Buying tenant occupied units - no PM in place

[Maria D'Aura]

Hello,

I'm in the process of buying a fully occupied, 4-unit, with all long term tenants. The current owner does not use a property manager. My other investment properties all were vacant when I bought them and I've self managed all but one. The one that had property managers in place I kept on as PM. This is my first dealing with existing tenants and no property manager so I have some questions.

First off I'm thinking of not hiring a PM. I only have one for one 4-unit and the others I've self managed for many years. This new one is just a little further away, but still less than a hour drive so I'm going to give it a go with self managing. My only concern is tenants getting locked out. It's not been an issue with my others since I'm less than 5 miles away, but I'm not going to want to drive a hour each way to bring keys to a tenant. What are my options? Lockboxes? Locksmith fee listed in lease?

All the current tenants are month to month right now. I'd like to get them on 1 year leases. Rents are currently a below market so I want to address this with the new lease as well. Finally, I've been using cozy.co for the properties I self manage, but they're no longer going to be an option as of the end of this month. Looks like the size is sending to apartments.com. Looking for suggestions on a replacement for self managing under 10 units. 

Thanks for the help.

[Brandon Rush]

Hey Maria,

For the locks, I would recommend using the Kwikset 905 electronic locks. I use them on all of my units and never have to worry about lockouts. They are only $40 a piece. 

Also, for property management, I use Tenant Cloud. I don't know if its the best property management application out there but it is well rounded and does the job very well for me. For landlords with just a few properties, it may be overkill. But, for landlords who either own a good amount of property or plan to own a lot of property it is a great application that can scale with you. This is the reason why I use it. 

Let me know if you have any questions about the locks or Tenant Cloud!