All Forum Posts by: Christopher Gingras

Very helpful.  Thanks Gabriel.  Seems like there might be a career opportunity in Buildium coaching.

I definitely agree Will, a little more challenging than I thought.

I was hoping to find someone that could assist with some coaching / initial set up with Buildium. 

Looking for someone that was very knowledgeable with the software and can help us get off on the right foot.  At this point we are up to 53 units that I am self managing with a full time job so getting this organized is quite critical.

We have loaded 39 units into the software but have not yet added a recent 14 unit apartment complex.  

We would definitely compensate the individual for their time and any ongoing questions that may arise.  I can set up a webinar to facilitate the process.

Its mostly intuitive but I just do not have the time to get over the learning curve.

Thanks

Christopher

Hoping to get some feedback on whether this is a good idea or not. The thought would be to set up a property maintenance company to service our forty units and then offer services to other property owners. At the moment we do not have the size to justify a full time maintenance person but if we could build up enough work from other customers then it might just work. A few other thoughts... *We already have someone we use exclusively so we would set him up with insurance and add him to payroll. *We are not a licensed real estate broker so we would stay away from property management activities although we could partner with a broker. Has anyone pursued a similar concept? I do not see this being overly lucrative but if it results in a full time maintenance professional and makes enough to offset some of our owned expenses that would be a plus. Thanks for any thoughts or experiences. Trying to avoid a disaster if it's a dumb idea.

Thanks for the mention Daria...

Hi Jarred

I do have someone I would highly recommend but he is doing work for me tomorrow.  :-). He is experienced, professional, personable and responsible.  Do you have any needs next week? I pay him $25 per hour, he supplies all tools.  We 

That's been my experience as well in Florida. There is definitely some extra paperwork but the check shows up in my bank account on the 1st, you should still apply your screening criteria and the inspections are quite low key. Overall I accept it for some of my properties and it's been worthwhile, plus it expands your tenant pool.

Hi Timothy, I just did this for a property and all I did was submit a pre auction bid through auction.com. It was a low number, they responded that multiple pre auction bids were received (not entirely sure that was true) and they asked for a final pre auction bid. I raised mine slightly and won the property prior to it ever going to auction. My concern was that if it went to auction it would get bid up. I am not exactly certain why they do the pre auction bid and not all seem to offer that possibility. Overall it was a great deal and easy experience but my suggestion would be to place a low but reasonable #.

Hi Brent,

Did you happen to look at the quad in the neighborhood as well?  I would be concerned about the neighborhood as well.  The pool of buyers in a few years might be limited.

Is this in the Gainesville city limits and subject to the landlord permit fee?

The numbers are less than stellar but if its 100 % financed then I guess any return would be a positive.  Are you looking at traditional bank financing?  It may not even be approved if it needs significant repairs.

Just a few thoughts

No prior real estate experience, good W2 but just decided as I approached 41 I was really getting nowhere. Tried to make up for lost time by jumping in and buying three quads. Just closed on a single unit and looking to add two more quads to the portfolio in the near future. It's a lot of work with a demanding job, wife, kids, etc. but overall I feel great building for the future. Plus I feel less stressed about my career as I am not entirely dependent upon it for my financial future. That to me is an unintended benefit. I definitely wish I started earlier but I was just too focused on a career.

Hi Daria,

Good Evening,

All is well.  I just wrapped up an auction.com purchase and hope to have that rented shortly.  It was down the street from my other properties in Greenleaf so it worked out well.

As you said there is not too much out there although I do keep looking.  

The name you had passed along is still on my list and I did find someone else who has worked out quite well over the past few days although not cheap at $40 per hour.  He spent three days helping rehab my recent unit and then ran around to my other properties resolving open items requested by tenants.  This firm did all the property management work for Allison Able so they are very familiar with this type of endeavor.  I still use a plumber, painter, tile, etc... if I have an existing professional relationship.

Are you looking exclusively for multi family?  Not much reasonably priced in Gainesville

I just closed on an auction.com property and it went well overall. This particular property had no auction fees but I needed to cover some of the costs typically paid by the seller. It's was a $27,500 2 bed 1 bath unit in a development with some other quads I own. It was sight unseen so I was afraid I might find dead animals and missing drywall but it was in great condition. I would do it again but would try to look at the property beforehand.