All Forum Posts by: Adam Gott

For my problems over the past few years I would strongly suggest that you do drive-bys long before and long after the scheduled inspection.  My biggest problem these days are more (in some cases MANY more) people living in the apartment than are on the lease.  Look for signs of that because in my experience these people that are not on the lease and not liable for anything don't generally care the property.

1.  Lots of cars/vehicles around the property.

2. Couch in the garage

3. Stacks of chair pads, et. al., in corners of rooms

4. Higher than normal water bills (if you have metered water)

5. Talk to neighbors/other tenants and ask for their input.

6. Excessively abnormal amounts of garbage every week (drive by on garbage pickup day if you have that in your area).

 7. People that say they are 'just visiting' when you do your inspection but seem to have a good amount of information about the property.

Thanks for the response.  After 8 years with this property manager I do feel as if I have more experience in asking about the more important things.  My property manager was ok for the first couple of years but went downhill fast over the last few years.  I do understand that most businesses are having trouble with labor these days but I shouldn't have to pay thousands of dollars because of my PMs problems.  They will always make plenty of money from me and actually make more when a property is empty and requires lots of maintenance.

Red flags for me based on experience with my current PM:

1.  They own a few of the businesses that do work for them.  This can be good but as far as getting things done in a timely manner but in my experience it can also be bad as I feel that I am constantly being stuck with bills for shoddy service/rework.

2.  Property manager also own lots of their own properties/apartment complexes.  This can lead to individual properties falling to the back of the list.

As long as PMs disclose the above when you sign up with them it's a good start...

My current property manager has failed us in so many ways over the past couple of years that it's time to move on:

1. Two apartments completely trashed within a period of a year.  Both apartments had multiple people living in them who were not on the lease and my property manager failed to do anything.

2.  In the above two apartments the tenants were consistently behind on rent and when they left were probably each about three months behind.

3.  Two of my apartments have been vacant since last NOVEMBER!  One of them finally rented a couple of weeks ago but the other is still being readied to rent. I pay my property manager A LOT to do maintenance so they still make lots of money while my apartment sits vacant.

4. I evicted the tenants from one of my recently trashed apartments and want to have my new property manager take care of this as I have lost faith in my current property manager.

Thanks.

If you are in debt/financial trouble it seldom makes sense to try and fix it with more debt. If it were me I would totally ignore any suggestion related to getting a HELOC.

Buying a property with an existing tenant that has been there for 17 years, they act like they own the place (and they have four dogs that piss off the neighbors on the other side of the duplex).

Underestimating repair costs. Not a huge deal but it took me a year to start actually making money.

I like ANR (www.anrpm.com).  I have been using them for two years and have nothign at all bad to say about them. My vacancy rate last year was a little less than 5% and that included kicking someone out and rehabbing for two months. I have nine units. ANR will mange any type of property but from my vantage point it seems that they dont' have a lot of high end units in their listings.

Eight of my tenants seem to be extremely happy with them.

Based on the limited information you provided I would be interested in said property if it was in my area.

We don't have any de-leading or sprinkler laws here...

As far as bedroom conversions my property manager always seems to recommend against it, they normally seem to get a little extra rent and we just kind of figure that someone will use it as a bedroom anyway.

I want to know more about how I can make my losses 'non-passive'. I have not yet spoken with an accountant but it seems that I may be able to go LLC and then write off losses?

All of my properties (3) have postive cash flow, why buy otherwise?

I did have a fourplex that required a bit of maintenance so I lost $14,000 my first year but I budgeted for that in my calculations... actually it was my first unit and I may have underestimated a bit!

Lately it has been hard to find anything with positive cash flow in my area (Pocatello, Idaho) and most of the multi-family properties that sell are somewhat confusing to me!