Potential First Time Landlord (Pittsburgh - Squirrel Hill)

[Scott Wolfe]

Hi Folk. New to the group.  First time poster. I'm looking at moving to TX.  No state income tax and a nice property tax exemption on whatever house I decide to call home (one of the perks of being a disabled Veteran).  However, I decided to keep the home I have in Pittsburgh to rent.  I have spoke with RPM Pittsburgh in terms of services and I believe I have a general concept of how they operate.  

I ran a simple spreadsheet evaluation to include the various costs involved with making this work (image attached). I'd appreciate any feedback you may have. Sidenote: I'm not turning it into an LLC due to the low 2.5% APR VA homeloan that would need to be refianced by law at an undoubtedly higher rate.

Realitve to comps in the area, the house in completely remodeled with a larger than average back yard and includes a recessed hot tub on back deck.  3 bedrooms (one is a small crib room in all fairness) and 1.5 bath (upstairs main and downstairs powder room).

[Davartay Miller]

Scott, 

Remember, when hiring a property manager…. You want to entrust them with your investment. Most importantly it’s a two way street. The company is entrusting you that you will allow the systems in place to work in your benefit. In return… you as the owner should expect your property to perform without any interference. Nothing is wrong with checking to see if things are in line with your expectations. However, when hiring a property manager, remember what their job is. Oftentimes owners think that finding the resident, marketing it themselves, doing this differently and that is helping the manager…. But in fact, it sometimes makes the situation even more difficult. I’ll give you an example. 

Throughout all the markets we serve, I have had many owners transfer management over to us because they were too involved; their words — not ours. What do I mean? They were getting calls from the resident stating this and that (remember these were residents that the owner found and vetted). It gets tricky and makes it harder for the manager to be hard on the resident when they think that calling the owner is an outlet. I had an owner who thought finding the resident and marketing the property was going to be easy but ended up backfiring. Once he transferred the property over to our team…. He saw the cons. Our renewal department tried increasing his rent to market value. The resident called the owner thinking to discuss terms (because remember this was their first Point of Contact). It gets tricky in so many ways. When the resident is not paying….. who’s to blame? When the resident in the property destroys the property…… who’s to blame? I am saying this because I have seen times where owners thought that screening a resident was easy….but turned out the residents they placed in the property didn’t work out. 

Summary: Allow you property manager to handle the headaches so that you can rest at night, enjoy your hobbies, and not receive calls that your property manager should be answering. You should expect: 

- Monthly check-ins from your customer service representative

- In-House marketing targeting quality residents for your property 

- A streamlined website to serve residents and investors

- In-house call center, answering repair calls within 24 hours, 24/7

- Above average lease terms and renewals 

- Lower than average maintenance costs, vacancy rates, and eviction rates

- Experience in all their markets (if they are in multiple cities) 

Best of Luck!