All Forum Posts by: Amy Fulbright

Hi Everyone,

I'm weeks away from closing on my first STR (in West Palm Beach, FL), and have realized the value of having a realtor who owns and operates STRs within their territory.

Are there any such realtors on Bigger Pockets? Who do you know that’s got their Realtor’s license and also manages their own STRs?

-Amy

Investors with single family rentals in Houston, what ROI do you get on average?

@Brian G. A GL Account is used by your accounting system to keep track of money coming in and money going out. Imagine wanting to group your expenses by category: plumbing, electric, painting, etc. Each of those categories could be a different account in your accounting system. I was proposing that you could have a single category for everything before being placed in service, or you could create a dummy property. The single category idea is easier to maintain. The dummy property gives you more information about where you’re spending your money.

@Brian G. That's exactly what I was referring to. If it's helpful to split the prior -to-placing-in-service expenses separately, I’d argue that you have two options: create a dummy property to hold the cost basis information, or use a single GL Account or expense category to hold all of that information. If you were going to create a dummy property to track cost basis info, I’d just add a letter to the address. So if the property is at 123 Easy Dr, you’d create a property at fake address 123z Easy Dr. That way it doesn’t look like a duplex address but you still have a separate set of books for tracking the cost basis.

Any suggestions for finding property management companies that would be willing to accept Section 8 tenants? I've got an apartment complex (~50 units) that I'm interested in, but the owner has historically managed the Section 8 tenants himself. I'd like to keep the current tenants (if they're willing to stay), but need a property mgr who will handle things.

Any suggestions? I can't self-manage (I currently live in TX).

~Amy

What kinds of deals are you planning to analyze? I know data analytics are already available for apartment complexes / housing overall, but that data doesn't drill down to the deal level...

Are you envisioning this for flippers, wholesalers, property managers, or who?

I'm not even sure if this is possible, but I figure I'll ask: Are there apartment management companies that will coordinate the fix-and-rent, so long as I'm willing to fund it? For example, I purchase a run-down complex, hand it over to the property management company, and they fix up the individual units, and then rent them out, and property manage the site for me.

If this is possible, how do you go about finding them? Any tricks? I'm looking to do this out of state (if that helps).

PS - the original description should say TIPS For Finding...

As a newer investor myself, items #3 and #6 are what stump me. Everyone talks about how real estate investing is a team sport and about “due diligence” but how do you run due diligence on potential business partners?

For example, I’m willing to put my name on financial documents, but I don’t have much time or expertise (yet). So what questions do I ask someone who comes to me with supposed “expertise” if they’re also just getting started. It seems like everyone with expertise already has their network, so it becomes the blind pitching to the blind, and I don’t like those odds. 

I’ve also run into scenarios where I have questions but I don’t know who to ask, or I get not-concrete responses on BP. The answer on BP is always “it depends...” and then I get the subjective pros and cons without any actionable steps for finding solutions to which option works best for me. Generating actionable steps is intuitive to some and less so to others.

Hope this alternative perspective is helpful. I’ve certainly also wondered if there’sa way to group deals based off experience level to help with answering these kinds of questions...

I live in Texas now, but use Great Jones to manage a rental in North Carolina. They also manage rentals in San Antonio though. I’ve been happy with them.

I think that's a really well-drafted starting niche. You could definitely tell wholesalers, realtors, etc., that you're interested in all houses built in the 80s or later, worth 100k-120k after repairs with light repairs only, with no HOA and they'd know what to start sending your way. I would hold the rent numbers in your pocket, unless you specifically get a request from someone asking what rental rates you're looking for.

I think the other things that folks are mentioning here, is that your niche will change as you go. So maybe you print your current niche onto labels that you can add to pamphlets, so that as your portfolio grows, you can still use the same pamphlet (potentially), and just update the text on the labels that describe your niche. (I did this on the backside of my REI business cards. I have "Looking for..." as a heading, and then I hand write my criteria on the back. This has also allowed me to write in what I'm hoping the person can help me with. For example, on one, I wrote "a mentor". On someone else, I wrote "a JV partner". etc.)