All Forum Posts by: Michael G.

The leads come from the court calendar of the landlord tenat court of the local court house in the county I invest in. There are almost 10-12 per day. Sometimes 20. I look up the address of the landlord filing the order to vacate and send them a letter.

I sent 72 letters to burnt out landlords last week and received 3 phone calls this week. More specifically I sent the letter to landlords who recently filed for eviction in landlord/tenant court. Good luck.

Hi Corey - I feel you 100%. Wholesaling an seem like a crock until you find the right seller. See was key in the RE investing business is finding someone who is motivated. Motivatin + Situation = $$$$. Now you may ask "how do I find a motivated seller?" The answer is marketing. I would even go as far to say that marketing is the single most important factor in finding a motivated seller. When someone is calling you insead of you seeking out someone to buy a house from 9 times out of 10 they have both motivation and a situation. They are usually on guard at first because of the very same reason you spoke of and other reasons but after building a little rapport and the guard comes down then the realness of the situation usuallygets uncovered. I feel your pain and frustration but there are techniques in the REI game that must be learned before one becomes successful at a particular REI strategy. I spent a lot of money and learned from a lot of "gurus" before I wholesaled 1 house. It didnt come overnight for me. Call me sometime and i'll give you more detail.

My father would spend alot of his weekends doing maintenance and repairs. Now maybe I didnt mention that he worked a full time job as a govt employee so time was an issue. If someone is a full time REI than I can understand their mindset. If they are not I can't conceivably understand how the concept of not wanting to get calls from tenants escapes them. I think I posted an example of getting a call from a tenant (irate at that) that there was a flood in the basement, it ruined all her belongings, blah, blah, blah. No matter how sympathetic and customer friendly I was she was just irate. Now how old your properties are or whether you have a, b or c type properties makes a difference however I know from personal experience that I am not the only owner of rental properties that has problem tenants. Further more I sure I'm not the only owner of rentals properties that would rather not deal with difficult tenants. Obviously there are people here on this forum who choose to spen their time engaing in the management of their own property. I'm more of a Michael Gerber E-Myth type person who owns a business that works independently of me. In other words, if I'm not around the business still runs. Now I wonder if something should happen to one of you guys that manages your own properties, who manages the properties? My buddies property manager called him with "oh your pipes broke last night". I got a call one morning from my handyman saying that the sewer is backed up and its overflowing into the back yard. As a person who works a full time job you know I don't want to spend 60 minutes trying to find a plumber thats a) available to do an emergency call b) not gonna rake me over the coals for the emergency call. If you've never had the experience than I guess it would seem like "simply calling a plumber". PM is a reality of owning rental real estate for a lot of investors. The question at hand is what techniques do you use to keep them in check and manage and control how they spend your money. My property manager just sent a bill for replacing a hot water heater. No picture, no receipt, no detailed description as to wether it was new or refurbished and no warranty info. And worse yet...no authorization from me to purchase. Since I just hired this PM firm 2 months ago I obviously needed to set the record straight on when they can spend our money and when they cannot. Maybe there is an unwritten PM rule that says you need to charge your customers something over and above the montly management fee in order to run a successful PM business. I don't know....

I once gave a contractor half of his estimate to start a job. Why did I do that? He would show up when it was convenient or not at all. Totally screwed up the time line for our rehab (our first flip). He eventually completed a large portion of the rehab but still left us hanging. Had to find another contractor (who was a god send) to finish up the whole job. Lesson learned. Now I pay in phases. When they do the Kitchen and bath I pay for materials and only pay after that K &B phase is completed. Then move to the next phase whatever that might be.

I like it. In fact it sounds like a slam dunk. Probaly the easiest 16K you ever made unless you encounter the unexpected.....the rehab takes longer than expected so your holding costs increase, you find "other repairs" that eat into your rehab costs but I think you have that covered because you doubled that expense. Just be cautious if youve never done a flip before about the contractors you hire. If its your father in law thats coll but anyone else be more than cautious. Yours is not a big dollar rehab but money is money when you loose it. Don't ever give a contractor half. Also make sure that the after repair value is accurate. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious here.

Is it common to charge taxes for repair labor or installation? My property manager says that they can unless its for capital improvement?

The reason I buy property in other regions is because its so affordable. My metro NY dollars go a long way in certain markets. If you look at any site that detalis the estimated median house values of Milwaukee WI or Phila, PA vs Bay Shore NY or Studio City, CA you will quickly realize why investing long distance is attractive to some. I can get the same cash flow or better from a rental that I paid $35K-$60K for than a rental in my region that cost $200K+. Thats after expenses. Long distance investing is a different business model than your locally owned rental business model. Tenants and toilets is an old term. I watched my father for over 20 years have his dinner interupted and work endless weekends. He was tied to the properties! I think even if I had properties that were local I may consider property management unless I were a full time investor which I am not. Thats the other reason that I personally use property mangement. I am a w-2 income earner and that provides by bread and butter. I trise the way of PM vs no PM. I had tenants calling me about sewer emergenices at 11 am while I am in meetings. I would have to call around to find a plumber and schedule the visit with the time the tenant was home....u get the picture. It only makes sense to go the way of property management. One day I will be able to say goodbye to corporate america but I need at least $100K to do that...

Jeff Koenig - i mispoke actually. Its not the number 1 rule. In fact maybe I shouldnt even call it a rule at all. Its more like a very stong suggestion. But since you felt the need to correct me on it, do you have any other valuable contribution to make on this topic regarding property management and the issues I've raised? Are you pro or con on property management? Your profile says you are a buy and hold investor. Surely you have something more valuable to offer on the the subject...

Thanks for the responses guys. I get the whole "if u want something done right" thing....i get that. Problem is I a) live hundreds of miles from my properties b) I really dont want to deal with tenants/and or toilets. c) doesnt every basic premise of real estate investing tell you "dont manage the properties yourself, its rule # 1 in owning rental real estate.". I dont have a problem with the cost of repairs per se. I do have a probem with the cost of repairs that never occurred. I wish I could open up a property management business in the region that I invest. It just seems like a messy business that I personally would not enjoy. So..I thank you for the comments and will continue to search for ways to manage the property management.