night responding to comments, and I will continue to do so as time allows. I haven’t even had a chance to respond to the dozens of PMs but I will get to those ASAP as well. I am forever grateful for the help I’ve received over the last 14 months on BP and appreciate the fact that I can now pass that on to others!

 Thanks George! That leap of faith is definitely the hardest part, but with resources like BP you have answers on literally any topic every step of the way. Property management from long-distance was definitely a bit difficult, and I found that it was taking too much of my time away from focusing on the next property purchase. As soon as I hired the PM it was a huge sigh of relief and I was back to focusing on what was important: growing the portfolio. I tried out a couple of different systems for collecting rent. First was RentRedi, then was Buildium. I liked both for different reasons, and they allowed online payments deposited directly to my bank account. If there was a problem they called and I searched for the highest rated plumbers, electricians, etc in the area and started calling. Like I said, it was time-consuming, and now with a property manager they have in-house maintenance teams that charge much lower hourly rates and they handle everything, therefore making it into a passive investment like I intended (for the most part). 

I appreciate your suggestion on the podcast! I hope to be a guest on one some day. It's nice to know I have some experience you feel others can learn from. That was my whole point in taking the time to post this thread, hoping I could help others in the way BP continues to help me.

 Glad I could help! Best of luck, feel free to reach out anytime.

Thanks Richard! I am a full-time project manager on large civil projects, so I am very comfortable with both being a contractor and managing other contractors. It can certainly be challenging, but you have to set clear expectations and ask for as much detail as possible. This includes detailed quotes with descriptive line items separating out labor and material,  detailed videos and photos of progress, and potentially using your property manager in an oversight role. You could also get reallllly creative and find someone like me in your investment market that would be willing to do some oversight on the side, essentially acting as a construction manager checking in from time to time on the progress. Also keep in mind the power of the internet. Yelp and Google reviews go a long way. If this contractor ever screwed someone over, chances are you can find out pretty easily. 

Yes, you are correct on cash flow. However, I don't like to include those when discussing with others since they are variables (and essentially assumptions) that can change from investor to investor. One might consider vacancy at 10%, while another might use 15% for his calculation. I could have $100 in maintenance for the whole year, or I could have $5,000. Some might have a PM, while others manage themselves. By taking those variables out of the equation (and making it clear that you've done so) it provides a bit more clarity into the raw numbers. What if I told you my cash flow numbers included all 3 of those variables? You wouldn't know if I used 1% vacancy or 50% for my calculation. Over time I can use historical data from each property to create a precise cash flow analysis, but in the beginning they are just assumptions.