Landlord woes

[Roger Lin]

Hi Landlords of America,

I have several residential and one commercial condo, all rental properties. I am about to purchase my first small 4 unit. This means I will soon have more than 10 units that my brother and I manage.

We have a relatively primitive and reactive management system in place that works okay. However, I fear that as the numbers grow, we will need better organization and more efficient structures to perform all the tasks in the life cycle of a rental property. This includes search, acquisition, financing, title, purchase, sale, exchange, management, tenant relations, repair & maintenance and probably 10 more things. What are your sources of problems, headaches and challenges?

I'll go first.

1. Finding properties: I search on MRIS and have a network of folks feed me leads but it isn't easy or fast to grow that network.

2. As the numbers grow, there is always at least one HVAC system or water heater that either needs repair or replacement each change in season.

3. I have a property with an awesome tenant but I would like to sell the property because the ROE is below what I look for now. I would hate to put them out just because I want to sell the house. I know I can always sell it with the tenants but the market simply isn't that easy to do that.

What are some of yours?  Thanks!

Roger