Looking for my First Rental Property

[Chintan Parikh]

Hi, My name is Chintan and I am a new member of the BP community. I have always been really interested in learning more about the rental property business and have been reading a lot online. I stumbled upon some really knowledgeable forums on BP and decided to be a part of this awesome community. I love the fact that everyone shares their experiences and helps new investors like myself via this platform. About myself: Like many other here, I have a 9-5 job and work in NYC. I bought my first residential property 2 years ago in Jersey City, NJ. My long term goal is to learn enough about this business so one day I am able to get out of this rat race. Ideally I would like to buy my first rental property this year. As I live near NYC, I am leaning towards buying an out of state turnkey property at first to get my feet wet. I have come across several turnkey providers online and am specifically interested in Roofstock. I am really impressed with their business model. Anybody have any recent experience with them? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also if someone has worked with any other such providers please share your experience. I am really looking forward to connecting with investors who have been doing this for a while and can learn a thing or two from them. Please PM me or comment on this forum if you would like to share your experiences with me as I start on this new venture. I am sure there are many more investors out there who are starting out just like me and we can all benefit from each other. Good luck on your next investments and hope to connect with you. Thanks, CP

[Chris Clothier]

Hi @Chintan Parikh, 

I apologize for posting here as its your forum for asking for input on companies, I just wanted to clarify two quick points in your post so there is not misunderstanding on your part or any reader and wanted to give @John G. a referral for a company in Jacksonville, FL.  Of course, you should speak with them as well if you are looking for other companies to work with.

•   -  They have less than 3% vacancy which is a very small numbers based on the 4300+ properties they manage. Also they claim that there are no properties with a vacancy over 30 days. That’s pretty impressive

We are at 3.11% vacancy right now with 132 properties available in our three markets out of 4,241 operating under management.  Sometimes that percentage is a little lower and sometimes a little higher.  I wanted to make sure you knew that sometimes it is as high as 4%.  As for nothing vacant longer than 30 days, that part is not correct and is possibly poor communication on the part of my team.  Our policy is to have nothing vacant longer than 20 days.  We are excellent at renting houses, but we do have properties that have been vacant and even today are vacant longer than 30 days.   Today, out of the 132 properties available, only 31 have been vacant longer than 20 days and only six longer than 30 days.  Just to be clear. 

•   -  If it doesn’t appraise, they will start showing you other properties.

If the property does not appraise within the range that we believe which, often can be the full purchase price, we will not hold you to closing that property.  Will we show you additional properties?  Absolutely.  But, if an investor is not comfortable for any reason and would simply like their earnest money back, we are happy to do that as well.  No amount of earnest money is worth forcing an investing to close or choose a new property.  That is why we are so transparent on the pricing and appraisal.  We want an investor to be  very comfortable with the value they are receiving.  

I just wanted to clarify those two points for you!

As for other companies to speak with especially in Jacksonville where John mentioned.  Jacksonville Wealth Builders (JWB) is a Turnkey company in Jacksonville that I have masterminded with going back to 2010/2011.  They are good people.  A quality team that more than anything knows how to conduct business the proper way.  Customer service is important.  Quality renovations and property management are very important to them.  They are a quality company that if you are looking to invest in Jacksonville, I would invest time speaking with them.

Best to you both ~