Property Manager & Team Recommendations

[Michael Hahn]

Hey Columbus Investors,

After months of educating ourselves, reading books, listening to podcasts and researching we finally took the plunge into real estate investing! My wife spent some time in Columbus Ohio and ended up purchasing 3 single family homes in some of the working class neighborhoods, now the work begins. 2 of the homes already have tenants in place, I wanted to ask if anyone had recommendations for a Property manager, handyman, contractor, housecleaning services, etc. for the one that is vacant? We live in California so need to put together a team there. We could use a combination of Yelp and Angie’s list but wanted to ask for recommendations here as well. Thanks in advance.

[James Kojo]

@Michael Hahn : 

For SFR and smaller MFR, I've been working with David at Panzera Realty. They are a quality shop, and are super responsive. However, they are somewhat selective about which properties they take on, so your mileage may vary.

Another PM that I interviewed was Mitch from Solutions for Real Estate. He seemed quite good as well, and is willing to take on more C neighborhoods, but I haven't had the opportunity to work with him in a PM capacity yet.

If you call either one, tell them I sent you! :)

I would recommend calling a few and have a set of interview questions. Have a set of interview questions that you like to complete over the phone for the first round. Then follow up with them via email or call for a few follow-on details. It doesn't really matter what. You're just testing for how they do after the initial "pitch". I've interviewed a few PMs that sounded perfect on the first call, but where too busy to return my follow-up calls or emails. Even worse, there are a few that can't even take your first call even when you have a property in-hand. Avoid those.

Hope that helps!

James