All Forum Posts by: Brandon Wells

@Kelly Conradso Buildium is a good one for small portfolios. It was just bought by realpage, which is the best crm imo.

@Ashley Willis @Kathleen Hu @Josiah Tullis Are you looking for PM for single family (1-4 units) or are you looking for PM for Multifamily (5+ units)?  I specialize in Multifamily and focus primarily on 20+ unit properties, but I also know of a lot of great pm's that do smaller stuff as well.  Feel free to DM and I would love to help point you in the right direction.

@Kelly Conradso what is the size of the portfolio you will be managing?

@Account Closed I have been in the industry a long time home most, if not all the designations you can get.  If you are looking to get your foot in the door and don't mind spending a few hundred dollars out of your pocket, I would recommend you get into contact with your local apartment association.  If you can't locate it, go to the National Apartment Association website and search for your area.  They have several designations and one that is good for entry level is the NALP (National Apartment Leasing Professional).  Here in Indiana, it costs around $400.  They have have a CAM and CAPS designation. One is focused on management and the other is focused on multiple asset management.

If you get into it heavily then I would recommend reaching out to your local IREM chapter. They have a designation called the CPM®, which is globally recognized but there are a lot of things you need to do and requirements you need to me to get that one. It is the one I am most proud to have!

Property Management (specifically multifamily) is such a rewarding career and I recommend it to everyone :)

@Dominique Palmer this is a multi-tiered question.  Typically though an appraiser will use a income capitalization approach on an income producing asset.

Essentially value is derived from the Income - Expenses = Net Operating Income and then a cap rate gets applied to it to determine value (cap rate isn't a sole indicator of value just one of the many parameters that people look at).

Feel free to DM me some details and I can assist, but it varies market to market.  

@Brian Burke hope you and your business are doing ok after the fires. I was just in Santa Rosa, and have close friends who live there.  Next time I am there, maybe I can take you out for lunch or coffee.  With that being said, your feedback was on point.  In the Indianapolis market, I have noticed a trend of companies using 3rd party management to expedite their growth and then bringing it in-house once they reach a certain size.  Sometimes, even bringing an executive from the PM company over to run their in-house team.  

I definitely think that the importance of a great PM gets lost on some investors who are in growth mode.  The relationship between the client and property manager is vital to an owner meeting their investment goals.  

@Dan Handford I can see pros/cons either way.  I would say however that a good 3rd party manager should have the type of operations, transparency and communication with the client to where they never feel out of control and/or out of the loop.  If one of my clients every felt that way than I failed in the early stages when expectations were being established.

@Spencer Gray @Jack Middleton @Victor Buquer @Nick Pritt @Stace Hill Let me get with a few local venues and select some dates over the next few weeks (prior to the holidays) and we can set something up and see who comes out and go from there. I love talking all things investing, operating etc..  I will come back to this thread by Sunday and propose some dates and locations.  In the meantime, I am always open to getting together with anyone and talking multifamily.

@Tony Karns I am a little late to the game in responding but here is my 2 cents for what it is worth.

Question: Is calculating late fees as income when marketing you property normal practice? 

***I wouldn't be including it in rental income, but I would definitely be including it in my ancillary income.

2- rental income varies significantly on a month to month basis. Some times the rent income is 2k above other months 1k below the expected rental income.

***I would also agree that it appears to be an issue with delinquency and when the rent is paid. 

Question: Can the money received from billing your tenants for an electric bill your receive monthly be counted as income? Can the Electricity be billed via RUBS to tenants in the same way water is? 

***I would get with you local attorney's.  From my understanding, you just can't profit off of your billback to residents.  When I take over properties, my goal is to get to 90-93% billback for water/sewer.  Then require the residents to get Gas/Electric in their name.  If they don't do that then we will pay the bill, charge it back to them plus $50-$75 per bill.

7-Owner appears to also absorbing tenants credit check fee

***This isn't' good business, but on a 9 unit wouldn't be a deal breaker.  

8-Unallocated Prepay is being counted as income ( not sure what the owner is referring to)

***I would go out on a limb and say that it is probably last month's rent and that is why it is unallocated.

@Shafi Noss @Nathan Gesner gave you some really good tips.  I would say that narpm.org is garnered more towards single family, at least here locally to Indianapolis.  My advice would be that the bigger you go, the more qualifications your PM should have.  Are they involved with the National Apartment Association, local IREM chapters?  What are their reporting and accounting capabilities?  What CRM do they use and what level of access will they grant you to it?

As @Tj Hines mentioned you want to be thorough when interviewing, but you want it match the complexity of the property.  A 90 minute interview on a 4-plex would be redundant, but on a 100 unit reposition, I would expect it to be longer.  Remember though, a good reputable PM will be interviewing you as well to ensure you match with them.

I see a lot of investors look at their PM as their "employee" and they are in charge, and these are the types of arrangements I see fail more often than not.  The investor and PM have to be on the same page from the beginning and work alongside one another in achieving/exceeding investment goals.  I may be a little biased, as a PM and investor, but typically they are the most vital part of your investment.  HIre a good one and you will typically exceed your investment goals, hire a bad one and it could set you back.