New Member from Northern California

[Kurt Z.]

Hi everyone.  I have been lurking around the forums for several weeks and I really appreciate all the time and effort people put into this site.  It is an amazing community.  A little bit about me.

I actually work professionally in the multifamily investment space for a larger institutional company that focuses on buying larger (200+ units) value-add apartment deals.  I am now looking to buy a few smaller income properties in and around Northern California.  

I have an apartment property in escrow currently (more details to follow). It has been an interesting learning process. Despite doing this for my day job for 10+ years, it is different when you are doing it for yourself. For example, I am very fluent in the analytics of evaluating an investment opportunity, the financing options, etc,.... but I have no idea how to form an LLC (attorneys typically do it) or how to draft a lease or how to collect rent (we use 3rd party property management that handles). This site has been helpful with learning some of these basics. So, I actually think this new side investment will improve my skillset for my day job as well.

A few notes on my plans for take-over of the property:

- I plan to use Cozy.co based on research, reviews online and here for tenant screening and rent collection

- I plan to use RocketLawyer for legal docs, leases and for on-line signatures

- All tenants are on month to month leases so i will likely as people to sign longer term leases or pay a premium for right to be MTM

- I will likely just use Excel for accounting purposes and Income/expense tracking

- I set up a Gmail email address & a google voice number.  What is the best service to allow call forwarding and text forwarding to my cell phone without having to post my cell in ads, etc?

- I plan to install some digial locks to allow remote access to vendors.  Still researching this

I welcome any and all thoughts, comments and questions.

K