All Forum Posts by: Alex Smith

Screen them just like you would a regular applicant. More names on the lease is generally better for you if things were to go south. 

People on here will tell you that you're some-amount-of-years too late to be investing in Nashville. It's not the end of the world though. If you're looking to invest, but don't necessarily have the stomach to do out of state investing, there are plenty of people on here that invest in Memphis and/or Chattanooga and are cashflowing. 

With you being in Nashville, you're not that far from either place, especially Chattanooga. Chattanooga is growing quickly thanks to EPB and Volkswagen investing heavily in the city. Amazon has a decent size presence here, and there's also Unum which is a large corporation that has an office here too. 

@James Morgan I would think it would depend on what the market in your area is dictating. It definitely wouldn't hurt to see what other PMs near you are doing.

Jasmine, Baltimore is a big enough city to where you may get a response here, but you also might want to ask in the local forum for your area.

I've never signed anything through Google Docs so I can't speak to that. We've always used Docusign. It makes things a breeze and each party gets a copy once everyone has signed. There are other options out there like Dotloop as well. 

I have also rarely seen anyone looking specifically for a furnished unit. I would imagine anyone that falls into that category would also be looking for a short-term rental also. Like others have said it's more administrative hassle for a unit to be furnished.

Yikes. How was your first choice not burning the place down and starting fresh? 

1. Do not change software without familiarizing yourself with how the business works first. We have converted from PW to Appfolio for two of our markets, and it's not an easy task. 

2. Again, you'll probably have to spend some time getting a feel for this. My office has ~280 houses under management. I run the office, I have two full time maintenance guys, a maintenance director, someone to communicate with tenants, and someone that does leasing. Everyone is consistently busy. 

3. This probably depends on what your area calls for. Here in TN we don't go below 8% and that's on the lower end from what I've seen. 

4. Also probably depends on your area. 1/2 month to 1 month leasing fee is pretty standard across the board for the industry. We have plans that charge 1/2 month leasing fee or no leasing fee. 

@Kyle Mccaw Pulling Back the Curtain is great. I went to one earlier this year

It's in your best interest to have anyone that's going to be living in the house and over the age of 18 on the lease. There are plenty of options that allow someone to sign electronically (Docusign, Dotloop, etc)

If you want this guy out it sounds like your only option is to not renew him come renewal time.