All Forum Posts by: Jeff T.

From what I know about ADUs, it seems like there could still be a fair amount of work to get it permitted. I believe you would need separate electrical and a separate address and I think the sewer needs to be tied in near the main.  Now you should verify these things because I'm no expert, but these are a couple things to beware of. Also there are setbacks issues to find out about.

There are more ADU resources around now in SoCal, so try a search, too.

What is that exactly?

@Jimmy Watson

You have a cash flowing property in California, which is tough.

Ask Jay Hinrichs how he feels about the California property he has sold.

My feeling is that the long term growth for Oceanside is good. LA and San Diego will merge and Oceanside is in the middle.

So if that is what you are looking for I would stay put. You have locked in a low interest rate and have low property taxes.

Also I suspect you can get more rent, but I don’t know the market. As you said rents are way up.

Be careful about getting any advice from people that don’t know California. Other markets are very different.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

@Simmy Ahluwalia

He means the condo is on leased land. It’s a ground lease. Usually a 99 year lease.

Its fairly common in Hawaii.

@Abdul Azeez

You are right, that’s a big no. Not a professionally managed company.

@Jodi Marsh

Owners don’t typically leave reviews for PMs. Tenants reviews are kind of all over the place. There was a potential tenant for my PM that left them a bad review because they didn’t like the way they showed property remotely.

Anyhow I got mine from bigger pockets recommendation to start and then asking a lot of questions and being suspicious of anyone acting like they would treat me special because that’s not gonna happen.

I was also suspicious of costs that were too low. One place wanted 6% for a SFR. They can't make money with that so I would pay in some other way I'm sure.

I also interviewed current landlords with them and looked for systems that they had in place. It takes time and is painful, but it worked out for me. I also split my properties between 2 different PMs to be able to compare them and switch quickly if necessary.

I had planned to consolidate at some point but they are both good and I have 2 sets of recommended contractors. Plus I like having the leverage and power of being able to easily switch PMs if I ever have issues with one.

@Dawn Vought

When I interviewed Home River in Florida a few years ago after listening to the podcast which have a rosy picture, they had what I thought was an unrealistically low PM fee. 6%

Which made me suspicious and I asked them how they make money. Also they seemed to have some turnover in the office and the person I was talking to was gone the next time wanted information.

So these are red flags on general. Another PM made it sound like they would treat me special and make a 30-40 minute drive each way just to check out my properties.

I passed on them both and went with 2 PMs that were recommended by BP members and gave realistic answers to questions and had systems for dealing with things rather than the “we will drop everything and deal with your issue right away” BS. They are large enough to have enough staff but not so large that you become a cog in the machine. Roughly 300-500 properties managed.

I have been happy with them both.

@Jin Park

It can take time and effort to screen the property managers, but it is worth it.

Interview and get info from several of them to compare. Some will act like they will treat you special, that was a red flag for me, look for processes and systems.

I got my leads for property managers from referrals, but then spent the time to interview.

It also seems like there is a minimum size for pms to have enough staff to handle everything properly. I wouldn’t probably go with an agent that does property management on the side or anything like that.

Good luck, you probably won’t find a perfect one, but a “pretty good “ one will make your life and cash flow a lot better.

@Stephen Bishop

I hear you. I have everything with property managers now. It was too easy to fall for a story.

A decent property manager can handle everything efficiently and fairly.

Even my previous property manager fell for some of them. I have done better recently.

@Alan Bosca

Rents have gone up on the Westside quite a bit from last year. You can check Zillow for recent comparable rentals. Rentometer may also be useful but cross reference with Zillow.