All Forum Posts by: Allen B.

Truth be told, if you call me as an agent, are up-front about who you are, and have done at least the most basic of research (ie, don't call me about a property that sold over a year ago), I've got no problem with that. We might not do business, but it's a networking opportunity for both sides.

The ones that drive me (and my parents) crazy usually come from some sort of phone bank, working from an obsolete list of leads. Those are doing nothing but stealing my time while looking for a sucker who doesn't know what their home or investment property is worth.

Allen

Wow, man, you are a seriously self-centered individual. I'm always polite to the folks on the phone, when I choose to answer. Where I'd like to be very impolite would be in dealing with the people behind these calls.

Make a living however you want, but if it makes the lives of other people worse, I hope it catches up with you. You're adding value for no one but yourself.

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

@Allen B. Kind of hesitated on putting this post of because of responses like this BRUH 

Are you saying these are not the kind of responses you wanted? That you don't care what impression you're making on the owners you call? If so, you're exactly the audience I'm speaking to. 

As an owner, I'm going to take this opportunity to pass along a few thoughts.

Until recently, I owned 11 properties (ten SFR, one triplex) in Atlanta, where I used to live. For the last five years or so, I've received a steady stream of calls, texts, and even paper mail about those properties. Multiple times a day -- I'd estimate ten contacts, between the various properties and means of contact.

These people have chased my parents (who share the same last name but live in a different state) the same way, although with fewer calls per day.

In the last year or two, the volume of calls has become absolutely unreasonable. I would never do business with one of these "investors" unless they were paying cash and WAY above market.

The kicker? Every one of these properties was sold in December 2020. They've been properly reported in the relevant county databases for *many* months now. And the calls won't stop. If anything, they're getting more common.

What is WRONG with people doing this direct calling? Do they seriously think pestering someone into a rage is good business? Failing to do even the most basic of due-diligence like seeing if I even own the property they're calling about?

So to summarize, don't do it. Just don't. Sure, you may make 1000 calls and eventually find a deal, but you're leaving behind a trail of angry owners who will go out of their way to avoid you in the future.

Allen

Thanks, all. I appreciate everyone's insight and suggestions.

Cheers,
Allen

Does something like a "property maintenance company" exist?

I'm self-managing ~60 units on the south side and for the most part, doing great. However, maintenance is killing me. I'm a computer nerd and spent much of my life doing heads-down work with as few interruptions as possible. So the asynchronous nature of tenant requests, coupled with trying to get them handed out to the right handyman, plumber, etc, are driving me insane.

Is this something that can be outsourced without going to a full 3rd party property management arrangement? Ideally there would be a number for tenants to call, they would take the calls and deal with them. Some repairs would be approved automatically, others would get run by me for the "OK" first.

Does this make sense? Does it exist?

Thanks,
Allen

Ah, Chicago. Not quite the same thing, but I recently lost most of a month waiting on a water certificate to close on a multifamily.

Hi All,

It's been a few months since closing and I'm getting the hang of operating buildings on the south side. So far, so good. Not as many unpleasant surprises as I'd expected, and even some pleasant ones.

One area where I've still got some holes is finding guys to do the work I'm not doing myself. Would appreciate suggestions/referrals for any of the following who will work on the south side:

1. Drywall/plaster repair. Generally small jobs, but they accumulate. Ceiling work in particular.
2. Tuck-pointing, masonry repair, lintel work.
3. Window screen replacement. Buying screens is easy. Climbing up and down three story ladders to measure and install is not my cup of tea. This would be fine for a general handyman, but it's got to be someone who can reach the windows.

Suggestions for any/all of these would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Allen

Since this thread came back to life, figured I'd mentioned what I ended up doing.

Basically I had to manually cut-and-paste, then reformat, the original document. It wasn't too bad. Cutting and pasting from a PDF usually results in disaster and indeed, that's why the reformatting was necessary.

As @John Warren points out, I'm not totally sure this was worth it. However, it does manage to auto-populate things like tenant name, address, rent amount, etc.

One other annoying thing is the need to add on the various Chicago-required documents (CRLTO summary, bed bugs, lead) and place initial blocks on them. It's easy though, and only takes a minute now.

Overall, it could be better, but given the number of leases I'll do in a year, it's not too bad.

Cheers,
Allen

Speaking as a property owner, this sort of thing is absolutely enraging. I sold 13 units of mostly SFR in Atlanta last year. I'd been receiving as many as ten unsolicited contacts per day for at least a year. I've continued to receive the same level of "attention" in the six months since the sales. My retired parents who live in a different part of the country but share my last name receive a similar level of harassment.

Bottom line? An offer from one of these people would have to be far above market before I would ever consider doing business. If people don’t want to talk to you, *leave them alone*. 

If your business model is to harass people into submission, maybe you should go get a job and leave real estate to someone else.